FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AG
THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1995 (202) 616-2765
At Conference Site: (801) 534-0337
TDD (202) 514-1888
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TO HOLD NORTHWEST REGIONAL
AMERICAN INDIAN NATIONS LISTENING CONFERENCE
Friday, June 2 - Salt Lake City Utah
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- As the Department of Justice prepares for
the second Indian Listening Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah,
Attorney General Janet Reno today released a list of the
Department's accomplishments since last year's Conference.
Entitled "Promises Kept," the report revealed how the
Department has created unprecedented access to the Department of
Justice; defended Native American sovereignty and religious
rights; and provided funding and personnel to fight crime,
violence against women and child exploitation in Indian Nations.
"At last year's National American Indian Listening
Conference we listened to the tribe's concerns, we heard what we
were doing right and what we were doing wrong, and we went back
and did our very best to improve the Department's responsiveness
to tribes and represent tribal interests to the extent the law
allows," said Reno.
On Friday, June 2, the Department will bring together more
than 50 American Indian tribal leaders, Department of Justice
officials and chief judges from state and federal courts to hear
and address specific concerns of Northwestern tribes.
United States Attorneys and state judges from the six
northwestern states, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Nevada
and Utah, will address ways to enhance federal-state-tribal
cooperation.
Tribal leaders will have an opportunity to meet Herb Becker,
Director of the Department of Justice's new Office of Tribal
Justice, which was established in January. They also will hear
from the Honorable Stanley Feldman, Chief Justice of the Arizona
Supreme Court and Chair of the Committee on Tribal-State-Federal
Relations of the Conference of State Chief Justices, and
Honorable William C. Canby Jr., Chair of the U.S. 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals Task Force on Tribal Courts.
The Northwest Regional Listening Conference will be devoted
to three issues of greatest importance to Northwestern tribes:
law enforcement and related funding; treaty rights, especially
hunting and fishing rights; and tribal courts. Tribal leaders,
for purposes of this conference, identify these three issues as
their top priorities.
Special attention will be focused on tribal courts since
they affect all tribes. Department officials will address state
jurisdiction over crimes on reservations, or Public Law 280.
They also will discuss ways to strengthen tribal justice systems,
particularly their ability to respond to family violence and
juvenile issues.
Since the historic National American Indian Listening
Conference last year, the Department of Justice has been active
affirming the Administration's commitment to tribal sovereignty,
working with tribal governments on a government to government
basis and litigating on behalf of American Indian rights.
The Department of Justice:
* Established a point of contact for tribes and a permanent
vehicle to coordinate and focus Department of Justice
policies and positions on American Indian issues through the
creation of the Office of Tribal Justice.
* Defended Native American religious, treaty, gaming and civil
rights, tribal claims and sovereignty.
* Granted over $9 million from police hiring grants to 128
tribes to fund Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).
* Added:
26 Assistant United States Attorney positions to districts
with high concentration of American Indian tribes.
7 criminal attorneys to enhance the Child Exploitation and
Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the Criminal Division.
* Plans to award 15 to 20 Violence Against Women Act grants to
Indian Tribes.
* Plans to add 27 FBI agents to augment investigations in
Indian Country.
Attached is summary of the Department's accomplishments in
meeting its Federal responsibility to this country's first
Americans.
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