More tribes bring back sentence of banishment

SANTA FE, N.M. — American Indian tribes across the country have in recent years revived the centuries-old practice of banishment as a form of punishment, these days as a way to deal with violent criminals, drug abusers and gang members on the reservation.

While banishment has been relatively scarce among tribes in New Mexico, it did crop up recently.

Nambé Pueblo passed a resolution in February to expel a non-Native man from its boundaries for an unspecified amount of time. The resolution says only that Steve Edward Romero “poses a grave risk to the health, safety and welfare to members of the community,” and that his banishment is “specifically to maintain peace within the Pueblo and in respect for the Laws of the Pueblo.”

http://www.abqjournal.com/797280/more-tribes-bring-back-sentence-of-banishment.html