Sec. 101. Findings
370 words·~2 min read·
/bill/117/s/5186/is/section-101A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds that— Tribal law enforcement agencies in American Indian and Alaska Native communities have fewer officers per capita than other law enforcement agencies nationwide, leaving residents of Indian country and Alaska Native Villages less safe and subject to higher rates of crime; Native Americans are killed during police encounters at a higher rate than any other group; Native Americans suffer as victims of violent crime at a rate that is 2.5 times the national average;
Native American women are 10 times more likely to be murdered and 2 times more likely to experience rape or experience sexual assault crimes; the criminal justice system in its current form creates structural barriers and fails to recognize Tribal sovereignty and inherent Tribal criminal jurisdiction on Tribal lands; some Indian tribes established Tribal courts before some State courts; for example, the Cherokee Nation opened its Supreme Court in 1822, 23 years before the State of Georgia opened its own Supreme Court;
Indian tribes historically exercised criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who committed crimes on Tribal lands; for example, in 1825, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation passed a law criminalizing rape against women on Creek lands, which applied to all persons , regardless of Tribal citizenship status, and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation prosecuted non-Indian and Indian men who raped women on Creek lands; the history of inadequate Federal funding for public safety on Tribal lands and complex legal jurisdiction on Tribal lands negatively impacts access to counsel in Tribal courts; in Oliphant v.
Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191, 212 (1978), the Supreme Court concluded that whether Indian tribes should be authorized to try non-Indians is a consideration for Congress to weigh ; the Supreme Court recently affirmed this holding in June 2021, in United States v. Cooley, 141 S. Ct. 1638, 1643 (2021), concluding once again that tribal authority remains subject to the plenary authority of Congress ; existing successful Federal and Tribal self-governance programs working to combat the inequities described in this section face chronic underfunding; and the special Tribal criminal jurisdiction exercised by Indian tribes pursuant to section 204 of Public Law 90–284 ( 25 U.S.C. 1304 ) (commonly known as the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 ) has been a success.
Connectionstraces to 1
Traces to 1 document
2 references not yet in our index
- 435 U.S. 191
- Pub. L. 90-284
Citation graph
cites case law
Cites 3Cited by 0 across 0 sources