The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

314 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
in the spRing of 1998, officials from Washington and several other
states arrived on the Hill to tell the committee they were losing hundreds
of millions annually because some tribes were selling cigarettes to non-
Indians at reservation smoke shops without collecting sales tax. In the
space of two months a new revenue swat team in Washington State had
confiscated nearly 300,000 packs of contraband cigarettes being trucked
to three reservations. Some were intent on defying a U.S. Supreme Court
decision Gorton had won as attorney general 18 years earlier when he asserted
that the tribes had no constitutional right “to be, in effect, parasites
on the state system.” 14
Tribal leaders said it was Gorton once again at work with a broad
broom. DeLaCruz argued that only a few tribes maintained the high
court had no jurisdiction over them. Most were following the law. If Gorton
had his way and states were allowed to sue them it would spell even
bleaker times for impoverished reservations. Tax disputes could be solved
in negotiations between state and tribal governments. “The problem is
not us, but that the state has never acted in good faith toward the tribes.
It dates back to him,” the Quinault leader said, pointing at Gorton. “It’s
his legacy in the state that we’ve continued fighting and that has made it
hard to move forward.” 15
Gorton unveiled his “American Indian Equal Justice Act.” Its key provision
was the end to legal immunity for tribal governments, a protection
derived from a series of Supreme Court rulings dating from 1830. Individuals
of any ethnicity, as well as states and other governments, would
have the right to file suit against tribes in state or federal courts. “The
U.S. Supreme Court is an Indian court just as it is a court for all the rest
of us,” Gorton said. 16
“These hearings really are about whether the aboriginal Americans
are members of this nation, or members of a multitude of nations within
the U.S.,” said Senator Campbell. “My own view is that they can be both.” 17
“Would the State of Washington feel comfortable waiving its legal immunity
and going into a tribal court?” Henry Cagey asked. “I don’t think
so. But he wants us to take our chances in a state court.” Gorton pounced,
asserting that the Lummi leader was glossing over an importance difference:
Indians are American citizens, assured a fair hearing in American
courts. But non-Indians are not citizens of any Indian nation and therefore
not assured a fair hearing in a tribal court. “It’s a gross injustice,”
Gorton said, and even if his measure failed “at least I can see to it that this
has been argued.” 18
At a hearing in the Seattle suburb of Tukwila a month later, the crowd