Tulalip Tribes – Page 4

MOAs and MOUs are tools many Tribes are using to proactively work with a State to help tribal families remain intact or at least keep tribal children and youth closely connected with their Tribes.

Tulalip and the state of Washington have signed a formal MOA in child welfare cases. Here is a pdf copy of the MOA

Word copies (instead of pdf) of the agreement are available by writing to tribal attorney Michelle Demmert. (See Tulalip Tribes legal department website for contact information)

Here is a copy of a news article highlighting the impact of this new MOA here

From the article:

The signed agreement formalizes the government-to-government relationship between the Tribe and the State with child welfare cases. It’s based on the fundamental principles of the government-to-government relationship acknowledged in the 1989 Centennial Accord and recognizes the sovereignty of the Tribes and the State of Washington and each respective sovereign’s interests. What does this mean? It means the State of Washington now officially recognizes Tulalip has jurisdiction over Tulalip children wherever found and that Tulalip desires to assert its jurisdiction and authority to protect Tulalip children and keep families together whenever possible. . . .

Pursuant to the Indian Child Welfare Act and our sovereignty, the Tulalip Tribes have jurisdiction to handle all child abuse and neglect cases for our children. Some may be wondering, haven’t we always had that jurisdiction? The simple answer is no. In certain situations state agencies were able to, and would, circumvent the tribe altogether in cases involving allegations of child neglect or abuse. Now, with this agreement in place, the tribe can no longer be circumvented. Going forward, any time a state agency comes to investigate an allegation of child neglect or abuse, a beda?chelh case manager will be on the scene.

***

This agreement ensures Tulalip staff and representatives are always actively involved in any and all cases involving our children, and that we are taking the lead when the opportunity is there. The bottom line is we want our primary goal to be child safety, and to make sure any services or treatment families are receiving is defined by the tribe. That’s why this agreement also lends itself to the creation of a Tulalip Family Intervention Team (FIT), which will contact families of low-risk assessment and provide skill based services to parent their children, so that no court intervention is necessary.

FIT aims to keep families together and act as a proactive solution offering culture based services to families, while getting parents actively involved. It’s a way to handle things more traditionally between the Tribe and the families.

It may be an agreement of this nature is long overdue, but it took many days and long hours from individuals across several different tribal and state agencies to carefully craft and fine tune in order to get it right, not just for Tulalip children and families, but for all Native children and families. With Tulalip leading the way, there are sure to be multiple tribes who model their own government-to-government child welfare agreements after this one.

More Dollar General Coverage — Tulalip Tribes

December 5, 2015December 4, 2015Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is “Supreme Court case draws Tulalip’s attention.”

Tulalip Seeks Part Time Code Drafter

September 14, 2015Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

Tulalip RFP Code Drafting

VAWA Tribal Trial Advocacy Skills Training Hosted by The Tulalip Tribes

July 31, 2015Matthew L.M. Fletcher

VAWA Tribal Trial Advocacy Skills Training Hosted by The Tulalip Tribes

September 2-4, 2015

Tribal court judges, criminal defenders and prosecutors are invited to attend a free trial advocacy skills training at the Tulalip Tribes. The training will cover basic trial advocacy skills from the point of view of the parties and the bench, as well as information about prosecuting non-Indian defendants under the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. The training will consist of joint skill lectures and separate skills practice for each cohort. The training will end with a mock trial in the Tulalip Tribal Courthouse on Friday, September 4th.

Announcement/Agenda and Registration form here:

REGISTRATION FORM_Tulalip VAWA Training 9-2 to 9-4

SAVE THE DATE – Announcement_Tulalip VAWA Training 9-2 to 9-4-2015 w AGENDA

Tulalip Associate Judge Position

July 3, 2015Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

Tulalip Associate Judge Job Announcement

Seattle U.’s VAWA Panel

April 25, 2015April 25, 2015Ann Tweedy1 Comment

Here’s a picture from Seattle University School of Law’s very inspiring VAWA Panel tonight. Left to right, the panelists were Molly Cohan, Sharon Jones Hayden, Alfred Urbina, and Ye-Ting Woo. Most of the handouts are here.

Among the many things I learned is that the one of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s first VAWA cases involved a same-sex couple. It was originally thought that this case might turn out to be the first tribal VAWA case to go through the federal habeas process and to eventually reach the Supreme Court, but the jury was uncertain as to whether the victim and defendant were in an intimate relationship as required by VAWA and so the defendant was acquitted. Given that the defendant and victim lived together and had a sexual relationship, this skepticism is troubling and, sadly, may reflect unconscious homophobia. There are still many positives, however. Despite the acquittal, the case helps shed light on a hidden problem–same-sex domestic violence is still a little-known and rarely mentioned phenomenon. Kudos to Pascua Yaqui for bringing the case. The prosecutorial response on its own was undoubtedly meaningful to the victim. And, given the jury’s acquittal, the case stands as a strong example of a tribal jury’s impartial treatment of a non-member.

There was also an important discussion of the holes in VAWA, including the lack of tribes’ ability under VAWA to prosecute crimes against children as well as stranger rape. Many of the more serious recent domestic violence crimes committed by nonmembers at both Tulalip and Pascua Yaqui involved crimes against children, but tribes cannot prosecute crimes against children under VAWA, so they must depend on the federal government (or the state in Public Law states) for prosecution of these crimes.