Tribes May Prosecute Non-member Indians

Saw this interesting piece of news today:

"Affirming the sovereign powers of American Indian tribes, a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled the Navajo tribe may prosecute American Indian activist Russell Means even though he is not one of its members.

"Means also said his rights as a U.S. citizen would be threatened if he were prosecuted by a tribe that discriminated against him by barring him from joining it because of his ancestry. The San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said it found Means' equal-protection argument forceful. But writing for a three-judge panel, Judge Andrew Kleinfeld held that Congress by amending the Indian Civil Rights Act in 1990 allowed tribes to 'exercise inherent sovereign judicial power in criminal cases against nonmember Indians for crimes committed on the tribe's reservation.'"

There's nothing new or dramatic about the case really. Native American tribes have long had the right to prosecute not only their own tribal members in their courts, but members of other tribes as well(U.S. Citizens who commit criminal acts in sovereign tribal areas fall under federal jurisdiction.) But it's an interesting reminder of both the reach and limits of tribal sovereignty these days. While legal precedent still holds that tribal authority descends from the federal government, the authority that they are granted is theirs to do with as they please. Being prosecuted in a tribal court can subject one to a greater variety of punishments then simply jail time or probation, including banishment from the tribe's land or the tribe itself.

As an aside, anybody who's familiar with the career of Russell Means should not be too awfully surprised that he's in trouble again. Native Americans have never lacked for eccentric or novel leaders, and he's as eccentric as they come. If you want a great read, pick up his autobiography sometime, "Where White Men Fear to Tread." Means could never be accused of being modest, and he has some great stories to tell.