FEDERAL PROSECUTOR SAYS TRIBAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS SPREAD THIN

WALKER, Minn. - American Indians are fighting methamphetamine while tribal
courts are battling for recognition, officials with the U.S Justice
Department told a national gathering of tribal and state leaders Saturday.

"Methamphetamine has become an epidemic in our Indian Country," said Jan
Morley, assistant U.S. attorney based in Washington, D.C. "We're losing our
children to this drug war and we need to take our children back."

The Justice Department in Indian country was the focus of the final day of
the annual Governors' Interstate Indian Council hosted by the Leech Lake
Band of Ojibwe. The two-day event brought together some of the 36 states
that have created councils to serve as a liaison between tribal and state
governments.

Morley, who grew up on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota,
said Indians have too few resources spread across too much geography -
especially in rural areas - to combat drugs.

"We need to start pooling our state, federal and tribal resources," Morley
said. "We need to make (drugs) our war."

Another major issue is homeland security, she said. Some tribes don't have
the funds to police their borders with Canada or Mexico.

Nationally, there was a significant jump in major crime in Indian country
in 1999-2000, and slight increase in the years since then, said Keith
Hanzell, FBI special agent based out of Bemidji in north-central Minnesota.

The FBI opened 1,887 new cases in Indian country in 2001, according to the
most recent figures available. That includes 615 cases of sexual abuse of
children and 433 assaults. It also includes 184 death investigations.

Hanzell said 73 percent of the FBI money spent in Indian country for 2003
went to training, mainly for tribal law enforcement.

Although the relationship between police on and off reservations is growing
stronger, there continues to be gray areas with jurisdiction, especially
when it involves tribal courts, the speakers said.

There are over 280 tribal justice systems in the United States, including
Alaska, but they're not seen as equal to state court systems, said Vince
Knight, executive director of the National Tribal Justice Resource Center.

"They don't trust our justice," Knight said.

Tribal courts do not have jurisdiction over non-Indians, but even their
limited power appears fragile under today's U.S. Supreme Court, he said.

"Everyone is reluctant to take their case to court because you don't know
what's going to happen to tribal jurisdiction," Knight said. "The Supreme
Court is a scary place right now. We all hold our breath."

The Interstate Indian Council was created in 1949 by state governors to
improve relationships with Indians and provide a liaison in creating public
policy with lawmakers. This year's conference included representatives from
Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,
Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Virginia.