The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

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about the nature of Indian treaties and what the federal government’s
responsibilities to the tribes should be. I think the treaties are very clear.
They are solemn agreements in which we got their land and we agreed to
treat them as nations as well as help provide for their health and
education.” 10
Gorton called a news conference of his own. With their special understanding
of what it means to be cheated and oppressed, Gorton said Indians
ought to recognize that having separate standards for due process
and other civil rights was un-American. He was joined by the father of a
youth fatally injured three years earlier in Toppenish when his car was
broadsided by a squad car driven by a tribal police officer. Because the
Yakama Tribe had sovereign immunity, the family was unable to sue for
damages in a state or federal court. “Now is that fair?” Gorton asked on
the floor of the Senate the next day. “If you are injured by a New York City
policeman, you can sue New York City. But if you are injured by a Yakama
tribal policeman, you cannot sue the tribe.” New York City and most other
governments had long ago waived sovereign immunity in public-safety
cases as a way of balancing the power of government with the rights of
individual citizens, Gorton said. “I just don’t see how that is a racist view.
I think cries of racism are an escape from having to argue the merits. . . .
I have always supported Indian tribes when it comes to their health and
educational opportunities. What this is about is whether rights also carry
with them responsibilities, such as supporting yourself and coexisting
fairly with the rest of society.” 11
Gorton took pains to distance himself from the rabid wing of the antisovereignty
movement, which was calling for an end to tribal governments.
He believed in self-governance, he emphasized, noting that Republicans
could legitimately claim it as their own initiative, Indians
having found an unexpected champion in President Nixon. What he was
advocating was a cross between welfare reform and means-testing: “Do
we have a permanent, 100 percent obligation to fund all of the activities
of these governments, or, as we give them increasing self-determination,
do they have some responsibility to pay for their own government services?
. . . It’s a taxpayer issue. We’re spending three-quarters of a billion
dollars subsidizing these governments.” 12
He took his riders out of the saddle after Campbell, McCain and Domenici
agreed to allow congressional hearings on tribal sovereign immunity
during the next session. The General Accounting Office was instructed
to re-evaluate its tribal-aid formulas. It was a truce of sorts, but
short-lived. 13