Agriculture group registers concern over tribal jurisdiction

Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland has expressed its concerns regarding wording in Swinomish Tribe’s proposed Constitution.

Members of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community are scheduled to vote on the tribe’s new governing document next week.

Interest in tribal elections doesn’t usually extend beyond reservation boundaries, but this one has residents, land owners, county officials and now a farm group worried that the impacts could extend well beyond land held in trust for the tribe by the federal government.

A May 11 letter to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, signed by Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland’s Executive Director Allen Rozema asked for clarification by the federal government regarding the Swinomish Tribe’s proposed definition of its territory and jurisdiction.

The worrisome wording in the proposed tribal constitutional amendment defines the tribe’s territory as including lands “in which the tribe now or in the future has any interest or ... which are owned now or in the future by the United States for the exclusive or non-exclusive benefit of the Tribe or for individual tribal members…”

In the farm advocacy group’s letter, Rozema noted that “one can reasonably interpret” that the tribe’s territory would encompass “all lands, water, property, airspace, surface rights, subsurface rights … inside and outside the reservation boundary” the tribe might have an interest in sometime in the future.

The letter also takes issue with the tribe’s definition of jurisdiction, which in the proposed tribal constitutional amendment would apply to “all persons, subjects, property and activities occurring within” its territory and usual hunting and fishing grounds.

Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland’s letter states that wording in the tribe’s territory and jurisdiction definitions could be interpreted to mean the tribe seeks, “civil jurisdiction over non-Indians outside of a reservation boundary,” and outside its traditional areas.

Earlier this month, the Skagit County Commissioners, who have also expressed alarm at the tribe’s proposed territorial and jurisdictional wording, received a response from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The federal agency stated in a letter to Skagit County that Swinomish Indian Tribal Community cannot expand its boundaries without action by the United States Congress and that its jurisdiction off reservation is limited to tribal members exercising their hunting and fishing rights.

To make sure that response is on record, the county wrote back that it will rely on the BIA’s explanation as “an accurate and complete reflection of the United States’ publicly-communicated interpretation,” of the tribe’s proposed con-stitutional amendment.

Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland has formally asked the BIA to provide “an opinion as to the federal government’s interpretation and understanding of these two definitions when taken together…”

The farm group and Swinomish have worked together on several conservation and habitat restoration projects. In his letter to the BIA, Rozema noted the collaborative efforts and stated that his group respects the tribe’s authority to amend its constitution and is seeking clarification.