There is a great deal of disbelief about traditional Indian law for that reason, and there are many who are leery of the growing restorative justice movement. That is relevant to Indians and their nations within the modern states of the western hemisphere, because conquest itself may create law as we know it. The resulting social stratification is then rationalized, the inferior group is subjected to punishment for any infringement of the interests of their superiors, and thus formal law comes into being. Tyranny will be harsher in a state established through conquest of one people by another than in a state where all share the same language, culture, and history. Of course we all know that history is written by the oppressor and not by the oppressed.
Legal positivism is a dangerous and racist doctrine.
Canada attempts to create a multicultural society while the U.S. is dominated by a white male Protestant authoritarian power structure. In contrast, most Indian societies are genuinely egalitarian in nature. We see that in Potlatch and Giveaway ceremonies and in the way Indians look to their relatives for help when they have problems. Most traditional justice methods are based on talking things out to reach consensus. The reality is that such may have been caused by pushing groups of Indians away from their original homes into a new environment.