By Gabe Galanda & Henry Oostrom-Shah
Today, Governor Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1369 into law. The bill allows off-duty Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) fish and game enforcement officers to work security for private companies.
During the legislative session, the prime sponsor of HB 1369 explained that WDFW officers would be allowed to work, in their state uniforms, at “large construction projects” throughout the state, which could include projects on Tribal trust or reservation lands.
Several Washington Tribes feared House Bill 1369, as originally proposed, would have created a Trojan Horse in Indian country: WDFW officers entering sovereign tribal lands without authorization in the guise of private security guards. As such, Tribal rights advocates requested—and the Legislature approved—two consequential changes to the original legislation.
First, pursuant to an amendment offered by Senators Claudia Kauffman (Nez Perce) and Javier Valdez, any private employer hiring off-duty WDFW officers to work private security on Tribal trust or reservation lands “must have obtained permission from the affected federally recognized Indian tribe.”
Tribes have always protected their people by controlling who enters their territory. This amendment means that WDFW and private companies must respect that fundamental tenet of Tribal sovereignty. In recent years, WDFW has violated Tribal Treaty rights and sovereignty by entering Tribal trust and reservation lands without notice or permission. Tribes can condition their permission on training, culturally-informed procedure, and other best practices to ensure the safety of Indigenous peoples and others on Tribal lands.
WDFW Sergeant Wendy Willette testifying in Skagit County Superior Court in late 2021 regarding her unauthorized entry upon Tulalip Reservation trust lands for investigation and surveillance purposes.
Second, pursuant to an amendment offered by Representative Chris Stearns (Navajo), any WDFW officers seeking to work private security on Tribal trust or reservation lands must have received training on the history of police interactions with Indigenous communities.
Tragically, people of color in our state suffer disproportionate violence at the hands of the police. Consider the January 2023 report that Spokane Police Department commissioned, which found that the Department used force disproportionately against Black and Indigenous Spokanites. As of late 2022, WDFW did not offer its officers any training on racism in policing or our society, or even on bias more broadly. Anti-bias training can reduce police brutality and improve citizen safety, especially in Indigenous communities.
These successful amendments show that Tribal input matters in Washington state lawmaking, especially when channeled through Indigenous leaders like Sen. Kauffman and Rep. Stearns in Olympia. House Bill 1369 also shows how the voices of the people most affected by the criminal system—Indigenous peoples and other communities of color—can and should be centered in the state legislative process.
Gabe Galanda is the Managing Lawyer of Galanda Broadman, an Indigenous rights law firm.
Henry Oostrom-Shah is a student law clerk with Galanda Broadman. After graduating from Boston University School of Law this month, he will work as a public defender in Portland, Oregon.
