Announcements

The National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA), established in 1969, is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to supporting and promoting tribal justice systems through technical assistance and training. NAICJA also works to further the public knowledge and understanding of tribal justice systems. NAICJA’s training and technical assistance program is the National Tribal Justice Resource Center (“NTJRC”) located in Boulder, Colorado. Each year NAICJA hosts the National Tribal Judicial and Court Clerks Conference which provides tribal judges, justice system personnel, and others interested in tribal justice systems current information about new legal and practice developments and the opportunity to network and engage in peer to peer consultation. The Program Coordinator is a temporary, part-time position. Responsibilities will include duties related to a range of current NAICJA programs and projects, including:

Seattle U Tribal Governmental Business Law Summer Certificate Program

May 20, 2014Kate Fort

Here.
Indian Law Certificate program

Tribal Governmental Business Law is the focus for the 2014 Summer Practice Academy’s Indian Law Certificate Program. The five session program will be spread over 2 1/2 days from June 25 through June 27, 2014.

It will be available live and via the web. Participants can choose to take parts of the program or the entire program if they are interested in obtaining the certificate. The entire program is 15 CLE credit hours. It is a program with very diverse topics and speakers from around the nation covering Labor & Employment Law; The Supreme Court’s Barriers to Indian Land Acquisition; New Directions in Energy Development – With the Kerr Hydroelectric Project and the Pelton Round Buttes Hydro Project as Case Studies; The Promise and Peril of Internet Gaming and New Developments in Taxation.

Registration Options: attend all five sessions and receive a Certificate of Completion or attend individual sessions. Total CLE credits for all five sessions: 13.75. Click Here To Register

No Bay Mills This Week

May 19, 2014Kate Fort

The next SCOTUS opinion release day is the 27th.

RCMP Report on Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women Shows Disproportionate Rates of Homicide and Missing Women Cases

May 16, 2014May 16, 2014Victoria Sweet1 Comment

Today, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued “Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview.”

Link to full report here.

Speakers at the press conference highlighted numerous disturbing statistics and then officially resolved to promote more national prevention initiatives.

The report only looked at police reported cases from 1980-2012. This means that any unreported cases, closed cases, or cases from prior to 1980 will not be represented in the statistics.

Some key finding:

1181 homicides and unsolved cases involved Aboriginal women. Of that number 160 were missing and 1017 were homicide victims.
225 of those cases remain unsolved, 105 unsolved missing women cases and 120 homicides.
As of November 2013, 6,420 people are missing in Canada, 22% of these are missing women and of that group 11.3% are Aboriginal women.
For women involved in the sex trade, the solve rate is only 60% for Aboriginal women and 65% for non Aboriginal women.

Disproportionate Impact:

Aboriginal women are only 4.3% of the population, yet comprise 11.3% of total missing women cases and 16% of total female homicide cases. *Later it was mentioned that while female homicide rates are decreasing in general in Canada, there is not a similar decrease in Aboriginal female homicides. Therefore, the percentages are actually higher – more like 23% of female homicides.

Perpetrators:

89% are males, average age of 35, and the majority knew their victims. Some common characteristics: underemployed, high use of intoxicants, criminal records, and a history of violence against the victim.

The full report includes much more information, but these few statistics demonstrate what many in Indigenous communities have been saying – Indigenous or Aboriginal women comprise a disproportionate amount of missing and murdered women in Canada. These limited statistics are proof of the terrible reality that Indigenous community members have been discussing for years. Some will say that these numbers still do not truly show the full situation. It remains to be seen whether this report will signal the beginning of better cooperation among national and provincial police with Indigenous communities to protect Indigenous women and girls or if it will remain one more depressing report to be filed away and forgotten.

*As a side note, when we will we see a similar study in the United States? Where are U.S. national statistics on missing and murdered Native women?

Previous coverage of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada here.