Tribes to adopt offender law

02/08/2006

Deal extends state’s registration rules to Indian reservations

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press

Sex offenders will find no respite from registration requirements on tribal reservations, thanks to an unusual agreement announced Tuesday by most tribal governments and Minnesota’s attorney general.

“We did not want to create a safe haven … for sexual offenders,” said White Earth Chief of Police Bill Brunelle. The governments of White Earth, Bois Forte band of Chippewa, Leech Lake band of Ojibwa, Prairie Island and Upper Sioux Community agreed to extend Minnesota’s registration requirements onto tribal land.

The agreement was needed because the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled last summer that tribal members living on reservations need not register their whereabouts with the state. Such registration requirements are a civil not a criminal matter, the court decided in the case brought by a Leech Lake sex offender. State civil law does not extend to tribal members living on their reservations.

Minnesota tribal leaders reacted quickly and strongly after the ruling to make sure they know about American Indian sex offenders on their reservations.

“To us, it was like opening up the gates of hell,” said Leech Lake Tribal Chairman George Goggleye.

As a result, representatives of two-thirds of the state’s tribal members passed ordinances and came up with the agreement with the state to require sex offender registration even for tribal members on reservations. Most of the tribal governments not participating in Tuesday’s announcement are expected to sign similar agreements in the near future. Red Lake is governed by federal criminal law and has long coordinated with the state to track sex offenders on its reservation.

It is unclear how many sex offenders would be affected by the new registration requirements, said tribal leaders and Attorney General Mike Hatch, whose office helped negotiate the agreement.

There are 17,268 registered sex offenders in Minnesota. Of those, 657, or fewer than 4 percent, are classified as American Indian or Alaskan Native, according to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. That classification does not distinguish between offenders living on tribal land, and thereby exempt from state registration requirements under the Appeals Court ruling, and those living elsewhere in the state.

Tribes may enact more stringent requirements than the state law allows.

Kevin Jensvold, chairman of the Upper Sioux Indian Reservation, said his tribe, like some others, has even considered excluding all convicted sex offenders — tribe members or not — from their reservation land.

The case that created the need for the new agreement has been appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.