The Justice Department plans to establish federal magistrate courts on Indian reservations even though some tribal leaders say it's "a totally bad idea."
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno presented the proposal on Friday to about 200 government and tribal leaders at the Northwest American Indian Nations and Department of Justice Conference, held in Salt Lake City.The Justice Department, she said, is launching the Tribal Courts Initiative to establish U.S. Magistrate Courts on reservations to prosecute crimes committed there.
"Strong tribal courts are an essential component of tribal sovereignty, self-governance and economic stability of Indian nations," Reno told the more than 50 Northwestern tribes and chief judges from federal and state courts in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Utah.
The first court is scheduled to convene next Friday at the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. Reno said that if the initiative is well received, federal courts could be held on other reservations but only with approval of individual tribes.
Oregon's U.S. attorney general, Kris Olsen, said the Tribal Courts Initiative was developed as a way to close "jurisdictional gaps" on Indian reservations.
As the court system works now, tribal courts are prohibited from prosecuting non-Indians. Federal law also restricts tribal judges from imposing jail sentences of more than one year and fines of no more than $1,000 per count - whether a felony or misdemeanor.
As a result, most tribes refer all felonies and misdemeanors involving non-Indians to their states' U.S. attorney.
Consequently, many misdemeanor crimes have gone unprosecuted because they are given a low priority by federal prosecutors, said Herb Becker, director of the Office of Tribal Justice, which was created in January to facilitate communication between tribes and the government.
The miles between some reservations and federal prosecutors, as well as prosecution expenses, also have caused some cases to slip through the cracks, said Becker.
He said it's impossible to determine the number of crimes that have gone unprosecuted. But Reno said the problem was big enough to explore the possibility of federal magistrates coming directly to the reservations.
Some tribal leaders fear the courts will tread on their sovereignty.
"It's a totally bad idea," said Robert Yazzie, chief justice of Navajo Supreme Court in Window Rock, Ariz. "The Navajo system is better because it incorporates Navajo thinking.
"We've been creating worldwide attention with our Navajo system - mainly peacemaking. Let the people handle their own problems," he said.
Yazzie and Navajo President Albert Hale said they would adamantly oppose the U.S. magistrate courts if they are expanded to the Navajo Indian Reservation, which includes portions of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
"Obviously, we have a lot of issues to straighten out," Hale said. "We want to have the ability to have sovereignty over all crimes and we already have that. There's no sense in reinventing the wheel."
U.S. Magistrate Dennis Hubel, who will preside over cases at the Warm Springs Reservation, said the initiative is intended to "make sure everybody is happy.
"I think the most important thing to tribes is that their jurisdiction not be taken away from them," he said.
In other measures to fight crime, Reno said, the Justice Department has granted more than $9 million from police hiring grants to 128 tribes and has added 26 assistant U.S. attorneys to districts with a large number of Indian tribes.
"There reaches a point when you've got to stop listening and you've got to start responding," she said. "But we need to do more."