Dine' Public Safety Committee making national impact

WINDOW ROCK -- The Public Safety Committee of the Navajo Nation Council made significant advances on behalf of Indian Country at the Congressional level in the past few months, beginning with the passage of House FY 2006 Justice Appropriations Legislation, H.R. 2862. The bill provides $48 million for a range of Indian Law Enforcement activities, which almost doubles the FY 2005 level of $19,733,000.

"Despite strong downward pressure on the federal budget, our efforts continue to yield great outcomes for Indian Country public safety funding in general and for the Navajo Nation in particular," Hope MacDonald-LoneTree, Chairperson of the Public Safety Committee, said.

The bill also provides for additional funding for the Navajo Nation through a discretionary grant. H.R. 2862 contains a "soft earmark" for the Navajo Nation. The grant is to help improve the functioning of the criminal justice system with an emphasis on drugs, violent crimes and serious offenders.

The House Report states, "These funds are intended to meet the most pressing needs of tribes, including law enforcement hiring, equipment, and training, court improvement projects, and alcohol and substance abuse reduction programs."

The final bill as passed by both the Senate and the House includes an overall increase of 0.5 percent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and an increase of almost 11 percent for Indian Country public safety above FY 2005 levels. While the increase for the BIA does not keep pace with the general rate of inflation (currently 3.5 percent), the increase for public safety is substantially more than President George Bush requested, reflecting the major lobbying efforts by the committee.

The committee has established excellent numbers for Indian Country public safety in both the Interior Appropriations bill and the Justice Appropriations bill. Now the focus is to defend and possibly enlarge the funding.

In addition to its success with the H.R. 2862, the Public Safety Committee worked with other tribal leaders and members of Congress, including Senator Harry Reid, Senator Byron Dorgan and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, to push forward Indian Country policy recommendations to the 109th Congress. The effort on the part of the Committee is to maintain public safety as a funding priority.

The recommendations came about as a result of the first ever Senate Democratic Native American Forum, which was attended by over 150 tribal leaders last fall. From the forum, five working groups were established, which provided input and recommendations regarding the five identified priorities. The working groups dealt with five priorities, including natural resources, health care, education, housing and economic development, and justice and law enforcement.

According to Chairperson LoneTree, Senate Democrats initiated the policy discussions because they wanted to hear directly from Indian Country about the issues of greatest concern to Native Americans in the United States.

LoneTree, who had attended the initial forum held by Democrats, was invited to participate in the work group. She provided key input in the recommendations regarding law enforcement and Homeland Security for Indian Country in the policy recommendations.

Among LoneTree's recommendations were:

¥ Congress should strengthen the tribal provision in the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

¥ To improve the effectiveness of law enforcement services in Indian Country, Congress should provide funding to support a sufficient number of tribal police officers in Native American communities, ensure personnel are provided with adequate equipment for safety and communication, ensure law enforcement officials have access to important information, and sufficient funding should be provided to construct, repair, operate and maintain tribal detention facilities.

¥ Congress should recognize the sovereign state of Indian tribes by correcting the definitions in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to define Indian tribes as separate and distinct from local governments, and by authorizing the Department of Homeland Security to provide federal first responder funding directly to Indian tribes and encourage states to provide funding to any Indian tribes not receiving direct funding.

"The effort was a culmination of educating members of Congress on the horrendous situation we are facing here on the Navajo Nation in regards to law and order, as well as providing achievable strategy to build public safety," LoneTree said.

"The Public Safety Committee conveyed to Congress that law and order are at risk and the continued decrease in funding directly affects the lives of our Navajo people and the safety of our officers," she continued.

"We are thankful to the members of the United States Congress for their support of Navajo public safety and their efforts to help us build safer communities," LoneTree concluded.

(Karen Francis is Public Information Officer for the Navajo Nation office of the Speaker.)

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