Tribal Courts

ATJRC contractor, Lisa Jaeger support Alaska Tribes to develop, enhance and sometimes correct their tribal codes to ensure alignment with current needs.

Walker River Paiute Tribe is a FY22 CTAS Purpose Area 3 - Tribal Healing to Wellness Court Grantee and has agreed to participate as a Sister Court with TLPI, paired with LTBB and Tulalip. This reporting period included a technical assistance request for: extensive planning and training needs; community needs assessment; setting tribal staff roles and expectations; policy development; and advising on award modification possibilities to meet tribal needs.

During this reporting period, TLPI continued to track technical assistance data and training performance measures. Technical Assistance Request Forms are utilized to track new TA requests, Intake Forms are utilized to gather and track Wellness Court basic information and current programmatic needs. Training and technical assistance requests and fulfillment, along with addition of follow up information, is entered into TLPI's database, Civicore, so that training and technical assistance is documented.

The term Mentee was not well received by potential participating courts. Specifically, when requesting permission from Tribal Council and/or Judge for participation in the Mentor Court Program, the term mentee was seen as diminishing towards current efforts of their court projects. Additionally, it is the same language used by the federal program. Language holds immense cultural significance and the use of distinct terminology is central in preserving and respecting tribal identity. As such, the term mentee was switched to Sister Courts.

Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBB) continues to serve as a mentor court in the mentor court program. This reporting period, LTBB proceeded to be highly engaged in the program.
7/10/23 - Best Practice concern: drug test validity. A new drug testing provider for LTBB; contrary to best practices. Eligibility requirements of mentor court are to adhere to best practice standards. Discussing ongoing options for new testing providers and policies to maintain current contract.

NAICJA staff attorney Mary Rodriguez attended the NCAI hosted virtual meetings monthly for Inter Tribal Working Group- Judges.

NAICJA staff attorney Mary Rodriguez attended the NCAI hosted virtual meetings monthly for Inter Tribal Working Group- Public Defenders.

Tribal Law Specialist, Catherine Retana at TLPI arrived in Seattle, WA early to attend 2024 Emerging Issues Conference. She met with Yakama Tribal Court staff and they shared that they will be hiring four court clerks and would like to get training. Catherine let them know that she and NAICJA would be their TA Coach and could discuss training. She provided her contact information and shared the welcome letter again. They wanted to know if they could hire a consultant to training their tribal clerk since they already have all of their tribal code.

Tribal Law Specialist, Catherine Retana at TLPI attended the 2024 Emerging Issues Conference in Seattle, WA. She briefly met with the Seminole Nation Tribal Court staff and introduced herself and provided her business card with contact information. She let them know that they should have received a welcome letter from TLPI and that she would be resending it again after the conference to grantees who did not respond.

Red Lake Nation is a FY22 Adult Treatment Court - Tribal Healing to Wellness Court Grantee.
On September 8, 2023, Red Lake Associate Judge, Leah Kingbird, requested technical assistance on the grant budget as a result of Red Lake's awarded budget being less than the grant request. Wellness Court Specialist Angie Juárez-Monger met with Judge Kingbird on September 29 to provide assistance. Budget clearance was received November 1, 2023. As a grantee, training and technical assistance will continue to be offered to Red Lake Nation.