Anti-Sovereignty Resolution Draws Fire Some Call Gop Action Racist, Others Say It’S Simply Misguided

With little discussion, the state Republican convention passed a resolution last month to end tribal governments on reservations.

Now elected officials, political candidates and human rights activists are debating the seriousness of the Republican call to “take whatever action necessary” to terminate tribal governments.

Some are outraged at a statement they consider racist.

Others agree with the concept, even if they’re unsure of what action they’d support.

Still others label the resolution misguided, but not a sign that Republicans are anti-Indian.

The Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity is likely to spend more time discussing the resolution this weekend than the Republican delegates did on June 17.

Vince Lemus, a human rights specialist for the city of Spokane and a coalition member, is so outraged he asked for a special session during Sunday’s board meeting in Spokane.

Lemus is particularly angry at a suggestion by resolution sponsor John Fleming that the federal government use military force if necessary to disband tribal governments.

“It’s reprehensible that a member of a political party would even allude to that kind of action,” Lemus said.

Fleming’s suggestion - that the federal government send in “the U.S. Army and the Air Force and the Marines and the National Guard” to “battle back” if tribes resist - is not included in the resolution.

In an interview last week, Fleming, a Skagit County delegate, insisted he was not anti-Indian. He could not be reached this week for further comment.

U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton called that “send-in-the-Army” comment nonsense. Gorton said he understands the frustrations of some non-Indians who live on or near reservations. He clashes regularly with Native Americans on the issue of tribal sovereignty, but said terminating tribal governments is not a solution.

“I think that it is perfectly appropriate for Indians to determine their own future and their own form of government,” Gorton said. “I don’t support their attempts to interfere with the lives of non-Indians” on the reservations.

The Coalition for Human Dignity declared last year that anti-sovereignty efforts are racist. The group, which was created in response to neo-Nazi activities, has focused mainly on combating hatred toward blacks and Jews.

“It’s become a major program issue for us, because there are increasing attacks on tribal sovereignty throughout the Northwest,” said executive director Terre Rybovich. “We find ourselves directing more and more energy to it.”

Tribal sovereignty is the concept that Native American tribes are self-governing entities, a status that is upheld by treaties with the U.S. government and the Constitution. Based on federal court decisions that date back to the 1800s, states cannot interfere with tribal rights, although Congress can override an Indian nation’s authority.

Some candidates who support the GOP resolution see it as a way of ending problems on reservations.

“The whole concept of tribal government has run its course,” said State Sen. Harold Hochstatter of Moses Lake, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor. “We ought to treat everybody the same. I’m not for hyphenated Americans.”

Hochstatter said he’s not sure about Fleming’s suggestion to use military force, if necessary, to end tribal governments. But he contends the resolution is in sync with an 1872 law, which he believes repudiated all treaties with Indian tribes.

Tim Coulter, executive director of the American Indian Law Center in Helena, said Hochstatter is wrong about that 128-year-old law. Congress didn’t repudiate treaties, it merely changed the way agreements between the tribes and the federal government were approved, Coulter said.

He believes that Washington state has had a strong undercurrent of anti-Indian sentiment for decades that stems from disputes over tribal fishing rights. But he doesn’t believe the GOP resolution is a sign there’s a growing wave of such sentiment.

“It’s virulent and appalling, but it’s like periodic outbreaks of the flu,” he said. “It recedes in a few days or weeks.”

Some Republican candidates said they were dismayed by the resolution, even though most don’t believe they are bound by it.

John Carlson, the GOP’s other principal candidate for governor, is speaking out against the resolution.

“It’s not good policy and it’s not good government,” Carlson said. “I understand the frustration … but you can’t ignore the tribes and you can’t abolish tribal governments. You need to deal with them.”

U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt of Spokane said he has been working with the tribes to find more funding for the Indian Health Service and other federal programs in Eastern Washington. The resolution drives a wedge into efforts like that, he said.

Fleming’s suggestion to use military force to remove tribal governments was particularly troubling, Nethercutt said.

“I don’t think (Fleming) speaks for the Republican Party,” he said.

Nethercutt’s primary opponent, Richard Clear, called military threats an extreme reaction. But Clear supports the resolution’s call to change the way reservations operate. The tribes shouldn’t have sovereign nation status and receive federal funds, he contends.

“I think it’s a good idea to do one or the other,” Clear said. “If you are a sovereign nation, you are separate and take care of yourself.”

Democrat Tom Keefe, who is also trying to replace Nethercutt, called the resolution “a throwback” to the 1950s when Congress tried unsuccessfully to terminate reservations.

“The Republican Party as a whole is beginning to see tribes as governments to deal with. They’re players now,” said Keefe, a former congressional aide who has lobbied for Native American groups.

Some tribal leaders were surprised a GOP convention passed the resolution. Ernie Stensgar, chairman of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe as well as the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, said Republican leaders around the country are trying to improve communication with the tribes.

Tribal self-governance, which gives tribes the responsibility and the money to administer their own programs and create development, is a concept with roots in the Nixon and Ford administrations, Stensgar said.

Although Fleming said he’d like to have the resolution introduced at the GOP national convention later this month, Republicans and Democrats doubt that will happen. A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., said there was no indication the convention would do anything to change the party’s long-standing support of tribal selfdetermination. Campbell is the only Native American serving in Congress.

Keefe said he’d be stunned to see the resolution discussed at the national GOP convention in historic Philadelphia, the birthplace of the American Revolution. “That sounds like something out of a Mel Brooks movie.”

The National Congress of American Indians is trying to get both major parties to put statements in their national platforms that support tribal self-reliance and health programs. Ron Allen, national congress vice president, said that group may also ask the state Republican party to retract its anti-sovereignty resolution.