美国国家公共电台 NPR Banished Indigenous Women Fight Tribal Leaders In Federal Court

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Banishment¹ is a rare but serious form of punishment in Indian country. People can lose their homes, their jobs, they can't enter the reservation. It mostly happens to violent offenders² or drug dealers³. But on one reservation in Utah, some tribal⁴ members are suing in federal court because they say they were banished⁵ for more political reasons. Nate Hegyi from member station KUER in Salt Lake City has the story.

NATE HEGYI, BYLINE⁶: Angelita Chegup and three other women are eating chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant in Roosevelt, Utah.

(LAUGHTER)

HEGYI: They seem happy right now, but Chegup says this past year has been hard ever since she and the others were banished from the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation by the Ute tribe.

ANGELITA CHEGUP: It changed our lives. One moment, I had a job; the next moment, I didn't.

HEGYI: Chegup says the banishment forced her into an early retirement⁷ from her job as a grant coordinator⁸ for the tribe. She still retains tribal membership but says she lost her health and life insurance that she got through her job. Now, unless Chegup has a police escort, she can't attend traditional ceremonies on reservation lands or visit friends and family, even when a few of those friends and family members passed away.

CHEGUP: Couldn't attend the funeral because of what the council decided⁹.

HEGYI: Chegup says she and the other women were banished by tribal leadership because they were trying to bring history to light. The women say they are from two earlier bands of Indigenous¹⁰ people who lived here before the federally recognized Ute tribe even existed. And here's the claim that eventually led to their banishment - the women believe they have 19th-century treaty rights to an oil-rich part of the reservation.

CHEGUP: We've been bringing this issue out to where, hey, we all need to know our history here.

HEGYI: If these claims are true, it means that these women would have control over that part of the reservation and the oil and gas beneath it. Ute tribal leadership declined to be interviewed, but in court documents, leadership claimed the women were trying to destabilize its government. They interfered¹¹ in ongoing¹² litigation pertaining¹³ to the tribe and leadership called those court filings frivolous¹⁴ and nonsensical and said it cost them millions of dollars. Eventually, the tribe banished the four women, including Tara Amboh. She says banishment is like public shaming.

TARA AMBOH: We'll walk into a grocery store and we'll get the looks, you know, from people. But, yeah, it takes your liberty, your freedom, and all we were doing was just freedom of speech, you know?

HEGYI: After the women were banished, they sued the tribe in Utah's federal district court, arguing they weren't given due process and that the banishment was a violation¹⁵ of their civil rights. But the judge dismissed the case. He wrote in part that federal courts can't intervene because tribes are sovereign nations. Grant Christensen is an Indian law professor at the University of North Dakota. He explains that this is a matter of jurisdiction¹⁶.

GRANT CHRISTENSEN: Tribes are their own governments separate from states and separate from the United States.

HEGYI: Christensen says tribes aren't beholden to the U.S. bill of rights. Congress tried to build a workaround in 1968...

CHRISTENSEN: Called the Indian Civil Rights Act that extends most but not all of our constitutional protections onto tribal governments.

HEGYI: But here's the thing - enforcement of that 1968 law has been mostly struck down by the courts because, again, tribes are sovereign nations. However, there is an exception. Federal courts are allowed to intervene if someone is unlawfully detained by a tribe.

CHRISTENSEN: And so in that context, banishment runs into this interesting gray area in the law.

HEGYI: The federal courts are currently split over whether banishment is a form of unlawful detention¹⁷. If the 10th Circuit decides to hear this case, Christensen says it could set up a fight that ends in the Supreme¹⁸ Court. For NPR News, I'm Nate Hegyi in Roosevelt, Utah.

KING: And Nate's story came to us from the Mountain West News Bureau.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE POLISH AMBASSADOR'S "CALL OF THE CANYON")

1 banishment   

n.放逐，驱逐

参考例句：

• Qu Yuan suffered banishment as the victim of a court intrigue. 屈原成为朝廷中钩心斗角的牺牲品，因而遭到放逐。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He was sent into banishment. 他被流放。 来自辞典例句

2 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

3 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

4 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

5 banished   

v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was banished to Australia, where he died five years later. 他被流放到澳大利亚，五年后在那里去世。
• He was banished to an uninhabited island for a year. 他被放逐到一个无人居住的荒岛一年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

8 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

11 interfered   

v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉

参考例句：

• Complete absorption in sports interfered with his studies. 专注于运动妨碍了他的学业。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am not going to be interfered with. 我不想别人干扰我的事情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

13 pertaining   

与…有关系的，附属…的，为…固有的(to)

参考例句：

• Living conditions are vastly different from those pertaining in their country of origin. 生活条件与他们祖国大不相同。
• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school. 视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。

14 frivolous   

adj.轻薄的；轻率的

参考例句：

• This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
• He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。

15 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

16 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

17 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

18 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。