Just as the United States debates whether or not to end the exclusion of same-sex couples and their families from marriage, Native American tribes are addressing the same issue. Native American tribes are federally recognized sovereign nations—thus they can create their own policies around marriage for same-sex couples. Native American tribes have historically accepted LGBT/Two-Spirit same-sex relationships, and in 2009 the Coquille Tribe of Oregon became the first tribe in the nation to approve the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. The Coquille Tribe was joined in 2011 by the Suquamish Tribe of WA, and in 2013, the Tribal Council of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, based in Michigan, also approved a statute. 

Many Native American leaders have heralded the importance of the freedom to marry for committed LGBT/Two-Spirit couples, such as Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., who received Equality Arizona’s Barry Goldwater Human Rights Award for speaking out against and vetoing the discriminatory Diné Marriage Act of 2005. Although six of the seven tribal jurisdictions currently exclude same-sex couples from marriage, organizations such as NativeOUT and the Diné Coalition for Cultural Preservation continue to work toward an end to these discriminatory measures that violate the traditional beliefs in ‘goodwill’ and ‘respecting all kinship.’