Obama signs Tribal Law and Order Act into law

“When one in three Native American women will be raped in their lifetimes, that is an assault on our national conscience, it is an affront to our shared humanity, and it’s something we can’t allow to continue,” President Obama said yesterday afternoon before signing the Tribal Law and Order Act. The act, passed in the House last week and in the Senate in June, increases coordination between tribal investigators and state and federal law enforcement and authorizes the deputization of tribal police to investigate rapes and other crimes on Indian reservations, among other provisions.

The 15-minute signing ceremony began with an introduction by Lisa Marie Iyotte of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, who through tears said that “had the Tribal Law and Order Act existed 16 years ago, my story would be very different.” In 1994, she was violently beaten and raped in front of her daughters by a local man. While tribal police knew the suspect, federal authorities never investigated, and the man went on to assault another woman. While the man was finally arrested and convicted after raping a teenage girl, Iyotte said, “He was never prosecuted for raping me.”

The Tribal Law and Order Act will improve evidence collection and training for officers dealing with cases like hers, and it will force federal authorities to share with tribes and Congress when it declines prosecution of cases on Native lands. And it gives tribal courts higher sentencing maximums for crimes committed by Indians on tribal lands.

“It is unconscionable that crime rates in Indian Country are more than twice the national average and up to 20 times the national average on some reservations,” Obama said.

The act passed the U.S. House last week after a 326-92 vote. It was supported by every member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation, except Rep. Michele Bachmann.