Herseth Sandlin lauds House passage of Tribal Law and Order Act

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• Youtube: Tribal Law and Order Act Floor Statement

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin said the Tribal Law and Order Act bill that she sponsored will make life safer for American Indians in South Dakota and across the country. The bill passed the House on Wednesday.

“It will have a vast impact in South Dakota,” Herseth Sandlin said Thursday during a teleconference with South Dakota reporters. “This bill has been a long time coming.”

The bill, which gained bipartisan support, had already passed the Senate by unanimous consent. It will be sent to President Obama, who said he intends to sign the bill.

“I introduced this bipartisan bill because of the urgent need to improve law enforcement in Indian Country,” Herseth Sandlin said. “Native American families, like all families, deserve a basic sense of safety and security in their communities.”

She said she worked closely with South Dakota’s nine Sioux tribes.

“We’ve worked long and hard for tribal law and order legislation, almost three years now,” said Gay Kingman, executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association. “We’re very happy that Representative Herseth Sandlin sponsored this and took the time to listen to the tribes. We’re so happy it has finally passed.”

According to Herseth Sandlin, the Tribal Law and Order Act strengthens tribal law enforcement, establishes accountability measures for federal agencies responsible for investigating and prosecuting reservation crime, and provides tribes with additional tools to combat crime locally.

“The need for this bill is clear, both in South Dakota and nationwide. Indian reservations nationwide suffer more than 2.5 times the national violent crime rate,” she said. “It’s estimated that more than one in three American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped in their lifetimes.

“Drug trafficking organizations are targeting Indian reservations to manufacture and distribute illegal substances, because of the lack of police presence on Indian lands. Less than 3,000 Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal police patrol more than 56 million acres of Indian lands — less than half the law enforcement presence in comparable rural communities.”

Herseth Sandlin said the problem is grave in South Dakota.

“South Dakota tribal law enforcement officers often put in heavy overtime putting them at risk of burnout. Officials from the Oglala Sioux Department of Public Safety recently had six officers on duty to cover the Pine Ridge Reservation, an area larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined,” she said.

“In addition, there are typically 10 or fewer officers per shift to patrol these large areas, requiring each officer to patrol hundreds of miles. This hinders response times and puts the safety of officers and the people they are patrolling at risk.

“This bill will improve recruitment efforts and provide tribal law enforcement officers with the tools they need to protect Indian Country.”

During a speech on the House floor Wednesday, Herseth Sandlin offered an example of how serious the problem is in South Dakota.

She told of a young woman on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation who awoke to discover her ex-boyfriend breaking into her home with a crowbar. She called police for help but phone problems disconnected the call three times before the alarm was sounded.

The nearest officer was 40 miles away, Herseth Sandlin said, and although he drove 80 mph, when he arrived at the home the woman was “severely bloodied and beaten” and the man had fled.

She spoke of “this important bill” and, her voice increasing in volume, said it was a matter of life and death.

“Native American women and their children are the most at risk,” Herseth Sandlin said. “The statistics bear it out.”

Major provisions of the legislation, which was in the works for four years, include:

• Increased evidence sharing and declination data.

• Providing more tribal court authority from one to three years imprisonment where certain constitutional protections are met.

• Ensuring federal officials who work in Indian Country testify about information gained in the scope of their duties to support a prosecution in tribal court.

• Improving transparency in public safety spending by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

• Increasing sexual assault training and standardized protocols for handling sex crimes, interviewing witnesses, and handling evidence of domestic and sexual violence crimes in Indian country.

• Authorizing the deputization of special assistant U.S. attorneys to prosecute reservation crimes in Federal courts.

• Increasing deputizations of tribal and state police to enforce federal law.

• Authorizing the Drug Enforcement Agency to deputize tribal police to assist on reservation drug raids.

• Increasing recruitment and retention efforts for BIA and tribal police.

• Expanding training opportunities for BIA and tribal police to receive training at state police academies, and tribal, state and local colleges where federal law enforcement training standards are met.

• Giving tribal police access to criminal history records.

• Investigating fraudulent Indian arts and crafts. The Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments Act included in the bill will allow any federal law enforcement officer to investigate fraudulent Indian arts and crafts. Currently only the FBI can investigate these crimes.

• Reauthorizing existing programs designed to strengthen tribal courts, police departments and corrections centers — as well as programs to prevent and treat alcohol and substance abuse, and improve opportunities for at-risk Indian youth.

To see Herseth Sandlin speak about the bill on the floor of the House, go to http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=NWLSM-6CiaY

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., applauded the House for passing the bill.

“Ensuring safety and rule of law in Indian Country is vital to the long-term success of our tribes in South Dakota and across the nation,” Thune said. “After working closely with tribal leaders across the state, I’m pleased to see the full Congress pass the Tribal Law and Order Act, and I hope the president will swiftly sign the legislation into law.”

On another issue Thursday, Herseth Sandlin said she is sympathetic to Arizona officials who are trying to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into their state.

She said she is watching the federal government’s efforts to overturn the Arizona law that is designed to discover illegals in the state. Critics have labeled it a racist bill that targets people through racial profiling.

“I think it’s perfectly understandable why officials in Arizona would want to take action,” Herseth Sandlin said.

She said violent crimes and drug trafficking on or near the border make people feel unsafe. But she said she doesn’t think a “state-by-state approach” is the answer, nor does she support using racebased enforcement.

“No one supports racial profiling, and it shouldn’t be tolerated,” she said.

Herseth Sandlin said the federal government has failed to take action to secure the border under both Republican and Democratic administrations. She said she supports “short-term emergency measures” while a long-term answer is reached.

Tags: stephanie herseth sandlin, news, national