Essay On Native American Law And Jurisdiction

Hi Solomon, In reading your post and the readings for this lesson, I share with you the frustration in realizing the obstacles that Native Americans have been, and still are, facing regarding the court cases. To understand something is so sacred to them, yet the courts don’t even make the effort to hear them out, is quite heartbreaking. Interesting note about the 2009 example you mentioned where the Supreme Court didn’t even hear the case proposed by the Navajo nation. It’s less than 10 years ago, and yet it seems something that could be from a long long time ago since we’ve evolved as a government society.

This did apply to the same boundaries within the six states along with the grant of criminal jurisdiction. The addition of civil jurisdiction just meant that civil actions in Indian Country will be treated as it would in the state out of the areas of Indian Country. The granted civil jurisdiction does not prevent tribes’ jurisdiction if they decided to exercise the ability to do so. Still, this doesn’t affect trust properties or treaty rights, if anything; states are restricted from doing anything to either of the

The first is that sovereignty may exist within sovereignty, as the Mohawk Nation exists within the United States. However, as she points out, this system comes with jurisdictional and normative challenges: “Whose citizen are you? What authority do you answer to? One challenges the very legitimacy of the other.” (Simpson 10)

“Arguing with Tradition: The language of the Law in Hopi Tribal Court” by Justin B. Richard is an investigative work that explores the dynamics of a contemporary Native American court system to understand the interaction of language and communication and how they affect Anglo-American jurisprudence. The book aims to record the influence of the Hopi traditions and customs on its legal and lawful proceedings eventually shaping the form of its entire constitutional and judicial system. The Hopi people strongly believe in the continuation and preservation of their cultural heritage as having an effect on the success of their future endeavors, owing to which they have made a conscious effort into molding the Anglo-American legal practices to conform

If State and federal laws won’t protect Native reservations form non-tribal personnel committing crimes on tribal land, then Native reservations should be able to have sovereignty over their own jurisdiction. Asserting jurisdiction over non-Natives gives back a sense of sovereignty and the importance of authority over outsiders that current laws sweep under the rug. Claudia Card writes, “ [i]t breaks the spirit, humiliates, tame, produces a docile, deferential, obedient soul. Rape impacts individual women physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and creates numerous problems in the lives of the victims.” A traumatic event such as this needs justice to be served for these Native women to be able to move on with there lives knowing that they got justice for the wrong doing that was done upon them.

Native Tribes in the United States have long enjoyed sovereignty emanating from the penumbra of the 11th amendment, which states that the judicial powers of the United States shall not be extended to sovereign nations or their citizens. Further, under precedents established by the Supreme Court, Native Tribes have long been recognized as foreign states by the federal government, and they are thus granted sovereign immunity from laws and statutes passed at both the state and federal level. This sovereign immunity is also extended to all members of tribes and also those acting within the interest of a respective tribe. FACTS OF THE CASE William Clarke, an individual employed by Mohegan Tribal Gambling Company, was driving a limousine owned

“1 out of 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime” (219). The high raping rate of Native American women is discusting, feeling unsafe in their own tribe where they should be able to call “a safe home”. The white men have the courage to continue these horrible acts upon these women because they know that they will never be prosecuted by the tribal court and pay for the great deal of damage they have caused in a tribe. “The round house is on the far edge of tribal trust, where our court has jurisdiction… So federal law applies.

The federal government now had a foothold on the tribal reservations. Major crimes on reservations were now policed by the Feds. At the writing of the law this included 7 crimes. These crimes included murder, rape, arson, manslaughter, assault with deadly intent, larceny and burglary. Amendments to this law added the crimes of kidnapping, robbery, incest, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and sexual relations

Criminalization affected the rights of Alaska Natives such as the Tlingit much as it did the Indians in Canada and the lower United States. Sovereignty, fishing and hunting rights for subsistence, and the allowance of potlatches were especially prevalent. An 1872 Alaska court ruling gave Natives the same rights as non-Indians but didn’t recognize Native legal or political institutions. The sovereignty of Alaskan Native tribes was not recognized so the state asserted their own sovereignty and, defying the federal laws, claimed complete jurisdiction over the Natives living within their borders.

This is displayed when they are not permitted to their complete spate justice system as well as their inability to be a sovereign nation without U.S. government intervention. Ross and Gould (2006), also address how their book it would be impossible to address everything throughout history that Native Americans have subjugated to. Yet there is hope that new technology and procedures could lead to better treatment and understanding of Native Americans. Nonetheless, most of this will only be possible if funding towards Native Americans is increased. The lack of resources has destroyed a lot of Natives culture.

United States. In this case, the Crow tribe wished to have the right to regulate the riverbed that was within their lands to only allow those who were tribe members to fish there. In Montana, the court held that the Tribe lacked inherent authority to preclude fishing by nonmembers on waterways within the reservation in which the tribe did not hold the beneficial interest to the underlying land. It found no clear treaty or statutory right to regulate nonmember conduct on fee lands. The court did find that for a tribe to be able to have the jurisdiction to try a nonmember that is on fee land within the reservation in a tribal court there are two factors that must be

“Bad people commit these horrible crimes against native women, but it is the system that allows it to happen generation after generation. ”(Limberhand, NIWRC) Indigenous people have a history of being underserved and overlooked by law enforcement, politicians, the media, and many more. Native American women and girls make up a significant part of missing and murdered cases. Murder is the third leading cause of death for Native American women and girls.

discrimination against Native Americans. Because contemporary investigators were largely uninterested in the Osage murders, they did not assemble the necessary evidence. It may be tempting for the reader to believe that modern society has progressed past any discrimination, but this situation shows that historical discrimination still has serious

Indigenous people are more likely to be arrested and charged with offences, and once in the criminal justice system, they face harsher sentencing outcomes than non-Indigenous people for similar crimes. Racial profiling is another serious issue that affects Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. This occurs when law enforcement officers target individuals based on their perceived race or ethnicity, rather than on evidence of criminal activity. Racial profiling can result in unjustified arrests and charges and can contribute to the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. The use of excessive force by police is also a major concern.

Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.