On Tuesday, the Walker administration signed an agreement to allow the Anvik tribal court to handle a number of crimes. Those crimes include alcohol and drug offenses, as well as domestic violence cases.
Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth made the announcement surrounded by more than a dozen state and tribal officials at Governor Walker's Anchorage office. State money is short and getting shorter, she said, and already the state's District Attorneys have to drop cases because of a lack of resources to pursue them.
“The problem that we are facing, and that we are dealing with even now with budget cuts, is that a lot of the low-level misdemeanor crimes are simply not getting prosecuted whatsoever, just because our resources are having to be focused on the more violent offenders and the felony types of cases. So we're hopeful that this will allow greater prosecution of offenses, and actually increase public safety,” Lindemuth said.
A number of tribes and Native non-profit corporations have been involved in negotiating this agreement, including the Association of Village Council Presidents. The process has taken three years, and more agreements are likely to follow soon.
“I know the Walker administration remains committed to working with tribal governments,” Lindemuth said. “And I'm hopeful that this is the first step of many where we work towards the goal of increasing public safety in Alaska.”
Anvik Village Chief Carl Jerue Jr. signed the agreement on behalf of his tribe at the news conference.
“In the future,” he said, “things will be better for all of us working together.”
The deal requires anyone accused, tribal member or not, to agree to be tried in tribal court. Then their case could be diverted, and the state court system would no longer be involved unless the tribal court decides to hand it back. While the agreement only applies to certain misdemeanor offenses, it includes some crimes that have been huge problems in many rural communities, including domestic violence. The state Law Department's Criminal Justice head, John Skidmore, explained how the process would work for Fourth Degree Assault, a Class A misdemeanor.
“In that circumstance, there are state laws that require an offender to be arrested for domestic violence,” Skidmore said. “Those provisions still apply; the individual would still be arrested. They would be given the opportunity when they are arraigned at state court to divert into the tribal program.”
Asked if the agreement could potentially give the tribes the clear legal power to banish offenders, Skidmore said that it did.
“The agreement is one in which the state is saying we are not going to have jurisdiction over this. We are turning it over to the tribes for whatever tribal remedies they believe to be appropriate. And the offender, because they have voluntarily agreed to accept that, then they are also agreeing to whatever tribal remedy might be imposed,” Skidmore said. “In the case of banishment, it's not the state that takes that position. If the tribe thinks that's what's appropriate, and that's what the offender has agreed to follow by those, then there isn't a legal problem with that, because the state's not endorsing that; it's simply allowing communities and tribes to use those cultural remedies that they have relied upon for generations and have been very successful.”
Mark Gasco of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, who has been closely involved in the negotiations, said banishment would be an unlikely outcome, at least for Anvik.
“Most of the crimes contemplated by this agreement also would not lead to a remedy of banishment, and banishment would only apply to tribal members in the community,” Gasco said. “So I think banishment would be outside of the scope of this agreement.”
Anvik Chief Jerue said he expected the agreement to give his tribe more tools to deal with young offenders at a point before they get into more serious trouble. That thought was echoed by Nulato Chief Michael Stickman.
“With this system, we can stop that revolving door of where they get to a point where they really can't have a career,” Stickman said.
The term ‘restorative justice’ was used repeatedly. Chief Stickman said while questions of tribal sovereignty are important, so is the goal of bringing the community together trying to cure social ills and individuals.
“You know, this is about tribal courts, and this is about jurisdiction, but it's also about helping our own people become better,” Stickman said. “Because we are good. We just need to be able to help them develop into the responsible young people that we want them to be.”
It's thought that over time, diverting crimes to tribal courts might save the state money, but Attorney General Lindemuth said at this point it's more about effectiveness than money.
“We did not solve our rural justice issues when the state had money, and it is even more challenging in times of fiscal crisis,” she said.
A ten million dollar federal appropriation inserted by Senator Lisa Murkowski kicked in last summer and helped to invigorate the tribal courts. It's not clear if that will be repeated, but it does seem clear that more tribal diversion agreements will soon be signed in the state capitol of Juneau.
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