Diane Humetewa

A fair amount of discussion during a U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee field hearing in the Valley earlier this week focused on confusion concerning law enforcement on and off tribal lands.

Both American Indian and non-American Indian government officials recounted suspicion among their constituents that criminal suspects in the opposite groups were abusing the separate tribal and non-tribal legal systems to avoid justice.

“Without question, criminal jurisdiction on Indian Country can be confusing,” said U.S. Attorney for Arizona Diane Humetewa after the hearing.

Jurisdiction is determined on a number of factors, including where crimes are conducted, the nature of crimes, and whether suspects and victims are American Indians. Some cases are handled by tribal authorities, while other cases are handled outside tribal authorities.

The differing legal systems are based on governmental differences, rather than racial differences, said Humetewa, a Hopi.

“It’s confusing because there is a Supreme Court decision that basically says that Indian tribes do not have criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians. However, there are other statutes supported by other case law that refer crimes committed by Indians that are victimless or Indian-on-Indian crime to the state,” Humetewa said.

“It’s very complex. It’s not race based. There is a line of Supreme Court decisions that basically say Indians have dual citizenship. They’re more of a political group than a racial group, so the case law then follows,” she said.

Humetewa noted that one important difference between the government systems is that tribal governments have the authority to eject individuals from their communities, which clearly is a power that municipal governments lack.

The Senate hearing was held on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community reservation as part of a national series of hearings to delve into the issues of law enforcement on tribal lands. Committee chairman Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., attended the panel discussion at the tribe’s community center.

Kyl, the assistant minority leader, is not a member of the 14-member Senate committee, but has been involved in American Indian-related issues during the course of his political career. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is a member of the committee, but was in Iraq that day.