Win Awenen Nisitotung Bnakwa Giizis • Falling Leaves Moon Official newspaper of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians October 18 • Vol. 34 No. 10 Sault Tribe members: Take a Nearly $1M in new grants to aid survey and win up to $2,500 SAULT STE. MARIE — This your household will automatically policing, courts, victim services month, Sault Tribe, together with be entered into a drawing for one BY RICK SMITH tion and resources to access sex Chippewa Indians. Lake Superior State University’s of five cash prizes of $2,500, Sault Tribe recently received offender registry information Since these particular services Community Research Center, is $1,000, $750, $500 and $250. nearly $1 million in new grant started with a 2011 grant. were initiated during May 2011, conducting a cen- eturn your The drawing funding which will be applied The Tribal Court received a total of 295 survivors and their sus of Sault Tribe will take place in to curbing substance abuse as $74,958 from the Bureau of children have received assistance members. The first Rcompleted November using well as enhancing justice pro- Justice Assistance (BJA) for for a total of 2,303 individual census since 2002, survey by Oct. 25 names from the grams and services for victims of Comprehensive Tribal Justice counseling sessions. it will be used to and your household return envelopes. sexual assault. Sault Tribe Law Systems Strategic Planning “These expedited support ser- understand the Sault Names will not be Enforcement received $118,372, and $403,398 from the BJA vices will continue to be offered Tribe community’s will automatically linked in any way to the Advocacy Resource Center Justice Systems and Alcohol and at both the Sault Tribe Behavioral current needs. be entered into a census survey infor- received $281,762 and the Tribal Substance Abuse Program, or a Health Program and at the A census is much mation and will only Court received $553,314. The total of $478,356, according to Advocacy Resource Center via more than a head drawing for one of be used to contact grants total $953,448. Chief Judge Jocelyn Fabry. The either an urgent care appointment count. The informa- five cash prizes of and pay winning Most of the funding is part grants will further develop and or within three days of initial tion you provide $2,500, $1,000, $750, entries. of 192 grants to 110 American enhance the operations of the contact to ensure access to sup- will help the tribe The survey was Indian tribes and tribal organiza- tribe’s justice system over the portive services are readily avail- to better distribute $500 and $250. developed in part- tions providing more than $90 next three years and allow the able,” Moran noted. “The length funds for needed Winners will be nership with LSSU, million from the U.S. Department court to retain the specialty court of services are solely dependent programs and ser- whose role is to inde- of Justice (DOJ), according to an coordinator position currently upon the healing process of each vices, and will aid drawn in November! pendently collect and official release. held by Pat McKelvie. “This individual survivor and traditional the tribe in justify- tabulate all complet- The Law Enforcement fund- position is integral to the Tribal learning opportunities are offered ing requests for funding in the ed census forms. All return enve- ing comes from a two-year Adam Court’s function, and coordinates to each survivor to participate in future. American Indians are typi- lopes will be destroyed after the Walsh Act implementation grant the court’s ‘specialty’ program- if they choose.” cally undercounted in the U.S. drawing and answers will never intended to facilitate implemen- ming – Gwiaik Miicon Drug Moran added that the grant Census so the tribe’s own census be linked with anything that could tation of the tribe’s previously Court, Domestic Violence Court also allows for training and edu- will be more accurate when identify individual households. established Sex Offender Registry and Family Preservation Court,” cational opportunities for mem- requesting funding. So, it is vital The survey should take no and Notification Act (SORNA) said Fabry. “These programs bers of our community to increase to the tribe that you participate in more than 15 minutes to complete code. The project will include a change tribal members’ lives.” awareness of the dynamics and the survey. and may even take less time, position for a project assistant and Together, the grants will also impact of sexual assault and All individual information is depending on family size. At no its aim is to ensure all employees fund a new position in the Tribal sexual abuse on our Anishnaabe strictly confidential. Only sum- time will you be asked for your and residents in the Sault Tribe Court for a tribal justice planning families. mary data will be published. name and we will not be tracking jurisdiction are complying with specialist who will serve as the Those who have experienced When you receive your survey individual answers to the ques- registration requirements and to project manager for the sexual assault or sexual abuse and in the mail, complete it and return tions. ensure all codes, policies and pro- development of the tribal action are interested in these services it in the enclosed, postage-paid As soon as you receive your cedures comply with federal and plan — the tribe’s strategic may call (906) 635-6075 or 632- envelope by Oct. 25. If you return survey, please complete and get it tribal laws. Further, the funding plan to combat substance abuse 180. the completed survey by this date, back in the mail. will enhance community educa- — over the first 18 months, fol- According to a plan that was lowed by another 18 months of part of the application for the working on strategic planning DOJ grant, substance abuse is Federal shutdown effects tribes for the entire justice system. currently seen as one of the big- effects on the tribes. In 1995, the The tribe’s executive man- The planning specialist will gest threats to the tribe’s well A special message impact of the 21-day shutdown agement is drafting up several be responsible for spearhead- being. In the last five years, over from our ogema across the nation was to delay scenarios to present to the tribal ing efforts to coordinate justice 68 percent of all crimes in Tribal BY AARON PAYMENT, TRIBAL federal checks, impose furlough board of directors to triage our planning and identifying gaps in Court involved substance abuse CHAIRPERSON workdays for federal employees funding with the goal of mini- services, Fabry noted. The posi- of some kind. Of the 121 families At press time, the federal and closed down federal tourism mizing the impact on essential tion will also lead planning on whose children were removed government has been shut down and National Park services. That services and on essential posi- tribal justice system endeavors between 2011 and 2012 because since Oct. 1. The shutdown shutdown cost a whopping $1.4 tions, in that order. including potential enhanced of abuse or neglect, 101 of the affects everyone to some degree, billion. In most cases, Sault Tribe Tribal Court jurisdiction through families had parents who abused with greater and more far reach- The present shutdown is cost- already subsidizes a large portion the Tribal Law and Order Act and alcohol, drugs or both. ing impacts as the shutdown goes ing the tribe roughly $107,000 of the federal government’s treaty Violence Against Women Act, Further, tribal elders indicate on. per day. At this point, we are obligations for ‘health, education planning for an adult detention young people are turning to drugs A federal shutdown has dev- unsure if we will be reimbursed and social welfare.’ One hundred facility and enhanced judicial and alcohol over tradition and astating short-term and long-term for these funds. percent of the Sault Tribe’s net building security. culture, leaving few to whom gaming revenues are already “In an era of sequestration, the traditional and healthful pledged to pick up the federal government shut-downs and Anishinaabe way of living can be government’s annual shortfall. reduced budgets, our justice sys- passed. For some programs, we will tem is even more reliant upon The grants will allow the tribe be able to rely on tribal support federal grant funding. So we are to muster resources for families PAID 49735 or casino dollars for a brief peri- thrilled to have received the fund- battling addiction as well as to Gaylord, MI PRSRT STD PRSRT U.S. Postage Permit No. 30 od. However, for those programs ing again this year to allow us to identify gaps in services and not subsidized by tribal support not only continue our specialty examine how to make available funds, we will have to consider court programs, but also continue programs more effective in the furloughs. It all depends on how our work on the tribal action plan future. long the federal government shut- and enhance our justice services Staffing for the projects will down continues. At some point, to the membership,” said Fabry. come from current in-house staff, the tribe may need to reduce Grant funding from the DOJ creating streamlined communica- operations. Office on Violence Against tion and coordination, under the Government shut downs are Women was awarded to the supervision of the chief judge. In not regular occurrences, so it Advocacy Resource Center to addition, an advisory board con- is hard to predict the outcome. continue provision of services to sisting of the chief judge, court In the past, once it came back survivors of sexual assault or sex- administrator, chief of police, online, the federal government ual abuse through September of victims’ services and behavioral made whole the programs that 2016.