Selective Return of Criminal Law Activity to Alaska Native Villages: Neocolonialism or Revitalization of Tribal Sovereignty?

Abstract

As Alaska struggles with criminal justice delivery to Alaska Native villages, many experiments have been undertaken or postulated which would reinvigorate criminal law activity in these rural places. Initial enthusiasm for alleviation of burdens on the formal system has been replaced with a state concern that village activity will be viewed as tribal activity. The author isolates areas where the needs of the state and villages can be met without feeding the flames of the conflict between state sovereignty and village tribal sovereignty.