Rob Capriccioso of Indian Country Today takes an in-depth look, here, at the Tribal Law and Order Act just approved by Congress and expected to get President Obama’s signature.

Obama called the bill “important step to help the federal government better address the unique public safety challenges that confront tribal communities.”

And the bill was one of the top priorities for Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who spoke of the “crisis” in law enforcement on many reservations.

Capriccioso details some of the bill’s provisions:

Under the bill, tribal courts will be allowed to impose sentences of up to three years, but their authority is affected in some ways, like being required to follow U.S. court system procedures.

Also, tribes prosecuting individuals for crimes that could land them in jail for more than a year must provide defendants with the same right to a lawyer that they would have in state or federal court. …

Under the new law, when a tribe provides a defendant a lawyer, he or she must be licensed in either federal, state, or tribal court, and that court has to have “appropriate professional licensing standards and effectively ensures the competence and professional responsibility of its licensed attorneys.” Similarly, tribal judges have to have “sufficient legal training to preside over criminal proceedings” and also be licensed in federal, state, or tribal courts to practice law.

However, the story notes that the bill will end up costing some tribes as they implement its standards.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Native American news, President Barack Obama, Sen. Byron Dorgan, Tribal Law and Order Act, U.S. Senate Commitee on Indian Affairs

Here’s the story from the Associated Press:

HELENA – The federal government will distribute $67 million to Native American groups in 41 states to provide job training for adults and at-risk youth.

Some of the highest unemployment rates in the nation are on reservations. Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan of North Dakota has called it a chronic problem.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that $53 million will go to employment and training services for Native Americans who are unemployed or underemployed.

The rest, some $14 million, will target job training for at-risk youth in Native American communities.

The programs will provide job placement assistance along with academic, occupational and literacy skills training.

More than 250 tribes and Native associations will receive funding through the competitive grants.

Tags: buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Indian reservations, Native American news, Sen. Byron Dorgan, U.S. Labor Department, Unemployment

The National Congress of American Indians will decide tomorrow whether to urge support for changes to the $3.4 billion settlement in the Cobell v. Salazar class-action Indian trust case.

Congress must sign off on the settlement, but Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., has urged changes, including a cap on attorneys’ fees. If no agreement can be reached on his proposal, the entire settlement, benefiting hundreds of thousands of Indian people, could be in jeopardy.
Ruth Brown of the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal is covering this week’s NCAI meeting in Rapid City, and reports here:

Elouise Cobell in Washington, D.C., in December, when the historic settlement was announced. Now it's in danger of unraveling. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)


The Cobell case is a long-standing lawsuit that addresses alleged mishandling of Native American trust land accounts by the federal government. It alleges the U.S Department of the Interior has bungled the accounting on thousands of individual Native trust accounts for more than 100 years. It covers more than 60 million acres that have been entrusted to survivors of the original landowners.

Barrasso said he thinks attorney fees and costs should be capped at $50 million — up to $50 million less than proposed. He also suggested setting aside $50 million of the settlement money for certain lawsuit participants who receive “insufficient or unfair” amounts under the settlement’s payment formula. The money would be distributed by a “special master” appointed by the court.

“The settlement would provide an immediate benefit to the approximately 350,000 individual Indians who are members of the class action,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. “This is compensation that could go a long way for those that need it most.”

The proposed agreement calls for the U.S. Department of the Interior to distribute $1.4 billion to more than 300,000 Native Americans nationwide. Most participants in the class-action lawsuit, filed in 1996 by Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont., would receive at least $1,500.

The settlement also requires the government to spend $2 billion to buy back and consolidate tribal land broken up in previous generations, and create a $60 million Indian Education Scholarship fund.

During the 14 years, many of the people the suit would have benefited have died.

“I have had to lose 5,000 Blackfeet (who died) that haven’t been paid,” James St. Goddard, a Blackfeet tribal leader, tells Brown. “A lot of people don’t truly understand the importance of the Cobell case, and I must hear from my Indian brothers before decisions are made.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Blackfeet, buffalo post, Cobell v. Salazar, Elouise Cobell, Gwen Florio, Indian Education Scholarship fund, National Congress of American Indians, Native American news, Sen. Byron Dorgan, Sen. John Barrasso, U.S. Interior Department, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

After tribes from across the country submitted economic recovery plans to their local Congressional delegates, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved $2.8 billion for Indian Country.

See today’s story in the Missoulian.

Also, read the breakdown of the $2.8 billion appropriations legislation in this press release from the office of Appropriations Committee member Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., also chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Jodi Rave

Tags: Indian Country Stimulus Plan, Jod Rave, Sen. Byron Dorgan, Senate Appropriations Committee

Before going home to Montana today, I was invited to Sen. Byron Dorgan’s Senate office on Capitol Hill. The Democratic senator, a fellow North Dakotan, and I have talked on the phone over the years, but I rarely get to see him in person. So, we had a good visit today. He told me about his father, Emmett Dorgan, who was a tried-and-true horseman. Emmett used to ride his horse  to Elbowoods on the Fort Berthold Reservation where he visited member of the Three Affiliated Tribes.

On some of  his trips to Fort Berthold, he would take his son, Byron, now a U.S. senator. Emmett inspired compassion in his son about working to improve the lives of Native people. Sen. Dorgan now serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Dorgan has an impressive Senate office in the Hart building where he has a gorgeous display of a full-length eagle feather headdress of Chief Four Bears, a revered Hidatsa leader.  The warbonnet is a replica encased in glass. It’s on loan to Dorgan.

I’ll be writing more news stories on Dorgan, who is spearheading legislation to include about $3.5 billion for Indian Country as part of President Barack Obama ’s $850 billion economic-stimulus bill.

Jodi Rave

Tags: Sen. Byron Dorgan