In Opioid Battle, Cherokee Want Their Day in Tribal Court

Yes, the users must take responsibility for their predicament but the makers and the prescribers of these addictive substances bear much of the blame. You mean to tell us that before these opiate painkillers there weren't effective non-addictive pain medications?

Sigh. This Chief needs to sit back, reflect and take some responsibility. Addiction is not caused by a supplier. Addiction is a personal psychological problem taking place in a cultural context. This chief needs to ask himself why his people are in so much pain and why they want to numb themselves even at the expense of harming their own babies. In my humble opinion, this endeavor to preserve Indian culture by setting them apart and offering subsidies has been an utter failure. It has lead to isolationism and dependency. Their recent history and especially the oppression by white settlers is a very sad one. Having said that, domination, however cruel and unsavory, has and will always be a part of world history. Consider the romans or any nomadic tribe. Its time for native Americans to be set free; free from dependency and free from crippling isolation. The vital and sustaining parts of the culture will have to be passed down they way all peoples do, through oral and written history, through food and through family ritual, not by keeping people in the getto. Michelle Birch, PhD Psychologist

I grew up 15 miles from Talequah, so this story hits close to home. While, I don't understand the physiology of substance abuse, it is my understanding that Native Americans are predisposed to chemical dependence. It's really heartbreaking. I do not understand the callous comments here. Marginalized people suffer from oppression of their ancestors. The same phenomenon is apparent in all historically oppressed populations.

The company that you really want to take to court is Purdue Pharma, the irresponsible pharmaceutical company that came up with OxyContin which, practically, single-handedly gave rise to the opioid addiction that we see today.

I see the tribal leaders blaming the drug companies, the drug store corporate management, the pharmacists, and the doctors for the problem. The only person blaming the addicts for their choices, it seems, is Ms. Dixon, who is also the only person mentioned in the article who is actually giving long term help to the children. Perhaps if we listen more to her and less to the leaders, the problem might be closer to a solution.

I realize it's anti-American to criticize the original Americans but here goes nothing.. The American Indian populations and reservations in this country are autonomously governed by their tribal counsels. They are "overseen" by the Federal Government, who for the most part grant them huge latitude on the way they utilize their land and distribute the millions of Federal dollars in the cash payments and subsidies they receive. Every American Indian in this country is eligible to attend any of their state universities and have their tuition paid for [in full] by Federal subsidies. The bottom line is -- They don't go. Name me another group in this country who has this opportunity? For decades we have been reading about the blight of the American Indian, their lack of access to proper education and healthcare, their substandard housing, generational poverty and high rates of alcohol and drug abuse. This is not my fault.. It's is their fault! They have plenty of opportunities to rise above the destitution they have been complaining about since the civil war reconstruction. They need to start taking ownership and responsibility for themselves and their tribes. Had this story been written about black families [and it easily could have] in the inner city- then we have a legitimate cause for concern and a problem which needs to be fixed. In the case of the American Indian, it's not a matter of money or opportunity- it's about their WILLINGNESS to change.

Big Pharma, corporations and their fancy lawyers should read the U.S. Supreme Court ('the Court) Case - NFU Ins. Cos. v. Crow Tribe, 471 U.S. 845 (1985). This case was decided by a 9-0 vote. There are sections of this decision that is instructive for those fancy big Pharma Layers. The Court said, " We believe that examination should be conducted in the first instance in the Tribal Court itself. ...moreover, the orderly administration of justice in the federal court will be served by allowing a full record to be developed in the Tribal Court before either the merits or any question concerning appropriate relief is addressed. The risks of the kind of "procedural nightmare" that has allegedly developed in this case [471 U.S. 845, 857] will be minimized if the federal court stays its hand until after the Tribal Court has had a full opportunity to determine its own jurisdiction and to rectify any errors it may have made. ... ." In the concluding paragraph of this precedent case, the Court said, "Until petitioners have exhausted the remedies available to them in the Tribal Court system, n. 4, supra, it would be premature for a federal court to consider any relief." With this ruling being clear, CVS and other big corporate lawyers think they can put one over the Cherokee Nation on jurisdiction. Those lawyers should be prepared to argue before the Cherokee Tribal Court that has jurisdiction in the that deal with non-tribal defendants in civil cases.

The article is heartbreaking as is the comment by the kind women who fosters Cherokee babies. The parents don't favor opiates over their children. Opiates literally change the way your brain reacts and their power is horrifying. What is also horrifying is that we have become a nation of vindictive vampires - destroying anything or anyone that stands in the way of our great spirit - Money.

The emptiness of a person’s life that leads them to taking drugs in the first place is still not filled by taking the drugs away. But it does feel good to sue. Meaning the emptiness is only getting more empty. Alas the poor progeny of such a desolate land.

Why aren't there hundreds of comments on this article? Oh, silly me, it is about injustices inflicted on Native Americans for profit. Thank you for the piece.

So the Cherokee's are grossly misusing a legally made product acquired through illegal means and claim the drug manufacturer is to blame. They attempt to deflect their own responsibility for such sordid behavior with this lawsuit. It is always somebody else's fault. One could rewrite this article replacing opioids with alcohol. Undoubidly the sorry social conditions of the tribes have much to do with this, but then who will they blame for that?

I'm wondering if there's any chance our current Federal Supreme Court will allow the Cherokee Nation's courts to have jurisdiction over these powerful corporations. I'm doubting it. Now if the newest member was Judge Garland, as it should have been, I'd have some hope. I'm not a lawyer, can't speak to the legal details. I do know that Judge Gorsuch seems determined to uphold corporations against real people any chance he can. How does he sleep at night?

Americans at large may benefit from the great efforts of members of the Cherokee Nation which has been miserably treated by both the US government-- Andrew Jackson, Trail of Tears and their fellow Americans. Man's inhumanity to man. What is wrong with so many of the testosterone driven sex/gender??? (Everyone needs to now that he is not immortal... and hopefully learns to behave ethically and morally while on he planet.) Lawyers might learn shame in law school. Just because it's legaldoe no mean i i OK.. esp if it harms the youngest amongst us. And what is wrong with these women?? (who "depend on"or consort with the destructive men?) I think the answer is fear rather than greed ... but it can be a combo of emotions..that result in the phyical addiction. We could all boycott the Sackler Collections in DC. Their drug. (Take their names off the museums.)

This is an amazing article. I was waiting for the NYT to profile a group of people that were struggling with opiate addiction that the readers of the NYT couldn't just brush off with false equivalencies between the current opiate crisis and the crack epidemic. This story really moved my heart as a fellow opiate addict. I've been on suboxone for 5 years, and I'm a white transgender woman. I grew up in a middle class Catholic family and I went to MIT, yet I still became an opiate addict, mostly because I was refused to transition until I was 25 years old. I'll be 30 in a few months, and now I have a wife, own a home, run my own marijuana industry consulting business, and I completed my degree. Suboxone saved my life and I am so grateful for that. However, I also went to 10 months of very very expensive rehab at the Mayo Clinic because I could stay on my mom's insurance bc of Obama. The Cherokee tribe deserves to win this case. The volumes of opiates that have flowed into rural and even urban communities in this nation have been so mind blowing that you'd have to be an idiot not to realize that large amounts of opiates, paid for with taxpayer money usually, were being diverted and sold. These companies valued profits over lives, and deserve to lose those profits. The Cherokee nation, and indeed almost every community in America of any race, will have to invest in rehab and suboxone subsidies for years and years to come to deal with greed of these companies.

The worst thing about this is that Purdue Pharma knew how addictive its product could be and rather than telling the FDA or the prescribers that it should be used with extreme caution, kept quiet. The profits were more important than the safety of patients. And our government will not do very much to help either. They will enact laws and regulations to make it more difficult for people to get any kind of painkillers but they won't force the entities most responsible for this "epidemic" to pay for cleaning it up. The Native Americans have been given one of the rawest deals possible in America. We stole their land, introduced them to alcohol, herded them onto reservations and reneged on our promises to provide them with decent health care, decent educations, etc., and now this. I'd prefer to see my tax dollars spent on helping out Native Americans rather than paying the salaries of elected officials who are interested in lining their own pockets instead of working for us. Although my apology won't change things for any Native America, and especially the Cherokee Nation, I am sorry that this has happened. I hope that there are enough strong Cherokees out there to help the children and their parents.