A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators, including Catherine Cortez Masto and senators from New Mexico and Alaska, have introduced a bill in the senate to extend protections to children and law enforcement personnel involved in domestic violence incidents on Tribal lands.
The bill will also enhance federal coordination of victim resources for Tribal communities. The bill is called the Native Youth and Tribal Officer Protection Act, and seeks to build on provisions laid out in 2013’s Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.
That bill restored a Tribe’s authority to arrest and prosecute offenders, but did not allow them to arrest or prosecute for threatened domestic violence or violence against children or law enforcement. The new law seeks to address those gaps to help protect Native families.