Court Aquits Man Because He Is Not Indian

LA Times
Feb/10/2009
Court acquits man because he isn’t an Indian
An assault conviction is called erroneous because the defendant wasn’t recognized as a member of a tribe.
By Carol J. Williams
February 11, 2009
A Montana man has been acquitted of assault charges by a federal appeals court because he doesn’t meet the definition of an Indian, never having joined the Blackfeet tribe from which his mother descended or accepted federal benefits to which Native Americans are entitled.

Tuesday’s ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could raise jurisdictional problems for prosecutors across the court’s nine-state Western region, where federal courts are responsible for trying Indians on Indian territory.

Christopher Patrick Cruz, now 21, is the son of a Latino father and a mother with slightly less than half Blackfeet blood. Although he spent a few years as a child on reservation land in Browning, Mont., he never joined the tribe or enrolled in tribal or federal benefit programs.

“This has application for all of what we call in jurisdictional parlance ‘Indian territory,’ ” said R. Henry Branom Jr., the assistant federal defender who represented Cruz before the appeals court and will do so again if the government requests a rehearing.

Bill Mercer, assistant U.S. attorney in Montana, said he would be reviewing the ruling with colleagues in Washington but that he was “disappointed with the 9th Circuit’s decision.”

Cruz, whose federal district court conviction has been deemed erroneous by the appeals court, will remain imprisoned until the government exhausts or forgoes appeals options.

He cannot be retried in another venue because of Montana’s strict protections against double jeopardy, Branom said.

The charges of assault resulting in serious bodily injury arose from a December 2006 night of drinking and brawling at the Town Motel in Browning, where Cruz, then 19, had recently relocated.

The appeals court panel noted its 2005 ruling that established a test of an individual’s Indian status, defining it as requiring a “sufficient degree of Indian blood” as well as “tribal or federal government recognition as an Indian.”

Cruz conceded he qualified as an Indian under the blood test. He also had attended a tribal school and worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a firefighter.

But because he never enrolled in the tribe or applied for federally funded benefits to which Indians are entitled, he failed the latter test, Branom had argued to the appeals court.

Two of the three judges — both appointed by Democratic presidents — agreed, while Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, named to the federal bench by President Reagan, dissented.

Kozinski pointed out that Cruz had previously been prosecuted by tribal authorities, establishing that they considered him an Indian. The libertarian chief judge also argued that the appropriate test should be “whether the tribal authorities recognize [someone] as an Indian, not whether he considers himself one.”

carol.williams@latimes.com

Joe Biden and Violence Against Women Act

Because Knowledge is Power

If you need information on domestic violence, step by step procedures on filing restraining orders or injunctions or need forms to print out for your State just click on WomensLaw.org. under the blogroll.

Violence Against Native Women Is Not Traditional

Violence Against Women is not a Native tradition. It was not tolerated and in the rare event that it occurred, it was taken seriously. Abuse wasn’t considered a “private family matter.”

Within the natural system of life, tribal people lived together peacefully and violence within the family was rare. Though cultures and customs vary from Tribe to Tribe, the core belief systems of tribes are extremely similar because they are based on the natural and true understanding of reality. People received many teachings from the family and community that helped us to learn how to be good relatives to each other. Another method of teaching that was customary was story telling. For instance, a story of a certain mountain where incest occurred, the offender may have been banished from the band or even put to death. This mountain would represent a crime that would be told to the young and reminded to the membership of the Tribe continuously during the Tribes story telling time. This was called the law of land.

In many Tribes, the abuser could be banished, ostracized or retaliation was left to the male relatives of the victim. A man who was seen as violent within the family was not seen as capable of any leadership responsibilities. He had demonstrated that he did not possess the self-discipline, respect, caring or spiritual understanding to effectively lead the People.

The abuse of Native women and children can be traced to the colonization, introduction of alcohol into our culture and Christianity. (Paula Gunn Allen: “Violence and the American Indian Woman”). Many of our people learned about violence in boarding schools. Boarding school distorted our ability to act as parents, sons, daughters and as relatives. Our traditional parenting was nonviolent and nurtured the spirit of the child. This knowledge was replaced with experiences of corporal punishment that reflected the teachings of the church.

Denied our families our culture in boarding schools, we experienced and passed on to our children and grandchildren verbal, emotional, sexual and physical violence as acceptable means to control others when we didn’t get our way. Alcohol contributes to the violence, making it more unpredictable and severe.

The reservation era diminished the traditional male role of the protector and provider and the role value of women, the government assumed the role and consequently some Native men have experienced a loss of identity and women therefore lost their roles as partners in providing for the physical, mental and spiritual health of their families and relatives. Men and women had partnership and a balance in everything they did in the everyday role modeling for their children. This loss was replaced by the dominant society’s negative attitudes, beliefs and behaviors towards women. Granted, this is no fault of our own ; however, the reality is that contemporary Native male attitude about women and relationships have been distorted and the violent behavior of Native men towards Native women is tearing apart Native families.

The colonization of Native families made women and children the property of the Native men. Similar to concept of slavery. Thus ownership of another human being is genuinely an Anglo concept. Wedding rings became symbols of ownership. With the privilege of ownership property can be treated however the owner chooses.

When the female Eagle chooses her mate she flies up high and invites the male Eagle to catch the stick she has dropped . If the male Eagle catches the stick she flies even higher the next time she courts her mate. She will choose the male Eagle that can continuously and at the greatest height always catch the stick this will be her mate for life. She does this to test her mate because they must work together to provide for their eaglets both he and she will responsible for their survival while one or the other is away gathering.

This is the natural law of the land and one prevalent in the Traditional way of life.

Written by Karen Artichoker, Marlin Mousseau, Julienne Cross.

Federal Crimes and Penalties

• All the federal domestic violence crimes are felonies.

• It is a federal crime under VAWA:

1. To cross state lines or enter or leave Indian Country and physically injure an “intimate partner.” 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2261
2. To cross state lines to stalk or harass or to stalk or harass within the maritime or territorial lands of the United States (this includes military bases and Indian Country). 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2261A
3. To cross state lines or enter or leave Indian Country and violate a qualifying protection Order. 18 U.S.C. 2262
4. It is a federal crime under the Gun Control Act:

• To possess a firearm and/ or ammunition while subject to a qualifying Protection Order. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 922(g)(8)
• To possess a firearm and/or ammunition after conviction of a qualifying misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 922(g)(9)
• A violation under VAWA, Sec. 2261, 2261 A, 2262,  a maximum prison term of five years to life, depending on the seriousness of the bodily injury caused by the defendant.

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

• Provides for the recognition and enforcement of tribal court protection orders across jurisdictions.
• Explicitly provides tribal courts with civil jurisdiction over non-Indians in protection order hearings where tribal courts otherwise maintain subject matter and personal jurisdiction.
• Has been an important source of funding for victim programs and training for law enforcement, courts, prosecution, social services, and community organizations in Indian Country.
• Has helped efforts to build regional coalitions promoting safety for Indian Women and accountability for abusers.