Resolution would end tribal sovereignty
If Indians don't like it, send in troops, GOP
delegate says
Julie Titone - Staff writer
The Washington state Republican Party has passed a resolution calling
for the abolition of tribal governments. "We do not recognize them
as sovereign nations, as governments," said John Fleming, the Skagit
County delegate who was a main author of the resolution. It calls on the
federal government to "immediately take whatever steps necessary to
terminate all such non-republican forms of government on Indian reservations."
"We think it can be done peacefully," Fleming said. But if
tribes were to fight the effort, "then the U.S. Army and the Air Force
and the Marines and the National Guard are going to have to battle back."
The action comes at a time of growing discontent over reservation rules
that affect non-Indians, ranging from hunting privileges to liquor sales.
The backlash against tribal governments has become so strong that human-rights
activists have labeled it "racist."
Tribal leaders call the GOP resolution outrageous and an affront to
their rights under treaties signed by Congress.
"It's absolutely the reverse of what Republican principles stand
for_ to protect all rights and to uphold the integrity and honor of this
nation and all of the commitments it makes," said Ron Allen, chairman
of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe.
Allen is vice president of the National Congress of American Indians.
A Republican, he was surprised to hear about the resolution approved June
17 during the Republican state convention in Spokane.
"The Republican Party nationally has been making some effort to
improve its image with regards to its relationship with the Indian nations,"
Allen said. "This is polarizing. It's the opposite of what they should
be doing."
Beth Jensen, chairwoman of the GOP platform committee, said she had
no idea how the writers of the resolution intend for termination to be
carried out.
Her committee sent seven resolutions to the 1,300 delegates with a "do
pass" recommendation. Among other resolutions were ones calling on
the federal government to preserve hydropower dams and to drop its lawsuit
against Microsoft Corp.
Although some resolutions were heavily debated, the one dealing with
tribal governments was barely discussed, Jensen said.
"I was so unfamiliar with the issue that I wasn't totally focused
on what the debate was. It seems like what was being said was, there were
acts by the tribal governments that weren't the way we do government in
America," she said. "A couple of people gave examples to people
who didn't have a clue, and it passed."
The committee considered 29 resolutions in two hours' time, she said.
"I wish we had the luxury, the time to discuss them."
Fleming lives within the Swinomish Reservation. He refers to tribal
governments as "non-republican" because non-Indian reservation
residents can't vote in tribal elections. That makes them illegal under
the U.S. and state constitutions, he contends.
In 1994, Fleming began trying to persuade the Republican Party in Skagit
County to pass a resolution. This year he succeeded. "Out of 250 delegates,
only two people said no. They were tribal members or the mother of tribal
members," he said.
The Skagit delegates to the state convention championed the cause in
Spokane. Now, Fleming wants Washington's delegates to work the idea into
the national GOP platform.
Supporters of the cause hope that a class action eventually will find
its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and that the court then would rule tribal
governments illegal.
"The key to this is making people aware," Fleming said.
Fleming has written many essays attacking tribal sovereignty. He is
active in regional and national organizations that oppose treaty rights.
Asked if he is anti-Indian, he replied: "Oh my God, no."
The Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity has concluded that efforts
to abolish tribal government are racist. Coalition researcher Robert Crawford
called the GOP resolution "disturbing." "I wouldn't say
it's a majority view. It's in line with the hard core of anti-Indian folks
within the party such as (Sen.) Slade Gorton and (Rep.) Jack Metcalf,"
he said.
Termination was the focus of the government's Indian policy in the mid-20th
century, he noted.
"In the 1950s and '60s we rampantly violated the rights of tribes,"
Crawford said. "We can do better than this."
The resolution
Terminate tribal councils
Here is the resolution passed at the Washington state Republican Party
convention June 17:
Whereas Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution guarantees every
state a republican form of government, and this guarantee to each state
is a warrantee to protect the citizens of that state; and
Whereas the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is currently aiding and
abetting Indian tribes to regulate and collect taxes, injure property rights,
withhold due process and grant unequal protection under the laws to some
citizens, for the benefit and advantage of other citizens; and
Whereas these same Indian tribes, with the support and advice of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, organize and operate tribal governments that
are not republican in form, and in fact prohibit certain citizens from
voting for the representatives who enact such measures and laws and injure
the citizens being denied representation;
Therefore be it resolved that the executive and legislative branches
of the federal government immediately take whatever steps necessary to
terminate all such non-republican forms of government on Indian reservations,
and compensate those citizens who have wrongly suffered loss due to denial
of their constitutionally guaranteed rights to be governed by a republican
form of government.
