Post by Okwes on Oct 30, 2006 11:25:21 GMT -5
Native hits roadblock applying for state ID DMV - Oregon accepts
documents from foreigners but will not accept proof from out-of-state
tribes Monday, October 23, 2006 SETH PRINCE
www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/116157212\
742310.xml&coll=7&thispage=1
<http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11615721\
2742310.xml&coll=7&thispage=1> It's easier for illegal immigrants to
get a driver's license in Oregon than it is for Native Americans who
show up at DMV counters with identification from out-of-state tribes.
About half the states in the nation allow some form of tribal
documentation to secure a driver's license or identification card. Some
want federal proof, some require tribal proof and some will accept
either. Of those 28 states, two -- Oregon and New York -- restrict that
to documents from in-state tribes only, according to information from
the National Immigration Law Center. "We have a process and a
criteria," says David House, spokesman for the Oregon Division of Motor
Vehicles. That process -- which Oregon tribes follow -- includes
accepting identifying documents from organizations the state's DMV has
worked with before. "If a group contacts us and gives us a sample and
tells us how to identify it as authentic, we'll consider it." [Click
here!]
<http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11615721\
2742310.xml&coll=7#continue>
Oregon is one of the few states in the nation, House says, in
which DMV officials cannot ask people whether they're in the state
legally while asking them to prove their identity with, for example, a
translated passport. Unlike that policy, the one on out-of-state tribes
has not become controversial, much less fodder in the governor's race
between Democratic incumbent Ted Kulongoski and Republican Ron Saxton.
But the contradiction between the two policies -- green lights for the
nation's newest inhabitants, potential red flags for some of its
original ones -- is troubling on philosophical grounds, if not legal
ones, according to legal experts. David Shaw, a Portland attorney
specializing in Native law, has seen tribal identification cards
accepted as valid documentation throughout the country. "Tribes guard
this with their dying breath because it's a representation of their
identity," he says. The tribal ID card can be key to tribal services and
benefits, from health care to hunting and fishing rights to per-capita
gambling revenue. He calls the Oregon DMV policy "a relic of another
time and place, and if this state wants to be progressive and move into
the 21st century, it needs to remove it." He adds that it "hints of lack
of faith and a suspicion of tribes." The potential for conflict is
acute in Oregon, where the majority of Native Americans come from
out-of-state tribes. The 2000 Census counted more than 85,000 people in
the state who identified themselves as Native. Of those, fewer than
13,000 linked themselves to one of Oregon's nine federally recognized
tribes. Take Michael Crawford, who moved to Oregon from South Dakota
in 2004 to be near his grandchildren. The businessman carries his
Sisseton-Wahpeton tribal driver's license as his one form of
identification. Far from home, it's a small sign of his roots, but one
he'll tell you -- in English or the Dakota language -- he doesn't intend
to give up. So the 55-year-old Gresham man was particularly offended
when DMV officials said the documentation from his federally recognized
tribe was no good after he recently went to get an Oregon non-driving
identification card. "I was sitting there, hearing people speak Lao,
Russian, Spanish and being helped. And I thought, 'Here I am, I can
speak Dakota -- one of the original languages of this continent.' . . .
The state of Oregon is supposed to serve the public. It has not served
me. The day it doesn't serve one, it serves none." Most people have
more than one form of identification, a fact that House says generally
prevents problems such as Crawford's. For those who don't, DMV has an
appeals process. In a situation regarding tribal identification,
"Out-of-state tribes can approach us, but few have," he says, explaining
that the DMV doesn't have time to work with the more than 500 federally
recognized tribes to determine how to make sure a document isn't a fake.
[Click here!]
<http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11615721\
2742310.xml&coll=7&thispage=2#continue>
Crawford, who says he has no interest in appealing and continues
to drive with his tribal license, doesn't agree with Oregon's logic. Nor
does the state of Washington. "We certainly recognize tribal
governments as sovereign governments," says Brad Benfield, spokesman for
the Washington Department of Licensing. "There isn't any reason we
wouldn't accept their identification like we would from another state or
nation. . . . Our people are skilled at ascertaining the legitimacy of
documents. That's part of their jobs." Like Shaw, the Portland
attorney, Richard Guest agrees that the situation in Oregon seems
unusual. "I can't think of anything," the staff attorney for the Native
American Rights Fund in Washington, D.C., says, "that would justify the
state discriminating against a tribe from Northern California, treating
it differently than it would a tribe from Southern Oregon." For
Michael Marchand, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville
Reservation in northern Washington and a first vice president of the
Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the issue goes back to one
thing: sovereignty. "It's reciprocal. As tribes, we have the right to
not accept Washington state papers if we choose not to. And likewise the
state of Oregon," he says, chuckling at the thought. "It goes both
ways."
documents from foreigners but will not accept proof from out-of-state
tribes Monday, October 23, 2006 SETH PRINCE
www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/116157212\
742310.xml&coll=7&thispage=1
<http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11615721\
2742310.xml&coll=7&thispage=1> It's easier for illegal immigrants to
get a driver's license in Oregon than it is for Native Americans who
show up at DMV counters with identification from out-of-state tribes.
About half the states in the nation allow some form of tribal
documentation to secure a driver's license or identification card. Some
want federal proof, some require tribal proof and some will accept
either. Of those 28 states, two -- Oregon and New York -- restrict that
to documents from in-state tribes only, according to information from
the National Immigration Law Center. "We have a process and a
criteria," says David House, spokesman for the Oregon Division of Motor
Vehicles. That process -- which Oregon tribes follow -- includes
accepting identifying documents from organizations the state's DMV has
worked with before. "If a group contacts us and gives us a sample and
tells us how to identify it as authentic, we'll consider it." [Click
here!]
<http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11615721\
2742310.xml&coll=7#continue>
Oregon is one of the few states in the nation, House says, in
which DMV officials cannot ask people whether they're in the state
legally while asking them to prove their identity with, for example, a
translated passport. Unlike that policy, the one on out-of-state tribes
has not become controversial, much less fodder in the governor's race
between Democratic incumbent Ted Kulongoski and Republican Ron Saxton.
But the contradiction between the two policies -- green lights for the
nation's newest inhabitants, potential red flags for some of its
original ones -- is troubling on philosophical grounds, if not legal
ones, according to legal experts. David Shaw, a Portland attorney
specializing in Native law, has seen tribal identification cards
accepted as valid documentation throughout the country. "Tribes guard
this with their dying breath because it's a representation of their
identity," he says. The tribal ID card can be key to tribal services and
benefits, from health care to hunting and fishing rights to per-capita
gambling revenue. He calls the Oregon DMV policy "a relic of another
time and place, and if this state wants to be progressive and move into
the 21st century, it needs to remove it." He adds that it "hints of lack
of faith and a suspicion of tribes." The potential for conflict is
acute in Oregon, where the majority of Native Americans come from
out-of-state tribes. The 2000 Census counted more than 85,000 people in
the state who identified themselves as Native. Of those, fewer than
13,000 linked themselves to one of Oregon's nine federally recognized
tribes. Take Michael Crawford, who moved to Oregon from South Dakota
in 2004 to be near his grandchildren. The businessman carries his
Sisseton-Wahpeton tribal driver's license as his one form of
identification. Far from home, it's a small sign of his roots, but one
he'll tell you -- in English or the Dakota language -- he doesn't intend
to give up. So the 55-year-old Gresham man was particularly offended
when DMV officials said the documentation from his federally recognized
tribe was no good after he recently went to get an Oregon non-driving
identification card. "I was sitting there, hearing people speak Lao,
Russian, Spanish and being helped. And I thought, 'Here I am, I can
speak Dakota -- one of the original languages of this continent.' . . .
The state of Oregon is supposed to serve the public. It has not served
me. The day it doesn't serve one, it serves none." Most people have
more than one form of identification, a fact that House says generally
prevents problems such as Crawford's. For those who don't, DMV has an
appeals process. In a situation regarding tribal identification,
"Out-of-state tribes can approach us, but few have," he says, explaining
that the DMV doesn't have time to work with the more than 500 federally
recognized tribes to determine how to make sure a document isn't a fake.
[Click here!]
<http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11615721\
2742310.xml&coll=7&thispage=2#continue>
Crawford, who says he has no interest in appealing and continues
to drive with his tribal license, doesn't agree with Oregon's logic. Nor
does the state of Washington. "We certainly recognize tribal
governments as sovereign governments," says Brad Benfield, spokesman for
the Washington Department of Licensing. "There isn't any reason we
wouldn't accept their identification like we would from another state or
nation. . . . Our people are skilled at ascertaining the legitimacy of
documents. That's part of their jobs." Like Shaw, the Portland
attorney, Richard Guest agrees that the situation in Oregon seems
unusual. "I can't think of anything," the staff attorney for the Native
American Rights Fund in Washington, D.C., says, "that would justify the
state discriminating against a tribe from Northern California, treating
it differently than it would a tribe from Southern Oregon." For
Michael Marchand, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville
Reservation in northern Washington and a first vice president of the
Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the issue goes back to one
thing: sovereignty. "It's reciprocal. As tribes, we have the right to
not accept Washington state papers if we choose not to. And likewise the
state of Oregon," he says, chuckling at the thought. "It goes both
ways."