Murder Conviction in Indian Rights Trial

Feb. 22, 2001 -- In a case that pitted tribal sovereignty against the U.S. justice system, an American Indian today was convicted of second-degree murder in the drowning deaths of his two sons.

Florida prosecutors argued that 32-year-old Miccosukee Indian Kirk Douglas Billie deliberately drowned their two sons in an act of vengeance against his estranged girlfriend, driving her SUV with the boys inside into a canal just off the South Florida reservation.

The defense countered that Billie, who was allegedly prone to drunken acts of violence, simply couldn't stand to see his sons Kurt, 5, and Keith, 3, constantly left alone while their mother went out cruising for men, and that he had no idea the boys were asleep in the Chevrolet Tahoe.

American Indians across the country closely watched the trial, not just out of concern for one man's fate, but because of the implications the case could have for them. The court battle and the jury's decision could have far-reaching consequences for American Indians' on-going battle to defend their tribal sovereignty rights — guaranteed in treaties with the federal government — but, Indian rights supporters say, too often challenged by states and private companies.

The 600-member Miccosukee (pronounced mih-kuh-SOO-kee) tribe said it has already settled accounts with Billie, who apologized for the boys' deaths, and shook hands with tribal leaders. For the Miccosukees the tragedy was an internal matter between tribal members that had already been resolved, and they asked prosecutors to leave it at that. But Florida prosecutors and jurors saw it differently, convicting Billie after approximately a full day of deliberations. Billie was charged with first-degree murder, for which he could have faced the death penalty. Convicted of second-degree murder, he could now face life in prison.

Spoiling for a Fight

State prosecutors said Billie, who has been held without bail since June 1997, knew the boys were in the car and wanted to punish their mother, not only by ruining her car, but by killing their children.

Though there is precedent for a state allowing Indians to resolve such incidents through their own measures, prosecutors asserted that because of the nature of the crime, Billie deserved to be punished. And because the crime occurred off reservation land, the state has jurisdiction.

At every stage of the way, the two sides battled over what prosecutors had the right to do — whether it was to arrest Billie in the first place, or prosecute the case or subpoena witnesses.

And some tribal lawyers and scholars feared the Miccosukee tribe might take the fight too far.

"The fact that the Miccosukee are pushing the case as a sovereignty case is of concern to me," said University of Minnesota assistant professor of American Indian Studies David Wilkins, a Lumbee. He is the co-author with American Indian lawyer and activist Vine Deloria Jr. of a book that studies the Constitution as it relates to tribal sovereignty, and also wrote American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court, which examines 15 cases in which the court acted to curtail tribal rights.

"I think the Rehnquist court is waiting for a case that it can use to reduce the laws protecting tribes' rights," he added. "The precedent impacts us all. Vine Deloria has urged tribal lawyers to be very careful about the cases they take to the Supreme Court, otherwise all tribes could be hurt."

Members of the Miccosukee tribal counsel and the tribe's lawyers did not return calls about the issue.

OK to Be Indian

American Indians have generally found a friend in the Supreme Court over the last 30 years, as the movement to protect tribal sovereignty has gained strength. Rulings handed down by the relatively liberal courts of the 1970s and early 1980s helped encourage the revival of the Indian rights movement.

After the civil rights movement awakened the country to the concerns of minorities, Deloria's groundbreaking book Custer Died for Your Sins, published in 1970, gave the rest of America a glimpse behind the stereotypes of American Indians painted by Hollywood, and gave Indians a sense of pride.

"All of a sudden it was OK to be an Indian, and it was OK to have Indian rights," said Melody McCoy, an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund.

Then a generation of young Indian lawyers fresh out of law school gave tribes the tools to fight for the rights laid out in treaties signed with the federal government over nearly 200 years.

Over the last 30 years, tribes from Maine to California have reasserted their right to control their own destinies, but few expect the struggle to end soon.

"There's been 25 years of strong federal policy that encourages tribal sovereignty, yet almost every time tribes try to exercise that sovereignty, they're likely to run up against resistance from states or private companies," McCoy said.

The Billie trial was out of the ordinary for cases involving tribal sovereignty, which Indian rights attorneys and scholars say generally deal with environmental issues, access to natural resources or, more recently, casinos. But it highlighted the difficulty that most Americans, raised with Judeo-Christian notions of justice and punishment, have understanding the radically different traditions of American Indians.

"The tribal members believed they have handled the issues, Indian to Indian," tribal leader Billie Cypress wrote to prosecutors in August. "The Indian community is different from other communities, they deal with matters in a different way."

That is something, Indian activists say, that America needs to learn to understand.