Native Communities

The Department of Justice today announced the opening of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) period for comprehensive funding to American Indian and Alaska Native communities. CTAS funding supports crime prevention activities, victim services, and coordinated community responses to violence against Native American individuals. Administered by the Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), CTAS posts today online at https://www.justice.gov/tribal/open-solicitations. The solicitation includes directions on how federally recognized tribal governments and tribal consortia can apply for funding. The grants.gov application deadline for CTAS is March 21, 2023, at 8:59 p.m. EST, [...]

On December 5, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Congressman Derek Kilmer (D-WA-6) introduced the Honoring Promises to Native Nations Act (S. 5186). The bill, which was initially proposed by Senator Warren and then-Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM-1) in 2019, is a response to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report: Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans. The Honoring Promises to Native Nations Act will address the chronic underfunding of essential services and programs in Indian Country, including criminal justice and public safety, health care, education, housing, and economic development.

The issue is whether a federal law that seeks to place Native American foster children in Native American homes is constitutional. The case could turn on whether the justices see tribes as racial groups or sovereign nations. The little girl who will soon be known by the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court as Y.R.J. is now 4 years old. For much of her short life she has been living with Dr. Jennifer Brackeen and Chad Brackeen, a suburban Texas couple fighting with the Navajo Nation to adopt her. Y.R.J.’s birth mother is Navajo. The Brackeens are white. On [...]

The High Court is set to hear a case that will affect thousands of Native kids. Is it qualified to judge? On Nov. 9, the eyes of Indian Country will once again turn toward the nation’s capital, where the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a law passed in 1978 that enshrines tribal governments’ right to oversee foster care placements in cases involving Native children. The bill followed the damage done by the U.S. boarding school system and extractive adoption practices, which stripped Native youth of their culture and removed them from their communities. [...]

On September 20, the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples (SCIP) held an oversight hearing entitled “Examining Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta: The Implications of the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Tribal Sovereignty.” Mary Kathryn Nagle, Counsel to NIWRC, testified at the hearing about the negative impact the Castro-Huerta ruling has on the safety of Native women, children, and communities. Watch the hearing here. On September 26, the US Department of Justice hosted a Tribal consultation on the Castro-Huerta decision.

The Department of Justice has selected an additional 16 federally recognized Tribes to participate in the continued expansion of the Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information (TAP), a program that provides Tribal governments with means to access, enter and exchange data with national crime information systems, including those maintained by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division. The program provides training as well as software and biometric/biographic kiosk workstations to process fingerprints, take mugshots, and submit information to CJIS systems. With these additional Tribes, there are now 123 federally recognized Tribes participating in TAP. Read more...