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44–800 PDF 2008

S. HRG. 110–557 

TRACKING SEX OFFENDERS IN INDIAN COUNTRY: 

TRIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ADAM 

WALSH ACT 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

JULY 17, 2008 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs 

( 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman 

LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Vice Chairman 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

KENT CONRAD, North Dakota 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii 

TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming 

PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico 

GORDON H. SMITH, Oregon 

RICHARD BURR, North Carolina 

ALLISON C. BINNEY, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

DAVID A. MULLON JR., Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on July 17, 2008 ............................................................................... 1 

Statement of Senator Dorgan ................................................................................. 1 

WITNESSES

Gregory, William, Tribal Prosecutor, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa 

Indians .................................................................................................................. 21 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 23 

Johnson, Jacqueline, Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians with attachment ............................................................................................ 25 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 27 

Lopez, Hon. Isidro B., Vice Chairman, Tohono O’odham Nation ........................ 8 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 10 

Moore, Hon. Robert, Tribal Councilman, Rosebud Sioux Tribe ........................... 13 

Prepared statement with attachments ........................................................... 15 

Suppah, Sr., Hon. Ronald, Chairman, Confederated Tribes of The Warm 

Springs Reservation ............................................................................................. 4 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 5 

APPENDIX

Pearson, Hon. Myra, Chairwoman, Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, prepared statement ...................................................................................................................... 45 

Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, prepared statement ........................................................ 46 

(1) 

TRACKING SEX OFFENDERS IN INDIAN 

COUNTRY: TRIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 

ADAM WALSH ACT 

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2008 

U.S. SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:07 a.m. in room 

562, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA 

The CHAIRMAN. We will call the hearing to order. My apologies 

for being delayed. I have been at an Energy Committee hearing 

this morning on the subject of gas prices and oil prices. It took 

longer than I expected. 

This is a hearing of the Indian Affairs Committee. Today, the 

Committee will hold a hearing to examine the implementation of 

the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. I was a 

cosponsor and worked in constructing that Act. The Act sought to 

fill the gaps in prior sex offender registration requirements. 

The failures in tracking sex offenders hit particularly hard in 

North Dakota, but it hits hard all across this Country when we see 

the unbelievable stories about the victims of sex offenders. This is 

a photograph of a young woman named Dru Sjodin. She was abducted in Grand Forks, North Dakota on November 22, 2003. Dru 

Sjodin’s family and the memory of Dru Sjodin has inspired at least 

one significant portion of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and 

Safety Act. 

Dru Sjodin was murdered by a man named Alphonso Rodriguez, 

Jr. He was a level three sex offender. He was a sexual predator 

who had been in prison for 23 years, and prior to being released 

from prison, was judged to be a high risk for another violent offense, by psychiatrists and others who evaluated him. 

Despite that, he was released from prison without notification of 

the local State’s attorney, without notification of local law enforcement authorities. He moved to a place near a State border and 

those who might have been wishing to track whether sexual offenders were living near them by accessing a State offender list would 

not have seen that this particular man was living just a few miles 

on the other side of a State border. They would not have seen his 

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name. He was at a shopping center in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 

He kidnapped, raped, and murdered Dru Sjodin. He has since been 

tried and found guilty and been given the death penalty. 

But the question that is raised in cases like this is how does it 

happen that we have a sexual predator registry of violent sexual 

predators that is not complete, that does not give us information 

about who the sexual predators are and where they are living? The 

other important question is, why do we not have a system that 

identifies not only the sexual predators who are at high risk, but 

especially those who are at high risk of re-offending when they are 

to be let out of incarceration so that the notification can be made 

to victims, victims’ families, and to the local State’s attorneys in 

the event that some substantial additional monitoring would be 

made of those high-risk sexual offenders, or perhaps some additional incarceration when necessary? 

The Adam Walsh Act I recognize is not necessarily complete in 

every respect, but it is an Act I think that moves us forward in trying to protect people against violent sexual predators and sex offenders. For the first time in dealing with these laws, the law 

brought Indian tribes to the table. For example, under the guidelines of the Act, tribal court convictions will be given full faith and 

credit with respect to notification under this Act. In addition, sex 

offenders who live or work on Indian lands must comply with the 

registration requirements. This will help reject any notion that Indian lands are safe haven for criminals. 

Those who follow this Committee know that I have held hearings 

in which we have had testimony that one in three Indian women 

during their lifetime will be raped or be the victim of a violent sexual offense. I think it is very important that we make certain that 

Indian lands cannot and will not and should not be safe havens for 

criminals who are engaged in these kinds of offenses. 

Because the law deals with sex offenders, it has a significant impact on tribes and their lands. As this Committee’s previous hearings have shown, Indian Country is suffering an epidemic of sexual 

and domestic violence. Victims of abuse on reservations in some 

cases have had to wait hours and in some cases weeks for a response by law enforcement because tribal police are understaffed— 

another subject which this Committee is dealing with. 

Far too many crimes go unprosecuted which leads to under-reporting of the very problem. It is vital, it seems to me, that governments and victims in Indian Country be informed regarding the 

whereabouts of sex offenders. 

Despite the significant impact of the Adam Walsh Act on Indian 

tribes, it is the case there was not sufficient consultation with 

tribes. This rush to move without adequate consultation has an impact on tribal governments. They should have been consulted, but 

under the Act tribal governments were given until July 27, 2007 

to adopt a tribal resolution to carry out the obligations of the Act. 

If a tribe did not make the decision by July 27, then the responsibilities will be turned over to State governments. 

As that date approached, no one in the Justice Department could 

explain what obligations a tribe would face. Indian tribes were left 

with a choice: choose to comply with the unknown requirements, or 

act to cede your sovereignty. I, along with Vice Chairwoman MurVerDate Aug 31 2005 08:59 Oct 27, 2008 Jkt 044800 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\44800.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
3 

kowski and Senator Biden, introduced legislation that would have 

permitted additional time to answer questions that are now raised 

by the implementation of the Act. 

A similar bill was passed in the House last July, but blocked 

when the bill was referred to the Senate. As a result, tribes were 

forced to make uninformed decisions to comply with the Act or to 

face the consequences. One hundred ninety-eight tribes chose to exercise their authority as governments and maintain their own sex 

offender registry. These 198 tribal governments now have one year 

to reach compliance. If the Attorney General determines that a 

tribe has not complied, then the tribe’s authority will be delegated 

to the State. 

However, tribes and others have raised a number of questions regarding compliance. For example, can a tribe require a non-Indian 

sex offender to submit information to the tribal registry? Is there 

tribal notification or an appeal process to the Attorney General’s 

decision of noncompliance? Is there a transition process from tribal 

authority to State authority? 

There are many other questions our witnesses will point out and 

discuss today, but my point is the last thing Indian Country justice 

needs is more questions and confusion itself. Our law enforcement 

hearings have shown that this division in the criminal justice system is a major cause of violent crime problems in Indian Country. 

This describes the division of different jurisdictions. It is a patchwork of difficulty and complexity that frankly is just not working. 

The Adam Walsh Act adds yet more questions and more layers 

of confusion. It seems to me that we need to answer those questions. I have asked the Department of Justice to come. They indicated that they would submit a statement and answer follow-up 

questions. I am disappointed that they are not here in person. I understand it has something to do with not being able to get a statement through the Office of Management and Budget, which apparently runs the entire government these days. 

Look, the issue is this: The Adam Walsh Act exists. It exists because I and others believe it is important that it exist. It ought not 

be the case that anywhere in this Country a violent sexual predator should be able to live and not be identified or registered or a 

part of the monitoring that exists with governments, be that tribal 

government, State government, or any level of government. 

The question before this hearing is not how do we find a way to 

allow reservations to avoid the responsibility. That is not acceptable, nor do I think our tribes are asking for that circumstance. I 

think the question is how do we make sure that the tribal governments are able to comply in a thoughtful way so that we have a 

seamless capability of identifying and monitoring sexual predators 

across this Country. 

So that represents the purpose of this hearing. We have five witnesses today: The Honorable Ronald Suppah, who is the Chairman 

of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Warm Springs, Oregon. Mr. Suppah, thank you for being with us. 

We have Isidro Lopez, Vice Chairman of the Tohono O’odham 

Nation in Sells, Arizona; the Honorable Robert Moore, the Tribal 

Councilman at the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in Mission, South Dakota; 

Mr. William Gregory, Tribal Prosecutor, Little Traverse Bay Bands 

4 

of Odawa Indians in Harbor Springs, Michigan; and Ms. Jacqueline 

Johnson, Executive Director of the National Congress of American 

Indians. 

I would ask that each of the witnesses summarize their testimony, and we will include the full testimony as a part of the permanent record. 

Let’s begin with Mr. Ronald Suppah, Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon. Mr. Suppah, you may proceed. 

STATEMENT OF HON. RONALD SUPPAH, SR., CHAIRMAN, 

CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE WARM SPRINGS 

RESERVATION 

Mr. SUPPAH. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the 

Committee. I am Ron Suppah, Chairman of the Confederated 

Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. I appreciate the 

opportunity to testify today on the Warm Springs experience in trying to comply with the Adam Walsh Act. 

Warm Springs was surprised and upset, as was most of Indian 

Country, to learn that Congress has jeopardized our sovereignty by 

subjecting our government to the mandates of the Adam Walsh 

Act. Faced with the option of trying to comply or losing jurisdiction, 

we have chosen to comply, even though we have very little experience in any sort of registry for sex offenders. 

Since hearing about the Act, we have easily had to spend more 

than $10,000 of our own scarce resources to work towards compliance. We have learned all we can about the Act, submitted comments on the Act guidelines, attended consultation meetings with 

the Department of Justice, started attending coordination meetings 

with the State, and last September applied for a DOJ grant to help 

implement the Act. 

At the end of April this year, seven months after submitting our 

grant application, the DOJ informed us we were being awarded an 

Adam Walsh implementation grant of $300,000, the amount we requested. But in mid-May, DOJ told us we needed to submit more 

budget information before we could start drawing on the grant 

funds. We submitted more detailed materials, but in mid-June, 

DOJ again informed us they needed still more budget information. 

We are developing the additional information, but cannot start 

spending the grant until DOJ is satisfied. Meanwhile, time is passing before we can start ramping up towards compliance, which 

must be demonstrated to the DOJ’s satisfaction by the end of April 

next year. This is just nine months away. 

At present, Warm Springs has almost no experience in operating 

a sex offender registry. Our parole and probation office keeps track 

of Indian sex offenders, but only as part of the general listing of 

those Indians convicted of criminal offenses in our tribal court. 

With just nine months to demonstrate compliance, we have a lot 

to do. We must hire and train a registrar and a police officer to operate the registry and carry out its requirements. 

We must acquire photo and fingerprint computer equipment, upgrade our computers and our links to the State, county and Federal 

systems, and learn the information sharing protocols. We need to 

5 

revise our tribal code to comply with Adam Walsh and to train our 

tribal court about the Act. 

In doing so, we must make sure all these activities comply with 

the Adam Walsh guidelines which DOJ just issued at the start of 

this month. Most of this is put on hold until we can get our budget 

squared away with DOJ, which we hope will be fairly soon. 

If we cannot meet the April 27, 2009 compliance deadline, we 

will have to ask the Attorney General for a one-year extension provided under the Act. We hope we won’t have to, but we have a lot 

to do and time is running out. 

In closing, I want to mention three additional concerns. One is 

future funding. Compliance is expensive, and if there is no future 

Federal funding, tribes will have to take it from other needed programs or face losing our jurisdiction. This is an unfair choice. Second, standards must be set for the Attorney General’s authority to 

revoke tribal jurisdiction. And third, Federal prisons should do registrations. If tribes have to do registrations, so should they. 

That concludes my statement. I thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Suppah follows: 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. RONALD SUPPAH, SR., CHAIRMAN, CONFEDERATED

TRIBES OF THE WARM SPRINGS RESERVATION

Mr. Chairman, I am Ron Suppah, Chairman of the Tribal Council of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. It is my pleasure to be 

here today to present testimony regarding the implementation of the Adam Walsh 

Act (Public Law 109–248) by tribal governments, and in particular by my Tribe, the 

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. My comments include a discussion of the experiences of my Tribe as we work to fulfill the Act and a discussion of the broader 

concerns faced by tribal governments on the general application and implementation 

of the Act. 

Our testimony will inform the Committee how the unanticipated Adam Walsh Act 

threatens our sovereignty and has challenged our existing Tribal capacity and infrastructure, how we plan to address those matters, and how the Department of Justice is, on the one hand, providing funding for our compliance efforts while, on the 

other, frustrating our efforts to comply with the implementation timelines imposed 

by the Act. We will also address a number of the broader concerns with the Department of Justice’s implementation of the Act and our Tribe’s own particular concerns 

about how the Act might, or might not, be sustained. 

About Warm Springs 

The Warm Springs Tribe is comprised of over 4,500 members and occupies the 

650,000-acre Warm Springs Indian Reservation in North Central Oregon. Warm 

Springs is one of three non-Public Law 280 Tribes among Oregon’s nine Tribes, and 

the Warm Springs Police Department is the primary law enforcement provider on 

the Reservation. As on many reservations, the law enforcement presence on our Reservation is sparse, primarily due to insufficient federal support. 

Today, at present, Warm Springs does not have a sex offender registry, and our 

specific experience with such a function is very limited. We do, however, have a Parole and Probation Office that lists and tracks the parole and probation status of 

those Indians convicted of criminal offenses in our Tribal Court, including those convicted of sex offenses. The Parole and Probation Office also has links to county and 

State of Oregon counterpart offices. So, we have some capacity and conviction registry and tracking experience, but we are not experienced or equipped to meet the 

specific Adam Walsh requirements. 

Our Tribe has exercised jurisdiction over what is today the Warm Springs Reservation since time immemorial. We have always carefully guarded that sovereign 

authority, including through the 1950s as other Oregon tribes were stripped of that 

authority by P.L. 280 or were completely terminated. To be suddenly informed that 

the U.S. Congress has unilaterally acted in these modern times to place a portion 

of that sovereign authority in jeopardy, and to saddle tribal governments with unsought new obligations and expenses, is startling and abhorrent to us. We immediately undertook to learn more about the Act and its implementation. We attended 

6 

consultation sessions conducted by the Department of Justice and developed and 

submitted comments on the DOJ’s proposed guidelines for implementation of the 

Adam Walsh Act. Several of those comments remain critical to us—and we believe 

to all tribes seeking to assume the Act’s registry responsibilities—and we discuss 

them as on-going concerns later in this testimony. After assessing our limited options under the Act, the Warm Springs Tribal Council enacted a resolution to take 

on the registration requirements, and we submitted that resolution to the Department of Justice on June 26, 2007, in compliance with its deadline. 

Compliance Efforts 

We attended a July 31, 2007 tribal consultation session with the Department of 

Justice in Phoenix, Arizona where DOJ announced that implementation grants 

would be available. Accordingly, Warm Springs submitted a grant application to the 

Department of Justice SMART Office by the September 4, 2007 deadline for Adam 

Walsh implementation grants. In April of this year, seven months after we submitted our grant application, we initially received confusing information from DOJ 

about the status of our application, but on April 20, we were informed we were to 

receive a grant, and on April 30, Warm Springs Secretary/Treasurer Charles Calica 

officially received notification from DOJ of an Adam Walsh implementation grant 

award in the amount of $300,000. 

However, we have not been able to start spending it. On May 13, we received a 

request from the SMART Office Chief Financial Officer for a budget narrative and 

listing of cost categories. On June 11, Warm Springs submitted the information we 

believed the SMART Office requested. But on June 17, the Department of Justice 

informed Warm Springs that our first submission is insufficient, and that more detailed budget information is required. 

We are developing that more detailed budget information, but until our budget 

is finally deemed acceptable by DOJ, we are unable to access any of the grant funds, 

effectively delaying our ability to start acquiring and developing the capacity necessary to meet both DOJ deadlines of April 27, 2009 for certification of capacity and 

July 27, 2009 for commencement of registration activities. 

In the meantime, and in fact since we first became aware of the Adam Walsh 

Act’s application to tribes, Warm Springs has had to spend more than $10,000 of 

our own funds to learn about and work toward complying with the Act. 

Today, as we try to comply with additional DOJ grant requirements, Warm 

Springs finds itself with each passing week facing a shorter and shorter time in 

which to acquire the registration capacity that must be submitted to DOJ by April 

27, 2009. That leaves us nine months in which we must acquire the necessary digital fingerprinting and photo hardware and software, engage a Registry Administrator to operate the system, engage a police officer to help carry out any necessary 

enforcement actions and perform registration functions when the Registry Administrator is not on duty, train both, establish information-sharing protocols with other 

jurisdictions and upgrade our computer capacity, upgrade links to the State, house 

the Registration office, revise our Tribal Code to reflect Adam Walsh requirements, 

and train our Tribal Court personnel about the Act. In addition, we now need to 

make certain that our anticipated implementation plan comports with the Justice 

Department’s Final Guidelines for the Act, which were only issued this month, eleven months after the comment deadline. If our implementation program, which we 

have not yet been able to begin, is not completed to the satisfaction of the Department of Justice by April 27 of next year, we may have to request from the Attorney 

General a one-year implementation extension as provided in the Act. 

In revising our Tribal Code to accommodate the Adam Walsh Act, there are a 

number of policy and jurisdiction issues that will have to be considered. For instance, even though the Adam Walsh Act does not require tribes to make it a crime 

for a sex offender to fail to register, our Tribe will have to think about whether it 

wants to create such a criminal violation. That’s probably the most effective way to 

get convicted sex offenders to comply with the registration requirement. It would 

also help to avoid an Adam Walsh Act enforcement vacuum on the reservation that 

could leave non-registrants at large on the reservation and place our sovereign authority over this issue in jeopardy of revocation by the Attorney General. Such a 

criminal violation could also be enforceable against non-Indians as a civil infraction. 

Any non-Indians who live or work on the reservation, and who have been convicted 

in state or federal court of a sex offense that requires Adam Walsh Act registration, 

are required to register with the Tribe. Once we are able to access the DOJ grant 

funds, we will began work on the Tribal Code provisions requiring compliance with 

the Tribe’s sex offender registration requirements. It will have criminal penalties for 

Indians and civil infraction consequences for non-Indians. 

7 

Meanwhile, since we learned about application of the Adam Walsh Act to tribes, 

Warm Springs personnel have been active where we can be in developing coordination for the implementation of the Act. The Oregon Governor’s Office has invited 

Warm Springs, along with all of Oregon’s eight other tribes, to participate in the 

State ‘‘Public Safety Cluster.’’ These are quarterly meetings that involve State public safety representatives and now all 9 tribes’ public safety personnel under the 

State/Tribal government-to-government process. We give each other updates on the 

Adam Walsh Act among other public safety issues that impact either jurisdiction. 

Also since passage of the Adam Walsh Act, Warm Springs participates in the sex 

offender networking meetings being conducted quarterly by the State specifically to 

coordinate on Adam Walsh requirements. Warm Springs is fortunate to have good 

relations with the State of Oregon and with several surrounding counties, and we 

are counting on that history of good relations to ease and speed the coordination 

required under the Act. 

Additional Concerns 

Mr. Chairman, Warm Springs should note that the $300,000 DOJ grant we have 

been awarded is the amount we requested, and we believe it will be sufficient to 

implement the program for one year. However, we are concerned about the availability and adequacy of federal support for the cost of continuing operations in out 

years. Under our plan to meet the requirements of the Adam Walsh Act, Warm 

Springs will have on-going annual costs of approximately $175,000. Like most of Indian Country, our fiscal resources are quite limited, and if there is not sufficient 

federal support, the Tribe could be placed in the exceptionally unfair position of 

drawing funding from other critical Tribal services to meet the unfunded mandate 

imposed by the Adam Walsh Act or face the diminution of our tribal sovereignty. 

So that tribes are not placed in this untenable position, we urge this Committee and 

the Congress to authorize and appropriate the funds necessary for tribal compliance 

with the Act on an on-going basis. 

Warm Springs also wishes to emphasize two other prospective troublesome issues 

we, and other tribes, commented on for the proposed implementation guidelines, but 

which remain unaddressed in the final guidelines issued earlier this month. 

First, the Tribe is disappointed that the final guidelines lack a ‘‘due process’’ 

mechanism for determining tribal compliance with the requirements of the Act. 

It is highly objectionable to Warm Springs that the Attorney General is allowed 

to unilaterally determine that a tribe has failed to comply with the Act and, as 

a penalty, delegate jurisdiction over the Tribe’s reservation to the state. Clearly, 

such an administrative delegation of state jurisdiction over Indian Country is 

not only offensive to tribal sovereignty, it appears to be unprecedented in the 

more than two centuries of federal-tribal relations. Certainly, such a grave decision by the Attorney General, with such serious consequences for tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction, should be undertaken with great reluctance. Moreover, such a decision must, at a minimum, be subject to judicial challenge by 

the affected tribe under procedures that are consistent with the due process requirements of the United States Constitution. Warm Springs urges the Attorney 

General to adopt such procedures. 

Second, we strongly object to the provisions of the final guidelines regarding initial registration of convicted sex offenders incarcerated in the federal prison system. Unlike prisoners incarcerated in state and tribal facilities, federal prisoners are not required to register before they are released to the community 

under the final guidelines. The supposed justification for that glaring omission 

in the otherwise comprehensive requirement that incarcerated sex offenders 

must register before release is that there is no federal registration system. That 

is no excuse for not registering federally incarcerated sex offenders before their 

release. Certainly, it should be possible for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to arrange for incarcerated sex offenders to register with the state in which the federal correctional facility is located. That is simply a matter of federal-state coordination and cooperation. The alternative—simply releasing without registering sex offenders convicted of the most serious felonies, many of whom committed their sex crimes in Indian Country—is unacceptable in view of the public 

safety threat these violators pose. We recognize that the Bureau of Prisons and 

the federal probation offices must notify state and local law enforcement and 

registration agencies in destination jurisdictions prior to the release of a convicted sex offender, but the Bureau should ensure that offenders are registered 

in the appropriate jurisdictions before they are released. 

8 

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, that concludes my testimony. Thank 

you for the opportunity to appear today and discuss our efforts to comply with the 

Adam Walsh Act. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for your 

statement. We appreciate your being here and your testimony. 

Next, we will hear from the Honorable Isidro Lopez, who is Vice 

Chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation, Sells, Arizona. I hope I 

have pronounced that correctly, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. LOPEZ. Yes. 

STATEMENT OF HON. ISIDRO B. LOPEZ, VICE CHAIRMAN, 

TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION 

Mr. LOPEZ. Good morning, Chairman Dorgan, Vice Chairman 

Murkowski, and distinguished Committee members. My name is 

Isidro Lopez and I am the Vice Chairman for the Tohono O’odham 

Nation. I thank you for the opportunity to testify today. 

The Tohono O’odham Nation is the second largest reservation in 

the United States and the nation’s government has formed longstanding partnerships with the Arizona Department of Public Safety and a host of other law enforcement agencies to register sex offenders and protect the public’s safety on and off the reservation. 

The Tohono O’odham’s own registration and notification law was 

enacted several years before the Adam Walsh Act and our program 

is staffed by a full-time State-certified tribal police detective. As a 

result, the nation has registered more than 216 sex offenders on 

the reservation, with a resident population of 14,000. We understand the dangers posed by sex offenders whose identities remain 

hidden and we are committed to public disclosure of offender information. 

Although the nation elected to carry out its own functions under 

section 127 of the Act, it is difficult to obtain the funding necessary 

to achieve full compliance. Because the FBI stopped funding Indian 

Country crime lab services in 2006, the nation entered into an 

intergovernmental agreement to reimburse the State of Arizona 

$130,000 annually for crime lab services, including the analysis 

and storage of offenders’ DNA samples. This data is then entered 

into the FBI’s combined DNA index system database in order to 

achieve the goal of making this evidence nationally available. 

In addition to the DNA collection and the services provided by 

the State of Arizona’s crime lab, the State also has been posting 

the nation’s registration on the Arizona sex offender website and 

entering our offenders into the State criminal justice information 

system for years. While the State and the nation are now discussing an intergovernmental agreement to formalize a website 

service arrangement, the nation is also meeting with vendors who 

can create and launch a website that will fully comply with the 

Act. 

Despite the fact that the funding to implement the Act and its 

guidelines and the jurisdictional maze Indian tribes always face, 

the nation has been working closely with our neighboring counties, 

the State, the City of Tucson, our tribal and Federal partners, to 

implement and strengthen our sex offender registration program. 

These partnerships operate without official agreements, but have 

been highly successful. Coordination with the U.S. Marshal’s office, 

9 

for example, has resulted in apprehension of charging five Indian 

and non-Indian offenders for non-compliance with the nation’s law. 

The Federal and State probation departments likewise assist in 

registering offenders who are subject to registration in the nation, 

at the halfway houses before their release. 

The nation is greatly encouraged that the final guidelines remove 

the option for States to ignore tribal convictions based on a perception that tribal justice systems deny fundamental rights that are 

in fact guaranteed under tribal law and the Indian Civil Rights 

Act. 

That said, the nation is deeply troubled that even the most horrific sex crimes are categorized in the least serious tier of offenses 

if the conviction is obtained in tribal court. The Indian women and 

children suffer no less, and perpetrators are no less dangerous to 

the off-reservation public just because tribal courts are limited by 

Federal law to imposing no more than one-year sentences for rape 

and child molestation. 

If even the most serious sex crimes are classified within the least 

serious tier of offenses, the goal of the Adam Walsh Act, one comprehensive system, one safety net without gaps, is undermined. Ultimately, the nation’s success in achieving the goals of the Adam 

Walsh Act hinges on full recognition of tribes as equal partners in 

the fight against these terrible crimes. The extensive network of 

working partnerships we have developed in Arizona must be 

matched by a recognition in the Act and guidelines that States and 

tribes are equal. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Lopez follows:] 

10 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. ISIDRO B. LOPEZ, VICE CHAIRMAN, TOHONO O’ODHAM

NATION


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The CHAIRMAN. Chairman Lopez, thank you very much for your 

testimony and for being with us today. 

Next, we will hear from Tribal Councilman Robert Moore from 

the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in Mission, South Dakota. 

Mr. Moore, thank you very much. 

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT MOORE, TRIBAL COUNCILMAN, 

ROSEBUD SIOUX TRIBE 

Mr. MOORE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate 

the opportunity to be here today. Senator Tester, good to see you 


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14 

as well. To all the Committee, we extend our appreciation for being 

here to represent the Rosebud Sioux Tribe as a representative not 

only from our own tribal nation, but of the Great Plains tribes as 

well, which you know so well, Senator Dorgan. We want to thank 

you for all your continued work. We want to thank you for the $2 billion for the PEPFAR activity. 

It will go a long way to address some of the issues that need to 

be addressed concurrent to the implementation of the Adam Walsh 

Act, such as increased law enforcement, increased victim services, 

and certainly even within the Indian Health Service, some of the 

issues that occur when a child or a young woman is sexually assaulted or molested. 

I was asked to read one brief story from a tribal member who 

had this happen to her. ‘‘I am an enrolled member of the Rosebud 

Sioux Tribe. I am an 18-year-old female who was sexually assaulted when I was 15 years old. I was raped by a neighbor who 

was in his early 20s. He is now in prison doing seven years. One 

night I went to a neighbor’s house with an older girl and he raped 

me. I remember the rape. I just couldn’t help myself. It was like 

I was dreaming and my dream became a nightmare. 

I remember the ambulance taking me to the emergency room 

where I lay bleeding in the trauma room for over eight hours. Then 

I was taken upstairs and admitted. After 24 hours, I was then 

flown to Sioux Falls where I was treated for my injuries. I remember how scared I was and I thought I was going to die. I survived, 

but had to go to mental health and support groups at White Buffalo Calf Women Society. This is where I met other victims who 

helped me. 

My family took me to a traditional healing ceremony and this is 

where I am today. The rape has affected my entire family. My 

mother has always been there for me throughout this whole traumatic experience. The support I received from victims through 

White Buffalo Calf and my family have helped me to cope with the 

sexual assault. 

Today, I still attend the support groups and help others who 

went through sexual assault because I have been there and I am 

glad that our tribe has established a sexual offender registry so 

that people can be aware of the sex offenders in our area.’’ 

We are somewhere in the middle of the two tribes you have 

heard from already this morning in terms of the implementation of 

Adam Walsh. We established our own sex offender registration law 

at Rosebud about three months prior to the enactment of Adam 

Walsh, and feel the same as many tribes around the Country who 

already expressed their concern that Adam Walsh did not happen 

with tribes, but it happened to tribes. 

So now we are having to face some of the ramifications of that, 

including the State’s Attorney General having such great authority 

to determine whether a tribe is in compliance or not by the deadline or even following the deadline, if the deadline for implementation is not extended. We are deeply concerned about that because 

of the resources that tribes have already said they have had to 

share themselves. 

Certainly with us, our Violence Against Women Act safety grant 

is now funding activities that otherwise should be coming from the 

15 

Adam Walsh implementation grant which we were not awarded, 

and certainly you can see the hoops that now a tribe has to jump 

through at Justice just to receive the resources to build their own 

system and to manage their own system and to protect what is 

their sovereignty. 

In South Dakota, as you are probably aware, we have great jurisdictional issues with the State of South Dakota. They would jump 

at the chance to have any entrance onto any of our current tribal 

jurisdictions, even in surrounding counties outside of the main 

Todd County, which is the Rosebud Reservation proper. 

We are also concerned about the release of Federal inmates convicted of sexual offenses that are not registered prior to their release. As you articulated this morning as well with the Dru Sjodin 

case, that was the case. He was not registered before he was discharged and released. 

Ironically for tribal citizens who are in the same situation, they 

will get better health care in Federal prison, but then they have 

a three-day free pass to go anywhere they want, and perhaps repeat an offense again. So it is a very significant issue for us and 

of grave concern. 

We are also concerned about the funding issues and the competitive nature of these grants, because without having to compete for 

them, we would be able to have those resources directly to tribes 

to support what is the need of that particular tribe, given their size 

and jurisdiction and their ability to perform the work, because it 

already establishes a failure on the part of the tribe if they are not 

given those resources to implement the Act. 

That is just real briefly. You have my written testimony. We 

have shared our sex offender law with the staff as well for the 

Committee, and we want to continue working with not only your 

Committee, but others, the Department of Justice and others, like 

Leslie Hagen of the SMART office who has been such a great value 

to tribes in helping them through the process, that we want to be 

able to do everything we can to make this law work, not only for 

the State of South Dakota and for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, but so 

that the legacy that Adam Walsh will have for Members of Congress like yourself will be rich and strong. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Moore follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT MOORE, TRIBAL COUNCILMAN, ROSEBUD

SIOUX TRIBE

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is located in south central South Dakota and borders 

the Pine Ridge Reservation on its northwest corner and the State of Nebraska to 

the south. The reservation is located in Todd County, however, the Tribe’s jurisdiction extends to tribal communities in Gregory, Mellette, Lyman and Tripp Counties 

in South Dakota covering over 5,900 square miles. 

The area is home to over 25,000 enrolled members of the Tribe with an average 

per-capita income of $7,500. Todd County is historically recorded by the United 

States Census Bureau as one of the top five poorest counties in the United States. 

Over 50 percent of our membership is under the age of 21. The unemployment rate 

hovers around 84 percent. There are several thousand non-Indians within the 

Tribe’s civil jurisdiction. 

The Tribe has contracted law and order services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs 

through the Public Law 93–638 process and currently have 16 officers to respond 

to calls. This significant disparity in population and geographical service area to the 

number of officers on duty at any given time is a grave concern of tribal leaders 

16 

who are responsible for public safety and tribal court services. The tribal court is 

inundated with a case load into the hundreds with two prosecutors, two full time 

judges, one public defender and minimal court support staff. 

Historically, crimes against children were unheard of as they are held sacred. In 

the rare instance of a crime, especially sexual assault, tribal members were ostracized from the tribe. The advent of such horrific crime, often fueled by other social 

and economic factors, has deepened the reverence of children for our Tribe and 

raised the urgency to strengthen tribal law to properly charge, adjudicate and build 

victim support services. 

As a result of raised awareness by local victim advocacy groups, notably the White 

Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc, the Tribe’s plan of action was to adopt Megan’s 

Law and establish a resolution for Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council to enact a Sex Offender Registry on April 25, 2006 at least 3 months prior to the signing of the Adam 

Walsh Act. 

The Adam Walsh Act, passed without tribal consultation or comment, represents 

a significant assault on tribal sovereignty. The State of South Dakota was an option 

state after the passage of Public Law 280. In other words, the State of South Dakota 

has the option of assuming criminal jurisdiction on Tribal lands and reservations. 

The State made numerous attempts at assuming piecemeal jurisdiction over tribal 

lands, but the Tribes in the State of South Dakota sought declaratory and injunctive 

relief from the State of South Dakota from exercising jurisdiction over Indians on 

highways within Indian reservations. Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. State of South Dakota, 

900 F. 2d 1164 (8th Cir. 1990). 

In May of 2007, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe enacted a resolution to opt-in as the primary for administering sex offender registration provision of Adam Walsh. 

While federal law predating the Adam Walsh Act provided national standards for 

state sex offender registration programs, it made no comparable provision concerning sex offenders who are convicted in tribal courts, or who enter the jurisdiction of a tribe following conviction in some other jurisdiction. As a result, there has 

been a lack of consistent means for tribal authorities to be notified on sex offenders 

entering their jurisdictions, to track those offenders, or to make information about 

those offenders available to members of tribal communities for the protection of 

themselves and their family. With assistance and guidance of Department of Justice 

and SMART Office, White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc. developed another resolution with implementation of the Adam Walsh Act in which Rosebud Sioux Tribal 

Council passed on May 10, 2007. 

Currently, White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc. (WBCWS), the Tribe’s designated lead victims service agency, is utilizing a Safety Grant for Indian Women 

to work with the state of South Dakota on the Adam Walsh Act–Sex Offender Registry. The Tribe’s Attorney General, with WBCWS is working closely with State’s 

Attorney General’s office to draft a cooperative agreement concerning the transfer 

of electronic information and to address other issues as necessary for full implementation by the July 2009 deadline for Tribes. In addition, we have signed memorandum of agreements with surrounding counties for which the Tribe has jurisdiction. 

In fact, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s sex offender registration law requires that convicted offenders who are sentenced to register must register twice a year and extends severe civil penalties to non-Indian offenders. The State of South Dakota currently requires that offenders register only once a year. 

There are currently 38 registered sex offenders within the Tribe’s jurisdiction. 

However, within the next 5 years, given recent cases and convictions we may see 

that number rise to over 60 offenders who must register with the Tribe. 

With that in mind, there are several key issues of concern for consideration in 

the enforcement of Adam Walsh within our jurisdiction. 

We must have additional dollars to increase law enforcement. The Tribe has one 

designated officer responsible to enforce the Tribe’s existing registration law which 

is attached to this testimony. 

Additional resources will further allow the Tribe to adequately address the many 

man hours to ensure that our code meets the standards of the recent SORNA final 

regulations, approved and make sure all the technical aspects (databases, computer 

equipment, etc.) of the Act are in place. 

Further, Congress must address issues and concerns of tribes with the Adam 

Walsh Act. 

Currently the Act, affirmed by the final SORNA regulations permits the United 

States Attorney General the discretion to the State to enforce state law and jurisdiction over Indians of the reservation despite the passage of the Indian Civil Rights 

Act of 1968, a federal act requiring tribal consent to the assertion of state jurisdicVerDate Aug 31 2005 08:59 Oct 27, 2008 Jkt 044800 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\44800.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
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tion. The Adam Walsh Act permits assertion of state authority on Indian reservations without requiring tribal consent, and is therefore represents a significant erosion of tribal sovereignty. 

Congress must compel the US Attorney General to fully address and establish a 

due process to tribes found out of compliance with the Act and to provide resources 

to bring tribes into compliance, including technical assistance and other human, as 

well as financial, resources. This may also include assisting tribes in establishing 

coalitions to enforce the Act within tribal jurisdiction where a smaller tribe may not 

have the ability to do so on their own. 

Finally, Congress must look at extending the July 2009 deadline to ensure that 

Tribe’s, including the Rosebud Sioux, are consulted in a meaningful way to address 

ongoing concerns with the Act and any future legislation that forces tribes to submit 

to state jurisdiction and abrogates treaty, federal and constitutional law. 


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The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Moore, thank you very much for your testimony. 

Next, we will hear from Mr. William Gregory, who is a Tribal 

Prosecutor at Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in Harbor Springs, Michigan. 

Mr. Gregory, thank you for joining us today. 

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM GREGORY, TRIBAL PROSECUTOR, 

LITTLE TRAVERSE BAY BANDS OF ODAWA INDIANS 

Mr. GREGORY. Thank you very much, your honor. It is a privilege 

to be here to share information from Michigan Indian Country. I 

thank you and the Committee and the staff for this opportunity. 

Michigan Indian Country is composed of 12 federally recognized 

Indian tribes. We have been working in a consortium for the last 

two years to secure funding and to encourage cooperation among 

the tribes on law enforcement issues. I have been a prosecutor and 

a judge at five different tribes in Michigan since 1989. In my experience, I found a great deal of problems with tribes sharing information. 

In Michigan, we have an excellent relationship with the Federal 

and State governments. The State of Michigan allows Michigan 

tribes to utilize the law enforcement information network which is 


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an area where you can get criminal histories, background checks, 

but the big problem is that the tribal courts, tribes do not put their 

criminal convictions on that link system. 

So when we do a criminal background check in a tribe in Michigan, it is incomplete because we don’t know what is going on in the 

other tribes. This makes us handicapped when it comes to the officers knowing who they are dealing with and what kind of person 

they are dealing with, and also for the prosecutors to understand 

that they could possibly be enhancing a charge against a particular 

individual. 

So for two years prior to Adam Walsh, we have been struggling 

with how to get this information-sharing going. Again, most of the 

tribes in Michigan have—there are 11 of the 12 that have deputization agreements with their local counties. They also have a good relationship with the Western District U.S. Attorney’s Office because 

11 of our tribes are located in the Western District. 

Adam Walsh has been well explained. The impact has been felt 

in Michigan as well. The ultimatum about setting up your own sex 

offender registry or let the State come in and give them access encouraged all the tribes of Michigan to file resolutions to set up their 

own sex offender registry, without knowing the impact, the options 

and all the problems that might be there. 

Fortunately, in Michigan we have had some grants, some great 

grants that have allowed us to put into place infrastructure that 

I think will serve us well as we go forward. Just quickly, I would 

like to mention a few of those. In 2006, T–CHRIP, which stands for 

Tribal Criminal History Record Improvement program, gave us 

some money for the tribes in Michigan which we went around to 

the tribal courts and helped them set up databases, because the 

basis for a good criminal information-sharing system is a tribal 

court or a court that can share information on convictions. 

In 2007, from T–CHRIP, we got a live-scan grant to provide all 

the tribes in Michigan with live-scan. It also takes the fingerprints 

and the palm prints which makes it Adam Walsh-compliant. From 

VAWA, we received grants to set up a personal protection order 

database. We have also requested in 2008 to expand that to all of 

the tribes. 

We are also looking for a grant from T–CHRIP for record management systems, for all the law enforcement departments, again 

the type of record management system that can be stored information and can exchange that information with other law enforcement 

agencies. 

And then we were fortunate to get a grant from SMART office 

in 2007 for technology and training. Those grants have all formed 

and created an infrastructure on which part of each will contribute 

to the Adam Walsh Act necessity, technology, connectivity that we 

anticipate. 

The outlook for compliance in Michigan, the tribes are working 

cooperatively. They have identified options at recent summit meetings over the last year. There are committees right now that are 

preparing impacts for tribal leaders to identify the best options so 

that they can make a decision. Once the tribal leaders make a decision to go forward, I believe that compliance in Michigan is possible 

23 

1The word Tribe and Band are used interchangeably in Michigan. 

by the goal established by the Act, but more than likely we will 

need an additional year. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Gregory follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF WILLIAM GREGORY, TRIBAL PROSECUTOR, LITTLE

TRAVERSE BAY BANDS OF ODAWA INDIANS

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee; The Little Traverse Bay Bands of 

Odawa Indians, on behalf of the 12 federally recognized tribes 1 in Michigan, would 

like to thank you for this opportunity to provide input on the implementation of the 

Adam Walsh Act in Michigan’s Indian Country. 

The 12 tribes are located throughout the state. The tribes are known as the Three 

Fires of the Algonquin Tribe who migrated from New England. The Three Fires are 

composed of the Odawa (Ottawa), the Ojibeway (Chippewa), and the Poddawadomi 

(Pottawatomi). The Odawa were traditionally located along the western shore of 

Lake Michigan and were manly involved in fishing and trading. The Ojibeway were 

located along the eastern shore of Lake Huron and the north shore of Lake Superior 

and were mainly involved in fishing. The Poddawadomi were located in the southwestern area of Michigan and were mainly farmers. One tribe of Poddawadomi, the 

Hannahville Indian Community, moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to escape the relocation of their tribe to Kansas. 

I have served as a prosecutor for 19 years with several Michigan tribes, Grand 

Traverse Bands (12 years), Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe (3 years) and the Little 

Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (6 years) as well as a special prosecutor for 

the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians. 

Some of these assignments overlap in time. I also served as an interim chief judge 

for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. 

The Michigan tribes have a good relationship with the Michigan State Police and 

all tribal law enforcement departments utilize the Michigan Law Enforcement Information Network (‘‘LEIN’’) for background checks and other criminal justice information. 

The criminal history records available on LEIN do not contain tribal court convictions so the criminal histories are incomplete. As I prosecuted in the different tribal 

courts I often dealt with offenders that I had dealt with in other courts. In those 

rare instances I could enhance charges if the offender had prior convictions for the 

same offense. As a prosecutor I would only learn about a prior conviction by personal knowledge from prior contact or by informal talks between law enforcement 

personnel from other tribes. 

I was concerned about this lack of criminal histories from other tribes so I asked 

our grant writer to be on the lookout for any grants that would provide funds to 

establish a tribal wide criminal history repository for Michigan tribes. My grant 

writer was skeptical but within a few months of my inquiry we received word of 

the Tribal Criminal History Record Improvement Program (‘‘T–CHRIP’’) funded by 

the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Department of Justice. We received funding 

for 2006 to explore means and methods for enhancing law enforcement in Indian 

Country through a tribal criminal history repository that would be accessible to 

tribes and the Michigan State Police. During our first round we learned that the 

first and foremost problem was the lack of criminal information capable of being 

shared. The thrust of the first T–CHRIP grant was to assist Michigan tribes develop 

sharable databases using Microsoft Access and the services of Aventure Technology 

of Santa Fe New Mexico, a firm with extensive experience serving tribes in New 

Mexico. 

In 2007 the Little Traverse Bay Bands (‘‘LTBB’’) secured funding through a Violence Against Women’s Act (‘‘VAWA’’) grant to establish a pilot program for a personal protection order (‘‘PPO’’) database with four (4) Michigan tribes. The database 

will be operational at the end of July, 2008 and the LTBB has made application 

for a follow on grant to complete the database for all Michigan tribes. The infrastructure for the PPO database will also support a criminal history network as well 

as a sex offender registry as required by the Adam Walsh Act (‘‘AWA’’). 

In 2007 the LTBB received a second T–CHRIP grant to purchase livescan fingerprint machines for all Michigan tribes. Automated fingerprinting is a basic necessity 

for all tribes because the State of Michigan and the FBI no longer accepts paper 

24 

2There are 12 federally recognized tribes in Michigan; 11 are located in the Western District. 

For more than 10 years the Western District has employed a Indian Country liaison AUSA. The 

western district has been extremely supportive of tribal efforts and has participated in all conferences and training sessions on Adam Walsh. 

finger prints cards. The latest model livescan machines also receive palm prints, a 

requirement of the AWA. 

In 2008 the LTBB applied for another T–CHRIP grant to purchase record management systems (‘‘RMS’’) for tribal law enforcement agencies. Some tribes only use 

a paper filing system to keep track of investigation and arrest information. An RMS 

contains more information than a typical criminal history record that only contains 

court convictions. A tribal network of RMS will aid investigations and the collection 

of crime statistics. 

The tribal court databases, the PPO database, the RMS network, and the livescan 

fingerprint machines form an infrastructure that will lead to complete justice information sharing among tribes and assist the tribes to comply with AWA. 

In 2007 the LTBB received a grant from the SMART Office on behalf of all Michigan tribes for training and infrastructure to facilitate AWA implementation. The 

SMART Office has been extremely helpful in general and Leslie Hagen in particular. Ms. Hagen has attended every conference and training sponsored by the 

SMART Office and she has attended several conferences in Michigan. She is well 

versed on the AWA and is an excellent advocate for Indian Country USA. 

The AWA was a bolt out of the blue for Indian tribes throughout the nation; tribes 

complained that the AWA was an unfunded mandate and the Department of Justice 

did not consult with tribes before the enactment of the AWA. The single most onerous aspect of the AWA for tribes was the ultimatum that if tribes didn’t elect to 

stand up their own SOR the State of Michigan would assume responsibility and the 

state would be given access to the tribal justice systems. Under this threat every 

tribe in Michigan filed resolutions with the SMART Office by July 27, 2007 to stand 

up their own SOR. Michigan tribes made their election without knowing the full impact of their election. 

LTBB has hosted two conferences to provide information to the tribes about the 

different options the tribes have for implementing AWA and the impact of each option. The Smart Office, the US Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, 2 and 

SEARCH, a national non-profit organization that works on national information 

sharing standards, and the Michigan Sex Offender Coordinator have provided information to Michigan tribes. 

Some tribes are leery of sharing information; they feel that it infringes on their 

sovereignty. Most tribes see the need for information sharing, especially as it pertains to criminal offenders who travel from reservation to reservation. These tribes 

see the sharing of information as providing officer safety and safer communities. 

Some tribes view the AWA as extending tribal sovereignty by requiring non-Indians 

who work, reside, or attend school to register with the tribes. The tribes also have 

the option to enact civil penalties for non-Indians who fail to register or update their 

registration. 18 USC 2250 makes it a 10 year felony offense for anyone who enters, 

leaves, or resides in Indian Country. Tribal leaders see the efficacy of knowing what 

sex offenders are residing, working, or attending school in their jurisdiction to protect children. 

Following the AWA Summit on July 1, 2008 in Petoskey Michigan, different disciplines within the various tribes are working together to form ad hoc committees 

to share ideas and come up with ways and means to comply with AWA. 

Four options for implementing AWA were identified and discussed at the July 1 

Summit: (1) Each tribe stand up their own SOR; (2) Individual tribes stand up their 

own SOR and negotiate memorandums of understanding (‘‘MOU’’) with the State of 

Michigan to share different responsibilities under AWA; (3) Tribes form a consortium to develop a tribal wide SOR; and (4) Tribes form a consortium and negotiate 

an MOU with the State of Michigan to share responsibilities for a SOR. 

The next step is to reach tribal councils and executives, educate them about the 

different options and come to a consensus and proceed to implementation. 

The State of Michigan has participated in all the AWA conferences and trainings 

and is very willing to work with tribes in a manner of the tribe’s choosing. 

The final guidelines for AWA were just released by the SMART Office; the final 

guidelines clarify some of the questions raised in the previous edition. 

Tribes are also encouraged to hear of the proposed Indian Law Enforcement legislation that I have had an opportunity to review. The Michigan tribes have been well 

served by the US Department of Justice. Because of the funding, the cooperation, 

and the training offered by the DOJ, the Michigan tribal law enforcement community would look favorably if Indian Country law enforcement were placed within the 

25 

aegis of the DOJ. The BIA currently administers Indian Country law enforcement 

programs but the BIA is poorly equipped to perform their responsibilities and law 

enforcement is not the BIA’s number one priority. 

Thanks to the efforts of the SMART Office, the Bureau of Statistics, and the 

VAWA office, Michigan tribes are well placed to comply with AWA within the established time frame. It will not be easy, there will be sacrifices, there will be spirited 

differences to reconcile but the rewards loom large: communities will be safer, law 

enforcement will be coordinated throughout Indian country; tribal courts will be 

more efficient, and tribes will be more unified. 

Thank you again for this opportunity. 

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Gregory, thank you very much for your testimony. We appreciate your telling us of your experience with the 

multiple tribes in Michigan. 

Next, and finally, we will hear from Ms. Jacqueline Johnson, Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians. 

Ms. Johnson, you may proceed. 

STATEMENT OF JACQUELINE JOHNSON, EXECUTIVE 

DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I want to personally also thank you, as well as Robert Moore, for 

the assistance that you gave in the bipartisan way that we were 

able to get this additional $2 billion, which is actually going to be 

very, very helpful for law enforcement, and certainly for the work 

that you did with your peers and colleagues to make this happen. 

I really appreciate that. 

But I also want to thank you, too, for the leadership that you 

have taken on this law enforcement bill. I think the work that you 

have done and your staff has done in collaborating with Indian 

Country to really find out what we need will support the things 

that we are saying here and recommending today, particularly the 

inclusion of all the tribes in the Adam Walsh provisions and requirements. 

As you said very clearly, this system, you know, there is a need 

for this system, and with the two bills as was heard here today, 

the two bills, the Violence Against Women and the Adam Walsh 

being passed within six months of each other, created confusion for 

Indian Country in the last two years. Indian Country is still standing by. I heard today some great recommendations, as well as some 

tribes who have stepped forward, putting forward their recommendations, putting forward their own resources to be able to 

address this issue, but unfortunately not all tribes are able to do 

that and they don’t have the resources to be able to be in the same 

position. So we advocate today that we look for ways of being able 

to do that. 

As the deadline for implementation approaches, we are still finding that there is this great deal of confusion. The guidelines, as 

stated earlier, were just issued earlier this month, and we are still 

trying to figure out how they are going to come together with the 

Violence Against Women Office and the coordination and collaboration just within DOJ. It is something that still needs to be tackled. 

We also found that because many tribes, as was stated earlier, 

opted in so they could protect their sovereignty, those that were eligible to opt in to protect their sovereignty, have recognized that 

they need to work through or collaborate through working relationVerDate Aug 31 2005 08:59 Oct 27, 2008 Jkt 044800 PO 00000 Frm 00029 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\44800.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
26 

ships with their States. Many States have historically been very 

good about that. Some States have been more challenging. 

But what we are hearing from the States as we monitor where 

the States are in their implementation is that many of them are 

also suggesting that the resources aren’t there for them to comply 

with the Act. In fact, some States are even suggesting that it may 

be too expensive for them to comply and that they would rather receive 10 percent less than their Byrne revenues resources, grantfunding, than to have to comply. So we in Indian Country are also 

challenged. If a State chooses not to comply, it makes it more difficult for our tribe to comply. 

I could go on. My testimony is pretty detailed about all the issues 

and concerns that we have. But mostly today, I want to ask you, 

and of course the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, to take leadership on this issue, to address these concerns, in order to re-address the law and to clarify the things that we need. Robert Moore 

mentioned Leslie Hagen, who has been working very closely with 

Indian Country. Many times she has to say to us over and over 

again, these are all the answers that I can tell you; this is the law 

as it is written; we need to get Congress to clarify for that. 

So I would like to just focus on the recommendations that we 

have in our testimony right now before I close. First, from the 

onset, the Adam Walsh Act left out over half the tribes from the 

national system. In order to have a truly seamless registration system, Congress must amend the Adam Walsh Act to allow all tribes 

to participate in the national sex offender registry system on an 

equal basis. 

Second, the role of the BIA has been totally left out. In fact, it 

has not been addressed. We urge Congress that you include the 

BIA and bring them into the national sex offender registration system. In our testimony, I go on about how many systems that the 

BIA actually operates and manages for tribes. Without their inclusion, we have a gap in Indian Country. 

And third, the Adam Walsh Act has given the Attorney General 

the unilateral authority to strip tribal governments of their civil 

and criminal jurisdiction to monitor ex-offenders. This unprecedented delegation is an extremely dangerous precedent and NCAI 

urges Congress to amend the law to protect both the tribal sovereignty and your right and authority over Indian affairs. 

And finally, while States have had decades to build their sex offender management systems and modified and updated to comply 

with the new law, many tribes are starting from scratch. It will be 

extremely cost for Indian Country to comply with the law’s mandates. We urge that the Committee consider extending the compliance for all tribes to provide additional time for tribes to come online. 

We look forward to working with you and your staff on putting 

together a package of recommendations to consider to redress this 

legislation. Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson follows:] 

27 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JACQUELINE JOHNSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL

CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS


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The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Johnson, thank you very much. 

We will be introducing in just a matter of days, perhaps next 

Monday or Tuesday, the major law enforcement bill that we have 

put together. We have been involved in a lot of consultation around 

the Country on that piece of legislation. We now have nine cosponsors that are bipartisan. We will be formally introducing that bill 

in the Senate in just a matter of days. 

The reason I mention that is the subject today is really law enforcement, and how do we streamline and improve law enforcement 

on Indian reservations, and particularly how is the coordination between tribal governments and other governments improved. 

I think it was you, Mr. Lopez, who testified—someone did, I 

think it was you—who testified that we are in a circumstance 

where given the way the law is written, if a violent sexual predator 

commits a very violent act on a reservation, and for one reason or 

another it is not prosecuted perhaps by the U.S. Attorney in that 

area, but prosecuted by the tribal courts for whatever reason, no 

matter how violent that Act, it falls into tier one, because the sentence for that can be no more than a one-year sentence. Is that correct? Would you expand on this? 

Mr. LOPEZ. That is correct, because of the Indian Civil Rights 

Act. If a member is convicted in tribal court, because of our law, 

we can only prosecute or put in incarceration for one year. As they 

leave the reservation or when we speak to the State or the county, 

they are going to only recognize that they bring him to the lowest 

tier I guess because of their incarcerations, or rather their sentence 

has only been a year. 

The CHAIRMAN. But it is entirely possible in that circumstance 

you could have these folks mislabeled on the registration. If you 

have someone who is classified as a sex offender, but classified as 

tier one, when in fact it could possibly be a very violent sex offender, but because of the unusual circumstances of a tribal court 

in this case having had to take jurisdiction and being prohibited 

from exercising more than a one-year incarceration, it is very likely 

this would be information that would I think misinform people if 

they looked at it. 


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Well, I will come back to that. Let me ask a number of other 

questions, if I might. 

Mr. Gregory, you indicate the T–CHRIP program you talked 

about. 

Mr. GREGORY. T–CHRIP, yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. The T–CHRIP program and the need for a tribal 

record management system dealing with the history of offenders, 

perhaps not just sexual offenders, but all offenders. 

Mr. GREGORY. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. Is it generally the case from your experience that 

no such system exists? That the tribal courts when meting out certain sentences to those who are brought before the courts do not 

register that sentence or do not describe that someplace in a record 

or database? 

Mr. GREGORY. They keep it in their own database or filing system, whatever they may have, but they do not share that unfortunately at this time. 

The CHAIRMAN. Do tribal courts have access to the NCIC? Tribal 

courts do not have access to that routinely, right? 

Mr. GREGORY. They could have it through the State of Michigan 

through the Michigan State Police criminal history record depository, then it would just go on. 

The CHAIRMAN. Certain cooperative circumstances exist I assume 

where tribal authorities, perhaps having agreements in some parts 

of the Country with local law enforcement authorities, could have 

access to information on the NCIC as they work together on a case, 

but it is likely the case that the NCIC, if it is not receiving information from dispositions or adjudication of criminal cases on the 

reservations, the NCIC is not having a complete list either then. 

Is that correct? 

Mr. GREGORY. That is very true, your honor, very true. It is one 

of the main problems we have in law enforcement in Michigan. But 

through the cooperative efforts that we have carried out, I think 

that we are convincing them for safe communities and for officer 

safety. The law enforcement departments are strongly behind these 

measures. We are hoping that the impetus from the necessity for 

sharing information under the Adam Walsh Act is going to help us 

push the tribes into that cooperative agreements and cooperative 

efforts to get all criminal histories, including sex offenders, but of 

course we are mandated under Adam Walsh on sex offenders, but 

on other crimes as well because under Adam Walsh you have to 

have criminal histories when you register offenders. 

The CHAIRMAN. The criminal history is critically important if we 

are going to address real law enforcement needs in a significant 

way. The fact is in this Country generally, and I am guessing although I don’t have the data, on Indian reservations a relatively 

small percentage of the crimes, or I should say a large percentage 

of the crimes will be committed by a small percentage of the population, in many cases over and over and over again. 

If you don’t have an adequate criminal history, you have a very 

difficult time trying to address those issues with that smaller part 

of the population that is producing most of the criminal activity. 

Ms. Johnson, can you tell me what is happening across the Country with all of the tribes? I assume tribes are strapped for money, 

39 

strapped for cash, strapped without the ability in many cases to 

make the significant technology investments that are necessary to 

have a really good criminal history record and be sharing that. Is 

that the case? 

Ms. JOHNSON. Yes. In fact, a lot of the tribal courts still don’t 

have electronic systems for just managing the data themselves. So 

that would be one of the first steps, not only that, but technology, 

the live-scan technology that most tribes still don’t have. It is good 

to see that there are projects out there that are trying to do those 

kinds of things. There are some tribes that are trying to do tribe 

by tribe recognition and sharing of data on a very small scale, and 

that needs to be expanded. 

But you were just talking about access to the NCIC systems. You 

know, less than 12 percent of the tribes have access to those systems right now. NCAI met with the Attorney General and said that 

was just paramount for us to be able to comply with the law. We 

are really concerned that if we don’t get access, we will not be able 

to make the compliance requirement and then the Attorney General is in a position to determine, without any guidelines right now, 

of what meets compliance or not and could transfer sex offender jurisdiction over. 

The CHAIRMAN. So you are saying that access to that is important in terms of reaching compliance under the Adam Walsh Act? 

Ms. JOHNSON. Critical. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. Let me come back to that in a moment. 

Mr. Suppah, you indicated that your tribe is considering civil 

penalties for non-Indian violators on your reservation. Is that correct? A non-Indian sexual predator comes back to live on your reservation decides I’m not going to register no matter what the tribe 

has decided I should do. Do you feel like you have the capability 

of taking action and imposing a civil penalty that will stick on a 

non-Indian in that circumstance? 

Mr. SUPPAH. I guess the Adam Walsh Act does not require tribes 

to have a sex offender registry. So that kind of loop we wanted to 

address that by amending our tribal code to make it a criminal violation for failure to register. 

The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask any one of you who could answer this 

about the Bureau of Prisons and the willingness of the Bureau of 

Prisons to notify tribal governments before releasing sex offenders. 

Who has experience with that? 

Mr. Lopez? 

Mr. LOPEZ. We get our information, as I mentioned, when they 

are released through the halfway houses, because when they release, they just don’t come home. They go through a halfway house, 

if you will. Once they are released from there, we get out information if they say they are going to come back to the nation, then 

their probation officers will let us know. That is how we find out. 

The CHAIRMAN. But the Bureau of Prisons does not let you know, 

as a routine matter? 

Mr. LOPEZ. No. 

The CHAIRMAN. In the law enforcement bill that we will be introducing, we do have a provision in that law enforcement bill that 

would require the Bureau of Prisons to share that information with 

tribal governments. 

40 

Mr. MOORE. That would be great. Likewise at Rosebud, we simply don’t have that access to NCIC as well. In addition to that, we 

do have a civil infraction in our law for non-Indians for non-compliance of registering with our law, with a maximum penalty of a fine 

of at least $500, but not more than a $1,000 fine. We understand 

we can’t incarcerate them in our local jail, but we can fine them. 

So we have made it a civil infraction for non-Indians not registering within our jurisdiction. 

The CHAIRMAN. Has that been challenged at all? 

Mr. MOORE. Not at all. 

The CHAIRMAN. Do you feel confident that you can make that 

stick? 

Mr. MOORE. We can make it stick. 

Mr. GREGORY. Mr. Chairman? 

The CHAIRMAN. Yes? 

Mr. GREGORY. I also believe that, I believe I have the right cite, 

18 U.S.C. 2250, which makes it a 10-year felony for someone who 

is supposed to register or to update their registration, and who either travels to Indian Country, travels out of Indian Country, or resides in Indian Country, could face Federal prosecution, serious 

Federal prosecution. 

I would also like to add, and I am sorry to add this, but I am 

very impressed with the law enforcement bill that I have had the 

opportunity to review. All law the enforcement community and the 

tribal community in Michigan strongly supports that bill. We would 

even look favorably with the Department of Justice taking over the 

administration of Indian Country law enforcement. 

One last recommendation would be that—— 

The CHAIRMAN. Wait a second. Say that again? That is a surprising statement. 

Mr. GREGORY. We have spoken about it many times. 

The CHAIRMAN. When you say we, you are speaking for whom? 

Mr. GREGORY. I am sorry, the tribal law enforcement community. 

We have a Michigan Law Enforcement Association that meets on 

a monthly basis. They have often stated their preference to have 

Indian Country law enforcement come under the aegis of the Department of Justice rather than the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs lacks a lot of the resources necessary, the technology to take use of the statistics that we are required to supply to them. Their number one priority is not law enforcement, whereas under the Department of Justice it is. 

The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Johnson, what do you think of that? 

Ms. JOHNSON. That is a loaded question. 

[Laughter.] 

Ms. JOHNSON. Well, you know, I think that Indian Country has 

always wanted the Department of Justice to step up to the plate 

more, to take on the responsibilities, but understanding the jurisdictional and unique issues in Indian Country. Unfortunately, the 

way that Justice is structured right now where the tribal office sits 

within the structure it is not high enough in the system for us to 

be able to have the right kind of leadership from the helm. 

We did mention that when I met with the Attorney General to 

let him know that we really felt that in order to make the changes 

necessary for Indian Country to feel more comfortable with Justice, 

41 

they would have to restructure themselves to have a representative 

or an office within his office to take some direction. 

Once that step is developed, then maybe Indian Country might 

feel a little bit different. I think a lot of folks in Indian Country 

might support that. Others would be scared of that just because of 

the unknown of what Justice could really do. 

The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you to start at the top, Ms. Johnson, 

with me. I repeat what I said earlier today. I think there is no 

question that this Country has moved in an aggressive way to say 

we are not going to continue to do business the way we used to do 

business with sexual predators. Arrest them, put them in prison, 

no matter how violent. When they are let out of prison, you wave 

and give them a few bucks and they are off someplace, not monitored. 

We can’t continue to do that. Those that are at risk for re-offending at high risk, and that is judged by psychiatrists and others. Mr. 

Rodriguez, who I described earlier, was judged to be at high risk 

and sure enough he murdered someone. 

We are not going to discontinue doing that, so we are going to 

do something very different. If that different approach means a 

registry that is significant, it is required, it is taken seriously. If 

that is the case, then that registry and the treatment of law enforcement all around the Country with this issue has to be 

thoughtful, serious and complete. You can’t do that unless you include all aspects of this Country. The sovereignty of reservations 

is very important, but its sovereignty is no different than the sovereignty of our government. If we decide we are going to do something, we have to do it together. 

So I understand the difficulty of Indian tribes trying to respond 

to things that they are not quite certain with respect to the requirements. So go through with me, if you will, if you can, from the 

most important to the least important, the five or six things that 

need to be resolved in order to answer the questions that the tribes 

have about how to comply effectively with the Adam Walsh Act. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Okay. First of all, the tribes that are left out. 

What we are hearing, you know, the Public Law 280 States were 

left out of the system. 

The CHAIRMAN. Explain that for the record, Alaska and California. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Okay. Alaska, California, there is a list, Minnesota, it goes on. There are also some that were recognized States 

that came after the actual law of Public Law 280, but they have 

been exempted from the Act for compliance under the way that this 

is, and they would be subject to the States. But the difference is 

that for California, for example, a lot of tribes in California, a Public Law 280 State, a lot of California tribes feel very passionately 

about this issue. 

Indian Country is totally with you about saying we need to have 

a seamless operation, and we totally want to address sex offender 

registry because our people, our women, our children have such 

high percentages of being affected by this. But what we want to 

make sure is that, you know, the States now can decide whether 

or not how a State is going to provide that oversight and moniVerDate Aug 31 2005 08:59 Oct 27, 2008 Jkt 044800 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\44800.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
42 

toring within the tribal community. We think the tribal communities should be able to have some say in how that works. 

For example in Alaska, 226 tribes out there, villages that are out 

there, even their own State legislature, a representative said the 

State doesn’t have the resources to be able to monitor those remote 

villages. Well, the tribes are in those remote villages and they want 

to be able to monitor, but the exclusion of the tribes from being included in the Adam Walsh Act also excludes them from being able 

to get resources necessary to help implement and to provide the 

seamlessness of the registry system. 

That goes the same thing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. By 

not including the Bureau of Indian Affairs in here at all, you have 

a whole, you have detention centers, you have law enforcement 

agencies, you have prisons that are operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs who don’t have to comply. So you have a gap in compliance that just simply needs to be addressed. 

You have, as I said before, the Attorney General’s authority to 

strip tribal governments. It is very disconcerting to me that, one, 

Congress would want to give their oversight, their plenary power 

over tribal communities to the Attorney General to decide whether 

or not they are in compliance, and then could actually strip them 

of their civil and criminal jurisdiction and transfer that jurisdiction 

over to the State without Congress actually setting up standards 

of how that would happen. 

But mostly, I am more concerned about the tribes, tribes who 

don’t know what the rules are of the game at this point. There is 

no requirement in the Act for them to develop, in consultation with 

tribes, a due process or technical assistance to be able to help a 

tribe come into compliance, so it simply sets a precedent that is 

just really disconcerting to NCAI. 

And then of course, just like when we experienced with the welfare reform programs, tribes aggressively wanted to be supportive. 

Tribes and States worked together, and NCAI was very involved in 

that. But the States had a leg up because they had been having 

systems in place for decades before. This is the same thing. The 

States have had systems and resources to develop those systems 

for at least a decade, and tribes are not there. We want to get 

there. We want to participate. We care about this in our communities, but we don’t have the infrastructure. 

With the resources that could be directed to it to help us develop 

the infrastructure, I have had more meetings with tribes. I cannot 

believe it. The fact that we have this many tribes who had to affirmatively opt in is a statement from Indian Country because that 

is really hard to do. But to get all of them, almost all of them— 

but a very small percentage of them—to opt in says they care about 

this issue and we want to do something to address it, but we need 

the resources and we need the collaboration. 

The challenge for us is this fighting that is happening—I am not 

saying fighting—but the confusion that is happening between the 

Violence Against Women Office and the SMART office on implementation of Adam Walsh is causing confusion for Indian Country. 

We need to be able to sit down and say, okay, how is this going 

to work? How are we going to have a seamless operation between 

those two systems? Because Indian Country can’t afford to have 

43 

two separate systems. We need to have one system that recognizes 

the responsibility of both of those issues, and then we can move 

forward in implementing our system that will coexist with theirs. 

We as governments should have the same right as other governments to have access to the data systems of the FBI. We shouldn’t 

have to go through a bunch of hoops with another government that 

determines how we qualify. 

Those are just a few of the issues. 

The CHAIRMAN. Well, that is enough. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Okay. Thanks. 

[Laughter.] 

The CHAIRMAN. You have raised I think some important points. 

I would say that the legislation we will be introducing also addresses a portion of this with respect to the NCIC and the availability 

of that important data. 

You make a point that I think is important for the government 

to recognize, and that is over a period of some years we have developed certain registries, including sex offender registries. In fact, 

some tribes had done so prior to the enactment of the Adam Walsh 

Act as well, not very many, but some had done so. 

But I think you make an important point that you don’t just 

ramp up a registry and have the base of knowledge and the experience for doing that in a short period of time, because the States 

haven’t done it in a short period of time. So I think that is important for us to understand and recognize. 

I do think what we want at the end of this is a product which 

is contributed to by all of the jurisdictions in this Country so we 

have an adequate database, a good effective database, that is a registry including all of the names of those that we should be aware 

of who are violent sexual predators, so that we can keep track of 

them and understand who they are and where they are. 

It doesn’t pay for us to create a system that has a patchwork of 

holes. I mean, that is not workable and doesn’t protect the American people. 

Well, again I indicated to you we are going to be introducing I 

expect either next Monday or Tuesday the major law enforcement 

bill. John and Allison on our staff, and many others, Heidi, have 

done a lot of work on this legislation. We have traveled across the 

Country. We have consulted with tribes. We have consulted with 

other levels of government from county sheriffs to attorneys general of the States, to the Justice Department. 

We have done the due diligence you should do to try to figure out 

what is happening, how do people feel about it, what are the best 

of the ideas that are available, and try to incorporate that into the 

bill. 

We have also now been able to get bipartisan support for that 

legislation which we will introduce. I won’t describe the names 

today, but we will do that when we introduce it on the floor of the 

Senate. I think that will move us forward, and I think also should 

provide at least some assistance in some of the areas Ms. Johnson 

you described with respect to the deficiencies that exist in tribes 

trying to comply with the Adam Walsh Act. So stay tuned for that. 

I want to thank all of you for coming today to be willing to testify 

and provide some additional information. 

44 

Mr. Moore? 

Mr. MOORE. Just one last comment. Not enough can be said 

about the work of victims’ support groups throughout the United 

States in Indian Country, and the coalitions of these groups who 

have done a significant amount of work to help tribes and tribal 

leaders understand the import of establishing their own laws for 

the implementation of Adam Walsh, like the White Buffalo Calf Society and others throughout the Country, who have just done an 

enormous amount of work to help us be able to do our work to protect our children and our whole community. 

I needed to say that because I serve on the VAWA task force at 

NCAI, so I know the incredible passion that they have to ensure 

that Adam Walsh is a successful piece of legislation that is effective 

in Indian Country as it is throughout the United States. Not 

enough can be said about the great work and diligence that they 

have done for us. 

The CHAIRMAN. I think that is important to say, and I appreciate 

your making that point. There is one other point that I think is important, and that is as we deal with this issue of sexual predators 

and violence against women, and sex offenses, it is very important 

for us to have trained healthcare officials, nurses, doctors and others. It is important even for the remote sites to have rape kits and 

others things available for those who are trying to treat victims. 

We have had testimony before this Committee about just the fundamental things that have been missing that do need to be restored and the training needs to be developed. It is why I and Senator Murkowski and others added the $250 million to the authorization bill that passed yesterday—$250 million to the Indian 

Health Service. We got a substantial amount of money to law enforcement, thanks to two of our colleagues, Senator Kyl and Senator Thune. We have all worked together. I have done hearings in 

Arizona. Senator Thune and I have worked together on the Standing Rock issue. 

So we have worked on a lot of these issues, but especially the 

issue of Indian health care, which I think is in full crisis, adding 

$250 million, one-half of which would be destined to improved facilities, and the other half of which would be destined to try to address the contract health issue dilemma that we have. 

It is important as we continue to try to add money and make the 

Indian Health Service work more effectively. I think it does not 

work very well, frankly, to just do the basics out there in the Country on the reservations, with the ability to have trained people to 

help victims as they come in and are being treated. 

Again, I want to thank all of the witnesses for traveling to Washington, D.C., except for Ms. Johnson who just comes across the 

street. Thank you for traveling and participating today and giving 

us your information. We will use this as we proceed to try to address what we might be able to do to respond to your concerns. 

This hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:09 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 

(45) 

A P P E N D I X 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. MYRA PEARSON, CHAIRWOMAN, SPIRIT LAKE TRIBE

My name is Myra Pearson, Chairwoman for the Spirit Lake Tribe located in the 

state of North Dakota. I have been following the Adam Walsh Act for several 

months. I have concerns regarding both the procedure and the substantive provisions of the law and the regulations that implement that law. 

As a tribal leader, a grandmother and a mother the safety and well-being of our 

children and our members are at the forefront of the issues that I consider to be 

imperative to the future of our tribe. I believe that our children are sacred and we 

must do everything we can to protect them and to ensure their future. It is for this 

very reason that I am troubled by the Adam Walsh Act. 

I believe that the underlying principle and purpose of the Act, the protection of 

community members, creates common ground between local, state, federal and tribal leaders, however the road to that goal of safeguarding our members is where we 

clearly differ. I find it extremely condescending and presumptive of the federal government to pass legislation that not only attacks our sovereignty but that also presumes to provide a road map that will tell us how to best safeguard our own members. At Spirit Lake we were looking at resolutions to this issue far before the passage of the Adam Walsh Act, but we were doing it in our own way and in our own 

time. Now we are being forced to do it in a federal way and on federal time. 

Despite my objections to the procedure in which this law was passed I also have 

several substantive concerns about the language of the Act and the regulations that 

have been drafted to implement the Act. I plan to submit more succinct legal comments on the regulations themselves, but initial concerns include: 

The classification process for various sex offenses... this process conflicts 

with existing federal law such as the ICRA which constrains the ability of our 

tribal court to administer justice... how will such conflicts be resolved? 

The provisions dealing with recognition of tribal court convictions. again these 

provisions conflict with existing federal laws such as the ICRA . . . . If tribes 

do not provide legal counsel to defendants then the court orders will be no good 

outside of Indian country . . . I wonder where the funds will come for to pay 

for court appointed counsel and I wonder if adopting what many believe to be 

a broken system that has been implemented by states and federal authorities 

is the best way to administer justice on our reservation. I also ask what exactly 

is assistance of counsel . . . if we provide lay advocates will that suffice? Who 

will ultimately determine whether the defendant’s rights were adequately 

preserved . . . is this not a right of the tribal courts to first determine. And 

finally what about the victim’s... this law is purportedly in place to protect 

victims and to prevent future victimization by sex offenders, however if tribal 

court orders are exempted from the recognition process because we do not have 

the financial ability to substantially comply with federal laws then I wonder 

whether we are truly delivering justice to those children, individuals and families who have already been victimized. 

In closing it is one thing for tribes to ‘‘opt in’’ by passing a resolution, and we 

can get our attorney’s to draft a code that substantially complies with the federal 

mandate, but I question whether we have the necessary financial capabilities, infrastructure and support to enforce these resolutions and federal laws and whether 

three years is enough time to get to where we need to be. Will the implementation 

of this law truly protect our children and our members or will this be another law 

that is shelved and basically deemed unenforceable? Are these laws going to be 

great in theory but not rooted in reality. 

Finally, while we are trying to jump through federal hoops, and filing for extensions and scrambling to maintain the sovereignty we have left where are the members and victims? We need to take action now and in our own way and in our own 

time to protect our own members. We learn from experience and that prompts acVerDate Aug 31 2005 08:59 Oct 27, 2008 Jkt 044800 PO 00000 Frm 00049 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\44800.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
46 

tion but when it comes to sex offenders we know the problems and we know what 

needs to be done. 

We would request also that we continue to be involved in the consultation process 

concerning the language and implementation of these regulations. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE SPIRIT LAKE SIOUX TRIBE

The Spirit Lake Tribe strongly opposes the procedure followed by the United 

States Congress in the passage of the Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act, 

particularly the Tribe opposes the lack of meaningful consultation prior to the passage of the Act and views this process as a violation of tribal sovereignty and further the Tribe strongly objects to the ‘‘use it or lose it’’ provisions of the Act in so 

far as they mandate Tribes to opt in or risk losing jurisdiction with respect to the 

registration and monitoring of sex offenders. 

With that this comment shall not continue to focus on the obvious failings of the 

legislation itself nor on the process by which the legislation was passed but rather 

shall focus on the regulations that are being proposed to interpret and implement 

SORNA. 

In particular the Tribe finds cause for objection and opposition to the following: 

• The provisions dealing with retroactive application of the law is somewhat of 

a concern especially when addressing juvenile delinquencies. The procedure of 

registration and notification was not contemplated by the Court at the time of 

the conviction and the fact that our juvenile court focuses on rehabilitation runs 

contrary to the retroactive application of this law as it leaves no discretion for 

the court to determine whether registration provisions are necessary; and 

• The regulations address the development of and access to software but do not 

address technological capabilities associated with the use and maintenance of 

that software. In other words what type of servers will be necessary to utilize 

the software and where will such funds come from?; and 

• The provisions that address ‘‘substantial compliance’’ are too vague. There 

should be some factors listed to establish criteria that can be applied to determine whether a tribe is in substantial compliance. This is necessary to avoid 

entirely subjective review of programs. Also there should be provisions that address with some specificity the options available to tribe’s should they be found 

to be in noncompliance. Also there remains some question as to how will substantial compliance be determined. Will the SMART office simply review tribal 

legislation or will the process involve site visits, proof of technological capabilities etc. 

• The Tribe strongly objects to the delegation of jurisdiction provisions of both the 

Act itself and the regulations. Despite the fact that Spirit Lake Tribe has opted 

by resolution to develop and administer its own sex offender registration and 

notification program, such a decision should not have to be made in order to 

retain our jurisdiction or risk losing it to the state. We would like to see the 

Act itself amended accordingly and would consequently request that such language also be removed from the regulations. 

• The regulations contain various provisions that seems to directly conflict with 

existing federal law such as the Indian Civil Rights Act. In particular the provisions found at section VI(A) pertaining to full faith and credit of tribal court 

convictions is highly objectionable because it allows jurisdiction to require that 

tribal convictions were obtained only where a defendant was afforded assistance 

of counsel. The Indian Civil Rights Act only requires that individuals be informed of their right to counsel, not that the tribe provide counsel to indigent 

defendants. The regulations should be amended to clarify this apparent conflict. 

Additionally some reference should be made to the use of lay advocates. Often 

defendant’s are represented by lay advocates rather than licensed attorneys. 

These lay advocates know and understand the tribal court and tribal law, however there is no indication that convictions obtained where defendant’s were 

represented by lay advocates would be subject to registration requirements in 

other jurisdictions. 

• The Tribe objects to the application of the Tier classification system due to the 

fact that tribal convictions and sentences are limited by existing federal law and 

not by the views, policies or laws of the tribes. In other words the tribes have 

been restricted by federal law to sentences of 1 year or less and now sex offenses are being classified in terms of severity based upon those sentencing restrictions. In tribal court someone who would be subject to a 15 year sentence 

47 

for aggravated sexual assault would only face 1 year in tribal court for the same 

offense and the same facts. Consequently the use of sentencing as a classification tool is not effective and should be modified. 

• In terms of the required registration information the Tribe objects to the requirements that tribal or traditional names be registered. It is unlikely that 

this process would assist in the tracking and monitoring of sex offenders and 

it is likely that the use of this information would negatively impact individuals 

who have the same tribal or traditional name as a convicted sex offender. The 

Tribe would therefore ask that this provision or requirement be removed from 

the regulations entirely. 

• Finally from a practical standpoint the Tribe is concerned that neither the Act 

nor the regulations address implementation issues in terms of program development and program support for tribes that are opting to develop and administer 

their own programs. 

Æ