4/9/14 KNBA News - Alaska's attorney general defends state's position on tribal sovereignty, courts

Attorney General Michael Geraghty testified before the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee on a national report that calls the high rate of violence against Alaska Native women a "national disgrace," and urges the state to change its position on tribal courts. The state, says Garaghty, is protecting the rights of all Alaskans when it opposes the expansion of tribal courts. He explained the state lobbied to have Alaska Native women exempted from the Violence Against Women Act because he saw ambiguity in the law that would have led to litigation.  Others testified the state would serve its citizens better if it accepted tribal sovereignty as a matter of fact upheld by state and federal courts and federal agencies, and worked cooperatively with tribes to provide more local control over crime.