November 12, 2002
Indians urged to join forces 
NCAI CONFERENCE: The San Manuels' leader tells the nation's tribes that unity can end court defeats. 
by MICHELLE DeARMOND
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE 


SAN DIEGO - American Indians need to band together and fight a U.S. Supreme Court that many tribal leaders believe has been chipping away at Indian rights, Indian officials said Monday. 

Tribes have the resources -- casino cash and newfound political power -- to effect the necessary change now more so than before, officials said at the National Congress of American Indians annual conference in San Diego. 

Many of the increasingly prominent tribes are in Inland Southern California and already have waged state level battles over issues such as sacred sites and tribes' abilities to manage their own law enforcement. 

"We have the resources now to tell our story," said Deron Marquez, chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. "We must invest and commit ourselves to each other if we're going to save ourselves, be part of one team." 

The San Manuel Band, whose reservation is near Highland, is one of the Inland area's more successful gaming tribes and has been active in politics. Marquez gave the keynote address at the conference, titled "United for Sovereignty: Our Right -- Our Destiny." He urged tribal members, who had come from as far away as Alaska and the Northeast, to work together despite their differences. 

"We are our own separate nations, yet we are all still connected by that notion of sovereignty," Marquez said. 

The unprecedented coordinated effort comes at a time when many tribes across the country are creating new businesses, not all of them casinos, and increasing their political involvement. Two U.S. Supreme Court cases in 2001 fueled opinion that something needs to be done to protect tribes from additional rulings that might be detrimental to Indians' ability to govern themselves. 

The court struck down a hotel tax that the Navajo Nation had placed on a non-Indian establishment was within the reservation's boundaries in the case Atkinson Trading Company v. Shirley. 

The court also ruled, in Nevada v. Hicks, that a tribal court didn't have jurisdiction to hear a case in which a state police officer was accused of conducting an illegal search of a tribal member's home on a reservation. 

Inland tribes' efforts 

In recent years, Inland Southern California tribes have been involved in efforts to solidify or to expand tribal authority on a statewide level, but they have had little success. 

The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, whose reservation is near Indio, had hoped to get full police powers for its tribal police officers, but a bill in the California Legislature that would have done that died. 

A few months ago, the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians near Temecula and other tribes backed legislation that would have given tribes increased authority over the development on lands they considered sacred. Gov. Davis vetoed it. 

The federal legislation that has been proposed, called the Tribal Sovereignty Protection Initiative, is the product of multiple meetings around the country over the past year. Draft legislation was distributed at the conference Monday. 

A similar campaign on how to address problems with the courts has been under way for the past year, said John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund. Tribal leaders also hope the sovereignty initiative would encourage the courts to rule on the side of Indians more. 

Tribal members who are involved in the court project hope to turn the tide of court decisions against them by carefully coordinating on a national level what issues end up in court. Echohawk also urged attendees to scrutinize the records of judicial nominees and to make sure tribal opinions are heard. 

The conference runs until Friday at the Town & Country Convention Center in San Diego. The National Congress of American Indians was founded in 1944 and represents more than 250 tribal governments. The organization, which is based in Washington, D.C., works on the tribes' behalf with Congress and other parts of the federal government.