Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli urged the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Thursday to pass legislation granting American Indian tribal courts the authority to prosecute non-tribal offenders in domestic violence cases.
Perrelli said that although legislation designed to protect American Indian victims of domestic violence was passed last year, new laws are needed to help protect tribal women who, he said, are far more likely to be victimized than other women in the United States.
“Under the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010…tribal courts can now sentence Indian offenders for up to three years per offense,” Perrelli said. “But tribal courts have no authority at all to prosecute a non-Indian, even if he lives on the reservation and is married to a tribal member.”
“Not surprisingly, abusers who are not arrested are more likely to repeat, and escalate, their attacks,” he added.
The committee is considering legislation, sponsored by the committee chairman, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), that is designed to grant tribal courts the authority to prosecute non-tribal members for domestic violence incidents.
Perrelli told the committee that the legislation is sorely needed, citing a number of studies that show a high incidence of domestic violence on American Indian reservations. A regional study by the University of Oklahoma, he said, concluded that 60% of Indian American women are assaulted by their spouses or partners. Perelli also referred to National Institute of Justice statistics, which show that a third of all American Indian women are victims at rape in their lifetimes, and that the murder rate of tribal women, on some reservations, is ten times the national average.
“For a host of reasons, the current legal structure for prosecuting domestic violence in Indian country is inadequate to prevent or stop this pattern of escalating violence,” he said. “Federal law-enforcement resources are often far away and stretched thin. And Federal law does not provide the tools needed to address the types of domestic or dating violence that elsewhere in the United States might lead to convictions and sentences ranging from approximately six months to five years.”
A 1978 Supreme Court ruling barred tribal courts from wielding authority over non-tribal members.
