Research Reports
Reflections on Traditional American Indian Ways, 1998
Threats to Tribal Sovereignty, 1998
Traditional American Indian Leadership: A Comparison with U.S. Governance, 1997
Law Enforcement
Law enforcement relations with communities of color have been notoriously strained. In particular, relations between American Indian communities and the police have always been difficult. Even when law enforcement officers were of Indian descent (as in the Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement on Indian reservations) relations are often tense. Many common reasons for racial disparities in the law enforcement sector derive from “selective enforcement” of laws, racial discrimination, and racial profiling.
What do you think drives some of high crime rates? “It can be a lot of things. A lot of our cases come out of Little Earth and I’ve seen with the non-Native community there, they have a reputation and it’s patrolled a lot more. I think a lot of cases come out of that because there’s a large police presence. Also, a lot of the Native community isn’t educated about their legal rights. The police are able to intimidate them saying that if they don’t answer their questions then this is going to happen, you know they’ll lie to them.”
Response to high police presence and people not knowing their rights? “It would be education, tends to do a lot of it, but it needs to go further than that. More agencies need to become involved.”
“A lot of our cases are juvenile, that’s another major problem. The police will go into schools when juveniles aren’t around their parents and they use their authority to intimidate them and get them into to talking about certain things.”
“I mean if you go to a school and they talk to the principle and the principle pulls the kid into the office and you have the cops there and the principle, you have a lot of authority and the kids are by themselves and are pretty scared.”
“I think another problem with the law is that there shouldn’t be anything [hanging from] the rear view mirror. I think that affects the Native community especially because a lot of people have eagle feathers or the Hispanic community usually has a lot of religious things hanging from their rear view mirror. That causes a lot of stops and that can be their probable cause, but then it leads to arrests for something else. I’ve been stopped several times for eagle feathers or stickers on the back [bumper].
Excessive police presence, racial profiling, and intimidation are bolstered by additional factors that contribute to racial/ethnic disparities for American Indians in the criminal justice system. Poverty, joblessness, and housing patterns find offenders living in the most blighted parts of town; hence, social factors such as low academic achievement and dysfunctional families can contribute to these disparities.
The
Well-Being of American Indian Children in Minnesota: Economic Conditions,
1994
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Last updated:
Tuesday November 1, 2005