Justice Department Works to Improve Tribal Justice Systems in Alaska Story-Date: 02:26 p.m. PST Wednesday, April 29, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ Justice Department Works to Improve Tribal Justice Systems in Alaska By Don Hunter, Anchorage Daily News Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Apr. 29--Top officials in the U.S. Justice Department, including Attorney General Janet Reno, are talking with Alaska Native tribal groups this week to find ways to expand and improve tribal justice systems here in the wake of the Venetie Supreme Court ruling. Reno, in Washington, D.C., spoke by teleconference with leaders of about 50 federally recognized Alaska tribes gathered at the Egan Center in Anchorage, kicking off a three-day swing through Alaska by high-level Justice officials. Reporters were excluded from the meeting by the Justice Department; tribal leaders said they were surprised and disappointed at the move. Reno's chief of staff, John Hogan, will lead the delegation of senior Justice Department officials to the Western Alaska village of Akiachak today. Other Justice officials will continue to Fort Yukon and Sitka on Thursday. Looking for ways to assert more local control, a growing number of Alaska Native villages have been exploring aspects of tribal justice -- from village councils handling adoptions and other domestic matters of tribal members to a handful of communities with tribal police forces that haul misdemeanor offenders before tribal courts. Tribal leaders at the meetings this week are looking for assurances that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Venetie case did not rule out tribal authority in rural Alaska. They got it on Tuesday. The scope of that authority may not yet be clear, but, Hogan said, "I don't think there is any question that the tribes still play a part in law enforcement." Justice Department officials described the meetings as "government-to-government" talks between Washington and Alaska tribes. It also is unclear what the Justice Department and other federal agencies will do to assist tribal governments in establishing courts and local police systems. While tribes need money to pay, train and equip police, and develop or expand tribal courts, Hogan said Justice Department funding for those programs is limited, and Alaska tribes face competition from Lower 48 tribes with similar needs. "One of the things we're trying to do here is, because (funding) is so limited, making sure we use wisely what we do have," he said. In the Venetie ruling, the Supreme Court held that Alaska tribes don't have the same broad Indian country powers to tax and regulate outsiders as Lower 48 reservations. Improving the strained relations between tribal governments and state officials, who do not formally recognize the tribal governments and opposed them in the Venetie case, is important to Reno, Hogan said. "Clearly, the federal government has a role, the state has a role and the tribes have a role," he said. "We're trying to figure out the best way those three governments can work out their differences." In prepared remarks delivered during the Reno teleconference, Sitka Tribal Judge Theodore Borbridge said tribes believe the Justice Department should help them draw state officials to the table for "a trilateral dialogue between the three distinct orders of government in Alaska: tribal governments, the state and the federal government." Borbridge and Akiachak tribal administrator Willie Kasayulie said Alaska's tribes need funding, too. Costs for services in Alaska villages are magnified by their geographic isolation, Borbridge said, and the agency should not waste money by routing it indirectly. "We must explicitly state that future funding for tribal justice initiatives must go directly to legitimate, authentic tribal governments at the grass-roots level," Borbridge said. Kasayulie said the tribes need funding for programs addressing domestic violence, sexual assault and drug abuse. Tribes need the federal government to encourage the state to recognize and cooperate with tribal courts in child protection cases and for development of tribal juvenile codes, he said. The simple fact that Hogan and other high-level federal Justice officials came to Anchorage to meet with tribes is significant, Kasayulie said. "This dialogue also impresses upon the state of Alaska that tribes do exist in spite of the Venetie decision," he said. Hogan said tribal leaders delivered "a very strong message" to Reno during the 90-minute teleconference. In return, he said, "she made a pledge to be as accessible as possible. She didn't want it to end when the video camera went off." Justice Department spokesman Heber Willis III said agency officials excluded reporters from the daylong session with tribes because they wanted confidential, "government to government consultations between the tribal governments of Alaska" and the federal government. "Having the press available changes the dynamics of the dialogue," Willis said. Hogan and the other Justice officials also met privately with federal law enforcement officials earlier in the day and with state officials at lunch. Attorney General Bruce Botelho, leaving the session with Deborah Williams, the Interior Department's top Alaska official, was asked about how the talks went. "Oh, we had a good discussion," Botelho said. "A very good discussion," Williams added. (c) 1998, Anchorage Daily News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------