"Congress soon could pass a law that allows Native American tribes to start arresting and prosecuting non-Indians accused of domestic violence on tribal lands, but proposed language would confirm that the changes won’t affect Alaska — for the moment. That’s appropriate in Alaska but not entirely comforting in the long view.

While domestic violence is a huge problem, giving tribal governments power over people who have no voice in those governments would be a sadly divisive step in Alaska, where Native and non-Native people are becoming ever more integrated. We should deal with the problem of domestic violence united as Alaskans, not as artificially separated nations.

The federal law on today’s stage is the Violence Against Women Act, which is up for reauthorization. Both houses of Congress have approved new versions, but they took much different approaches to the question of whether tribes should have power to prosecute non-Indians on tribal lands."

Get the Story:
Editorial: All together: Alaska exempted from proposed tribal powers (The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 5/27)

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