Shirley calls for unity among tribes

Independent Staff

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. told tribal leaders that it is critical for them to come together to speak with one voice.

"To the extent possible, we must come together to push to protect our sovereignty," Shirley said here Sunday at the national Sovereignty Protection Initiative meeting of which he is co-chairman.

"We need to protect our sovereignty. We need to protect our women. We need to protect our sacred lands," Shirley said. "In spite of what's going on, I think we can make some headway."

Shirley called for a meeting later this year to create a United Native Nations to share ideas, keep communication open, and speak in a single strong voice.

Shirley traveled here to attend Sunday's meeting, which he co-chairs with Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest native organization in the country.

The Sovereignty Protection Initiative is being held in conjunction with the week-long NCAI 2005 Executive Council Winter Session, which began on Monday.

The Sovereignty Protection Initiative is a national tribal effort to improve the collective advocacy of tribes before the federal courts, to engage in public education about tribal governance, and to consider legislation to reaffirm tribal jurisdiction.

The initiative was established by tribes to address the shrinkage of tribal jurisdiction in recent U.S. Supreme court decisions, in particular Nevada vs. Hicks and Atkinson Trading Co. vs. Shirley.

On the meeting's agenda affecting tribal sovereignty is federal Homeland Security legislation, re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and the Native American Rights Fund, among others.

Hall said at issue is sovereignty protection and Bush Administration-proposed decreases for native programs of $139 million for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and $90 million for Indian Health Service.

"The administration told us, 'It's out of our hands. You have to go to Congress now,'" Hall said.

Two weeks ago, he said, U.S. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, stated that while he is a fiscal conservative, he didn't believe cuts in programs for Native people were justified.

"Sovereignty protection goes with our budgets," Hall said. "We can't protect our people with cuts in the budgets."

John H. Dossett, NCAI general counsel, presented a summary of critical U.S. Supreme Court cases that impact tribes and affect sovereignty.

He said one case, City of Sherrill vs. Oneida Nation of New York, which involves treaty interpretation, the definition of "Indian Country," and reservation dis-establishment, "goes deep into the roots of what federal Indian law is all about."

Two other cases, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and Shoshone-Pauite Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation vs. Thompson, and Thompson vs. Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, represent the first opportunity for the high court to review and consider the enforceability of the Indian Self-Determination Act, one of the foundations of modern federal Indian law, he said.

"These are pretty hairy cases," Dossett added.

Richard Guest, attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, said tribes have historically lost about 80 percent of the cases brought before the high court, making the win/loss record better for criminal defendants than for native people.

"What is dangerous about these cases is we have a very unfriendly Supreme Court when it comes to preference cases," he said. "These are dangerous times for us in the courts."

Another sovereignty issue discussed was reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Dossett said native women are three times more likely to be assaulted than women of other ethnicities, and that 70 percent of the offenders are non-Indians. He said in most of those cases, tribes are powerless to prosecute and states won't try.

"There's a real problem in Indian Country and the statistics show it," he said.

Guest said Congress needs to adjust tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians through an amendment to the Indian Civil Rights Act.

Charles C. Colombe, president of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, said tribes can't talk about sovereignty without talking about tribal courts, and tribes need to work from within to improve the independence of their courts.

"They're going to diminish tribal sovereignty on a daily basis," he said. "We've got to make America believe our courts are fair, impartial and independent."

Shirley said that despite having the oldest and most developed native court system in the country, Navajo Nation courts are not recognized by the state and federal system because they question the qualifications of judges.

"I think this is where a lot of our sovereignty is being chipped away," Shirley said. "Sovereignty is inherent. It wasn't given to us. I think we should stand together and fight for it."