Here.
Jessica Rickert on the Heard Museum
Here.
News
Public Radio Profile of DV Prosecutions at Pascua Yaqui
Here.
An excerpt:
FRED URBINA: In 19 of our cases, we had 18 children involved; the average age being around 4 years old. Some of them were assaulted. A lot of times it was the children that were calling to report these domestic violence incidents.
MORALES: The Justice Department chose the Pascua Yaqui to pilot the program because they have state certified judges and lawyers and a brand new courthouse and jail. Police Chief Michael Valenzuela says the old jail was a two-bedroom house with a cage.
M. VALENZUELA: In the past, if someone was in jail people could go outside and knock on the window and talk – yeah and they did. We’d have to shoo them away. It was not safe. We had people assaulted.
MORALES: Now, thanks to federal stimulus money, they have a 65,000-square-foot justice complex.
Washington “Payment In Lieu of Taxes” Statute Struck Down by State Trial Court
Here is “Tossed out: Superior Court deems tribal tax-break bill unconstitutional.”
And State Superior Court Strikes Down HB 1287, and PILTs as “Taxes”
Here is the court’s order in City of Snoqualmie v. King County Executive (King County Super.):
An excerpt:
3. The payment labeled “payment in lieu of tax” (“PILT”) in Section 8 of Engrossed Substitute House Bill (“ESHB”) 1287 is a property tax under Washington Law;
4. The PILT is subject to uniformity requirements in Article VII of the Washington Constitution;
5. The PILT violates the uniformity requirements in Article VII of the Washington Constitution because it is not imposed at an equal tax rate and does not produce equality in valuing the property taxed; and
6. Section 8 of ESHB 1287 violates Article VII Section 1’s command that “the power of taxation shall never be surrendered, suspended or contracted away.
Background materials here.
Three Maine tribes weighing legalization of pot on their lands
The Atlantic Article on Climate Change and Yup’ik Fishing
Here.
“Subsistence is living from the land,” said Flynn. “It’s what we’ve always done. We go hunt ducks and seals in the ocean in the springtime. Ptarmigan. Salmon. My great-grandfather and grandfather told us we have to be very careful what we catch. God made them for everyone. I was living subsistence even when I was in the military. My whole life. I make a fish camp every year and dry 30, 40 kings. I set a net last summer but there was too much closure. Things have been rough.”
“And how did it feel not to be able to catch enough?” Davis asked him.
“I have a grandchild, 2 years old—” He paused and rubbed his eyes. Several other men in the gallery also began to cry. “My grandson said to me, ‘When we gonna go check the net?’ And I couldn’t say anything.”
Michael Cresswell, a state trooper, leaned over and whispered in my ear: “This is momentous. This is climate change on trial.”
Via J.S.
Louise Erdrich to be awarded Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction
Congratulations to Louise Erdrich. Her work is getting a great deal of attention around the country. Finally.
Here is a great quote from Librarian of Congress James Billington about why Erdrich was chosen for this award:
Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a statement that Erdrich’s novels have uniquely explored the cultural challenges faced by Native Americans and mixed-race Americans.
“[H]er prose manages to be at once lyrical and gritty, magical yet unsentimental, connecting a dreamworld of Ojibwe legend to stark realities of the modern-day,” Billington said. “And yet, for all the bracing originality of her work, her fiction is deeply rooted in the American literary tradition.”
Trouble Brewing at Warm Springs
Review: ‘The Plains Indians,’ America’s Early Artists, at the Met
Some of the earliest surviving art by native North Americans left America long ago. Soldiers, traders and priests, with magpie eyes for brilliance, bundled it up and shipped it across the sea to Europe. Painted robes, embroidered slippers and feathered headdresses tinkling with chimes found their way into cupboards in 18th-century London and Paris, and lay there half-forgotten. Continue reading
Evelyn Stevenson Walks On — Original Proponent of ICWA
Evelyn Stevenson, longtime tribal attorney, advocate and original proponent of the Indian Child Welfare Act, passed away on March 12, 2015 at 9:11am in Ronan, Montana on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Evelyn was a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and was the second tribal member, and first tribal member woman, to become a licensed attorney.
A wake will begin at noon on Sunday, March 15, 2015 in the Elmo Community Hall in Elmo, Montana (phone number: 406.849.5505). A rosary will begin at 8:00pm that evening. The funeral will be held at the Elmo Community Hall on Monday, March 16th at 11:00am, followed by burial at the Ronan Cemetery.
Details on here career here.
NCAI Press Release: Tribal Governments Able to Take Criminal Action on Non-Indians
Tribal Governments Able to Take Criminal Action on Non-Indians
Washington, DC- On March 7, 2015, Tribal governments may elect to begin exercising jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, or violate a protection order against a Native victim on tribal lands.
“This is a major step forward to protect the safety of Native people, and we thank all Members of Congress for passing the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 and recognizing tribal authority,” said Brian Cladoosby, President of the National Congress of American Indians and Chairman of the Swinomish Tribe.
So far three Tribes, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and the Tulalip Tribes have been able to exercise jurisdiction over non-Indians under a Pilot Project since February 6, 2014. To date the Tribes have charged a total of 26 Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction cases.
“I want to encourage all tribal governments to get this law on their books,” said Juana Majel, Chair of the NCAI Task Force on Violence Against Women. “The main goal is deterrence of domestic violence. On most reservations there are a handful of bad actors who have figured out how to slip between jurisdictional boundaries. They need to get the message. If they continue to assault our women we will prosecute and put them in jail.”
Violence against Native women has reached epidemic proportions. The root cause is a justice system that forced tribal governments to rely on distant federal — and in some cases, state —officials to investigate and prosecute misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence committed by non-Indians against Native women. However, outside law enforcement has proven ineffective in addressing misdemeanor level reservation-based domestic violence. The Justice Department has found that when non-Indian cases of domestic violence go uninvestigated and unpunished, offenders’ violence escalates. The 2013 VAWA Reauthorization authorizes tribal governments to investigate and prosecute all crimes of domestic and dating violence regardless of the race of the offender.
Tribes choosing to exercise Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction must provide the same rights guaranteed under the Constitution as in state court. This includes the appointment of attorneys for indigent defendants and a jury drawn from the entire reservation community. “Many tribal courts are already providing these protections to defendants, and it isn’t a big step to provide indigent counsel to all. Just like county courts, tribal courts can contract for public defenders on a case-by-case basis,” encouraged President Cladoosby.
Key Statistics:
34% of American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped in their lifetimes
59% of assaults against Native women occur at or near a private residence
59% of American Indian women in 2010 were married to non-Native men
46% of people living on reservations in 2010 were non-Natives (single race)
On some reservations, Native women are murdered at more than ten times the national average
For an overview on tribal VAWA, and more information please see: http://www.ncai.org/tribal-vawa. The Tribal Law & Policy Institute has developed a Legal Code Resource for implementation at www.TLPI.org.
Turtle Talk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.