Indigenous leaders called on Congress to reverse a Supreme Court ruling that expands the state’s ability to prosecute crimes on tribal lands.
Cronkite News reported that witnesses told the House Natural Resources subcommittee Tuesday that the Castro-Huerta ruling “trampled” on 200 years of legal precedent and tribal jurisdiction in addition to making it harder for them to pursue cases of domestic violence or missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Mary Kathryn Nagle, counsel for the National Women’s Indigenous Resource Center, said that Native women and children will now have to rely on their state and local governments to protect them – but those governments have not lived up to their obligations.
Advocates of the ruling said it lets states take over criminal cases when tribal courts don’t have the resources and federal courts aren’t interested.