A new agreement between the State of Iowa and the Meskwaki (meh-SQUAHK-ee) Nation makes it clear Meskwaki Police have the authority to pursue and arrest suspects who travel outside the tribe’s settlement near Tama. In 1948, Congress gave the State of Iowa jurisdiction over all crimes committed on the Meskwaki settlement near Tama — but that law was repealed in 2018. Tribal Chairman Vern Jefferson says that’s created confusion.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says there’s also been confusion about whether Iowa police and State Troopers have had authority to chase suspects onto the Meskwaki Settlement.

Bird says a district court judge recently dismissed evidence in a drug case because the pursuit that led to the arrest of a repeat offender crossed the boundary between the Meskwaki Settlement and the State of Iowa. Bird says negotiators have been working for nearly a year on the details of the agreement, which was signed Thursday afternoon.

The Iowa Commissioner of Public Safety also signed the agreement. Tribal Council members, the chief of the Meskwaki Police force and other state officials attended the ceremony in Des Moines.

O. Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa