Ways federal laws affect Indians discussed
RWeaver
By STEPHANIE ZEILSTRA steph...@npgco.com
http://www.stjoenews-press.com/Main.asp?SectionID=81&SubSectionID=272&Articl
eID=31596
FAIRVIEW, Kan. - Tribal, county and state officials, law-enforcement
officers, attorneys and others took part in the third-annual Native Nations
Law Symposium Thursday.
The symposium was held at the Sac and Fox Casino Entertainment Center and
was sponsored by the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska.
Co-sponsors included the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation and the Kickapoo
Tribe in Kansas.
Speakers addressing a variety of issues, including how federal laws affected
American Indians, economic development and law enforcement in American
Indian country.
Sandra Keo, Tribal Council chairwoman of Sac and Fox, said the goal of the
symposium is to address important issues the tribes face every day.
"We want to provide educational materials and a forum to discuss the issues
with tribal and non-tribal officials," Mrs. Keo said. "We've had good
participation this year and interesting topics. There were about 85 people
who attended."
The three tribes each have a law- enforcement department. The law-
enforcement departments' jurisdiction in relation to county and state
law-enforcement departments was the topic of the last session.
Potawatomi Police Chief James Battese said jurisdiction is a difficult issue
because there are cultural differences. He also said there problems with
establishing authority because of an inherent distrust of law enforcement
within the community.
Kansas doesn't recognize tribal officers as having authority over state
crimes. However, the tribes are recognized as sovereign nations able to
enforce tribal laws on the reservations.
Brown County Sheriff Lamar Shoemaker said the relationship has improved. He
said he looks at both tribal and non-tribal interests to solve issues that
arise when both agencies are involved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Revenue brings legal challenges to tribes
Last Modified:
1:47 a.m. 8/29/2002
By Matt Moline
Special to the Capital-Journal
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/083002/kan_tribes.shtml
POWHATTAN -- The explosive growth in Indian gambling casino revenues could
pose new legal challenges for tribal governments, Oklahoma Kickapoo Judge
Gregory H. Bigler said Thursday.
In a speech at the third annual Native American Law Symposium, Bigler
predicted that the new wave of litigation would come from the thousands of
non-Indian workers and visitors who are drawn to reservations that operate
gambling complexes and other economic development enterprises.
"We see many tribes making anywhere from $100,000 a month in profit to one
or two tribes making a million dollars a day," Bigler said. "That means
there's suddenly money to fight about, to litigate over, whether it's job
discrimination, personal injury claims or employment discrimination."
Bigler addressed a gathering of about 75 conference participants, including
state and federal government officials, tribal attorneys and reservation
business leaders at the Sac and Fox Casino Entertainment Center.
Traditionally, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the principle that tribal
governments are immune from lawsuits that challenge the sovereignty issue,
including legal actions filed by state governments to collect taxes on
reservation property, Bigler said.
"The tribes have this right to be immune from suits," he said. "But as we
become more sophisticated, it's hard to make the argument that we're just
'poor, pitiful Indians,' when you've got a million dollars a day rolling in
from gambling and you're busing in 40,000 visitors a day to the casino,
although nothing like that is happening at the casinos in Kansas or
Oklahoma."
Bigler said Indian leaders' success at negotiating new legal realities will
be decided on the basis of tribal willingness to selectively waive immunity
from federal or state court litigation.
Bigler used the example of a casino visitor who might file a lawsuit after
falling on a wet floor, or a fired white casino worker who hires an attorney
for a job-discrimination action.
"I think the federal courts are going to look at those cases much more
closely in the future," Bigler said. "Recent Supreme Court cases on
sovereign immunity have given a clear warning to tribes that sovereignty may
be the law, but the justices don't like seeing a tribe saying, 'Well, we had
somebody get hurt at our casino and it was purely the tribe's fault, but
there's nothing we can do about it.'"
A tribal supreme court justice at the Kickapoo Nation headquarters in
Sapulpa, Okla., Bigler also serves as an administrative judge at Kansas'
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation, Mayetta.
"So the tribes have the responsibility to take the right action about how
they're going to waive their immunity," Bigler said. "And tribes will also
have to decide how they're going to protect themselves from bankruptcy at
the hands of 'evil trial lawyers,' as the press calls them, while protecting
those people who they want to get into their communities to spend money."
Thursday's event was hosted by three Kansas tribal entities: the Sac and Fox
Nation of Missouri, the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas and the Prairie Band of
Potawatomi Nation.
Matt Moline is a freelance writer living in Manhattan. He can be reached at
mol...@networksplus.net.
============================================================
Subscribe to SSVOP: Send a blank email to: SSVOP-s...@topica.com
============================================================
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
Other Disclaimers:
http://www.topica.com/lists/SSVOP
© 1999-2003 SSVOP - All Rights Reserved.