Upcoming United States Supreme Court decision may have serious consequences on Indigenous Women who are victims of domestic violence in the US

The United States Supreme Court has recently heard oral argument in Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family (2008), and an unthoughtful ruling may have unintended consequences. While this is a case involving bank loans by a non-Indian corporation to members of an Indian tribe, the outcome could seriously affect the ability of tribes to deal with domestic violence by non-Indians against Indians in Indian Country. This situation is due in part to the Supreme Court's Montana decision setting forth a test in determing if a tribe has civil jurisdiction over non-Indians in Indian Country.

Professor Melissa Tatum published an op-ed piece in the Tulsa World (reprinted in Native American Times) regarding the issue of how the ruling in the Plains case could have negative, unintended impacts on Indigenous battered-women in the United States. Tatum, formerly Co-Director of the University of Tulsa's Native American Law Center, is Associate Director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) Program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law replacing James Anaya who has been named the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous Peoples.

Tatum states in her article, "[d]omestic violence is a widespread problem, and it is particularly acute for Indian women. U.S. government statistics show that Indian women are two and one-half times more likely to be the victim of violent crime; one in three American Indian women will be raped in their lifetime; three of four will be physically assaulted, and Indian women are stalked at a rate more than double that of any other population. Well over 75% of the perpetrators of these crimes are non-Indian."

Read her op-ed piece here.
The Plains case court transcript can be found here.
Listen to oral arguments here.

Read Amnesty International's Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Violence here.