[Senate Hearing 119-347]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 119-347
JUSTICE AND SAFETY FOR NATIVE CHILDREN:
EXAMINING TITLE II OF THE DRAFT NATIVE
CHILDREN'S COMMISSION IMPLEMENTATION ACT
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JANUARY 28, 2026
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
63-309 WASHINGTON : 2026
=======================================================================
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Chairman
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii, Vice Chairman
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
STEVE DAINES, Montana CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma TINA SMITH, Minnesota
MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico
JERRY MORAN, Kansas
Amber Ebarb, Majority Staff Jennifer Romero, Minority Staff
Director Director and Chief Counsel
Lucy Murfitt, Chief Counsel Caroline Ackerman, Legislative
Anna Powers, Senior Professional Assistant
Staff Alanna Purdy, Senior Policy
Sarah McKinnis, Professional Staff Advisor
Christie Kimura, Legislative Aide
C O N T E N T S
----------
Opening Statements
Page
Statement of Senator Murkowski................................... 1
Statement of Senator Schatz...................................... 3
Witnesses
Jackson-Street, Hon. Lonna, Chairperson, Spirit Lake Tribal
Council........................................................ 4
Prepared statement........................................... 7
Johnson, Hon. Joan, Council Member At Large, Gros Ventre, Fort
Belknap Indian Community....................................... 15
Prepared statement........................................... 17
Fineday, Ms. Anita, Former Commissioner, Native Children's
Commission..................................................... 22
Prepared statement........................................... 24
Jump, Ms. Lori, CEO, StrongHearts Native Helpline................ 32
Prepared statement........................................... 34
Patterson, Mr. Mark, Chair, Hawaii Correctional System Oversight
Commission; Former Administrator, Hawaii Youth Correctional
Facility/Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center............. 43
Prepared statement........................................... 46
Appendix
Listening Session Transcript, dated November 7, 2025, on The
Native Children's Commission Implementation Act of 2025, with
Mark Patterson................................................. 61
Listening Session Transcript, dated December 12, 2025, on The
Native Children's Commission Implementation Act of 2025, with
Native Hawaiian Education Stakeholders......................... 88
United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET
SPF) statement for the record.................................. 93
LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON JUSTICE AND SAFETY FOR NATIVE CHILDREN:
EXAMINING TITLE II OF THE DRAFT NATIVE CHILDREN'S COMMISSION
IMPLEMENTATION ACT
----------
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2026
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:38 p.m. in room
628, Dirksen Senate Building, the Honorable Lisa Murkowski
[chairman of the committee] presiding.
Present: Senators Murkowski, Schatz, Hoeven, Daines, and
Cortez Masto.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI, U.S. SENATOR FROM
ALASKA
The Chair. Good afternoon. We are calling this legislative
hearing to order.
Before we begin our discussion of the Native Children's
Commission Implementation Act, I just want to acknowledge the
passing of one of the real leaders here in the Congress, when
it came to matters before this committee, the Indian Affairs
Committee, a Native leader, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell,
who recently passed. I think Senator Campbell and I served on
the committee for the full time that he was here. I was also
serving at that same time.
I recognize the contributions that he has made in so many
important initiatives related to America's indigenous people.
He was the first Native American to serve in the United States
Senate. So we respect his memory and his honor.
As I mentioned, we are here today to examine Title II of my
Native Children's Commission Implementation Act discussion
draft, the title of the bill that focused on justice and safety
for Native children, youth, and families. This committee has
built a strong record documenting the serious public safety
challenges across Indian Country, especially the persistent
gaps in law enforcement. We will continue that important work.
It is just as important that we focus on the resources that
communities need before law enforcement becomes involved, and
to support families and victims after that involvement occurs.
Those moments matter. If families do not have access to
coordinated community-based services, they are far more likely
to cycle deeper into the justice system instead of receiving
the support that could prevent further harm. Title II aims to
close those gaps by strengthening coordination, increasing
flexibility in funding, and investing in prevention,
particularly in the areas of juvenile justice, domestic
violence, and cases of missing children.
I released this discussion draft at the beginning of
August, grounded in the recommendation of the Alyce Spotted
Bear and Walter Soboleff Native Children's Commission report.
Since then, we have gathered extensive feedback from tribes,
tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations across
the Country and relevant Federal agencies.
As my staff and I have worked toward introducing this
legislation, we are now refining the language and continuing to
build the record around the programs and initiatives that the
bill would support.
One strong example of what this approach can look like is
Tiwahe. This is a successful bipartisan initiative. Tiwahe
means ``family'' in the Lakota and Dakota languages, and it is
a coordinated service delivery model that allows tribes to
build capacity and design locally tailored programs. These
include family and social services, juvenile justice,
recidivism reduction, substance use prevention and treatment,
and improved case management.
Last August, the committee held a roundtable in Alaska on
this discussion draft. We heard at that time from Vivian
Korthuis, who is the CEO of the Association of Village Council
Presidents, AVCP. This was one of the first six pilot sites for
Tiwahe back in 2015.
Vivian shared to the group how transformative Tiwahe has
been for AVCP and the region it serves. It allowed AVCP to
consolidate 26 separate departments into six divisions, along
with two dedicated centers, a family service center and a
tribal resource center.
These changes have made a real difference. They have
improved collaboration and strengthened service delivery for
the 56 federally recognized tribes that AVCP represents.
Families seeking education, child care, or employment and
training services can now access those supports all in once
place, at AVCP's family service center, instead of having to
navigate multiple departments.
Title II of the Native Children's Commission Implementation
Act would codify Tiwahe and expand this model to tribes across
the country. It would also establish a tribal advisory
committee on juvenile justice, direct a study on the scope and
context of cases involving missing Native children, codify the
Alaska Native Victim Services Program at the Denali Commission,
and provide permanent funding for tribal domestic violence
commissions, regional and national resource centers, and the
Native Domestic Violence Hotline through the Family Violence
Prevention and Services Act.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about
the work that they do and about how Title II provisions would
help them continue supporting their communities. I thank you
all for being here today. We know that traveling to Washington
is never easy, and when we have some icy weather out there it
makes it even harder. So we appreciate the time that you are
giving us.
I will now turn to the Vice Chair for his opening
statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BRIAN SCHATZ, U.S. SENATOR FROM
HAWAII
Senator Schatz. Thank you, Chair Murkowski.
I want to start by extending a warm aloha to Mark
Patterson, a leader in the juvenile justice work in Hawaii and
nationwide. Mark played a key role in transforming Hawaii's
juvenile justice system, serving as administrator of the
Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, formerly known as
the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.
During his tenure, Mark oversaw the reduction of youth
incarceration by more than 80 percent over 15 years, and helped
to reduce the number of girls in detention to zero in 2022.
Mark also previously served on the Coordinated Council on
Juvenile Justice and the Delinquency Prevention, and currently
serves as the Chair of the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight
Commission.
Mahalo, Mark, for your continued leadership and for your
testimony today.
Doing everything we can to ensure public safety in Indian
Country is just one of our trust and treaty obligations. Much
of the public safety work this committee has done over the last
several years has focused on addressing unmet public safety
needs in Indian Country. Last Congress, the committee held five
public safety events, including a listening session joined by
more than 600 individuals, allowing us to hear first-hand from
tribal leaders, tribal organizations and Native Hawaiian
organizations about their communities' unique needs, such as
improving law enforcement officer recruitment and retention,
strengthening victim services, addressing the MMIP crisis and
increasing resources for correctional facilities construction
and maintenance, just to name a few.
It is clear that we need to do more to address public
safety. Today we continue this work with a specific focus on
children and on families. The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter
Soboleff Commission's report includes extensive
recommendations, which Chair Murkowski has converted into a
potential legislative solution to discuss today.
I am glad bipartisan committee staff worked together to
listen and learn from Native communities from across the
country, including Hawaii, on how the draft legislation can
support their unique public safety needs.
I want to thank, in particular, the Native Hawaiian
organizations and individuals who shared their juvenile justice
expertise with our staffs over the last few months. Starting
with Mark Patterson, Shawn Kan`aiaupuni with Parters in
Development Foundation, Alison Masutani with Malama `Aina
Foundation, Sanoe Marfil with INPEACE and Momi Akana with Keiki
O Ka `Aina.
Madam Chair, I would like to enter two transcripts from our
listening sessions on juvenile justice issues into the record.
The Chair. Without objection.
Senator Schatz. Thank you to all of our witnesses, and I
look forward to your testimony and learning about how this
draft legislation can best support Native communities through
cultural and community driven juvenile justice solutions.
The Chair. Thank you, Senator Schatz. I am pleased that you
were able to have that listening session.
Senator Daines, I know that you have one of the witnesses
today that you would like to introduce, and any comments that
you would care to make, now is the appropriate time.
Senator Daines. Great. Chair Murkowski, thank you.
I would like to welcome Councilwoman Joan Johnson from the
Fort Belknap Indian Community, who has made a long trek to be
with us here today. We met earlier, had a great discussion with
both Senator Sheehy and myself, about the great work they are
doing and the tremendous outcome they are seeing in reductions
in recidivism, which is really amazing. We very much appreciate
the work you are doing to impact the families and young people
there in Fort Belknap.
I appreciate her record of service and her willingness to
testify on behalf of her tribe. Representing the Gros Ventre,
Councilwoman Johnson was just recently elected to the tribal
council. She has decades of experience serving the youth in her
community, and is an expert on the Tiwahe program. So when she
speaks to the committee here today, this is not from academic
research, it is from actually seeing what this does for the
people in Indian Country, particularly in Fort Belknap.
Councilwoman, thank you for your work. We look forward to
your testimony.
The Chair. Thank you, Senator Daines.
I will now introduce the rest of the panel. Mr. Patterson
has been introduced by the Vice Chair. Thank you, and welcome,
Mr. Patterson. We have the Honorable Lonna Jackson-Street, who
is the Chairwoman for Spirit Lake Tribe in Fort Totten, North
Dakota. We welcome you to the committee.
Councilwoman Johnson has just been introduced. Welcome. We
are pleased that you are here.
We have Ms. Anita Fineday, who is the former Commissioner
for the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on
Native Children. She was not able to make the travel today, but
we have her participating virtually. We are pleased that she is
here.
Then also in person is Ms. Lori Jump, who is the Executive
Director for StrongHearts Native Helpline based in Sault Ste.
Marie.
Welcome to all of you. I want to remind our witnesses that
we do have your full written testimony, and it will be included
as part of the official hearing record.
We would ask that you keep your oral remarks today to no
more than five minutes, so that we have plenty of time to ask
questions of you. And we will begin the witness statements with
the Honorable Lonna Jackson-Street. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE LONNA JACKSON-STREET, CHAIRWOMAN,
SPIRIT LAKE TRIBAL COUNCIL, FORT TOTTEN, NORTH DAKOTA
Ms. Jackson-Street. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Chair. It is
an honor to be here today to have the opportunity to provide
testimony on behalf of these very important matters that we are
here to discuss today.
I also want to say thank you to the Vice Chair and members
of the committee as well, to have the opportunity to provide my
testimony.
My name is Lonna Jackson-Street. I am the current
Chairwoman of the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota. We come
from North Central North Dakota. We are part of the original
1867 Treaty, along with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe of
the Dakota. So it gives me great honor to speak on behalf of
our people back at home.
The Spirit Lake Tribe is a sovereign nation. As I said, we
are recognized by the 1867 Treaty. The Spirit Lake Tribe is
home to about 8,000 tribal members and 450 square miles of
reservation lands, including the Devil's Lake waters, which is
North Dakota's largest natural lake.
Our lake is vital. It is a part of our traditional and
cultural heritage, and it is essential for tourism and
hospitality, and is the mainstay of our economy.
Despite our efforts, we suffer poor health and reduced life
expectancy. Poor infrastructure, high unemployment and social
and economic dislocation are major factors for us.
Our homicide rate is four times higher than the non-
Hispanic whites. Within this year, five murders occurred within
our reservation boundaries. This is far too many.
To protect our children and families, we have developed our
Tiwahe program, a community-based approach to provide caring
family-type support for troubled youth and adults.
Our Tiwahe program effectively marshals resources to
provide better support for our youth and families, to improve
employment opportunities and to enhance social service support,
while reducing the need for foster care by keeping families
intact.
We also endorse key recommendations of the Native
Children's Commission study, including providing culturally
relevant trauma care for our youth in the juvenile justice
system, integrating Native history, culture, and languages into
education for our children, and to also recognize and treat the
historical trauma that continues to injure our youth and our
nations.
Similarly, we support passage of the Native Children's
Commission Implementation Act because our youth are
significantly overrepresented in the Federal justice system. We
urgently need help for our children to avoid such
incarcerations, which often expose them to drug dealers and
other serious offenders.
A tribal juvenile justice advisory commission could help
gather resources from DOJ and other agencies to address
juvenile justice needs. And it could help fund and develop
programs like Tiwahe to reduce foster care placements and
Native youth incarcerations.
MMIP continues to be a scourge for us at Spirit Lake. We
are very thankful for the passage of Savanna's Act. Savanna
Greywind was our tribal member who grew up at Spirit Lake.
Savanna was murdered, had her baby torn from her body and
thrown into a river like she did not matter. But we honor her,
we honor her memory with our annual Savanna Greywind Day at
home.
Tragically, we continue to have MMIP cases, such as Jemini
Posey, who is still missing; Isaac Hunt, who was missing for a
year and about 10 months, and his remains have recently been
found; Lyndon Greybear, who was found and recovered in Arizona.
These cases underscore the need to work across jurisdictional
lines to protect our women, children and men.
We therefore propose a model law enforcement cooperation
agreement with our neighbors, so that when we have a missing
person, our U.S. Attorney will help coordinate search and
rescue efforts. This is the best chance of rescue for our
people within the first 72 hours of them going missing.
Today, we stand ready to develop this initiative, which
could be a model framework to help other tribes.
In addition, we need more funding for law enforcement needs
on Indian reservations under Federal and tribal criminal law
enforcement jurisdiction. Congress should increase funding for
OJS and Interior from $580 million in Fiscal Year 2026 to $950
million in Fiscal Year 2027.
We also call for the passage of an Indian Country Violent
Crime Fighting Act with the Interior Secretary and U.S.
Attorney General as co-chairs, alongside of tribal leaders
across Indian Country basically codifying the Lady Justice Task
Force.
To back up this effort, we need major DOJ block grants, 638
contracts and compacts funding, and joint BIA-DOJ funding for
Annual Tribal Master Law Enforcement Plans.
To protect Native peoples, Congress should also require
Homeland Security ICE agents to receive training to work with
Indian tribes including education on the rights of tribes, to
issue tribal IDs. Congress should also establish an Interior-
BIA program to support Public Law 102-477 framework and should
fund much-needed tribal government law enforcement training,
staffing, equipment and facilities from DHS appropriations.
In closing, our Tiwahe program, the passage of the Native
Children's Commission Implementation Act, as well as our other
recommendations, are essential to save the generations of our
youth in Indian Country. As Sitting Bull once said, if we can
put our hearts and minds together, we can make a better life
for our children.
With that, thank you for my opportunity to testify.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jackson-Street follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chair. Thank you, Chairwoman.
We will next turn to Council Member Johnson. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOAN JOHNSON, COUNCIL MEMBER AT
LARGE, GROS VENTRE, FORT BELKNAP INDIAN COMMUNITY
Ms. Johnson. Good afternoon, Chair Murkowski, and members
of the committee. My Indian name is Bayee Paw Neetha, or
Thunder Bird Woman. My English name is Joan Johnson.
I am honored to represent the Fort Belknap Indian
Community, home of the Nakoda and Aaniiih people. We are here
today to join the 22 Tiwahe pilot demonstration and incubator
tribes in expressing our strong support for the Native
Children's Commission Implementation Act of 2025.
On August 12th, 2025, our community joined the collective
of Tiwahe tribes in a formal letter to this committee urging
the permanent authorization of the Tiwahe initiative. For Fort
Belknap, Tiwahe is not just a line item in the budget; it is a
cornerstone of our success in protecting our most sacred
resources, which are our children.
Our reservation is remote, sitting just 35 miles from the
Canadian border. In such isolation, the flexibility of the
Tiwahe model is a necessity. It allows us to move away from
one-size-fits-all Federal mandates and toward a whole response
that integrates our culture, traditions and spirituality into
every service we provide.
The proof of the Tiwahe model is found in our results.
Before Tiwahe, we lacked the resources to support youth
struggling with trauma or substance abuse addictions. Today,
our Soaring Eagle Juvenile Justice program is a national model.
By replacing punishment with cultural immersion, led by our
elders, we have reduced our six-month recidivism rate to 35
percent, well below the national average.
Our family wellness program has removed the stigma of
intervention by meeting families in their homes as wellness
specialists, to help them clear the specific hurdles to
independence from obtaining tribal IDs to accessing lifesaving
health care through our Tiwahe Transit System. We now
facilitate over 100 vital transports per month.
To understand why making this program permanent is so
vital, you must hear the voices of those it serves. One of our
participants, who once struggled with addiction and
homelessness, recently shared: ``Tiwahe gave me the nudge I
needed. They guided me to become closer to my Creator and
helped me learn who I am. Today I am sober, happy, and enjoying
motherhood.'' She just recently had twins.
As we discussed, the future of Native children who must
confront the harrowing reality, Section 202 of this Act
correctly identifies the need for formal study on the status of
missing American Indian and Alaska Native children. However,
for this data to be truly effective, it must account for the
full scope of the crisis, including non-custodial familial
abductions.
In Indian Country, children's safety is often complicated
by jurisdictional gaps and lack of their boots on the ground.
While national attention often focuses on stranger danger, we
know that family abductions, where a child is taken or
concealed in violation of a custody order, accounts for a
massive portion of missing children cases. For our remote
communities, these incidents are not just private family
matters; they are emergencies that require coordination between
law enforcement and families like Soaring Eagle.
A lot of time in the justice system, because there are
custodial issues between the parents, the child always gets
lost and a guardian ad litem steps in to be that voice for that
child, so that child's voice is not lost.
However, coordination is only possible if the officers
actually exist. True sovereignty is impossible without the
resources to protect it. Currently, the Federal Government
provides Fort Belknap with funding for only nine law
enforcement officers to patrol an area the size of Rhode
Island.
In 1997, the Federal Government provided our community $1.2
million for law enforcement. Nearly 30 years later, that figure
has only increased to $1.3 million.
This is not a budget; it is a forced state of emergency. We
cannot protect our children with a department that is funded at
a fraction of its actual need. For the Native Children's
Commission Implementation Act to succeed, it must be paired
with the full mandatory funding for tribal law enforcement. We
urge the committee to move away from the historical funding
models that keep our departments understaffed and underpaid.
A lot of times we always look at law enforcement for
keeping our community and our people safe. But what about the
law enforcement? At the end of the day, they have to go home
safely to their families, too. And with one on patrol, that
kind of makes the risks higher.
While various transportation modes exist within the region,
the Tiwahe Transportation Initiative serves as a critical last-
minute solution for the Fort Belknap Indian Community. By
strategically coordinating travel resources, we have
successfully bridged the geographic divide that historically
isolates our most vulnerable members.
The Fort Belknap Indian Community is proof that when tribes
are given flexibility to lead, our families thrive. However, as
noted in our joint letter, for tribes to fully realize the
potential of this initiative, an increase in authorized funding
will be necessary to meet the vast needs across Indian Country.
We urge you to pass the Native Children's Commission
Implementation Act of 2025. Help us ensure that the decade of
action and healing becomes a permanent reality for our
children.
Chairman, we love our children on the reservation. Our
children are going to grow up some day. We want them to heal.
It does not matter who they are, where they come from or what
they have done. They still deserve to heal and live a good
life. We would like them to have dreams, their dreams come
true, and have stories to tell their children and their
grandchildren someday, not stories of unhealthy things, but
stories of growth and stories of how they survived and what
healing is really about. Because it certainly is not about
drugs or alcohol or anything unhealthy.
Thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chair. Thank you for your testimony, Councilwoman.
We will next hear virtually from Ms. Anita Fineday, who was
one of our commissioners on the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter
Soboleff Commission.
STATEMENT OF ANITA FINEDAY, FORMER COMMISSIONER, NATIVE
CHILDREN'S COMMISSION, BRAINERD, MINNESOTA
Ms. Fineday. Thank you to the committee. I want to thank
the members of the committee for continuing to raise the issues
of Native children and providing opportunities such as these to
improve outcomes for Native children and Native communities.
I was honored to serve on the Commission and I would just
say that I served as Chief Judge for my tribe, for the White
Earth Tribal Nation in Northwest Minnesota for 14 years. I have
worked as an attorney and tribal judge focusing on children's
issues, child welfare, and also developing tribal court
systems.
I was honored to serve on this Commission on Native
Children and serve as one of the eleven members.
I just want to say a word about our work. We gathered
baseline data on topics including juvenile justice,
socioeconomic issues, mental health, suicide, infant and child
mortality, child welfare, substance use, ACEs, or adverse
childhood experiences, educational achievement, physical
health. We held hearings both in person and during COVID
virtually.
We heard from elected officials, community leaders. We had
26 site visits and 10 regional hearings as well as 25 virtual
hearings. We heard from experts in their fields, and we heard
from scholars who had worked in each of these areas throughout
their careers.
I want to focus on one of our recommendations, out of many.
My background, as I said, is working in tribal courts. I want
to talk about IV-E funding, which comes from the Children's
Bureau, which is part of ACF. We talked during hearings about
the potential of having IV-E funding more readily available for
tribes.
IV-E funding is accessed by all 50 States. It funds child
welfare in this Country. Currently, only 14 tribes receive IV-E
funding. The reason only 14 tribes receive this funding is
because of the huge burden of administering the program. This
is a huge obstacle for many tribes.
The reporting requirements and the data requirements are
very burdensome. So we proposed that IV-E funding, which is an
already existing funding source, it is already accessed, as I
said, by all 50 States, so it is not new funding. It is
something that already exists.
Taking IV-E funding and then also using IV-B funding, which
more tribes do access IV-B funding now, but not all tribes do.
Again, because of the burdensome reporting requirements,
especially for small tribes.
One of the recommendations is to combine IV-E and IV-B
funding with 477 programs. We have heard 477 programs mentioned
a couple of times, and that is a way to make Federal funding
streams more readily accessible for tribes to provide
flexibility and to allow tribes to come up with one funding
agreement that covers all of the different funding streams that
are included in that agreement.
We would propose that the committee consider that
recommendation as a way to fund child welfare for tribes. Also
to fund tribal courts through that funding stream, and to allow
tribes to access that funding through the 477 programs that
already exist.
I will stop there and wait for more questions. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Fineday follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chair. Thank you so much for that, and the very
specific suggestion. We appreciate that.
Next, we will turn to Lori Jump. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF LORI JUMP, CEO, STRONGHEARTS NATIVE HELPLINE
Ms. Jump. Thank you. Good afternoon.
My spirit name is Anishnabe Kwe Tahnakee, and my given name
is Lori Jump. I am a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of
Chippewa Indians and a survivor of both domestic and sexual
violence. I have been an advocate for survivors for almost 40
years. I come here today as the Executive Officer for
StrongHearts Native Helpline.
Miigwech. Thank you for this opportunity to provide
testimony on Title II Justice and Safety for Native Children.
Title II offers a number of provisions that will have a
positive impact on access to justice and healing for American
Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian peoples. While all
of the provisions are important, I will focus my remarks on
Section 204, which will have the most impact on the work that
we do at StrongHearts.
Indian Country has the highest rates of violence across our
country. Yet our relatives have the least access to services
intended to respond to that violence.
There are 575 federally recognized tribes in the United
States, but less than half of them have funding to provide the
lifesaving services that so many of our relatives need.
In our StrongHearts directory of Native-centered resources,
we have 274 domestic violence programs, and 67 domestic
violence shelters. Remember, there are 575 tribal nations. So
that number is woeful, it does not meet the need.
Section II of the proposed legislation will codify several
important provisions that are currently funded through
discretionary appropriations. These include the Alaska Native
Women's Resource Center, the Native Hawaiian Women's Resource
Center, and StrongHearts Native Helpline.
Indigenous people have a different worldview that is often
misunderstood by western organizations. Where others may say
they have rights, we say that we have obligations. Where others
may say that, I do not know that person, we say that they are
our relative. As a relative, we have an obligation to care for
them.
That worldview, I think, is precisely why this legislation
is so important to us. The services provided by the three
organizations that I mentioned help to ensure that survivors
have access to services that meet their needs. The resource
centers and the tribal coalitions all provide incredibly
important training and technical assistance to tribal nations,
to tribal programs, and tribal communities.
This training ensures that programs developed are victim-
centered, trauma-informed, and empowerment-based. StrongHearts
is a national, anonymous, and confidential helpline for our
relatives. For those communities that do not have domestic
violence services, we can fill that gap, giving all of our
relatives, no matter where they are, or what time of day or
night, access to peer support, safety planning, and warm
handoffs to services for ongoing support.
In just under nine years of operation, we have received
more than 80,000 contacts and made more than 32,000 referrals
to other organizations for ongoing support. In the early years,
when StrongHearts had limited hours of operation, we used a
recording that allowed callers to transfer to the National
Domestic Violence Hotline simply by pressing 1, to ensure that
no call went unanswered.
Less than 10 percent of callers chose to use the transfer
option. To me, this speaks to the desire of culturally-honoring
services that our relatives are seeking and deserve.
The proposed legislation will ensure that we can continue
to do this work on behalf of and with our relatives.
In closing, I would like to thank you all and express my
genuine gratitude to the committee for considering my
testimony. I would like to conclude by reminding our Federal
partners of the significance of codifying the critical support
to tribes and tribal organizations. It shows an investment in
our communities, promoting solutions that come from our
strengths, our culture, and our collective knowledge. That
investment advances safer, healthier communities, where access
to not only justice, but access to healing is achievable and
where Native individuals, families, and communities can not
only survive but thrive.
Miigwech.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jump follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chair. Thank you so much, Ms. Jump.
Our final contributor to the panel this morning is Mr. Mark
Patterson. I guess it is afternoon, but it is morning there in
Hawaii still. Mr. Patterson, welcome.
STATEMENT OF MARK PATTERSON, CHAIR, HAWAII CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM
OVERSIGHT COMMISSION, FORMER ADMINISTRATOR, HAWAII YOUTH
CORRECTIONAL FACILITY/KAWAILOA YOUTH AND FAMILY WELLNESS CENTER
Mr. Patterson. Good morning, everyone, Chair and Vice
Chair. Thank you for the invitation to be here this morning.
Thank you, Vice Chair, for your introduction. I must be
transparent and honest to say that there is no one person that
has caused all these changes in Hawaii, but a collaboration of
agencies and community leaders, to bring about the change has
occurred, but I thank you for that warm introduction.
In 2022, I was honored to be appointed by this committee to
be a commissioner on the Coordinated Council of the Office of
Juvenile Justice. That was a real honor for me, and a real
learning experience, where I saw all the Federal agencies that
were a part of the Council, and the budgets they had for Native
communities or Native Americans and Native Alaskans and Native
Hawaiians.
What was amazing to me was that most of them or all of them
were working in silos. It was an interesting point for in
trying to figure out, how do we get the Coordinated Council, at
that time, to create a more coordinated effort on their funding
to improve the system, or the justice systems, or family plates
on the reservations and in Alaska, et cetera. It was a great
experience for me.
However, the Coordinated Council has not met since 2024,
but our report is online, to the Congress, that some of our
recommendations can be seen.
I share this with you because for generations, Native
Hawaiian families have carried the weight of historical trauma,
systemic inequities and the erosion of traditional structures
that once protected our children. Yet, despite these
challenges, our communities have never lost the belief that
healing begins with culture, with family, and with the deep
relationships that bind us to one another and to our ancestral
lands.
That belief has guided Hawaii's justice reforms for more
than two decades, and it is why our State is now recognized
nationally for what culturally-grounded, trauma-informed care
and land-based education can achieve. A major reason for this
progress is the growing presence of Native Hawaiians in
leadership roles and on the front lines of State agencies and
community organizations, where our own people are shaping
decisions and directly serving our families, our cultural
values and our methods of healing move faster, with greater
integrity and with deeper impact.
Nationally, we often describe restorative justice as a
reform, but for indigenous people, Native American nations,
Alaska Native communities, Native Hawaiians, it is a
continuation of practices that have sustained families for
generations. What we now call restorative justice reflects the
same values at the heart of the Tiwahe initiative,
strengthening families, restoring cultural identity, and
empowering communities to design their own pathways to healing.
Tiwahe's approach of braving Federal resources, elevating
indigenous governance, and restoring cultural identity creates
the conditions for these models to thrive.
When we invest in Tiwahe, we invest in justice systems that
heal, rather than harm, and that honor the cultural wisdom and
sovereignty of the communities they serve.
Restorative justice in America is strongest when it stands
on the foundation indigenous peoples have built. Across the
country, specialty courts have shown that when we address the
real drivers of system involvement, addiction, trauma, mental
illness, family instability and cultural disconnection, people
heal and communities become safer.
Hawaii has demonstrated this for more than a decade. Girls
Court and Juvenile Drug Court provided that when Native
Hawaiian youth are supported with cultural mentors, family
engagements, a restorative model that we call Ho`oponopono,
incarceration drops and identity is restored.
Our adult drug court, mental health court, and women's
court extend this healing across generations. Native Hawaiian
women remain among the most overrepresented and least visible
in our systems, which makes this work urgent. Hawaii culturally
based courts are the next step. They formalize what already
works by rooting justice in culture, ohana and healing. This
direction aligns with the Tiwahe initiative and with the
Federal trust responsibility to support the well-being and
cultural survival of indigenous people.
Hawaii culturally based courts offer a proven culturally
grounded model that strengthens families and reduces
incarceration. Even with our local successes, Native Hawaiian
women and children still face structural barriers that no State
innovation can fix.
The most significant is the lack of consistent, accurate
Federal data. Unlike tribal nations, Native Hawaiians are
excluded from ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act. There is no
Federal oversight, no mandatory reporting, and no inclusion in
national ICWA data base or sets. As a result, Native Hawaiian
children, one of the largest indigenous populations in the
country, remain invisible in the very systems meant to protect
indigenous families.
This is why Titles II and III of the bill are so critical.
They correct decades of erasure by ensuring Native American,
Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children are actively
counted, and that research on Native families is culturally
grounded and actionable.
Section 304 is equally essential. It directs that a Federal
study on tribal capacity and Native Hawaiian organizations must
be explicitly included. Our cultural practitioners delivering
land-based healing, Ho`oponopono and family-centered
interventions, yet they are often shut out of Federal resources
because of administrative barriers. This works in line with the
Tiwahe initiative, which strengthens family systems, restores
cultural identity and empowers indigenous communities to lead.
Title II and III make indigenous families visible. Section
304 ensures indigenous organizations are supported, and Tiwahe
provides a framework for indigenous communities, including
Native Hawaiians, to thrive.
Together, these provisions create the conditions for
indigenous families to thrive on their own terms. Without the
explicit inclusion of Native Hawaiians in Section 304, we risk
repeating the very patterns of exclusion this bill seeks to
correct. With that inclusion, we take a meaningful step toward
justice, equity, and the restoration of indigenous well-being.
Hawaiian experience shows that when indigenous communities
lead with culture, family and healing, outcomes improve and
system involvement declines. Including Native Hawaiians in
Tiwahe would not only strengthen our families, it would provide
a proven model that could uplift tribal communities nationwide.
Thank you. I will be around for questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Patterson follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chair. Thank you, Mr. Patterson.
Thanks to all of you for your testimony here today. As I
listen to the comments that you have made, it just reinforces
to me why we set out on this Commission in the first place, to
really focus in on what more we can be doing when it comes to
the health and well-being of Native children, and a recognition
that there is no one thing, we just cannot focus on education.
We just cannot focus on safety. We just cannot focus on
housing.
It has to be comprehensive. It has to be holistic. It has
to acknowledge the emphasis on culture and identity and how
that is so central to healing for children and for youth and
the families in your communities.
I think each one of you has echoed that in different areas
of social services and the justice programs.
I had mentioned the Tiwahe program in my comments, and both
Chairwoman Street and Councilwoman Johnson, you both have
acknowledged that, Mr. Patterson has acknowledged Tiwahe. You
have been part of the initial pilot, if you will, with the
Tiwahe program.
You have seen how the more traditional Federal programs
have worked, and now, how with Tiwahe, you have greater
coordination across services, integrating the culture and the
language and the traditional practices. You have spoken to the
benefits of what we have with Tiwahe.
How, in your words, I think you have given us a sense as to
the priority of it, but if we are able to expand on Tiwahe, so
that others may follow this as a model, what would be some of
your recommendations, and why do we need to reinforce that this
approach is better than what we have seen traditionally or
perhaps more historically with the traditional Federal
programs?
I will throw that out to either one of you.
Ms. Johnson. I guess what makes Tiwahe so extraordinary in
our community is because of the flexibility. I have been
working with youth for 24 years. I have been under other grants
that have a stricter policy guidelines in doing what we can do
and what we cannot do.
Tiwahe actually, we are able to work with flexibility, we
are able to work with our children the way we know will heal
them. That is our culture, our spirituality. A lot of our
children that come to us do not have that, do not know or have
an identity. They do not know where they come from. Yes, they
know that they are Native American, but what is their family
tree, what are their traditions and culture?
We introduce them to the sweat lodge, we introduce them to
prayer, to language. We introduce them to our culture and our
traditions that our people have been living for a long time. We
are very fortunate to have spiritual leaders. In every aspect
of our Tiwahe, whether it is from the juvenile justice that we
do, to the family wellness has a cultural component in it, a
holistic, healing component where we want our children to heal.
I know, I am living proof that it was the holistic healing
in our traditional ceremonies that have saved me. I believe
strongly in what we do to heal our children.
The Chair. You have spoken to some of the more historical,
cultural aspects of it. Yet Chairwoman Street, I understand
that all of Spirit Lake's social service program staff have
either a bachelor's or master's degree in social work, and
Tiwahe has helped make that possible. That is clearly an
investment in workforce capacity.
Can you speak to that aspect of it?
Ms. Jackson-Street. Yes, absolutely. Through the Tiwahe and
related initiatives, the tribe increased staffing capacity to
16 full-time positions. They are serving a population of more
than 2,400 children within our boundaries. The program is made
up of entirely enrolled members. The majority are from the
Spirit Lake area, our own people, that have been educated and
are serving our own communities.
This expansion has allowed tribal social services to safely
manage foster care, Child Protective Services (CPS) and
prevention caseloads, which improve oversight, documentation
and accountability.
Equally important, Tiwahe supported the education, like you
are mentioning, of the professional advancement of the tribal
workforce. As a result of that, we have two staff members who
now hold masters social work degrees, eight staff members who
hold bachelor of science in social work degrees, and six staff
members who hold associate of arts in social work degrees.
For us, this represents a significant transformation in
workforce qualifications, and it reflects the tribe's
commitment to build a highly-trained, credentialed child
welfare workforce rooted in the Spirit Lake community.
The Chair. Thank you.
Let me turn to Senator Schatz.
Senator Schatz. Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the
testifiers, not just for your testimony, but for your
incredibly important work.
Of course, I am going to start with Mr. Patterson. As you
know, in the early 2000s, Hawaii began to transform the
criminal justice system by embracing restorative justice, and
incorporating traditional Hawaiian practices.
How did this shift improve the juvenile justice system in
the State to reduce recidivism among Native Hawaiians?
Mr. Patterson. Thank you, Senator. That is a really good
question, and a complex question in itself. For everyone who is
present, you have to understand that Native Hawaiians, we are
in and among the community in the State of Hawaii. We are not a
part.
Though we are the highest in the criminal justice system,
there came a point from the perspective of our family court
where the judges took the leadership and basically said, we are
no longer going to put children in prison. We are not going to
put children in prison.
Once the judges made that announcement, they needed to
figure out how they were going to do that. That is when the
Office of Youth Services stepped up and began to create the
collaborative leadership that was needed to bring State
agencies together with their community service providers and
start looking at things that they wanted to see that included
trauma-informed care, restorative justice methods, and cultural
programming.
A lot of that was already going on among the community
organizations. But now that you have the State organizations or
agencies wanting to go in that direction, it was just a matter
of bringing them all together and creating a continuum of care
throughout our State systems involving cultural programs at
every level from the Department of Education to child welfare
system to the Department of Health, and all the mental health
issues in their families and children, bringing them together
so that they can have identified all the issues along and
provide their service providers the cultural program that is
necessary.
This was pretty profound and innovative at the time, 15
years ago. They said, let's do it, let's do this, let's try it.
And basically what we did is we gave the judges tools in their
decision-making to say, okay, we are not going to send you
here, we are going send you there, to build a diversion with
these programs to help identify the needs of not just the
juvenile offender, but the needs of the family.
We threw it back into those communities in order for them
to restore and resolve the issues. So we went from punitive
consequences to non-punitive consequences. They did not have
consequences for their crimes but they were just given non-
punitive consequences where they had to have actionable things
to do back in their communities do that they can improve on
their behavior.
That was the real success in lowering the incarceration of
the Native Hawaiian population, and the overall population as
well. I think even as of today, our population of 1.5 million,
the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility houses 20 youth at this
time.
Senator Schatz. That is incredible.
Mr. Patterson. Four or five would probably be girls.
Senator Schatz. The final question I have for you is, if
you could talk to me about how the specialty courts, including
women and girls courts, have been essential to getting these
good outcomes. It seems to me that without these specialty
courts it would be a little more difficult to deal with these
things as a kind of public health problem, as a family and
community problem, and not narrowly as a criminal justice
question.
Talk to me about the roles of those specialty courts.
Mr. Patterson. The most successful of our specialty courts,
of course, family court as a whole. Within family court, you
have another court that has grown nationally, been given
national attention, and it is our girls court. They have
demonstrated that we can create specialized, culturally ground
courts designed specifically for justice-involved and runaway
youth, we can keep Native kids out of incarceration entirely.
These programs work because they are built on three core
principles. Culture is essential. When young people reconnect
to identity, language, place and community, they stabilize.
Culture becomes the protective factor that keeps them safe.
Second, healing and accountability happen together. A
specialized juvenile court brings judges, clinicians,
educators, cultural practitioners and peer mentors into one
coordinated team. Instead of pushing youth deeper into the
system, the court wraps around them and their families with
structure, support, and clear expectations.
Third, we measure success by long-term stability. School
engagement, family reconnection, cultural participation and
wellness. Not by how many sanctions we impose.
Those are the three things that are especially used in
creating our courts and being successful, Senator.
Senator Schatz. Thank you very much.
I will just add, the one amendment that I wanted to flag, I
know I am going to get a yes from the testifiers, so I will in
the interest of time just flag it. There is a really good idea
for a hotline. I think for both cultural reasons and time zone
reasons, we are going to need to specify that Hawaii may need
its own hotline.
Thank you.
The Chair. Alaska and Hawaii.
Senator Schatz. Alaska and Hawaii, yes. Excuse me. And we
are cousins. Yes.
[Remarks off microphone.]
The Chair. Thank you. Senator Daines.
Senator Daines. Chair Murkowski, thank you. Again, I want
to welcome Councilwoman Joan Johnson from Harlem, Montana.
Thanks again for coming before this committee.
I certainly appreciate the opportunity to have a
discussion, to talk about public safety for our Native
communities, particularly Native youth. I applaud the Trump
administration's immediate actions to close the southern border
and dispatch law enforcement personnel to Indian Country.
The opening of that new Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) field office in Billings bodes well for future
cooperation between our State, tribal and Federal partners to
address violent crime on the reservations. I am really glad to
have our U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme there in Billings, who I know
is passionate on this issue.
With more law enforcement resources certainly needed, there
is still more, of course, that needs to be done to address
public safety than just arrests and drug interdictions.
Councilwoman Johnson, the Fort Belknap Indian Community was
amongst the first tribes in the Country to participate in the
Tiwahe initiative. Through this pilot program, the tribe
received funding to strengthen and integrate services to better
serve young people on the reservation, as you mentioned. Also
to help the parents. You are also addressing the youth but also
the parents to break some of the generational trauma that is
passed on.
My question for you is, could you explain briefly the
biggest impacts you have seen since implementing the Tiwahe
framework?
Ms. Johnson. I guess I would have to answer that in a
spiritual way. Helping them find their culture, their identity
and knowing who they are. Like receiving a Native name,
understanding the language. When they first started, a lot of
our clients did not even know where they came from.
Six elders that came on board with Tiwahe that have been
with us since the beginning, they taught them about our culture
and tradition.
Senator Daines. Thank you.
You mentioned about the results, the efficacy of the
program, when we met this morning. In the first four years of
the program, Fort Belknap saw decreases in child abuse cases,
family assaults, and elder abuse cases. The juvenile recidivism
rate decreased, I believe you told me from 80 percent to 35
percent, and the number of program participants increased.
Has the Fort Belknap Tribe been able, the reservation, I
should say, been able to sustain that success over the last
four years?
Ms. Johnson. Yes, we have. Through our culturally infused
alternative sentencing, meaning that they are with their
culture, teaching these kids who they are, so they grow up with
identity, simply like having a Native name, learning the
language, learning about ceremonies like sun dance, fasting,
circles, knowing their self-worth, knowing they are worthy and
loved. A lot of these kids never thought they were.
Teaching parents how to be supportive of their children, as
I stated earlier in our conversation, that not only do we work
with the youth, the parents kind of fell in. We are teaching
the parents how to be a role model, how to support their child
and how to love them not only emotionally but physically, too.
When these kids learn to love themselves, they stop
recidivism, because they are, as I said, when they come and
there is no identity, they feel abandoned, they have anger
issues. Some of them come in with addiction.
These kids want to go to school. They do not want to go to
school and be hungry. They do not want to go to school and be
bullied because of the lifestyle that they live. They just want
to go to school and get an education and have a better life.
They want their parents to love them and support them. A
lot of these kids will always love their parents, no matter
what. But they want that support and that love from their
parents, they want to feel safe and protected.
That is what our elders provide them with, the
understanding of what true self-love is. Teaching them the core
values of being respectful.
They become, our clients become role models themselves to
the new clients that come in, the younger ones. They take them
kind of under their arm, trying to guide them in the way the
elders guided them.
We do a lot of follow-ups, three months, six months, nine
months. Even after they turn 18, our case manager goes out and
still does the follow-up. I think follow-ups are very important
when you work with children and youth at a young age, to know
that there is somebody out there that believes in them.
Fort Belknap has the highest rate of follow-ups that are
being done.
Senator Daines. Councilwoman Johnson, thank you. It is a
long ways from Harlem, Montana, to Washington, D.C. Thanks for
making the long journey for your testimony.
The Chair. Senator Cortez Masto.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. I too want to thank all of
you for testifying today, whether you flew out here or you are
participating remotely. I think it is just so important to hear
your voices.
I also have to thank the Chairwoman and our former
colleague, Heidi Heitkamp, for the creation of the Commission
and continued work in this space, which is so important.
I want to direct my first question to Ms. Fineday. I know
she is participating remotely. If she can hear me, I hope she
can, I would love to talk to you a little bit about the work
that you did on the Commission and specifically, not just the
Alyce Spotted Bear Commission but there was also a field
hearing for the Not Invisible Act Commission. There was a
report that came out from that as well.
Both commissions and their reports were consistent in one
thing, well, there were a number of things. But one I want to
talk about, which is this overarching topic that there is a
lack of information sharing and coordination between non-tribal
and tribal governments.
Specifically, this is my concern, and a number of us have
been talking about this, here is an example. Many social media
and tech companies do not even honor warrants for electronic
evidence issued by tribal courts. But they do if you are a non-
tribal court.
As we all know, anybody who works in law enforcement, when
there is a delay in getting the evidence it really is a delay
to access justice and preventing justice, particularly in our
tribal communities.
I am wondering, Ms. Fineday, if you can touch on a little
bit more about the concerns about this lack of information
sharing and some of the recommendations in the report, if you
can hear me.
Ms. Fineday. I can hear you. Can you hear me?
Senator Cortez Masto. Yes.
Ms. Fineday. Okay, great. Thank you for that question. That
is something that came up frequently in my work as a tribal
judge. And you can imagine working on the White Earth Indian
Reservation in northwest Minnesota, in a very rural area,
sparsely populated, when law enforcement was not in
communication, when our tribal law enforcement often did not
have the ability to access the same information streams that
county and State law enforcement agencies access.
It could be State generated information or it could have
been, and could still be today, federally generated
information. This could be something as simple as trying to
locate a person, or having a missing person or a missing child.
I think Minnesota has done a good job of integrating both
systems in Minnesota, but I do not think that is the case
nationally. One of the things that we brought up in the State
of Minnesota was, we have Amber alerts when there is a missing
child. But the Amber alerts did not include tribal children,
because the tribes' systems did not talk to the State systems.
Their data bases were not connected, and they did not have a
mechanism for sharing that kind of information.
That is kind of an extreme example. It takes work, and then
every State is different. Every State has its own way of
handling citations, so agreements to share that information
need to be hammered out between each State and each tribe.
It can lead to, I had a situation where a mother was
deceased and the father took the child to a State court and got
custody of that child. He had a birth certificate and mom was
deceased, but he had had a number of criminal charges against
him regarding that child, but the State was not aware of that,
because it was in a tribal system.
Yes, that arises many times and takes a lot of work and
effort and communication on building partnerships with our
local law enforcement agencies to be able to share information
and work out a way that that information is routinely shared.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. I know my time is up. I am
going to take the same opportunity as the Ranking Member, just
to say, there is legislation at the Federal level. We are
looking to address that. One is the Tribal Access to Electronic
Evidence Act, for the very reasons that we just heard. There is
another piece of legislation that addresses the importance of
finding missing children.
One thing I know is the U.S. Marshals Service that actually
works with local and State law enforcement to track down
fugitives and missing children is not allowed to work with our
tribal communities. We need to fix that. There is another piece
of legislation to do that.
I thank you, Chairwoman.
The Chair. Strong suggestions. Thank you for that, Senator
Cortez Masto.
Senator Hoeven.
Senator Hoeven. Thanks, Chair Murkowski.
Thanks to all the witnesses for being here, and to those
testifying remotely as well. In particular, I want to thank
Chairman Lonna Jackson-Street for being here, chairman of the
Spirit Lake Nation. Thank you for making the trip, and I know
you had some trouble with your airline reservations. Certainly
the Chairman and I know what that is like, as well as Senator
Cortez Masto.
Thanks for hanging in there and joining us today, and
thanks for your strong leadership of the Spirit Lake Nation.
Not only as chairman, but I think, what, eight years as
secretary-treasurer for the tribal council. You serve on so
many committees and are doing so much good work for the tribe.
We appreciate you.
I want to start out in regard to the Missing and Murdered
Unit, MMU, at the Department of Interior, which is so important
for investigating missing people in Indian Country. Has this
unit supported Spirit Lake in your efforts, and if so, how? Can
you kind of tell us how they are doing and maybe also what they
can do to improve or increase their support for your efforts?
Ms. Jackson-Street. Thank you for the question, Senator
Hoeven. I really appreciate your support on this effort. Spirit
Lake has been a strong effort as far as MMIP.
I also serve on the committee for the State of North Dakota
for the MMIP Task Force. Recently, the State of North Dakota
did pass and approve the MMIP Task Force for tribal nations
within Indian Country. And so Spirit Lake is very familiar with
the issues that we face with MMIP.
When I talked earlier about our missing individuals, Jemini
Posey, Isaac Hunt, Lyndon Greybear, just to name a few, Savanna
Greywind, who we now have an act after. So Spirit Lake, it is
not unfamiliar territory for us. And we ourselves have faced a
lot of those challenges in working with our partners, now that
we have been able to establish MOUs with the State of North
Dakota.
Savanna's Act was great, and provided that structure for
us. Through that, we have been able to also develop our own
incident task force within our own tribal community because we
had faced so many missing persons within our tribe. At the
time, we felt that the response was not quick enough. As I said
earlier, 72 hours is pretty much the time you have, and it is
crucial time.
By being able to establish what we have established at
home, it just was reassurance for us that we would not have any
other, another missing person go missing and not be found. So
our goal is always to rescue and not recover.
Unfortunately, because of our lack of law enforcement, we
recently had a young lady who had just turned 21 who had done
everything right in terms of calling 911, and notifying law
enforcement that she was lost. However, because of the lack of
resources, because of the lack of law enforcement that most of
our tribal nations face, unfortunately, she had succumbed to
what had happened to her, in her situation, where she ended up
drowning in the water.
It took about six days with relentless support from outside
agencies that came in to what we developed with our incident
command team to come in and find her, recover her remains. Her
name was Tiny White. She had just turned 21 years old.
Senator Hoeven. One of the things that I work very hard on
is the Advanced Training Center at Camp Grafton. Across the
upper Midwest, we have a lot of BIA law enforcement officer
positions that are vacant. We need to have training closer to
the northern part of the country. They cannot all go down to
New Mexico for their training.
That is why we have the Advanced Training Center there. We
need to continue to build on that. We are getting a lot of good
responses, a lot of people coming. The numbers are in the
thousands now that come. It is very impressive. So we need that
basic training there as well.
Would you speak to how important it is, particularly with
our very strong and able chairman here, who I know shares and
is also, last I checked, is from a northern State as well, how
important it is to support that advanced training center and
get these law enforcement positions filled in the BIA for the
northern States?
Ms. Jackson-Street. Thank you for that question, Senator
Hoeven. Thank you for allowing me to address, Chairman, on this
particular subject.
It is very critical for Indian Country to be supported in
this effort to increase the capacity of law enforcement
officers back into our communities to handle such cases as the
one I had just talked about involving one of our tribal
members, Tiny White, where, if we had the adequate number of
law enforcement officers on duty on any given time, their
quicker response could have made the difference in her life.
Specifically for Spirit Lake, we have about 250,000 acres
of land. We are considered a large land base, not comparable to
other tribes within our State that are much larger. But I think
we all face the same amount of struggles when it comes to
lacking those resources for our communities.
Your support on increasing that funding, your support on
the Camp Grafton base for law enforcement training centers, not
just for advanced training but for entry level police officers,
would be very supportive.
A lot of our tribal nations have the capability to provide
that workforce planned into their communities, provided we have
the training center in North Dakota. I know we do. Devil's Lake
does have a peace officer training program. But we do have the
capacity with our tribal colleges to do the same.
Senator Hoeven. The reservation, of course, is co-located
with our National Guard Army Base, Camp Grafton, that is right
there, and with Lake Region College, which also trains State
law enforcement and highway patrol. So there is already
tremendous resources there that can be leveraged in place. It
is a real benefit for the Federal Government to do it there,
because of the facilities we have that can be used for both
training in Indian Country as well as off-reservation. Correct?
Ms. Jackson-Street. Absolutely. We have done the work, we
have done the legwork. We have made the connections and we have
established the MOUs with our local resources, with our highway
patrol, with our county offices. We just need the funding to be
able to carry out those plans for how we want to police our
tribal nations in Indian Country.
Thank you.
Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate it.
The Chair. Thank you.
And know that your good Senator is always a good, strong
advocate for this, for all the right reasons, as you have
pointed out, in terms of the dual use infrastructure and the
training. There is a very clear recognition that throughout
Indian Country, certainly in my State of Alaska, the lack of
law enforcement presence, whether it is at State trooper level
or tribal police officer, I think we recognize that there are
far, far, far too many communities that are either unserved or
underserved.
Senator Hoeven. And the huge distances. You know better
than me.
The Chair. Yes, huge distances, and many, many challenges,
as we understand.
I just have a couple more questions for our witnesses this
afternoon. I want to go back online to you, Ms. Fineday,
because you raised the issue of IV-B and the 477 agreements. I
have long been a supporter of 477s that really allow for a much
better coordination of services, but we are seeing that our
Federal agencies are increasingly limiting access to 477,
particularly at Interior. But I think what you said, I think
you said burden in administering IV-Bs.
Can you just speak a little bit more to the committee here
about why strengthening 477s through the cross-departmental
coordination is really key, and giving it that flexibility that
allows us to better address the child welfare challenges that
we see across Indian Country?
Ms. Fineday. Yes. I would just say, so, I am sure you know
this better than I do, 477, it started in 2000, in the year
2000. It allows tribes and tribal organizations more
flexibility in funding. And then it was expanded in 2017 to
include 12 departments that became eligible to be included in
these 477 programs.
The BIA is the lead agency in approving and developing
these 477 plans. There are currently 67 tribal plans, 477
plans, in 18 States. And what 477 does is, it reduces
paperwork, it consolidates services, it focuses on client
needs, and it uses existing funding more efficiently. So it is
taking programs that are operated, and I do not have the names
of the Federal agencies in front of me right now, but the
Children's Bureau and ACF is currently not one of the programs
that participates in 477.
So in expanding 477, you include the Children's Bureau or
ACF. It would allow, it could possibly allow tribes to access
IV-E funding and IV-B funding through a 477 plan. And you could
combine that into the 477 and it would transform tribal child
welfare, I believe. And it would also form a component for
family stability and would support cross-training.
It could just really transform the services that are
available in Indian Country, because most tribes are not able
to access that funding at all today.
The Chair. Thank you for that. I want to direct a question
to you, Ms. Jump. This is about FVPSA and the importance of
reauthorizing that. They are still getting appropriations, but
it has not been reauthorized since 2015, and it lacks the
statutory authorization for tribal and culturally specific
services.
That is one of the reasons why we have included these
provisions in our discussion draft.
Can you speak a little bit more about why it is important
that we have clear authorization for tribes in culturally
specific programs? I think there is no dispute about the need
that our children have for these services that are more
culturally connected as they are facing their trauma. But you
have some who say, well, you have money that is still being
directed to FVPSA, so the reauthorization is perhaps not as key
to that.
Can you address that piece of it? Because that is another
piece to this bigger puzzle that we have been trying to put
together.
Ms. Fineday. Yes.
The Chair. I am sorry, Ms. Fineday. I had directed this to
Ms. Jump.
Ms. Fineday. Oh, I am sorry.
The Chair. Go ahead.
Ms. Jump. Actually, as you know, FVPSA is the major funding
source for domestic violence shelters, State coalitions and
national resource centers. For the past 40 years, they have
been doing that work. And it was last authorized, as you
mentioned, in 2010. So it has been expired now for 10 years.
Advocates have been working on reauthorization, without
success, which is probably the biggest reason why I am so
excited about this proposed legislation. As you said, Congress
has continued to provide funding, but without authorization,
the funding really is at risk.
As you know, just last year, the Unauthorized Spending
Accountability Act was introduced, which would have reduced
appropriations for unauthorized programs over a three-year
period, resulting in eventual termination. Advocates across
this country were terrified, not just in Indian Country, but
across the country, because this funding provides such critical
services. Shelters, when somebody is seeking safety, and they
are so far----
The Chair. I think someone said there are 65 shelters,
total?
Ms. Jump. No. So, across the country, there are about, I
believe it is 354 shelters. In Indian Country, there are 67.
The Chair. Sixty-seven, throughout all of Indian Country?
Ms. Jump. Sixty-seven, throughout all of Indian Country,
serving 575 tribal nations.
We were terrified. Everybody was holding their breath until
we found out that, okay, we were going to maintain some
funding. That feeling is not new across Indian Country. I think
that is one of our biggest risks about programming is that
funding will come out and we will be able to establish programs
and then funding goes away and we lose them.
There is always a risk of programming that is not
authorized of being cut. That is just--tribes are already
underfunded and under resourced. So our communities know that
as sparse as these services are, that funding is critical.
Further, I think that what really is important about
reauthorization is that it reflects a commitment to survivors.
It reflects a commitment to survivors that they are seen, they
are heard, and they matter. We will continue to support these
programs that are so critical, that are life-saving. That
commitment is important for all of our survivors.
The Chair. Thank you for reinforcing that.
I wanted to ask you a final question, Councilwoman Johnson.
You spoke, when you were talking about missing Native children,
you also recommended that we ensure that this include non-
custodial family abductions. I think you kind of underscored
why that was important.
I guess I would ask you to expand on why these contexts are
significant to include in our legislation, why it is important
to have the information from BIA and DOJ to help you to respond
to the needs. I think sometimes we want to focus our
legislation, but you have reminded us that oftentimes these
non-custodial family matters require us to look more
expansively at that definition.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you for the question, Chairman
Murkowski. Missing often involves complex family dynamics. When
a child is taken by a non-custodial family member, it is
sometimes dismissed as a family dispute rather than a
disappearance.
Including these cases ensures that the children do not fall
through the cracks of the legal system. Regardless of who took
the child, the result is the same: a child is missing from
their safe environment. We cannot ignore the role of substance
abuse in child safety.
When drug activity is involved, the risk to the child
increases dramatically. By tracking cases linked to drug
activity, we can identify patterns and hot spots. This is not
about criminalizing families; it is about understanding the
specific dangers like trafficking or neglect that our children
face, so we can intervene faster.
Currently, information is often scattered. Having a unified
study that coordinates with the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children means we are not starting from scratch every
time a child goes missing. For a rural family from Fort
Belknap, seconds matter. Real-time coordination of data between
Federal agencies and NCMAC gives our local law enforcement the
tools, alerts and resources that they need.
A lot of times, as I said, when law enforcement responds to
these calls, seconds matter. If we are understaffed with law
enforcement, and they are at maybe another major call, trying
to prioritize which one is more important, and you only have
one officer. It makes a big difference in saving someone's
life.
Thank you.
The Chair. Thank you, and I want to thank all of you. I
know that what we are developing has generated a lot of
interest among colleagues here on the committee. We have seen
that as we have engaged in the outreach, seeking input not only
from members of Congress, but more importantly, out in Indian
Country, really trying to take the recommendations from the
Commission and put them into actionable items, actionable
legislation, but trying to be most responsive in a way that
acknowledges the cultural implications, what we want to do to
build on best practices that have been developed, not because
we in Washington have drafted something and said it is going to
be this way, but because it has been more organically built,
more responsively built based on traditional practices and ways
of knowing, ways of learning.
We respect that, and we want to see that reflected in this
legislation that we will ultimately introduce.
I think it is fair to say that you can anticipate more
questions from colleagues. We will hold the hearing record open
for an additional two weeks.
Before I close, I want to acknowledge not only those of you
who have participated, but there has been an extraordinary
amount of work that has been done by the staff of this
committee. My team has been extraordinary in what they have
done, and in working with the Ranking Member and other members,
as we have tried to engage in field hearings, listening
sessions and really trying to build on what we hear from you.
I thank the teams for your work, and all that you are
doing. I know we have a lot more to do before we move forward
with it. But my hope is that with good input across the
spectrum, from Republicans to Democrats, from more rural areas,
to urban Indians, that we do develop legislation that is
responsive to the need in a way that we are all proud of.
I thank you all. With that, the committee stands adjourned,
and we say happy birthday to Sam today, too.
[Whereupon, at 4:08, the hearing was adjourned.]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[all]