Idaho Tribes Want More Control over Civil, Criminal Matters
Story-Date: 03:33 p.m. PST Sunday   , March 14, 1999

Idaho Tribes Want More Control over Civil, Criminal Matters


By Gene Fadness, Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Mar. 13--BOISE, Idaho--The Shoshone-Bannock tribes, with the help of former
attorney general Larry EchoHawk, are trying to reverse legislation passed
in 1963 that took away reservations' jurisdiction over some criminal and
civil cases.

A bill that would remove state jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters
involving tribal schools, public assistance programs and law enforcement
and give it back to the tribes passed the Senate Thursday.

But on Friday, Sen. Evan Frasure, R-Pocatello, asked for reconsideration of
the bill, citing concerns from the Department of Law Enforcement over motor
vehicle enforcement matters.

Several members of the Sho-Ban tribes were at the Capitol Friday, with
their attorney, Kent Higgins of Idaho Falls, expressing objection over the
Senate's move to reconsider.

Tribal officials say they want the same rights enjoyed by tribes in most
states where state legislatures have loosened their grip on tribal
governance issues.

Idaho was one of the last states to take advantage of a new federal law,
Public Law 280, that allowed states to take over some jurisdiction on
tribal lands.

Over the objections of the Sho-Bans, the 1963 Legislature assumed shared
jurisdiction over tribal matters such as schools, juvenile delinquency,
public assistance programs and highway and traffic issues.

But in the 1970s, states began reversing those actions, largely because
they considered them a violation of treaties between tribes and the U.S.
government that left most jurisdictional matters with the tribes and some
with the U.S. government, but very few with the states.

"Basically what the tribes are saying is let them decide their own future,"
said EchoHawk, himself a Sho-Ban and the 1994 Democratic candidate for
governor.

If the bill passes, these are the areas where the state would no longer
have jurisdiction and the tribe would take over:

-- Compulsory school attendance

-- Juvenile delinquency and youth rehabilitation

-- Dependent, neglected and abused children

-- Insanity and mental illness

-- Public assistance

-- Domestic relations

-- Operation and management of motor vehicles upon highways and roads
maintained by the county or state.

Sho-Bans say they already have the money and resources to take control of
those programs and have already been doing so for most of them.

Vernon Alvarez, chief of police for the Sho-Ban Police Department, said his
department is a 24-hour full service agency with 14 trained law enforcement
officers.

Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielson told the Senate State Affairs
Committee that his department as well as sheriff's departments in Bingham,
Caribou and Power counties support the bill.

EchoHawk said the legislation will not affect non-Indians, nor will it
impact crimes committed by or against tribal members off the reservation.
Also, the state retains jurisdiction over all felony crimes, committed on
or off the reservation.

Efforts to reach Sen. Frasure were not successful. Frasure did tell some
committee members that some, including those in the Department of Law
Enforcement, want more time to study the impact of the bill on law
enforcement carried out by the Idaho State Patrol.

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Ridder/Tribune Business News.


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