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It is hard to believe that
the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Court is already eleven years old.
Seemingly, it was only yesterday that the court began, perhaps because
all of the hard work that goes into developing and maintaining a court
system is continuing.
In 1995 our community,
through its elected council, made the decision to develop a tribal
system of justice. Starting out slowly, with only a few tribal
codes developed, the community recognized the need for the Tribe to have
an internal mechanism for dispute resolution and enforcement of tribal
laws. This mechanism is the backbone for tribal self-governance
and an exercise of its sovereign rights.
After the Tribe’s initial
decision to begin its exercise of sovereignty through the establishment
of a tribal court, the Tribal Council appointed the court’s first judges
who were sworn in August 11, 1995. The Court began hearing cases in
January 1996, and soon recognized more needs for the community. It
became very apparent that our community members, using the court, needed
assistance to help them through the court processes. Therefore,
the Court established a tribal court lay advocacy program where a number
of our tribal members were trained through a program sponsored by the
Wisconsin Tribal Judges’ Association with the assistance of Wisconsin
Judi care. This program trained lay people to provide legal
representation to parties using, not only our tribal court but also all
tribal courts in Wisconsin. Later, as the needs increased, the
Court has organized additional trainings for the lay advocates, specific
to the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Codes.
The Tribal Court began
hearing more cases involving disputes between people in our community;
the Court realized a need for a more traditional way to resolving these
disputes rather than using the adversarial approach. As the
Council’s vision had provided, a peacemaker system was established.
Although slow in starting, the Court now has several community members
who have received some training and guidance in helping people resolve
differences in a peaceful, healthy and respectful way. This
approach is more in line with the Native American traditional practices
used long before the introduction of the European adversarial system.
From its beginning, where
the Court handled only a few types of cases, the Tribal Council has
expanded the Court’s jurisdiction to include many of the problems facing
tribal communities. The Court now hears cases involving:
Administrative appeals, probate cases, a youth code including youth in
need, guardianship cases, termination of parental rights, adoptions,
determination of paternity, truancy cases, juvenile delinquency, public
peace and good order, financial responsibility, regulation of door to
door sales, enforcement of the Tribe’s natural resources code including
fish and game regulations, regulation of tobacco sales, fireworks
regulations, tribal land ordinance violations, housing codes, ATV
regulations, curfew, and employee rights cases including employee
preference disputes and enforcement of fair labor standards. The
Court also hears requests for changing legal names, divorces, temporary
restraining orders and domestic abuse protective orders, and the judges
perform many marriages. This list will continue to expand.
In addition to the work
being done in the tribal court, much work has been done outside the
tribal court to enhance tribal systems of justice nation wide. The
tribal judges have been extremely involved in developing respectful
working relationships with the state courts of Wisconsin, developing
training programs for tribal/state and federal judges throughout the
country, and helping to develop long term Indian legal studies programs
in tribal colleges. Tribal justice systems are not only becoming
recognized as being competent, but are being recognized as being
innovative in an overall picture of peace.
After nine years, the Court
in continuing to look at ways to improve services to our community.
The future of our tribal court is to continue to provide a community
based system for dispute resolution and enforcement of our own laws.
The Court’s vision includes expanding our peacemaker system to include
talking, healing, and/or sentencing circles. Also on the horizon
is the establishment of a Youth Court using traditional circle concepts,
a Wellness Court program to address alcohol and drug problems that may
exist in our community, and expanded use of community service programs
that will assist our elders.
The cultural sensitive
nature of tribal courts is serving Indian people well. Having a
cultural thread weaving throughout tribal codes and through tribal court
processes is helping to make Tribal communities stronger. The
Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Court pledges to continue in this endeavor. |
