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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1989)
Smoke Signab November 1989 Page 10 A DEATH PENALTY THAT SINGLES OUT INDIANS The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1989, currently pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee, would resurrect a death penalty for first-degree murder committed within federal jurisdictions. More than 50 percent of all murders prosecuted within federal jurisdiction are committed by Indians on reservations. As a result, that act would single out Indian murder defendants for the special sentence of death. While a federal death penalty would have a dispropor tionate impact on Indians, it would have no deterrent effect on murders committed on Indian reservations, where alcohol abuse is the overwhelming factor in nearly every case. Tragically, for many Indians alcohol is an escape. nr, Drinking is done in groups and drinking is done in excess. The amounts that individual Indians drink are staggering. Blood alcohol levels of .2 and .3 are not uncommon. Such drinking results in irrational acts of violence committed in the heat of passion; senseless shooting, vicious stabbings and rapes. The toll alcohol takes is devastating. The problem faced by lawyers in ensuring that Indian defendants are afforded a fair trial would be magnified by the proposed federal death penalty. With the stakes so high, public defendants would have little choice but to plea bargain cases they otherwise would have taken to trial. Such a result is especially likely where the jurors are drawn from rural areas, where the slur of "drunken Indian" is common and the racism prevalent among Anglo Americans living near reservations must be taken into consideration. The discriminatory impact of the death penalty bill cannot be denied. In order to obtain federal jurisdiction over first-degree murder cases, the governments must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an Indian was involved in the crime and that it occurred on Indian land. In many cases, juries would therefore be required to make an explicit finding that the defendant was an Indian before they sentence him to death. In addition, in some states that have a less stringent death penalty or no death penalty, the imposition of a federal death penalty for first-degree murder would result in Indians being subjected to the possibility of a death sentence in cases where a non-Indian prosecuted in state court for the same crime would not be facing the death penalty. The imposition of a death penalty as a means of punishment or deterrence for the commission of murder is alien to the cultural and religious beliefs of most Indian tribes. Tom Tso, chief justice of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, observes that the traditional Navajos were held together by a system of values and a sense of community, so strong that, before the federal government imposed its system on the tribe, there was little violent crime and no need to lock up wrongdoers. Somehow it is not surprising that alcohol, introduced to the Indians by Anglo society, is the single motivating factor in nearly every first-degree murder involving Indian defendants. Much has been written over the past few months of the devastating impact of drugs on violent crime. Yet as the Bush administration gears up to fight its war on drugs, it is important not to lose sight of the devastating impact that excessive use of alcohol has on our criminal justice system. Nowhere is this impact more keenly felt than on our nation's Indian reservations, and nowhere within reservation society is the effect of alcohol abuse cruder than in its impact on violent crime. The answer to this problem begins with the develop ment and funding of alcohol treatment programs and adequate law enforcement on Indian reservations. The answer is not a death penalty that singles out Indians for the most severe form of punishment available to the criminal justice system. Without increased funding for alcohol treatment programs on our nation's Indian reservations, the drinking will continue, and the sense less murders will follow just as surely as night follows day. As the Senate Judiciary Committee deliberates the merits of the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1989, the committee's members should consider the warning offered to an indifferent America by the noted Indian scholar Felix Cohen: "Like the miner's canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh air to poison air in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the rise and fall of our political faith." NORTHWEST INTER TRIBAL VETERAN NEWS The Northwest Inter-Tribal Veteran's Association (NIVA) is a warrior society open to all American Indian verterans who have served, or are currently serving with the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Associate membership will be made up of other veter ans, their dependents and survivors, relatives and friends of the NIVA. The support for the organization will be provided by the Indian people, who acknowledge their veterans as warriors. The Northwest Region currently consists of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The NIVA will also acknowl edge the intertribal veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces. The purpose of the organization is to: 1. Promote the Indian veteran in a positive image. 2. To honor and remember those brothers and sisters who have paid the supreme sacrifice during the past wars of our nation's history. 3. To promote traditional methods for Indian veterans to heal from the trauma of war. 4. To provide awareness of veteran benefits to veterans and their families. 5. To promote awareness of our unique culture and traditions to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Armed Forces of the U.SA, and 6. To promote outreach and job opportunities from within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. NIVA activities include annual regional veteran gatherings, healing ceremonies, pow-wows, membership drives, quarterly newsletters, and color guard. Each clanband or tribe will host a quarterly visit of a veter ans service officer. For Northwest Inter-Tribal Veteran's Association membership applications or additional information, please contact Char Herkshan, PO Box 294, Warm Springs, Oregon 97761, telephone (503) 553-1454; or Jim Smith, PO Box 127, Nespelem, Washington 99155. BROWN NAMES MILLS PRINCIPAL DEPUTY IN INDIAN AFFAIRS The Department of Interior's Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Eddie F. Brown, today announced the appointment of Walter R. Mills as Deputy to the Assistant Secretary for Operations. Mills, a 17-year employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, S.D., has been acting in the position since last month. His new appointment is effective September 24. "Walt Mills brings a wealth of experience organization in Indian Affairs to his new position and possesses exceptional organization and management capabilities. He has worked in the field at various managerial levels and in all the program areas he will be involved in as my principal deputy," Brown said. "I will look to Walt to run the day-to-day operations of the BIA and be my close advisor on all Bureau programs." Mills, 54, joined the BIA in 1971 as a training instruc tor at the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque. He later served in administrative positions at SIPI, BIA's Hopi Agency in Reams Canyon, Ariz, and the Phoenix area office before being named agency superintendent at the Colorado River Agency in Parker, Ariz, in 1979. He served in that position until 1983 when he was named assistant area director of Indian Services in the Phoenix area office. From 1985 to 1988 Mills served as assistant area director for Indian programs which combined the Indian services and trust programs for the Phoenix area. He was named area director of the Anadarko, Okla. office in February, 1988. He was serving in that position when he was named acting deputy to the assistant secretary last month. Prior to joining the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Mills attended Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kans. and worked as a pressman, cameraman and stripper and in supervisor positions with Southwestern Bank and Supply and Bank Note Printing and Litho Company. From 1968 to 1970, he was a salesman for Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S.. He was serving as head cameraman and stripper with the Allied Printing and Publishing Co. when he joined the BIA in 1971. Nov. 17-18-19 Currigan Hall - Denver Fascinating and Fun Holiday Shopping Mm P0 f arwtij Indian Arfi-.'s shows m-4 rfll$ ?f-if vtf& MyfliiAAAAA A, AAiiyllA
