NCJ Number
162815
Journal
Judicature Volume: 79 Issue: 3 Dated: (November-December 1995) Pages: 142- 146
Date Published
1995
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Tribal courts have a central role in helping American Indian tribes create and maintain the social, political, economic, and legal environment necessary to a sovereign entity.
Abstract
The success of tribes' efforts will depend largely on how well tribal courts meet three basic demands imposed on the judiciary: (1) the need to decide questions concerning the scope and existence of tribal power, (2) the responsibility to protect the procedural and individual rights of people and entities under tribal jurisdiction, and (3) the duty to define the substantive law governing the reservation. As a result of the self-determination era initiated by the President in 1970, Federal law recognizes American Indian tribes as sovereign entities with the power to tax and regulate people and activities within tribal territory, to adjudicate disputes that arise on the reservation, and to punish Indian violators of tribal law. Tribal courts must meet the demand for judicial decisionmaking that arises from the activities of tribes in exercising their powers in this era. Indian tribes are now taking part in the making of Federal law on the scope of tribal powers, and tribal courts are committed to the protection of individual rights. Recent tribal court decisions have covered a broad range that includes employment matters, election disputes, contract and tort actions, real estate transactions, domestic relations, child custody, criminal cases, conservation violations, civil procedure, and challenges to tribal tax laws. This broad spectrum indicates an increasing confidence in the tribal judiciary and confirms the Supreme Court's longstanding rulings that the jurisdiction of the tribal courts in these matters is exclusive. Photograph and footnotes