The Yakama Nation then filed suit against the City of Toppenish and Yakima County, claiming that the state did not have jurisdiction over criminal matters involving Indians. Since then, the interpretation has remained ambiguous, until police officers arrested a Yakama Nation member and obtained a search warrant for another Yakama Nation member’s home. In 2014, Governor Jay Inslee only granted part of the Nation’s request, not retroceding any jurisdiction outside the “exterior boundaries of the Yakama Reservation.” Inslee sent the letter to the Department of Interior (DOI), also stating the the “and” should be read as “and/or.” The DOI accepted the retrocession without addressing the governor’s interpretation. The Yakama Nation then requested full retrocession of the civil and criminal jurisdiction that Washington had over the Yakama Nation.

In 2012, Washington codified a process through which tribes can request retrocession through a petition. In 1968, states were authorized to voluntarily give up “all or any measure of the criminal or civil jurisdiction, or both,” that it had acquired through “retrocession.” Washington assumed some of this power in 1963. Public Law 280, which was passed in 1953, gave states the “consent of the United States” to assume full jurisdiction over causes of action on Native American reservations by state legislative act. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held Monday that Washington state has jurisdiction over crimes involving non-Native Americans on the Yakama Nation reservation.

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