“This administration is committed to building and sustaining safe and secure native communities across the country. We know too well that tribal communities face unique law enforcement challenges and are struggling to reverse unacceptable rates of violence against women and children. We have made solid strides in our work to improve public safety, ease and enhance tribes' ability to receive federal support, and strengthen coordination and collaboration with our tribal law enforcement partners—but work remains, and our efforts continue daily.”
-- Attorney General Eric Holder
In June 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder launched a Department-wide initiative to enhance public safety in Indian Country. Significant progress has been made since then. This document offers highlights of the Department’s progress in the following areas: enhanced prosecution and training efforts; implementation of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (TLOA); grant opportunities; general litigation; civil rights; and outreach and consultation.
Passage of landmark legislation to Combat Violence Against Native Women
- On March 7, 2013, President Obama signed into the law the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This law contains provisions that significantly improve the safety of Native women and which importantly, allow federal and tribal law enforcement agencies to hold more perpetrators of domestic violence accountable for their crimes. Many of these critical provisions were drawn from the U.S. Department of Justice’s July 2011 proposal for new Federal legislation to combat violence against native women. The tribal provisions in VAWA address three significant legal gaps by: (1) recognizing certain tribes’ power to exercise concurrent criminal jurisdiction over domestic violence cases, regardless of whether the defendant is Indian or non-Indian; (2) clarifying that tribal courts have full civil jurisdiction to issue and enforce protection orders involving any person, Indian or non-Indian; and (3) creating new federal statutes to address crimes of violence, such as strangulation, committed against a spouse or intimate partner and providing more robust federal sentences for certain acts of domestic violence in Indian Country. The Senate-passed version of VAWA Reauthorization, S. 47, including these tribal provisions, passed both Houses of Congress with significant bi-partisan support.
Native American Issues Subcommittee
- U.S. Attorneys from 30 of 48 districts with Indian Country or one or more federally recognized tribes serve on the Attorney General’s Advisory Council (AGAC) Native American Issues Subcommittee (NAIS). The NAIS focuses exclusively on Indian Country issues, both criminal and civil, and is responsible for making policy recommendations to the Attorney General regarding public safety and legal issues. Throughout 2012, the NAIS convened on six occasions, with one meeting taking place in Bismarck, North Dakota. In September 2012, U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon, who currently serves as the Chair of the NAIS, hosted the meeting in the District of North Dakota. Sixteen U.S. Attorneys, whose districts contain Indian Country, attended this meeting, in addition to leadership from the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs-Office of Justice Services, and other Department components, including Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Mary Lou Leary, Director of EOUSA H. Marshall Jarrett, and Director of the Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ) Tracy Toulou. During this meeting the NAIS met with the tribal leaders of North Dakota and conferred with federal law enforcement partners about issues impacting public safety in Indian Country. In July 2011, the NAIS, joined by Attorney General Eric Holder, met in Rapid City, South Dakota, and on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, to hear from tribal leaders, law enforcement officials, and community members about public safety issues in Indian Country, including violence against Native American women.
U.S. Attorney’s Office Tribal Liaisons
- Every U.S. Attorney with Indian Country jurisdiction has appointed at least one tribal liaison to serve as the USAO’s primary point of contact with tribes in the district.
Enhanced Training for Prosecutors and Law Enforcement Working in Indian Country
- In July 2010, EOUSA launched the National Indian Country Training Initiative (NICTI) to ensure that Department prosecutors, as well as state and tribal criminal justice personnel, receive the training and support needed to address the particular challenges relevant to Indian Country prosecutions. The training effort is led by the Department’s National Indian Country Training Coordinator. In 2012, the NICTI delivered training in 16 states and at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, S.C. to approximately 2,500 federal, state and tribal stakeholders on a host of criminal justice issues. In addition, the NICTI, with funding from the Office for Victims of Crime, completed a training DVD and resource manual on “Using Federal Law to Prosecute Domestic Violence Crimes in Indian Country.” This free training DVD highlights the substantive law and four successful federal prosecutions; it models best practice where federal and tribal partners worked collaboratively to ensure justice for the victim and accountability for the offender.
- In January 2013, the NICTI partnered with the National Strangulation Training Institute to deliver the first-ever national Indian Country training on the investigation and prosecution of non-fatal strangulation and suffocation offenses. The training drew attendance from 17 tribes, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The training provided an in-depth examination of the mechanics of strangulation and suffocation from a medical, legal and law enforcement perspective. The training, held at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, S.C., provided an in-depth examination of the mechanics of strangulation and suffocation from a medical, legal and law enforcement perspective.
- In October 2012, the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the Department, in partnership with the NICTI, developed and held the first-ever joint federal-tribal training program on wildlife and pollution enforcement issues. The course was designed for tribal and federal enforcement personnel and prosecutors who work to protect tribal lands and resources, and members of more than 60 different tribes signed up to participate as students and faculty. The course sought to promote federal-tribal partnerships in this area and to help tribes further develop the capacity to assume a greater role in enforcing environmental and wildlife laws affecting tribal lands.
- Since 2011, the Department’s Access to Justice Initiative has partnered with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s BIA Office of Tribal Justice Services to develop the Tribal Court Trial Advocacy Training Program. This three-day trial advocacy course is designed to improve the trial skills of judges, public defenders, and prosecutors who appear in tribal courts. Nine trainings have been held in Rapid City, S.D., Phoenix, Ariz., Duluth, Minn., Ignacio, Colo., Great Falls, Mont., Chinle, Navajo Nation, Seattle, Wash., and Albuquerque, N.M., and additional trainings are being scheduled for the coming year. All trainings are free and are staffed by attorneys from the Initiative, BIA, Assistant U.S. Attorneys who practice in Indian Country, the EOUSA Native American Issues Coordinator, Assistant Federal Public Defenders, and tribal prosecutors, public defenders, and judges.
Attorney General’s Violence Against Women Federal and Tribal Prosecution Task Force
- In 2011, the Attorney General launched a Violence Against Women Federal and Tribal Prosecution Task Force composed of federal and tribal prosecutors. The Task Force was created to facilitate dialogue and coordinate efforts between the Department and tribal governments regarding the prosecution of violent crimes against women in Indian Country, and to develop best-practices recommendations for both federal and tribal prosecutors. The Task Force most recently met in-person in May 2012 and completion of a resource manual for prosecutors responding to cases of intimate partner violence in Indian Country is planned for release in Spring 2013.
Information Sharing with Tribal Governments
- Since 2009, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program Office has coordinated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs to increase the number of tribes that qualify for Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) eligibility. This has been accomplished primarily through liaison efforts and presentations to increase awareness at tribal law enforcement conferences.
Establishment of the Office of Tribal Justice as Separate Component within the Justice Department
On November 17, 2010, Attorney General Holder announced the establishment of the Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ) as a separate component within the organizational structure of the Department. OTJ has a key role in the Department’s ongoing initiative to improve public safety in Indian Country, and serves as an important resource on matters of Indian law. In late 2012, Tracy Toulou, who had served on detail as OTJ Director since 2000, was selected as the first permanent Director of the Office.
Bureau of Prisons Pilot Project to House Tribal Offenders Sentenced in Tribal Courts
In November 2010, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) launched a four-year pilot program to accept certain tribal offenders sentenced in tribal courts for placement in BOP institutions. The pilot program allows any federally recognized tribe to request that BOP incarcerate a person convicted of a violent crime under the terms of the TLOA and authorizes BOP to house up to 100 tribal offenders at a time, nationwide. On November 20, 2012, a referral was transmitted by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation for the placement of an enrolled tribal member in Bureau custody. The defendant, who was convicted of assault by the Umatilla Tribal Court, was accepted by BOP and transferred in January 2013 to FCI Herlong. The defendant is the Bureau's first TLOA pilot participant.
Memorandum of Agreement on Alcohol and Substance Abuse
The Departments of Justice, the Interior and Health and Human Services entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that the agencies would collectively, among other things: determine the scope of the alcohol and substance abuse problems faced by American Indians and Alaska Natives, identify the resources each agency can bring to bear on the problem, and set minimum standards for applying those resources. This multi-agency collaboration has produced quarterly “Prevention and Recovery” newsletters with information about grant programs, tribal programs, and policy initiatives designed to address alcohol and substance abuse in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. The newsletters and more information about this evolving collaboration are available at www.samhsa.gov/tloa/.
Long Term Plan for Building and Sustaining Tribal Justice Systems
The Departments of Justice and the Interior, working in close coordination with other federal agency partners, developed a long term plan to build and sustain tribal justice systems. Formal consultation sessions and focus groups were held to develop the plan.
Rule on Assumption of Concurrent Federal Criminal Jurisdiction
The Department published its final rule in December 2011 to implement Section 221 of the TLOA, which authorizes the Attorney General to assume concurrent jurisdiction over certain crimes committed on tribal lands. Through this rule, an Indian tribe that is subject to Public Law 280 may request that the federal government accept concurrent jurisdiction within the tribe’s Indian Country and, if the Attorney General consents, federal authorities can investigate and prosecute criminal offenses. Public Law 280 is the 1953 law that mandated the transfer of federal law enforcement jurisdiction for certain tribes to six states. Several tribes have submitted requests for assumption by the Attorney General of concurrent federal criminal jurisdiction, which the Department currently is reviewing.
On March 15, 2013, the Department of Justice granted a request by the White Earth Nation for the United States to assume concurrent criminal jurisdiction on the 1,300 square mile White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota. The decision was the first action of its kind under the landmark Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (TLOA), which granted the Justice Department discretion to accept concurrent federal jurisdiction to prosecute major crimes within areas of Indian country that are also subject to state criminal jurisdiction under Public Law 280. The decision, relayed on March 14 in a letter to the tribe signed by Deputy Attorney General Cole, will take effect on June 1, 2013. Tribal, state and county prosecutors and law enforcement agencies will also continue to have criminal jurisdiction on the reservation.
Native American Issues Coordinator Designated in EOUSA
The Department’s Native American Issues Coordinator, designated in EOUSA, provides advice and assistance to USAOs on legal and policy issues pertaining to Native Americans and Indian Country, and serves as a liaison between the USAOs, the NAIS, and other Department components and law enforcement agencies. The Coordinator’s work involves several issues affecting Indian Country, including, among many others, the implementation of the Tribal Justice Plan, which focuses on re-entry, alternatives to incarceration, and detention; jurisdictional issues for criminal and civil matters; outreach efforts between the Department, other federal agencies, and local jurisdictions; requests for assumption of concurrent federal jurisdiction under the TLOA; and issues involving federal, state, and tribal law enforcement authority, cooperation, and emergency response in Indian Country.
Additional Resources to Combat Sexual Assault in Indian Country
In accordance with Section 265 of the TLOA, FBI’s Office of Victim Assistance (OVA) is partnering with the Indian Health Service to expand and support Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) and Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) programs in Indian Country.
Tribal Crime Data Collection Activities, 2012
In October 2012, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released the report Tribal Crime Data Collection Activities 2012, pursuant to TLOA which requires annual reporting on Indian country crime data. This report includes information on the 2010 census population data for the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN); tribal law enforcement agency personnel; tribal Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program awards; improvements in tribes reporting crime data to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR); tribal specific crimes known to law enforcement; federal justice statistics on investigations and charges filed by United States attorneys for crimes committed in Indian country; and highlights the new BJS Indian country justice statistics webpage: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=200000
Streamlined Grant Solicitation Process for Tribal Communities
- In February 2010, the Department announced a streamlined approach for American Indian and Alaska Native tribes to apply for funding opportunities. The Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) serves as a single application for existing tribal government-specific grant programs administered by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). The creation of this streamlined process comes in response to tribes’ concerns that the Department’s grants were not flexible enough, and that a single application would significantly improve the ability to apply for and receive funding.
- In September 2010, in the first set of CTAS grants, the Department awarded $127 million to more than 130 American Indian and Alaska Native communities to enhance law enforcement, bolster justice systems, prevent youth substance abuse, serve sexual assault and elder abuse victims, and support other efforts to combat crime.
- In September 2011, the Department awarded $118.4 million in CTAS grants to more than 150 American Indian and Alaska Native nations to enhance law enforcement practices and sustain crime prevention and intervention efforts in eight purpose areas: public safety and community policing; methamphetamine enforcement; justice systems and alcohol and substance abuse; corrections and correctional alternatives; violence against women; elder abuse; juvenile justice; and tribal youth programs.
- In September 2012 the Department awarded more than $101 million to more than 110 American Indian and Alaska Native nations. The grants will provide funding to enhance law enforcement practices, and sustain crime prevention and intervention efforts in 10 purpose areas including public safety and community policing; justice systems planning; alcohol and substance abuse; corrections and correctional alternatives; violence against women; elder abuse; juvenile justice; and tribal youth programs.
- In December 2012 the Department announced the opening of the FY 2013 CTAS solicitation period for funding to support public safety, victim services and crime prevention improvements for American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments. The deadline for submitting applications was March 19, 2013. Award announcements are expected in Fall 2013. For more information: www.justice.gov/tribal/grants.html
Historic Settlement of Trust Litigation
- In 2010, the Departments of Justice and the Interior reached a historic $3.4 billion settlement resolving the litigation in Cobell v. Salazar, an Indian trust class-action lawsuit that had been pending for 15 years. The settlement, approved by the court and by Congress, provides for payments to over 400,000 individual Indians who had Individual Indian Money accounts or an interest in trust or restricted land managed by the Department of the Interior.
- Since January 2009, the United States has settled the trust accounting and trust mismanagement claims of 70 federally recognized tribes and paid $1.74 billion in compensation to those tribes, resolving decades-long and costly litigation.
- All of the tribal trust case settlements provide for measures that will lead to strengthened management of tribal trust assets and non-monetary resources and to improved communications between the Department of the Interior and the tribes. The Department, along with the Interior and Treasury Departments, is continuing settlement negotiations with other tribes that still have pending trust accounting and trust mismanagement claims against the United States.
Securing Tribal Lands
- The Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division litigates in support of tribal lands. The Department helped the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe establish the existence and boundaries of its reservation through a 2010 settlement between the Tribe, the United States, the State of Michigan, and local governments, which included a series of landmark intergovernmental agreements that provide much-needed clarity regarding authority over law enforcement, child welfare, taxation, and land use matters. In addition, the Department successfully supported the existence of the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota by defeating claims that the reservation had been disestablished.
- The Department also successfully defended the Secretary of the Interior’s decisions to take land into trust for various tribes, which expanded their land bases and authority.
- In addition, the Department worked closely with the Department of the Interior to address the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Carcieri v. Salazar holding that Interior could not take land into trust for tribes that had not been “under federal jurisdiction” when the Indian Reorganization Act was enacted in 1934. The Department helped Interior develop a framework to determine whether a tribe was “under federal jurisdiction” at that time, thus addressing the uncertainty created by the Carcieri decision and allowing Interior to address the backlog of trust applications that developed in the wake of that decision.
Since then, the Department has defended Interior's decisions to take land into trust under the new post-Carcieri framework and it continues to do so. In January 2013, the Department secured favorable decisions in two cases where plaintiffs sought, based in part on Carcieri, a preliminary injunction or restraining order precluding Interior from taking land into trust on behalf of two Indian tribes in California.
- The Department also filed a precedent-setting amicus brief on behalf of the United States in a tribal court defending tribal reservation boundaries. In Village of Pender v. Parker, the Department supported the Omaha Tribe’s argument that an act of Congress did not alter or diminish the Tribe’s reservation boundary, relying in part on a recent Department of the Interior opinion. On February 8, 2013, the tribal court ruled that the reservation boundaries remain intact.
- In a case of first impression, the Department secured dismissal of a case that concerned the assertion of local authority over Indian trust lands. The Department argued in Oneida Nation of Wisconsin v. Village of Hobart that state or local regulation of tribal lands was improper under the facts of that case. The court ultimately provided the relief that the Oneida Nation sought.
Preserving Tribal Culture through Access to Eagle Feathers
- On October 12, 2012, the Department announced a policy addressing the ability of members of federally recognized Indian tribes use the feathers and other parts of eagles and other federally protected birds, an issue of great cultural and religious significance to many tribes and their members. Attorney General Eric Holder signed the new policy after extensive Department consultation with tribal leaders and tribal groups. The Attorney General's memorandum is the first formal policy statement adopted by the Justice Department on this issue. It clarifies and expands on longstanding Department practice, consistent with the Department of the Interior's 35-year old Morton Policy, of not prosecuting tribal members for possessing or using eagle feathers and other protected bird parts while continuing to prosecute tribal members and nonmembers alike for killing protected birds without a permit or for commercializing federally protected birds or bird parts. The policy is located at www.justice.gov/ag/ef-policy.pdf
- In an important victory, the Tenth Circuit held in United States v. Wilgus that the government could provide tribal members with exclusive access to eagle feathers for religious purposes, under exceptions to federal laws prohibiting possession of these wildlife resources.
Supporting Tribal Courts and Tribal Sovereignty
- The Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division litigates in support of tribal sovereignty. For example, in Water Wheel Camp Recreation Area, Inc. v. Gary LaRance, the Department successfully supported tribal court jurisdiction to exclude non-Indians from tribal land. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling will help address long-standing problems with non-Indians encroaching on tribal lands and provides strong precedent in support of tribal courts.
- In the Supreme Court case of Hogan v. Kaltag Tribal Council and the Ninth Circuit case of Parks v. Native Village of Minto, the Department helped successfully support the inherent sovereignty of Alaska Native village tribal courts to adjudicate child custody matters.
- The Department defended the validity of tribe-specific employment preferences in leases relating to a particular tribe’s trust resources. The Department successfully argued that such preferences are based on political classifications, grounded in the government-to-government relationship between the United States and tribal nations, and are therefore permissible under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Ensuring Tribal Access to Water
- The Indian Resources Section of the Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) continued to assert water rights claims for the benefit of tribes in order to secure safe and reliable drinking water for tribes, as well as water for sanitation, economic development, and other purposes. In particular, ENRD contributed to six landmark Indian water rights settlements and corresponding statutes which, when fully implemented, will resolve complex and contentious water rights issues in New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, and Nevada. The Department also successfully defended claims for the benefit of the Klamath Tribes in the Klamath Basin Adjudication in Oregon. The Oregon court affirmed sufficient water rights to support productive habitat for fish, wildlife, and edible plants on the Klamath Reservation in southern Oregon. ENRD remains involved in 29 complex water rights adjudications in nearly every western state.
- One way in which ENRD incorporates environmental justice principles into its tribal cases is by working with tribal members to address pollution on their lands. For example, the Department worked closely with members of the Ute Indian Tribe in reaching a consent decree that resolved Clean Air Act violations at five natural gas compressor stations on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah. Under the settlement, defendant QEP Field Services (formerly Questar Gas Management Co.) will fund a Tribal Clean Air Trust Fund that will fund beneficial environmental projects on the Reservation. In addition, the defendant will pay a $3.6 million penalty and install pollution controls that will reduce emissions.
- ENRD also successfully defended the Indian Health Service’s efforts to supply modern sewer and water supply systems on the Santa Ysabel reservation in San Diego County for homes whose occupants had previously hauled water from a communal tank on a daily basis.
Landmark Settlement Reached with Native American Farmers Claiming Discrimination by USDA
On October 19, 2010, Attorney General Holder and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a landmark settlement of the Keepseagle class-action lawsuit filed against the Department of Agriculture (USDA) by Native American farmers and ranchers. The settlement ends more than a decade of litigation concerning discrimination complaints from Native Americans generally covering the period from 1981 to 1999.
Prosecution of Hate Crimes and Human Trafficking
Since January 2009, the Department’s Civil Rights Division, working with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, has prosecuted civil rights crimes victimizing Native Americans through sex trafficking, hate crimes, and police brutality, including prosecuting:
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Defendants for sex trafficking Native American children and adults in South Dakota;
- Police officers for beating Native American victims in Arizona and Montana;
- Corrections officers for beating a Native American detainee in North Carolina;
- Defendants who committed hate crimes against Native Americans, including three defendants in New Mexico for using force to cause bodily injury to a Native American man under the Shepard Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 and two defendants who assaulted and threatened an Alaska Native in Anchorage.
Implementing Voting Rights
The Department’s Civil Rights Division has been active in enforcing the voting rights of Native Americans, including the right to vote without discrimination and the right, in some jurisdictions, to have voter information available in certain Native languages. Since 2009, the Division has enforced Native American voting rights in Alaska, Arizona, Mississippi, New Mexico, and South Dakota.
Increased Cooperation and Consultation with Tribes
- In October 2009, the Attorney General convened the Department’s Tribal Nations Listening Session on Public Safety and Law Enforcement in St. Paul, Minn. Nearly 300 tribal leaders representing approximately 100 tribes attended the session. In addition to representatives from nearly all of the Department’s components, representatives of the Departments of the Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education, and Homeland Security also participated.
- In July 2011, Attorney General Holder visited South Dakota to meet with tribal leaders in Rapid City and visited the Pine Ridge Reservation.
- In April 2012, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole attended the District of North Dakota U.S. Attorney’s Tribal Consultation Conference in Bismarck, and visited with high school students, tribal leaders and criminal justice personnel at the Standing Rock Reservation.
- In June 2012, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole addressed the Sovereignty Symposium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
- In June 2012, Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West visited the Crow Nation and Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana, where he met with tribal leaders and discussed public safety issues.
- In August 2012, Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West addressed the Four Corners Indian Country Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other speakers included U.S. Attorneys John Walsh, David Barlow and Kenneth Gonzales.
- Also in August 2012, Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West visited the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Tribe in Colorado, and the Pueblos of Acoma and Laguna in New Mexico, meeting with tribal leaders at each location.
- The Department has engaged in dozens of consultations with tribes on issues important to public safety, justice and law enforcement, including violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women, implementation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, enforcement of federal bird protection laws in a manner sensitive to tribal concerns, and the TLOA.
- The Department has also engaged in significant outreach on environmental and natural resource issues. In particular, the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) has teamed up with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in Wisconsin, New Mexico, Montana, and North Dakota to conduct listening sessions and follow-up meetings on critical issues relating to protection of the environment and tribal resources. In conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, ENRD has also conducted outreach meetings with consortia of Puget Sound tribes related to protection of treaty fishing rights. In order to further enhance its tribal outreach and consultation efforts, ENRD has designated a new position, Senior Counsel for Indian Affairs, in its front office.
Tribal Nations Leadership Council
The Department established a Tribal Nations Leadership Council (TNLC), composed of tribal leaders selected by the tribes themselves and charged with advising the Attorney General on issues critical to tribal governments and communities. The TNLC has met biannually since late 2010 with Attorney General Holder, most recently in February 2013.
National Indian Nations Conference
In December 2010, more than 900 persons attended the 12th National Indian Nations Conference on the Agua Caliente Reservation in California. Featured speakers included Attorney General Eric Holder and then-Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk. The event provided training for law enforcement officials, prosecutors, judges, health and mental health professionals, social workers, and victim advocates from tribal, federal, state, and local levels.
National Intertribal Youth Summit
Approximately 150 young men and women from tribes across the country attended week-long National Intertribal Youth Summits in Santa Fe, New Mexico (July 2011) and in Washington, D.C. (August 2012), featuring Administration officials from the White House and the Departments of Justice, the Interior, Health and Human Services, and Education. The Summit provided an opportunity for Administration officials to hear directly from youth in Indian Country on critical issues such as healthy relationships and lifestyles, education, substance and alcohol abuse, cultural preservation, community development, and protecting the environment.
In October 2011, in accordance with the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, the Attorney General submitted a report on the issue of prescription drug monitoring to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Committee on Natural Resources. The report describes the capacity of Federal and tribal agencies to carry out data collection and analysis and information exchanges as described in the Act; training conducted for Indian health care providers, tribal leaders, law enforcement officers, and school officials regarding awareness and prevention of prescription drug abuse and strategies for improving agency resources for addressing prescription drug abuse in Indian communities; infrastructure enhancements required to carry out the activities described in the Act; and statutory or administrative barriers to carrying out the activities required by the Act. Read the full report at www.justice.gov/tribal/publications.html
