WHEREAS , the result is that American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are victimized by violent crime at a rate five times that of the general American population; and WHEREAS , in partnership with Tribal Nations (AI/AN), America pledged in treaties to assist our Native Peoples to punish bad men who committed crimes against our Nations, and to provide an Indian Agent who lives amongst the people and takes complaints, investigates wrongs committed against the people, and arrests wrongdoers; and WHEREAS, through the General Crimes Act and Indian Major Crimes Act, the U.S. Congress and the federal courts have already determined the scope of federal criminal jurisdiction in Indian County and have assigned to the federal government the primary responsibility for the major crimes on our Reservations yet they have done little to enforce it; and WHEREAS , our Reservation communities house members of our own Native Sovereign Nations, members of other Tribal Nations, and a variety of non-Indian members of Indian families and where non-Indian business representatives come on to our Reservations daily to provide goods and services to our Native Sovereign Nations and our Reservation based federal programs; and WHEREAS , today none of our Native people are safe from this increased violence; and WHEREAS, Congress intended the Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA) to address the increased crime Tribes are now experiencing and inform this Congress of the United States of the number of officers and amount of federal resources required to accomplish this goal, but TLOA statements of need have been largely ignored; and WHEREAS, the Secretary of the Interior has entered into P.L. 93-638 Contracts with our Tribal Nations to provide public safety, law enforcement, justice and detention services on our populous, large land-based reservations but those contracts do not even begin to provide those Native Sovereign Nations with the resources necessary to perform the work required; and WHEREAS , murders, drug executions, home invasions, public shootings, assassinations of neighborhood watch, kidnappings, rapes, domestic violence, drug-related child abuse and neglect have increased to truly epidemic levels of violent crime, so that our Indian reservations are as violent or more violent than America’s most violent cities; and WHEREAS, Tribal Government Police Forces on large land-based Indian Reservations are down by as much as 75% of their police officers since 2000 while our tribal populations have doubled and violent crime has tripled, so immediate action is required. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Indian Gaming Association declares an Indian Country Public Safety State of Emergency concerning public safety, drug trafficking, violent crime, rape and murder and calls upon the President and Congress to declare a National Emergency on Indian Country Crime; and
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