TY - JOUR
T1 - Retribution for tribal sovereignty
T2 - Settler colonial policing and civil justice impacts
AU - Watters, Brieanna Marie
AU - Stewart, Robert
AU - Statz, Michele
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/10
Y1 - 2024/10
N2 - Unique among marginalized groups, American Indians are both citizens of the United States and citizens of sovereign tribal nations, as recognized (but not granted) by federal Indian law. However, even as tribal nations exert increasing economic and political power, criminal legal outcomes for tribal members—who interface with an array of tribal, local, state, and federal law enforcement and justice systems—remain detrimental or are worsened. These outcomes also include increased contact with state courts and the delegitimization of tribal courts, which uniquely implicate the civil justice context. We use the settler colonial framework to investigate how tools of state criminal law, such as heavy policing and disparate punishment, may impact the civil justice needs of Indigenous people, and more broadly, the very sovereignty these policies aim to protect. Drawing on interviews and observations in tribal and county-level courts, we examine the experiences of American Indians and other stakeholders in Indian country. We identify how enforcement practices, surveillance of space, and the complexities of layered policing within a “jurisdictional maze” contribute to the deterioration of tribal sovereignty. We contextualize our findings by considering the historical, cultural, and socio-economic factors that influence the experiences of American Indians in the criminal justice system, and by examining the civil justice implications.
AB - Unique among marginalized groups, American Indians are both citizens of the United States and citizens of sovereign tribal nations, as recognized (but not granted) by federal Indian law. However, even as tribal nations exert increasing economic and political power, criminal legal outcomes for tribal members—who interface with an array of tribal, local, state, and federal law enforcement and justice systems—remain detrimental or are worsened. These outcomes also include increased contact with state courts and the delegitimization of tribal courts, which uniquely implicate the civil justice context. We use the settler colonial framework to investigate how tools of state criminal law, such as heavy policing and disparate punishment, may impact the civil justice needs of Indigenous people, and more broadly, the very sovereignty these policies aim to protect. Drawing on interviews and observations in tribal and county-level courts, we examine the experiences of American Indians and other stakeholders in Indian country. We identify how enforcement practices, surveillance of space, and the complexities of layered policing within a “jurisdictional maze” contribute to the deterioration of tribal sovereignty. We contextualize our findings by considering the historical, cultural, and socio-economic factors that influence the experiences of American Indians in the criminal justice system, and by examining the civil justice implications.
KW - access to justice
KW - American Indians
KW - civil-criminal nexus
KW - criminal legal disparities
KW - Indian law
KW - Policing
KW - rurality
KW - settler colonialism
KW - tribal sovereignty
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85203015926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85203015926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/14624745241232242
DO - 10.1177/14624745241232242
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85203015926
SN - 1462-4745
VL - 26
SP - 693
EP - 710
JO - Punishment and Society
JF - Punishment and Society
IS - 4
ER -