Guardian Angels Coming to Indian Country

The Guardian Angels have long been synonymous with the inner cities of New York, Chicago and Orlando, where violent crime is often a way of life. But, according to an article published yesterday in Char-Koosta, the crime-fighting organization is coming to Indian Country.

The first-ever Guardian Angels chapter to be located on an Indian reservation will be launching this weekend, Char-Koosta reported. Based on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, a vast reservation in eastern Montana and home to about 6,000, the new chapter will train approximately 50 recruits.

The main reason for starting the chapter? Gangs.

Chauncey Whitwright III, vice chairman of the Wolf Point Community Organization, told Char-Koosta: “There are all kinds of gangs roaming around up here. Our kids are in danger, they’re being influenced, they’re being targeted. It’s going on every day of the week ... and they’re busy recruiting.”

Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels’ founder, said the chapter will be a model for other reservations in the United States and Canada.

Federal Prosecutors Ordered to Increase Crime-Fighting Efforts in Indian Country

Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered federal prosecutors in 33 states to increase their efforts to reduce violent crime on Indian reservations.

As reported in a New York Times article on the reforms, Native Americans are the victims of violent crime at more than twice the national rate; on some reservations, murder rates against women are 10 times greater than the national average.

In a memo, prosecutors in those districts that include “Indian Country” (44 out of 93) were instructed to meet and consult with tribes in their districts once a year; develop an operational plan addressing public safety in Indian Country; work closely with law enforcement to pay particular attention to violence against women in Indian Country.

The memo also stated that 47 new prosecutors and FBI personnel will be assigned to handle such crimes.

News from the Department of Justice

Robert Darryl War Club Found Guilty in U.S. Federal Court (U.S. Attorney For the District of Montana)
Bill Mercer, U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, announced that on Oct. 1, 2009, in Great Falls, after a four day federal district court trial before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, Robert Darryl War Club, a 49-year-old resident of Wolf Point, was found guilty of first degree murder. Sentencing is set for Jan. 7, 2010. He is currently detained. War Club faces possible penalties of life imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and 5 years supervised release.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/mt/pressreleases/20091001154515.html

Former Casino Employee Sentenced to 37 Months in Prison (U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona)
Adam Thomas Vega, 31, of Tucson, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson on Oct. 1, 2009, to 37 months in prison. Vega was also ordered to pay $644,422 in restitution. Vega, a former casino worker, pleaded guilty on April 10, 2009, to one count each of theft by an officer or employee of a gaming establishment on Indian Lands and attempted evasion of assessment and payment of his 2006 federal individual income taxes. Vega admitted that between October 2005 and July 2007, while employed as a slot floor person at the Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson, he created 585 fraudulent jackpot override tickets. All of the false jackpot tickets were for amounts under $1,200 to avoid generating a W-2G federal tax withholding form. Vega submitted a total of $644,422 in jackpot tickets to the casino cage cashiers which were all cashed over the three year period.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/az/press_releases/2009/2009-313(Vega).pdf

Summer Lee Many White Horses Pleads Guilty in U.S. Federal Court (U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana)
Bill Mercer, U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, announced that during a federal court session in Great Falls on Oct. 1, 2009, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong, Summer Lee Many White Horses, a 32-year-old resident of Browning and Great Falls, pled guilty to Social Security fraud. Sentencing is set for Dec. 28, 2009. She is currently detained. Many White Horses applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits on behalf of her son on September 18, 2007. Her son was eligible for federal assistance based upon his speech and language delays. This claim was approved and Many White Horses was selected to serve as her son’s representative payee, meaning she would receive and manage her son’s money for him. During an interview with law enforcement officials, Many White Horses told detectives her son had died on May 29, 2008. Following this interview, detectives retrieved her son’s badly decomposed body from the trunk of Many White Horses’ car. Many White Horses was recently convicted of negligent homicide for the death of her son in state court. She faces possible penalties of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and 3 years supervised release.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/mt/pressreleases/last20.html

Justice Department Listening Conference -- Will it Help Indian Country

Below is a release from the Department of Justice regarding a tribal nations listening conference. We'd like to hear from anyone who was part of the last Justice Deparment listening conference -- the one described in the last paragraph of the release.

Do you think it had any impact on fighting crime in Indian Country? Did you feel as if your concerns were addressed by the Administration and/or Congress?

Dates for Justice Department Listening Conference Set

The Justice Department today announced the dates of the 2009 Tribal Nations Listening Conference to be led by Attorney General Eric Holder. Prior to the Listening Conference, the Department will also convene two working sessions with tribal leaders and experts in law enforcement to be led by Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli:

• Working Session #1: Aug. 25-26 in Seattle, Wash.
• Working Session #2: Sept. 21-22 in Albuquerque, N.M.
• Listening Conference: Oct 28-29 Minneapolis, M.N.
  

The Listening Conference is part of an ongoing Justice Department initiative to increase engagement, coordination and action on tribal justice in Indian Country. It will allow top Department officials to confer with tribal leaders on how to address the chronic problems of public safety in Indian Country and other important issues affecting tribal communities. The working sessions will include Department component leaders and tribal experts in relevant areas to begin a dialogue on a range of important issues including, law enforcement policy and personnel; communications and consultation; grants and technical assistance; detention facilities; federal prosecution in Indian country; tribal court development; domestic violence; drug courts and substance abuse; federal litigation involving tribes; and civil rights.

In 1994, Attorney General Janet Reno convened the only other National Listening Conference, sponsored jointly with the Department of the Interior, which led to numerous initiatives, including major funding for tribal police, jails and courts.

Keweenaw Bay Tribal Member Sentenced for Theft of Tribal Property

The Department of Justice reports that Robert Charles Genschow, Sr., 60, of L’Anse, Mich., was sentenced on July 7 to 10 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for destroying trees on the Keweenaw Bay Indian reservation. Genschow was also ordered to perform 250 hours of community service and to pay $47,200 in restitution owed to the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

Genschow claimed to be Chief Lonewolf of the Ontonagon Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and asserted that, as Chief, he had the right to remove timber from the land in question. During the trial of this case, former Keweenaw Bay Tribal President Susan LaFernier testified that the Ontonagon Band of Lake Superior Chippewa ceased to exist in 1936, when the Band voted to join with the L’Anse Band to create the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

$248 million Available for Indian Country Criminal Justice

Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli announced today that more than $248 million is available for Tribes to assist with addressing the Indian Country’s criminal justice needs. These funds are part of $4 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) funds managed by the Justice Department to assist tribal, state, and local law enforcement and for other criminal justice activities that help to prevent crime and improve the criminal and juvenile justice systems in the United States, while supporting the creation of jobs and providing much needed resources for states and local communities.

Of the $248 million in Recovery Act funding available for Tribes, $225 million is available for Correctional Facilities on Tribal Lands grants, $20.8 million for Indian Tribal Government grants, and $2.8 million for Tribal Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalitions grants.

In addition to these funds, Tribes are also eligible to apply for several Department of Justice Recovery Act competitive grant programs that are available to states, local governments and other entities depending upon the eligibility requirements in the solicitations. Application, registration and deadline information are available on the Department’s website at http://www.usdoj.gov/recovery.

Dorgan Objects to BIA's Police Shuffle

Last week the Bureau of Indian Affairs sent 25 additional police officers to the troubled Pine Ridge Reservation to supplement the police force there. The problem is, according to North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, the agency took six of those officers from the Standing Rock Reservation in his state.

“The Standing Rock Reservation had a crime rate that was more than five times the national average," Dorgan told the Bismarck Tribune. "The additional police officers moved there by the BIA have substantially reduced the crime rate. This is not the time to reduce the number of police officers."

The BIA should use the $23.7 million appropriated last year by Congress for the Safe Indian Communities Initiative to put more officers in American Indian communities with high crime rates, Dorgan said.

Pine Ridge Police Officers Resign Following Council Meeting Brawl

At Tuesday’s meeting between Pine Ridge police and the tribal council, officers stood up one by one and told the council of the many ills that plague their department – overworked, understaffed, lack of training, lack of funding. But some on the council were having none of it. One council member told the police their testimony was hearsay and that they were just looking to lynch someone. According to a Black Hills Fox News reporter who was there, as police officers started to walk out, a fight broke out in the back of the room and when all was said and done, 30 police officers – more than half the force – resigned, leaving fewer than 20 police officers to patrol the vast reservation with its well-publicized crime problem. Tuesday afternoon the FBI sent agents to the reservation to patrol, according to the Rapid City Journal. The tribal council is meeting today to address the issue.

Senate Agrees to $1 Billion for Tribal Justice Programs

The U.S. Senate late Friday afternoon agreed to vote next week on a spending-bill amendment pushed by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to authorize $1 billion over five years to strengthen and expand Native American criminal justice programs. Thune and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., want to add spending authorization for up to $2 billion over five years for both the criminal justice and safety programs and Native American water projects. Read more about it here.