Tribes Push for Sovereignty in Violence Against Women Act
Native American leaders are pushing for the support of two more Republican senators as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have recently dropped their support for the re-authorization of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act.
Among other new provisions, the bill will give tribes the authority to prosecute non-Indian suspects that commit acts of violence against Native American women on tribal land. GOP opponents of the bill have expressed their concern to giving tribes jurisdiction over non-Indians.
The United States Supreme Court ruled in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191 (1978), that Tribal courts don't have criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians.
The Senate Bill (s.1925) currently has 58 sponsors.
If tribal courts don't have jurisdiction over non-indians, then why should any native americans be subject to non-indians laws? what is good for the goose, as the saying goes.