Public safety chair gains support of National Foundation for Women Legislators
AVON, COLO.-Public Safety Committee Chairperson Hope MacDonald LoneTree (Tohnaneesdizi/Coalmine Canyon) authored and presented a resolution supporting Indian Country in its efforts to reduce crime rates in Native communities to the National Policy Committee for Crime, Justice, Terrorism and Substance Abuse.
The Committee is part of the National Foundation for Women Legislators (NFWL). The Foundation held its annual conference in Avon, Colo. Nov. 16-20, during which time LoneTree presented the resolution. The resolution was ratified by the Committee.
Statistics showing the public safety crisis in Indian Country are cited in the resolution. For example, Native Americans experience violence at a rate twice that of the United States resident populations, but there are only 1.3 police officers per 1,000 citizens on Indian reservations compared to 2.9 per 1,000 in non-Indian communities.
Furthermore, the U.S. Department of the Interior in a recent study, concluded that, "the Bureau of Indian Affairs detention facilities are unsafe, unsanitary, and a hazard to both inmates and staff, and concluded that the Bureau of Indian Affairs detention program consists of many facilities with conditions comparable to those found in third-world countries."
The resolution also includes the agreement that the NFWL will work in coordination with tribal, state, federal and other local officials to "reduce the crime rate in Native communities, provide sufficient police protection in Indian Country, and to improve the conditions of tribal detention centers."
The document also states that the Committee urges the U.S. Congress and administration to "commit the funding and resources necessary to provide adequate manpower, adequate detention facilities and adequate drug treatment facilities in Indian Country."
In addition to gaining the Committee's support for public safety initiatives in Indian Country, LoneTree was also able to meet with national figures such as former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro to discuss issues with public safety.
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