Yesterday the Wall Street Journal quoted Gabe Galanda in "High Court Finds No Federal Right to Counsel in Indian Territories":
Unless the defendant is a non-Indian or is facing more than a year in jail [in keeping with the 2013 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization and the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010, respectively], there is no federally mandated right to counsel, but many tribes do provide counsel to indigent defendants as a matter of tribal law, said Gabriel Galanda, Seattle attorney who practices in Indian country.
The VAWA Reauthorization expanded a tribe's ability to assert jurisdiction over non-Indians in certain circumstances, but the defendant must be provided counsel.
The Tribal Law and Order Act changed the maximum sentence a tribe may impose from one year to three years, but the expanded sentencing authority applies only when a defendant has been provided "the right to effective assistance of counsel at least equal to that guaranteed by the United States Constitution."
