Plans announced last week by the Justice Department to combat crime on Indian tribal lands are a step in the right direction, but almost certainly will not be enough to put a serious dent in the high level of reservation crime.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said $6 million will go toward hiring 35 additional assistant U.S. attorneys and 12 FBI victim specialists in offices prosecuting crime in Indian country.
The nation’s chief law enforcement officer ordered the 44 U.S. attorneys who serve in districts with tribal lands, including Colorado, to devise plans addressing public safety there. Holder acknowledged the plan was part of an incremental approach.
“The public safety challenges we face in Indian country will not be solved by a single grant or a single piece of legislation,” Holder said last week. “There is no quick fix. While today’s directive is significant progress, we need to continue our efforts.”
The entrenched and complicated nature of reservation crime and enforcement isn’t easily addressed, as Holder knows.
The issue is wrapped up in debate over American Indian sovereignty, lack of tribal law enforcement resources and the difficulty federal prosecutors sometimes have in prosecuting cases assembled by tribal investigators.
According to laws more than a century old, federal prosecutors have the sole authority to prosecute serious crime on a majority of Indian reservations. Tribal officers have jurisdiction to pursue minor crimes.
American Indians are victims of violent crime at a rate more than twice the national average, according to federal statistics. In speaking about the problem, Holder has cited a study that says one in three American Indian women will be raped in her lifetime.
Much of the violent crime problem on Colorado’s two reservations, and indeed around the country, revolve around alcohol and substance abuse, said Colorado U.S. Attorney David Gaouette.
Gaouette was in Washington, D.C., last week meeting with other U.S. attorneys to discuss issues of prosecution on tribal lands. He said creating effective partnerships with tribal authorities is key to bringing down the crime rate on Indian lands and successfully prosecuting lawbreakers.
That’s true, but it’s a task made difficult by the trouble in filling Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement jobs. These are tough, low-paying positions and sometimes tribal leaders want them filled with people from their own tribes.
The Obama administration has made clear its hopes of improving the situation of American Indians. A tentative $3.4 billion settlement of a long-running lawsuit over trust land is further evidence of that intent.
The law enforcement initiative announced last week is just the latest example of progress on that front, but there remains a good bit of work left to repair relations with America’s Indian tribes.
