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Quapaw Nation building law enforcement network

Joplin Globe - 2/10/2022

Feb. 10—QUAPAW, Okla. — Officials of the Quapaw Nation and multiple law enforcement agencies have signed agreements to cross-deputize officers so that they can work together on criminal investigations and arrests on tribal land.

Tribe officials and officers with the agencies participated in a swearing-in ceremony held Wednesday to deputize those from other agencies so that they may enter tribal lands on investigations or in pursuit of arrests. The ceremony was held at the Quapaw Nation's Ki-ho-ta Center, north of Miami, where the tribe's justice center and courtrooms are located.

In addition to the Quapaw Nation Marshal's Office, the other agencies represented at the ceremony were the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the Grand River Dam Authority, the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department, the police departments in Miami and Commerce, Miami Nation law enforcement, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement. Two other local agencies will participate but were unavailable for the ceremony because they were called to an emergency, said tribal Chairman Joseph Tali Byrd.

"It's really a historic moment for the Quapaw Nation," the chairman said. "Certain reservations within Oklahoma were reaffirmed" as reservations independent of state authority over enforcing laws.

The agreements are the result of court decisions that reinstated tribal sovereignty on lands granted in what was established as Indian Territory. The state had taken authority over the lands away from the tribes to pursue statehood as Oklahoma. But Congress, in the Major Crimes Act of 1885, had granted jurisdiction to federal courts, exclusive of the states, over Indians who commit specific major offenses against Indians or non-Indians. Before that law, cases were handled by tribal courts.

Oklahoma's Five Civilized Tribes challenged state authority in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, McGirt vs. Oklahoma. It ruled in July 2020 that the tribes that brought the action were still sovereign and had law enforcement authority over their own lands through federal authorities rather than the state.

The state contended that the violations of treaty law to take over the Native American jurisdiction had happened so long ago that the tribes essentially abandoned their rights over time. The tribes disagreed, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the rights had not been voluntarily forfeited.

The ruling applied to the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole tribes. The case had to do with the arrest of a Native American by state authorities.

The Quapaw Nation brought a similar case regarding an arrest, and the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, in an October ruling, affirmed the tribe's sovereignty regarding jurisdiction to handle cases involving major crimes.

That is the basis for the reciprocal agreements among the Quapaw Nation and neighboring law enforcement agencies.

"Since that time, Quapaw Nation has really worked to revamp and build upon our tribal courts system, our law enforcement agency and our Department of Public Safety," Byrd said.

"This today is another step in the progression of enhancing public safety in our reservation and making sure that justice extends to both tribal members and nontribal members alike. So justice for all, in this instance," Byrd said.

To fully provide for law enforcement services and cooperation with federal agencies, a new chief marshal was brought on board.

The chairman introduced Charles Addington as the chief marshal.

He is a retired law enforcement official for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where he was director of the Office of Justice Services in Washington, D.C. He had previously served as the deputy associate director for the bureau's Division of Drug Enforcement in Muskogee, managing programs including the agency's drug enforcement program. In that capacity, he was responsible for drug, gang, border and human trafficking investigations affecting Indian Country.

"We know that to grow and in order to proceed, we needed fresh eyes on this," Byrd said. "We needed new ideas for how we progress in the future to recognize our own tribal sovereignty, to affirm our reservation and our treaty rights, and to also see that public safety does not go unaddressed, it doesn't fall between the cracks."

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