Oregon Quietly Passed One of the Biggest Tribal Rights Laws in Decades

New Law Reverses 1953 Federal Mandate

When a crime happens on tribal land in Oregon, figuring out who responds is complicated. State police, tribal police, or the FBI might show up depending on who committed the crime and who the victim is.

For over 70 years, a federal law forced this confusion onto Oregon tribes without ever asking them.

Now, Governor Tina Kotek has signed a bill that lets tribes formally petition to get the state out of their business, and the tribe that pushed hardest for it is already preparing to be first in line.

Congress Forced States Onto Tribal Land

In 1953, Congress passed Public Law 280, which gave six states including Oregon criminal and civil jurisdiction over tribal lands. Tribes were not given an opportunity to consent to it or request it.

The law was simply imposed on them. The law came at the height of the Termination Era, when federal policy aimed to weaken tribal sovereignty and push Native Americans toward assimilation.

No funding came with the mandate, so states suddenly had to police reservations with no extra money and no ties to the communities they were supposed to protect.

Western Oregon Lost 60 Tribes

The Western Oregon Indian Termination Act followed in 1954, and it was unique because of the sheer number of tribes it affected.

In all, 61 tribes in Western Oregon were terminated, more than the total tribes terminated under all other individual acts combined.

The Siletz, Grand Ronde, Coquille, Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw, and other Oregon tribes lost federal recognition when President Eisenhower signed the bill into law.

Trust protection and services provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs ended overnight. Some tribes would not regain federal recognition until the 1980s.

State Police Created More Problems

Under state jurisdiction, tribal citizens sometimes felt harassed.

Tribal members said state officers would come onto reservations to bother them while doing nothing about non-Indians who were committing crimes.

State police overwhelmingly had no ties to the tribal communities they were tasked with policing, response times were slow, and tribal citizens felt they were often treated unfairly.

The overlapping jurisdictions of state, tribal, and federal agencies led to delayed investigations and fewer prosecutions.

Violence Against Native Women Reached Crisis Levels

A 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice found that more than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, including 56 percent who have experienced sexual violence.

On some reservations, indigenous women are murdered at more than ten times the national average. The vast majority of perpetrators, 96 percent, are non-Native.

Jurisdictional confusion meant many cases went unprosecuted entirely.

The Supreme Court Made It Worse

In 1978, the Supreme Court decided Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, ruling that tribal courts have no criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians.

As a result, Indian nations were unable to prosecute non-Indians, who reportedly commit the vast majority of sexual violence against Native women.

The decision meant that a non-Indian who committed domestic violence against a Native woman on her own reservation often faced no consequences from anyone.

Federal prosecutors declined most cases due to distance and limited resources.

Umatilla Got Out in 1980

In the mid-1970s, William Johnson was the Umatilla representative for the Oregon Commission of Indian Services. State Senator Victor Atiyeh asked him what the tribe wanted.

Johnson told him they wanted the state out of their business.

Atiyeh was elected governor in 1978 and signed an executive order relinquishing state jurisdiction over the Umatilla Indian Reservation the following year.

After retrocession, the tribe accessed federal funding and built a robust criminal justice system that is now one of the best in the nation.

Senator Broadman Wrote the New Law

State Senator Anthony Broadman of Bend, a lawyer who represented tribal governments and Indigenous rights throughout his career, sponsored Senate Bill 1011.

He called PL-280 a stain on the country’s history and on Oregon’s history.

The bill passed unanimously through both legislative chambers, showing bipartisan commitment to tribal sovereignty. Broadman said formalizing the process builds a more equitable system and shows respect to tribes.

Clear Rules Replace Political Goodwill

Before SB 1011, a tribe that wished to begin the retrocession process had to rely on the governor’s discretion and political goodwill, which created uncertainty.

The new law creates a formal process for tribes to petition the state for the reversal of PL-280 as it applies on their lands.

If the tribe and state agree, they jointly petition the federal government, which would return criminal jurisdiction to federal authorities and empower tribal courts over civil disputes between tribal citizens.

Umatilla Will Seek Civil Retrocession

The Umatilla Tribe already achieved criminal retrocession in 1980, but it remains under state civil jurisdiction.

With passage of SB 1011, the tribe plans to request civil retrocession within a year so it can fully establish and strengthen its civil justice system.

Civil retrocession would effectively close state courts to suits against Indians for affairs on tribal lands, like in the majority of states where PL-280 does not apply.

Five other tribes still operate under PL-280 criminal jurisdiction and may follow.

Full Sovereignty Remains the Goal

Brent Leonhard, an attorney for the Umatilla Tribe, says the ultimate goal is broader. The tribe should have jurisdiction over all crime on the reservation, period.

Even with the new law and recent expansions under the Violence Against Women Act, tribes still cannot prosecute non-Indians for most offenses.

Tribal officials see removing state jurisdiction as an important step toward respecting Native American nations as self-governing sovereign states.

Oregon’s new law does not end the fight, but it gives tribes a clearer path forward than they have ever had before.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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