The ICT piece quoting Sarah Deer notes that the Tribal Law and Order Act (text here) could go further. I agree. The way it’s drafted now, it wouldn’t do a whole lot for Indian women. It’s a statute designed to combat drug trafficking more than anything. A statute designed to cut into crime rates against women would have improved tribal court authority, such as authority to prosecute all on-reservation perpetrators.
There are good steps in the right direction re: crimes against women, such as improved training and cooperation, more funds for tribal law enforcement. But the key provisions to the statute would increase the capacity of federal not tribal prosecutors in Indian Country. I tend to agree that the feds should be dealing with major drug trafficking in Indian Country, but the law doesn’t do anything to solve the practical limitations that federal prosecutors face in prosecuting crimes against women.
First, they have to prove additional elements to the crime — jurisdiction and the Indian identity of the perpetrator and victim. Second, the distance between the federal courts and the crimes is often too far for a proper prosecution, let alone investigation. The best jurisdiction to deal with these local crimes are Indian tribes, and until Congress recognizes tribal court jurisdiction over non-Indian criminal defendants in these crimes, everything is a half-measure.
Turtle Talk 
I think the point is they do not want to do much if anything for Indian people…politicians don’t like production, they like publicity!!
Tribal Police should already be made to have access to national crime history databases. My other concern is that the bill would be made to provide defense counsel for indigent defendants. This would be a burden financially to tribes. Many tribes are not able to afford this to even their tribal members.