Native Injustice: Lack of Accountability and Jurisdictional Ownership - Part 2

In Indian Country, there are numerous federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction in numerous areas within and surrounding tribal lands and reservations. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have overall jurisdiction in Indian Country for criminal felony offenses. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) law enforcement division has the duty to preserve law and order on tribal lands.

The BIA law enforcement division has the overall jurisdiction to investigate crimes that take place within tribal lands and areas surrounding them. The current concerns are the jurisdictional gap between tribal and state law enforcement authorities in tribal lands. One of the few things that allowed the jurisdiction gap to have occurred in the first place was the passing of a federal statute called Public Law 280. The question to ask is: What is Public Law 280?

Public Law 280 is a federal statute in which enabled states to assume criminal and civil jurisdiction in matters involving Native Americans as litigants on reservation land. The law enabled the federal government to transfer jurisdiction of reservation land to the respective state governments which reservation land is located. The other question that must asked is: How does Public Law made law enforcement in Indian Country effective? The reality of the situation in this case is that PL 280 did not make law enforcement in Indian Country effective.

Public Law 280 was absolutely a detriment to tribal law enforcement because it was a way for the federal government specifically the Bureau of Indian Affairs to redirect federal resources from Indian Country to go elsewhere. The other reason why this law passed was to excuse BIA from providing tribal government support because they saw tribal government as an unnecessary entity. The sole purpose of this law was to provide more support for tribal communities and provide additional resources to Indian Country. Instead, it weakened the protections of Native Americans in the reservations and in surrounding areas.

Public Law 280 was also detrimental to the well being of many Native Americans living on the reservation and it created an unsafe space in the reservation in which disallowed tribal law enforcement to be effective at their jobs. It also deterred tribal agencies from hiring more police officers because they did not have the funding to pay, train, and retain a new officer. This also prevents tribal officers from responding to calls for service efferently due to lack of personnel, funding and additional resources to handle certain felony cases (such as murder, sexual assault, etc).

The law in particular was supposed to provide additional support to the tribal judicial system and tribal government administration so they could run effectively. However, the law itself did not really help but allowed the federal government to deplete its additional resources from the reservation all because they simply felt doing business with the tribal nations was not necessary. They felt it was 'no longer a priority' simply because they feel additional resources were no longer needed.

So the question that everyone wants to ask is: Why would such a law as PL280 be passed if its not going to be effective in protecting and serving the people that are directed affected by this measure? The other question that must be asked is: Why would BIA justify such an action having to withdraw officers from their respective reservations when they are needed most to provide police services to the numerous tribal reservations throughout the country?

If we're all honest with ourselves and practical about things, we can say that BIA made the decision to withdraw officers from the reservations and assigned them elsewhere because they didn't have the sufficient manpower to deploy them to respective reservations to augment the tribal police departments. Also, we can also say that funding was cut and led to the draw down of BIA officers in the reservation. We need more tribal law enforcement officers in the reservations.

The best ways tribal police officers can be hired and retained are the following I recommend: Increase officer salaries and benefits, offer additional training, opportunites for advancement, and a take home vehicle so officers will be able to report to their assigned districts and respond to calls effectively.

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