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Soboba Tribe Hosts Public Forum on Federal Policing Law
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Scholars, legal experts, and tribal leaders across California met Monday at the Soboba reservation in San Jacinto. They were there to discuss the federal law that gives California criminal jurisdiction over Indian land. It's at the heart of continuing tensions between Riverside County authorities and the Soboba tribe. KPCC's Steven Cuevas has details.
Steven Cuevas: The meeting was intended to spur dialogue about Public Law 280, and explore ways the 55-year-old federal law might be amended, or abolished entirely. Soboba chairmen Robert Salgado.
Robert Salgado: We don't think we're above the law, but we also got rights in Indian Country! And that's what we're standing up for. Seems like every time we stand up for our rights, we get condemned for it. But the outside world doesn't understand the rights we have as Native Americans and here in Soboba.
Cuevas: Public Law 280 gives California and five other states law enforcement jurisdiction on Indian land, but does not alter the tribes' sovereign nation status. It also allows tribes to establish their own police forces with limited authority. Soboba leaders say the law lets them block sheriff's deputies from entering the reservation unless there's an emergency.
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The Riverside County Sheriff interprets the law to mean deputies can go wherever they need to, whenever they have to. The dispute surfaced earlier this year after several deadly standoffs between tribe members and sheriff's deputies. Carole Goldberg says the intent of Public Law 280 is somewhere in between both interpretations.
Carole Goldberg: Law enforcement and criminal justice have to operate within the bounds of their constitutional powers.
Cuevas: Goldberg is an Indian law expert at UCLA. To illustrate, she compares an Indian reservation to a big private ranch.
Goldberg: Police cannot just patrol the roads of a private ranch like that. They must have a warrant to enter private property or be responding to a call that a crime has been committed.
Cuevas: Riverside County deputies say even when they've had warrants, they've been delayed at the entrance of the reservation. Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff declined an invitation to attend Soboba's forum on Public Law 280. Some California tribe leaders are calling for the state to return criminal jurisdiction of tribal land to the federal government. But even as he feuds with local law enforcement, Soboba chairman Robert Salgado isn't ready to kick local cops off Indian land. He says that would mean tribes would have to pay for their own law enforcement, and most just don't have the money to do that.
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