effort to curb youth alcohol abuse, tribal members of the Organized Village of Kake (federally recognized Tribe of Kake, Alaska) established the Healing Heart Council and Circle Peacemaking, a reconciliation and sentencing process embedded...
Recognizing that effective law enforcement is both an essential governmental function and an important expression of sovereignty, the Gila River Indian Community assumed responsibility for its own policing in the late 1990s. Since taking over management...
Courts are cornerstones of sovereign governments: they define and uphold the laws through which nations govern themselves. Too often, however, the absence or weakness of tribal courts means tribal citizens must rely on state courts that are ill-equipped...
Responding to a rash of child sexual abuse cases in Arizona and a federally legislated opportunity to craft tribal solutions, the Navajo Child Special Advocacy Program was launched in 1990 to provide Western and Navajo therapy to children...
For hundreds of years, the Navajo lived under a traditional justice system composed of both Navajo common law and consensus-oriented judicial procedures. The aim of the justice system was simple: to restore harmony. Over time, the Nation...
In 1980, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) obtained federal recognition and, in 1988, developed a constitutional government. In this process, GTB’s leaders were acutely aware that developing a constitutional...
