WA Legislature Considering Tribal Rights Bill

[Frodo]

I'm generally all for according native American tribes their sovereignty (especially in light of all the broken treaties of the past), but the fact that they don't have separation of powers as we do does make me hesitate:

Wash. Legislature consider tribal rights bill

By SHANNON DININNY
Associated Press

YAKIMA, Wash. —
Lawmakers in Washington are considering a proposal to start dismantling the state's civil jurisdiction over American Indians, a step many consider long overdue. But some say they worry that restoring full sovereignty to tribes over their members might subject outsiders to unfair treatment in tribal courts.

Congress passed a law delegating jurisdiction over tribes to some states in 1953, at a period when the government was forcing Indians to assimilate. The law was sparked in part by public demand for improved law enforcement on reservations and a desire to offload financial burdens in the wake of World War II.

States such as Nebraska and Oregon have unraveled parts of the federal mandate in the years since. In Washington, the idea has garnered broad support following a series of meetings last year by a task force that included law enforcement, prosecutors, and representatives of counties and cities.

Some people, though, fear tribes may fail to ensure due process for everyone, given a perceived lack of separation between some executive and judicial tribal government branches. They contend state courts must remain an option to settle disputes.

[Vasall des Midas]

Just some states? Ie, this is about restoring business-as-elsewhere to some of the people hardest hit by the dreadful failure that was the Termination Policy, in a state with a long and very dark history of institutional racism in regards to Natives. (Indeed Washington, like the Dakotas and Montana, could just as well be in Canada - Natives are the main discriminated-against "other", not Blacks as in America.)

[Redalgo]

Native nations ought to have sovereignty. Furthermore, many American governments still have a lot of atoning to do to make up for their records of cultural genocide, imperialism, ethnocentrism, hundreds of broken treaties, and - arguably -  a number of ongoing injustices being perpetrated against native peoples. Public awareness on this area of public policy is very limited in the States.

[Jacobtm]

But some say they worry that restoring full sovereignty to tribes over their members might subject outsiders to unfair treatment in tribal courts.

Ha!

[True Federalist]

But some say they worry that restoring full sovereignty to tribes over their members might subject outsiders to unfair treatment in tribal courts.

Ha!

So you think that the tribal courts will only unfairly treat their own tribe members?

[dead0man]

They should be given as much or as little sovereignty as each tribe wants.  I also encourage them to expand their lands through purchases of adjoining lands and incorporating them into their own lands.  I also suggest that a time table be put in place where, after sovereignty is reached, we eventually stop giving them money for nothing (and their checks for free).