Legislation

Today’s Indian Affairs Agenda in Congress

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From Belt Way Indian here.

Salon: How Abusers Get Away with Targeting Indian Women

Matthew L.M. Fletcher4 Comments

Here.

An excerpt:

“We have serial rapists on the reservation — that are non-Indian — because they know they can get away with it,” said Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center in Lake Andes, S.D. “Many of these cases just get dropped. Nothing happens. And they know they’re free to hurt again.”

The Nation on the Republican House Leadership and VAWA

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here.

Via Pechanga.

Indian Trust Asset Reform Act (H.R. 6617)

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Introduced late last month.

Senate Passes Two Indian Bills

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here, from Belt Way Indian….

Advocacy Website for VAWA Reauthorization — Contact Your Rep

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Excellent Summary of the History of the Tribal Jurisdiction Provisions of the VAWA Reauthorization Bill

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here, from what promises to be an excellent new blog called Belt Way Indian.

Bob Anderson on PL 280 Retrocession Legislation in Washington State

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Robert T. Anderson has published “Negotiating Jurisdiction: Retroceding State Authority over Indian Country Granted by Public Law 280” in the Washington Law Review. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Here is the abstract:

The Public Law 280 legislation was approved by Congress in the face of strenuous Indian opposition and denied consent of the Indian tribes affected by the Act . . . .

The Indian community viewed the passage of Public Law 280 as an added dimension to the dreaded termination policy. Since the inception of its passage the statute has been criticized and opposed by tribal leaders throughout the Nation. The Indians allege that the Act is deficient in that it failed to fund the States who assumed jurisdiction and as a result vacuums of law enforcement have occurred in certain Indian reservations and communities. They contend further that the Act has resulted in complex jurisdictional problems for Federal, State and tribal governments.

S. Comm. on the Interior & Insular Affairs, 94th Cong., Background Rep. on Public Law 280 (Comm. Print 1975) (statement of Sen. Henry M. Jackson, Chairman).

Senator Jackson’s statement accurately described the issues then and now. This Article reviews the legal history of federal-tribal-state relations in the context of Public Law (P.L.) 280 jurisdiction. Washington State has recently taken progressive steps that could serve as the foundation for a national model to remove state jurisdiction as a tribal option. The federal self-determination policy is not advanced by adherence to termination era experiments like P.L. 280. The article concludes that federal legislation should provide for a tribally-driven retrocession model, and makes proposals to that end.

HuffPo: Eric Cantor Blocking VAWA Reauthorization because of SAVE Native Women Act

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here.

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the author of the Senate VAWA bill, went to the Senate floor on Thursday and plainly announced that House Republican leaders are blocking his bill “because of their objections to [the] … tribal provision.”

Leahy explained the provision, probably the least understood of the three additions in the Senate bill: It gives tribal courts limited jurisdiction to oversee domestic violence offenses committed against Native American women by non-Native American men on tribal lands. Currently, federal and state law enforcement have jurisdiction over domestic violence on tribal lands, but in many cases, they are hours away and lack the resources to respond to those cases. Tribal courts, meanwhile, are on site and familiar with tribal laws, but lack the jurisdiction to address domestic violence on tribal lands when it is carried out by a non-Native American individual.

That means non-Native American men who abuse Native American women on tribal lands are essentially “immune from the law, and they know it,” Leahy said.

The standoff over including VAWA protections for Native American women comes at a time of appallingly high levels of violence on tribal lands. One in three Native American women have been raped or experienced attempted rape, the New York Times reported in March, and the rate of sexual assault on Native American women is more than twice the national average. President Barack Obama has called violence on tribal lands “an affront to our shared humanity.”

Of the Native American women who are raped, 86 percent of them are raped by non-Native men, according to an Amnesty International report. That statistic is precisely what the Senate’s tribal provision targets.

The two sources say, to Cantor’s credit, his staff has said they’re willing to try to come up with other solutions to responding to violence against women on tribal lands, as long as the solution doesn’t give tribes jurisdiction over the matter. But proponents of the Senate bill see the limited jurisdictional change as the only realistic way to address the problem.

Heritage Foundation Doesn’t Like Carcieri Fix

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Not much of a surprise here, just talking points for Republican legislators with poor staffs. Otherwise, there would be factual support for the allegations made therein, presumably.