Native America Calling: Oliphant: four decades of hampered tribal jurisdiction

Indianz.Com > News > Native America Calling: Oliphant: four decades of hampered tribal jurisdiction

Native America Calling

Listen to Native America Calling every weekday at 1pm Eastern.

Alternate Links: Native Voice One | NAC

Native America Calling: Oliphant: four decades of hampered tribal jurisdiction

Thursday, March 4, 2021

nativeamericacalling.com nativeamericacalling nativeamericacalling

A U.S. Supreme Court decision from March 1978 continues to hinder tribal sovereignty on a daily basis.

The ruling in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe stripped tribes of most criminal prosecutions against non-Indians. Those cases became the responsibility of the federal government. In his dissent, Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote “I am of the view that Indian tribes enjoy, as a necessary aspect of their retained sovereignty, the right to try and punish all persons who commit offenses against tribal law within the reservation.”

The Violence Against Women Act was an attempt to remedy the persistent trend of non-Native abusers of Native women slipping through the cracks of the federal justice system.

Native America Calling will look at the distressing consequences of Oliphant and efforts through the years to fix it.