Sept. 16, 2010

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT GRANTS AIMED AT ASSISTING KANSAS INDIAN TRIBES

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – Two Kansas Indian tribes will receive a total of more than $790,000 in grants from the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom announced today.

“We want to partner with the federally recognized Indian tribes in Kansas to promote public safety in tribal communities,” Grissom said.

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Mayetta, Kan., will receive $316,585 from the Justice Department’s COPS - Tribal Resource Grant Program, and another $300,000 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas in Horton, Kan., will receive $174,493 from the COPS - Tribal Resource Grant Program.

Nationally, the Justice Department is granting almost $127 million to American Indian communities, Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli announced this week during a ceremony at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

In Kansas last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Metzger met with members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi and the Kickapoo Tribe, as well as representatives of the state’s two other recognized Indian tribes, the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and the Sac and Fox Nation.

“These grant funds will help us to bring the federal justice system closer to Indian Country and to work together on problems national tribal leaders have identified such as violence against women,” Grissom said.
The Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder has made American Indian issues a top priority. For more information, visit http://www.tribaljusticeandsafety.gov/