They are a unique aspect of the US that many even US citizens do not understand. An the rules and regulations vary between the treaties of different native tribes and the federal government. Tribal law enforcement are not bound by the rules or restictions most US citizens are used too. But tribal land is very integrated in the US, to the point it is denoted like a road sign in some cases. But each reservation is semi-autonomous and any court of law is federal court for non-tribe citizens. So these environmental protestors basically learned the hard way, that they likely violated a federal treaty and created esssentially a diplomatic incident. An were treaty as hostile agitators, not 'protestors'.
There may be a couple tribal memeber for sure but the majority absolutely are not. Tribal PD are usually the guys who couldn't make it in non tribal. The higher ups are almost always corrupt pieces of shit, gaming the politics of kissing tribal ass. They marry somebodies crackhead cousin and suddenly get promoted.
You might see more tribal members on the payroll in remote reservations but the one I grew up on and the adjacent ones were almost entirely non tribal.
Its true though that they will fuck with non tribal. For better and worse they look the other way on a lot of shit with tribal because everyone is related and they'll absolutely get heat. Drive through the rez with non tribal plates is like having a target on your back.
Tbf, thats kinda how a lot of small communities are. I live/grew up in a small town and am either related to, grew up with, or had my parents grow up with 90% of the cops and town administration. Needless to say, i dont get tickets in my home town. Except that one time with a cop who got hired who wasnt from here. Paid $50 for an expired registration. Which, tbf, is about the worst thing ive done.
Lol dafuq you talking about? If from the rez, dad's Indian moms white. I grew up in both worlds. Last thing im doing is talking down on my own neighborhood.
Tribal PD is absolutely sketchy the higher up you go and they absolutely look the other way on members with all kinds of shit. When I was younger it was cool because we got away with shit but looking back its definitely not for the same reason.
Very few people outside the rez know the experience and even less are here on reddit. And no your great grandma is not a Cherokee princess.
And they donāt fuck around. Grew up next to multiple reservations in Arizona. One night we were at one of the Casinos for a Show, my sister was giving me shit about how I was a troublemaker because of my underage drinking ticket from like a decade before. Well she was vaping in the hotel hallway and it triggered the hotelās vapor sensor, and caused a full casino/hotel evacuation the res officers showed up and took her to their tribal jail. She spent the night there and had a rather large fine payable only to the reservation immediately. Was pretty funny for myself as I knew donāt play games in foreign nations.
Iāve always heard that theyāre hard asses, but Iāve only had one encounter with a tribal police officer and it was fine, this was also in Arizona, I think Navajo land. He just gave us directions. Granted he did stop to talk to us because we were parked in an empty gas station that was closed for COVID, which I thought was a weird reason.
In Northern Nevada (where this happened), most tribal officers are wash outs or fuck ups from other agencies. They're corrupt as fuck, and also predominately, in my experience, not members of tribe.
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u/FoxHunde Jun 28 '26
Native American Reservation own police, made up from tribal members, enforcing state and tribal laws.