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38 Conn. L. Rev. 697 (2005-2006)
Is Public Law 280 Fit for the Twenty-First Century - Some Data at Last

handle is hein.journals/conlr38 and id is 707 raw text is: Is Public Law 280 Fit for the Twenty-First Century? Some Data at Last CAROLE GOLDBERG & DUANE CHAMPAGNE* I. INTRODUCTION With the passage of Public Law 280 in 1953, Congress for the first time injected state criminal jurisdiction into Indian country on a large scale.1 Public Law 280 structures law enforcement and criminal justice for 23% of the reservation-based tribal population and 52% of all tribes in the lower forty-eight states, and potentially affects all 239 Alaska Natives and their tribes or villages.2 * Carole Goldberg is Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. Duane Champagne is Professor of Sociology at the UCLA Native Nations Law and Policy Center. Funds for this research were provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Grant Number 2001-IJ- CX-003 1. The Project Director was Heather Valdez Singleton, M.A. We also received support from the UCLA School of Law Dean's Fund and the UCLA Institute of American Cultures. Act of Aug. 15, 1953, ch. 505, 67 Stat. 588, 588-60. The criminal provisions of this law, as amended, are codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1162 (2000) (mandatory states) and 25 U.S.C. § 1321 (2000) (optional states). Before the passage of Public Law 280, Congress had enacted laws applying state criminal jurisdiction to some or all of the reservations in a few states. See, e.g., Act of June 30, 1948, ch. 759, 62 Stat. 1161 (criminal jurisdiction to Iowa over the Sac and Fox Reservation); Act of June 8, 1940, ch. 276, 54 Stat. 249 (criminal jurisdiction to Kansas);. 2 This calculation is based on 2000 census data, and encompasses every reservation which is affected by full or partial state criminal jurisdiction under Public Law 280 or similar statutes. See U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Data for Reservations and other American Indian and Alaska Native Areas, http://factftnder.census.gov/home/aian/sflsf3.html (last modified Mar. 3, 2004) (search interface). Twenty-four tribes are affected by statutes that impose state criminal jurisdiction in language similar to Public Law 280 but outside the specific framework of Public Law 280. See, e.g., 25 U.S.C. § 1300g-4(f) (2000) (criminal jurisdiction to Texas over the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo); Act of May 31, 1946, ch. 279, 60 Stat. 229 (criminal jurisdiction to North Dakota over the Devils Lake Reservation). Public Law 280 only applies within Indian country, 18 U.S.C. § 1162(a) (2000); 25 U.S.C. § 1321(a) (2000), and the United States Supreme Court has held that the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1972, 43 U.S.C. §§ 1601-1629h (2000), eliminated much of the Indian country in Alaska when it abolished all but one of the then-existing reservations, Alaska v. Native Vill. of Venetie, 522 U.S. 520, 524 (1998). Except for that one reservation--the Metlakatla Indian Community-only scattered Native townsites and trust allotments remain as Indian country in Alaska. See 18 U.S.C. § 1151 (2000). The Bureau of Indian Affairs Realty Office in Juneau, Alaska has over 4,000 restricted lots on record, and many thousands of allotments exist throughout Alaska with thousands of other applications for allotments still pending. See Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration Act of 2003: Hearing on S. 1466 Before the Subcomm. on Public Lands & Forests of the S. Comm. on Energy & Natural Res., 108th Cong. (2003), available at http://www.blm.gov/nhp/news/legislative/ pages/2003/te030806.htm (statement of Henri Bisson, State Director, Alaska State Office, Bureau of Land Mgmt., U.S. Dep't of the Interior). As a consequence of the elimination of most Indian country

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