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Out of the nine major reservations in Oregon, six of them have Tribal Police organizations. These six forces are the Burns Paiute Tribal Police Department, the Coquille Indian Tribal Police Department, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fisheries Enforcement Department, the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde Tribal Police, the Umatilla Tribal Police Department, and the Warm Springs Tribal Police Department. These units are restricted to working only on designated reservation property, and are often limited in number and available resources. Membership in Oregon tribal police forces ranges from 4 (Burns Paiute Tribal Police Department) to 25 individuals (Umatilla Tribal Police Department), and currently, all registered tribal policemen in Oregon are men. Most members work as full time policemen, but most reservation police forces also employ civilians who work other jobs, but can be called in under emergency circumstances. The number of civilian reserve members ranges from 0 in the Coquille Indian Tribal Police Department, to 6 in the Umatilla Tribal Police Department.[ citation needed ]
Tribal police are in charge of many of the same things as federal police officers, but are confined to the specific boundaries of the reservations that they operate on. They generally work patrol based jobs, similarly to government police forces, and are in charge of enforcing driving regulations, investigating crimes, security work, and they have full jurisdiction to arrest people violating the law on reservation land. Once a suspected criminal has left reservation boundaries, they are technically no longer under the jurisdiction of tribal police, and can now only be charged by government police units. This frequently forces tribal and state police forces to collaborate, but also has led to a lot of problems and disputes historically. [1]
Native American communities in Oregon have indicated there is a lack of trust with their communities and government, especially regarding police. This has also led to negative perceptions of the outcomes of criminal investigations. [2]
Crime data is not always consistent in its sharing with tribal governments; local, state, and federal partners / government, and in some instances not occurring. This has caused many tribal departments to work independently, with limited access to reports and statistical reporting. In addition, because of the disconnect between tribal communities and tribal police, there are indications that the number of missing Native American women on tribal lands is potentially underreported. Despite this, according to a National Institute of Justice Study, 84% of Native American women have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime, with more than 55% having suffered from physical or sexual violence. [2]
A study done by The Work Group examining Law Enforcement Data Systems (LEDS) in 2020 found that out of 1213 reported missing persons in Oregon, 13 were Native American, or Alaskan Native women. Of these 13 women, the average age was 20.8 years old, with 69% of the reported Native American or Alaskan Native women being under the age of 18. [2]
In another study done by the Work Group, participants living off of Oregon Reservations stated that when a crime or missing persons report was made, participants reported that they did not expect the police to act or expect to be believed or taken seriously. [2]
The combined factors of limited data, limited data sharing, and Tribal members stating a general distrust of the government and police have allowed only a vague scope of the status of crime on Oregon Reservations and their communities. [2]
A ruling by the Supreme Court in 1978 denied tribal police the authority to arrest or enforce laws against non-tribal members. This meant that not only could tribal police not follow suspects off of reservation grounds, but could now not even prosecute non-members on reservation grounds. In order to be granted this authority, they legally had to be deputized by a state sheriff, and this was an extremely rare occurrence at the time. This also took away many abilities of tribal police to coordinate with state police, and caused confusion in cases that fell onto or near reservation boundaries. Many criminals would take advantage of this complicated bureaucracy, and would frequently commit their crimes on or near the reservation boundary as it was notoriously difficult for the two police forces to organize and prosecute crime in those areas. [3]
In 2011 on July 28, the governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber, passed a new bill that changed the way in which tribal police forces would be granted authority. Under this new bill, tribal police would no longer need to be deputized in order to have full jurisdiction, but instead would simply need to have passed a certain level of training. The goal of this bill was to help tribal police better enforce the law on their reservations while also increasing their coordination and response times with state police. This bill would help eliminate some of the complicated bureaucracy that allowed criminals to more easily escape in certain reservation areas. Now, tribal police have the authority to arrest non-members on reservation property should they be caught or suspected of criminal activity. It also has increased the efficiency of both tribal police forces and adjacent state police forces. [4]
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located almost entirely within the U.S. state of South Dakota, with a small portion in Nebraska. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was created by the Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888. in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border. Today it consists of 3,468.85 sq mi (8,984 km2) of land area and is one of the largest reservations in the United States.
Public Law 280, of August 15, 1953 is a federal law of the United States that changes the jurisdiction that happens over Tribal Land. The law changes the jurisdiction from the federal government over to the states in both civil and criminal cases. Currently, very few research studies have been conducted to make a conclusion on the impact of the law on tribal land across the nation. There are an array of questions that are being asked about its effectiveness on criminal behavior and socioeconomic impact to the affected tribal nations and this is due to the lack of research on the topic of P.L. 280. From the studies that have been done, research has shown that the law itself has led to an increase in crime and has slowed the economic growth of some reservations. As a result of the disconnect between federal and state law enforcement efforts causing for more distrust from members and their tribes. Native women and children have suffered disproportionately as victims of crime due to the changes that PL 280 has brought forth to indigenous communities.
Whiteclay is a census-designated place in Sheridan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 10 at the 2010 census.
The Yakama Indian Reservation is a Native American reservation in Washington state of the federally recognized tribe known as the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The tribe is made up of Klikitat, Palus, Wallawalla, Wanapam, Wenatchi, Wishram, and Yakama peoples.
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are the federally recognized confederations of three Sahaptin-speaking Native American tribes who traditionally inhabited the Columbia River Plateau region: the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla.
The Bannock War of 1878 was an armed conflict between the U.S. military and Bannock and Paiute warriors in Idaho and northeastern Oregon from June to August 1878. The Bannock totaled about 600 to 800 in 1870 because of other Shoshone peoples being included with Bannock numbers. they were led by Chief Buffalo Horn, who was killed in action on June 8, 1878. After his death, Chief Egan led the Bannocks. He and some of his warriors were killed in July by a Umatilla party that entered his camp in subterfuge.
Native American women encounter a disproportionate level of sexual violence from verbal abuse to physical harm, including but not limited to domestic and sexual assaults. Such violations not only result in lasting detrimental effects on the individuals subjected to them but also reverberate throughout their entire community, exacerbating social challenges.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is a 1988 United States federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act. The stated purposes of the act include providing a legislative basis for the operation/regulation of Indian gaming, protecting gaming as a means of generating revenue for the tribes, encouraging economic development of these tribes, and protecting the enterprises from negative influences. The law established the National Indian Gaming Commission and gave it a regulatory mandate. The law also delegated new authority to the U.S. Department of the Interior and created new federal offenses, giving the U.S. Department of Justice authority to prosecute them.
The United States Indian Police (USIP) was organized in 1880 by John Q. Tufts the Indian Commissioner in Muskogee, Indian Territory, to police the Five Civilized Tribes. Their mission is to "provide justice services and technical assistance to federally recognized Indian tribes." The USIP, after its founding in 1880, recruited many of their police officers from the ranks of the existing Indian Lighthorsemen. Unlike the Lighthorse who were under the direction of the individual tribes, the USIP was under the direction of the Indian agent assigned to the Union Agency. Many of the US Indian police officers were given Deputy U.S. Marshal commissions that allowed them to cross jurisdictional boundaries and also to arrest non-Indians.
The Coquille Indian Tribe is the federally recognized Native American tribe of the Coquille people who have traditionally lived on the southern Oregon Coast.
Duro v. Reina, 495 U.S. 676 (1990), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court concluded that Indian tribes could not prosecute Indians who were members of other tribes for crimes committed by those nonmember Indians on their reservations. The decision was not well received by the tribes, because it defanged their criminal codes by depriving them of the power to enforce them against anyone except their own members. In response, Congress amended a section of the Indian Civil Rights Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1301, to include the power to "exercise criminal jurisdiction over all Indians" as one of the powers of self-government.
The Malheur Indian Reservation was an American Indian reservation established for the Northern Paiute in eastern Oregon and northern Nevada from 1872 to 1879. The federal government discontinued the reservation after the Bannock War of 1878, under pressure from European-American settlers who wanted the land. This negative recommendation against continuing by its agent William V. Rinehart, led to the internment of more than 500 Paiute on the Yakama Indian Reservation, as well as the reluctance of the Bannock and Paiute to return to the lands after the war.
The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, also known as the Harvard Project, was founded in 1987 at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. It administers tribal awards programs as well as provides support for students and conducting research. The Harvard Project aims to understand and foster the conditions under which sustained, self-determined social and economic development is achieved among American Indian nations through applied research and service.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs Police, Office of Justice Services, also known as BIA Police, is the law enforcement arm of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. The BIA's official mission is to "uphold the constitutional sovereignty of the Federally recognized Tribes and preserve peace within Indian country". It provides police, investigative, corrections, technical assistance, and court services across the over 567 registered Indian tribes and reservations, especially those lacking their own police force; additionally, it oversees tribal police organizations. BIA services are provided through the Office of Justice Services Division of Law Enforcement.
The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 is a law, signed into effect by President Obama, that expands the punitive abilities of tribal courts across the nation. The law allows tribal courts operating in Indian country to increase jail sentences handed down in criminal cases. This was a major step toward improving enforcement and justice in Indian country.
The Native American peoples of Oregon are the set of Indigenous peoples who have inhabited or who still inhabit the area delineated in today's state of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. While the state of Oregon currently maintains relations with nine federally recognized tribal groups, the state was previously home to a much larger number of autonomous tribal groups, which today either no longer exist or have been absorbed into these larger confederated entities. Six of the nine tribes gained federal recognition in the late 20th century, after undergoing the termination and restoration of their treaty rights starting in the 1950s.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is an epidemic of violence against Indigenous women in Canada and the United States, notably those in the FNIM and Native American communities, and a grassroots movement to raise awareness of MMIW through organizing marches; building databases of the missing; holding local community, city council, and tribal council meetings; and conducting domestic violence trainings and other informational sessions for police.
The prison–industrial complex is the rapid expansion of US inmates and prisons in favor of private prison companies and businesses that profit from the services needed in the construction and maintaining of prisons. The businesses benefit and profit from cheap prison labor, food services, medical services, surveillance technology, and construction. The financial incentive of building prisons encourages incarceration and affects people of color at disproportionately high rates. Native Americans are the largest group per capita in the US prison system and are more likely to be affected by police violence than any other racial group.