Huy Urges UN to Protect US Indigenous Prisoner Religious Freedoms
Today, Gabe Galanda, Chairman of the Huy Board of Advisors, delivered an intervention in Washington, DC to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, regarding obstacles Indigenous peoples face to enjoying and exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief.
Mr. Shaheed will address that topic in the report he intends to deliver at the UN General Assembly in October 2022.
On behalf of Huy, Mr. Galanda urged Mr. Shaheed to call upon the United States to address its violations of Indigenous prisoners' religious freedoms and to take immediate action to protect the religious freedoms of Indigenous prisoners.
He also respectfully requested that Mr. Shaheed include the need to protect the right to religious freedom of Indigenous prisoners in the United States in your upcoming report to the General Assembly.
Mr. Galanda’s full remarks to His Excellency, Mr. Shaheed, follow:
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Mr. Ahmed Shaheed
Hybrid Consultation, Washington, DC, USA
May 11, 2022
“Indigenous Prisoners in the United States and the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief”
Huy is an Indigenous non-profit organization headquartered in Washington State that advocates for the religious freedoms of Indigenous persons incarcerated in state prisons throughout the United States.
Huy, pronounced "Hoyt" in the Coast Salish Indian Lushootseed language means "see you again/we never say goodbye.”
Huy offers this intervention on behalf of incarcerated Indigenous persons, particularly those in state and local facilities, whose religious freedoms continue to be curtailed in violation of domestic and international law.
We have delivered interventions to the United Nations and United States’ Department of State, and filed friend of the court briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state trial and appellate courts throughout the country.
Indigenous prisoners in the United States are subject to an ongoing and pervasive pattern of state and local prisons illegally restricting their freedoms to possess religious items, participate in religious ceremonies, and otherwise engage in traditional religious practices.
These illegal restrictions violate international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
We are aware of the inquiry made to the United States on behalf of Indigenous prisoners in 2013 by Their Excellencies, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, to the United States.
In 2017, we urge U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to respond to that inquiry. To our knowledge, the United States has not yet done so. [In 2019, Huy also submitted an intercession to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.]
We urge Your Excellency to call upon the United States to address its violations of Indigenous prisoners' religious freedoms and to take immediate action to protect the religious freedoms of Indigenous prisoners.
We also respectfully request that you include the need to protect the right to religious freedom of Indigenous prisoners in the United States in your upcoming report to the General Assembly.
The Importance of Indigenous Prisoners' Religious Freedoms
Indigenous peoples suffer one of the highest incarceration rates of any racial or ethnic group in the United States, and they are also disproportionately sentenced to serve life and long sentences in state prisons.
Indigenous prisoners depend upon their freedom to engage in traditional religious practices for their rehabilitation, survival, and ability to maintain their identity as Indigenous peoples. As two religious scholars put it, "for some Native American prisoners, walking the red road in the white man's iron house is the path to salvation, the way of beauty, and the only road to rehabilitation and survival."
Indigenous governments and their citizens generally share the penological goals of repressing criminal activity and, to that end, facilitating imprisoned Indigenous citizens' engagement in what Indigenous theologian Vine Deloria Jr. called "spiritual problem solving."
Religious practices in prisons are proven to further rehabilitation and reduce recidivism, where they have been successfully accommodated. Those practices include sweat lodge ceremony, pipe ceremony, smudging, and drumming circles. These practices occur within groups or by individuals. These practices require sacred items such as Inipi structures, pipes, feather fans, prayer ties, medicines (including plants like tobacco, sage, and sweetgrass), and drums.
Indigenous prisoners' religious freedom is also essential to the cultural survival of their larger communities.
As Pawnee lawyer and Indigenous human rights scholar Walter Echo-Hawk explains, incarcerated Indigenous peoples "represent important human and cultural resources, irreplaceable to their Tribes and families. When they are released, it is important to the cultural survival of Indian tribes and Native communities that returning offenders be contributing, culturally viable members."
United States’ Continuing Failure to Protect Indigenous Prisoners Religious Freedoms
Protection for Indigenous prisoners' religious freedoms is enshrined in United States law, through the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 (AIRFA), 42 U.S.C. § 1996, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc et seq. These freedoms are also enshrined in the customs, traditions, and laws of hundreds of Indigenous nations.
Nevertheless, United States courts often fail to make these guarantees effective.
In Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, the U.S. Supreme Court held that neither the free exercise clause in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution nor AIRFA prohibited the United States from destroying a sacred site. This decision from 1988 has significantly limited the ability of Indigenous peoples to protect their religious practices in federal courts.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the suffering of Indigenous peoples in United States prisons and jails. States throughout the country halted the ability of Indigenous prisoners to possess religious items, participate in religious ceremonies, and otherwise engage in traditional Indigenous practices, including pow wow celebrations. Those prohibitions on both individual and group worship lasted many, many months, if not continue to this day.
Meanwhile Indigenous prisoners were denied any human contact or group worship for months on end.
As COVID-19 has waned in certain parts of the United States, the religious freedoms of Indigenous prisoners have not been restored as rapidly as possible. As the United States works to lift COVID-19 restrictions, the restoration of ceremonies for incarcerated Indigenous people should be at the top of the list of priorities. Access to ceremonies is more important now than ever for those who survived the pandemic behind bars.
Indigenous Consultation & Collaboration is the Best Way to Honor Prisoner Religious Freedoms
In Washington State, we with Huy have partnered with the Washington Department of Corrections since 2010 to help provide that which is necessary for Indigenous prisoners to hold important ceremonies.
Our relationship has been tested during COVID and it is still being tested, but we are committed to meaningful consultation and collaboration with the state to ensure that Indigenous religious freedoms are being honored in its 12 prisons.
We have collaborated to ensure that the natural resources needed for Inipi structures like willow branches and river rocks and the wood and medicines needed for sweat lodge ceremony are available to Indigenous prisoners.
We have worked to ensure that regalia and drum making materials like eagle feathers, beads, and animal hides are made available to Indigenous prisoners.
We have funded annual pow wow celebrations for 21 groups of Indigenous prisoners to allow them a semblance of freedom along with their loved ones and children on one sacred day per year.
We are working to have Indigenous medicine gardens planted in all 12 Washington state prisons. These sacred medicines will be planted, nourished, and harvested by Indigenous prisoners for their use in religious activities like sweat lodge ceremony.
Our partnership in Washington State demonstrates the potential for meaningful consultation and collaboration with Indigenous peoples to support the shared penological goals of state and Indigenous nations.
But that can only occur with willing state government partners, which are lacking in many parts of the United States, especially places like California, Texas, and Alabama. The United States, meanwhile, continues to have state responsibility for remedying human rights violations committed by domestic actors including state and local governments.
Accordingly, we urge Your Excellency to urges the United States’ Department of State to address the violation of Indigenous prisoners' religious freedoms in this country and to take immediate action to ensure the United States is fully complying with its obligations to protect Indigenous prisoners' religious freedoms under applicable international and domestic law.
My colleague Akilah Kinnison, Huy’s legal counsel, will also deliver an in-person intercession at your forthcoming consultation in Tucson, and we will submit formal comments to Your Excellency as well.
We lift our hands to you in thanks for considering these comments. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can provide any further information.