▶ 0:22:08Chair Murkowski: Good afternoon. We are calling this legislative hearing to order. Before we begin our discussion of the native children's commission implementation act, I want to just acknowledge the passing of one of the real leaders here in the congress when it came to matters before this committee, the indian affairs committee.
▶ 0:22:39Chair Murkowski: A native leader, senator bend that campbell who recently passed. I think senator campbell and I've served on the committee for the full time that he was here. I was also serving at that same time.
▶ 0:23:00Chair Murkowski: Just recognize the contributions that he made on so many important initiatives related to america's indigenous people, the first native american serve in the united states senate, so we respect his memory and honor. As I mentioned, we are here to examine title ii of my native children's commission implementation act discussion draft. The title of the bill is focused on justice and safety for children, youth, and families.
▶ 0:23:30Chair Murkowski: This committee has built a strong record document in the series of public safety challenges across indian country especially the persistent gaps in law enforcement. We will continue that important work. Is it just as important that we focus on the resources that communities need before law enforcement comps involved. And support families and victims after that involvement occurs. Those moments matter.
▶ 0:23:55Chair Murkowski: The families don't have access to coordinate community based services, they are far more likely to cycle deeper into the justice system instead of receiving the support that could prevent further harm. Title ii aims to close those gaps by strengthening coordination, increasing blood stability and funding, and investing in prevention, particularly in the areas of juvenile justice, domestic violence, and in cases of missing children.
▶ 0:24:18Chair Murkowski: I release of this discussion draft at the beginning of august grounded in the recommendation of the native children's commission report and sent that have gathered extensive feedback from tribe, tribal organizations and native hawaiian organizations across the country and relevant federal agencies. As my staff and I have worked toward introducing this legislation, we are now refining the language and continuing to build a record around the programs and initiatives that the bill would support.
▶ 0:24:46Chair Murkowski: One strong example of what this approach can look like is a successful bipartisan initiative. This means family in the lakota and dakota languages and it's according to service delivery model that allows tribes to build capacity and designed locally tailored programs. These include family and social services, juvenile justice recidivism reduction, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and improve case management.
▶ 0:25:13Chair Murkowski: Last august, the committee held a roundtable in alaska on this discussion draft and we heard at that time from vivian, the ceo of the association of village council presidents. This is one of the six pilot sites in 2015. Vivian shared to the group how transformative it has been for a vcp in the region it serves.
▶ 0:25:37Chair Murkowski: It allowed them to consolidate 26 separate departments into six divisions along with two dedicated centers, a family service center and a tribal resource center. These changes have made a real difference. They have improved collaboration and strengthened service delivery for the 56 federally recognized tribe that avcp represents.
▶ 0:25:57Chair Murkowski: Family seeking education, childcare or employment and training services can now access those support all in one place at avcp's family service center instead of having to navigate multiple departments. Title ii of the native children's commission implementation act would codify this and expand this small of two tribes across the country. It would also establish a travel advisory committee on juvenile justice.
▶ 0:26:22Chair Murkowski: Direct a study on the scope and context of cases involving missing data children, codify the alaskan native victims program and provide permanent funding for travel to mystic violence coalitions, regional and haw centers through the famy violence prevention and services act. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about the work they do and about how title ii provisions can help them continue supporting their communities.
▶ 0:26:51Chair Murkowski: I think you all for being here today. We know that traveling to washington is never easy. When we have some icy weather out there it makes it even harder, so we appreciate the time you are giving us. I will now turn to the vice chair for his opening statements.
▶ 0:27:05Sen. Schatz: Thank you, chair murkowski. I want to start by extending a warm hello how to mark patterson, leader in juvenile justice work, nationwide. Mark played a key role in transforming hawaii's juvenile justice system, serving as administrator of the kawailoa youth and family wellness center , formally known as the hawaii you correctional facility.
▶ 0:27:28Sen. Schatz: During his tenure, mark oversaw the reduction of incarceration over 15 years and reduce the number of girls and the tension to zero in 2022. Mark also proves to served on the cornea to counsel on juvenile justice and the liquidity prevention and currently serves as the chair of the hawaii correctional system oversight commission. Thank you for your continued leadership in testimony today.
▶ 0:27:55Sen. Schatz: Doing everything we can to ensure public safety in indian country is just one of our trusted treaty obligations. Much of the public safety work this committee has done over the last several years is focused on addressing unmet public safety needs in indian country.
▶ 0:28:10Sen. Schatz: Last congress the committee held five public safety events including a listening session joined by more than 600 individuals, allowing us to hear first-hand from tribal leaders, tribal organizations and native hawaiian organizations about their community's needs such as improving law enforcement officer recruitment and retention, strengthening victim services, addressing the mmip crisis and increasing resources for correctional facilities construction maintenance, just to name a few.
▶ 0:28:40Sen. Schatz: It is clear that we need to do more to address public safety. Today we continue this work with a specific focus on children and families. The alice spotted bear and other commission's report includes extensive recommendations which chair murkowski has converted into a potential legislative solution to discuss today. I'm glad bipartisan committee staff work together to listen and learn from native communities across the country including hawaii on how the draft legislation can support the unique public safety needs.
▶ 0:29:12Sen. Schatz: I want to thank in particular the native hawaiian organizations and individuals who share their juvenile justice expertise with our staffs over the last few months. Starting with mark patterson, shawn got partners in development foundation, allison, -- madam chair, I want to enter two screen trips from our listening sessions on juvenile justice issues into the record.
▶ 0:29:42Chair Murkowski: Without objection.
▶ 0:29:44Sen. Schatz: Thank you to all of our witnesses and I look forward to your testimony and learning how this draft legislation can do support native communities culturally and community driven juvenile justice solutions.
▶ 0:29:56Chair Murkowski: Thank you, senator schatz. Pleased you were able to have a listening session. Senator daines, I know that you have one of the witnesses today that you would like to introduce , any comments that you would care to make, now is the appropriate time.
▶ 0:30:13Sen. Daines: , thank you. I want to welcome councilwoman joan johnson from the fort belknap community who made a long track to be with us today. We met earlier, great discussion , both senators she had and myself about the great work they are doing, the tremendous outcomes you are seeing in reductions of recidivism which is amazing. Very much appreciate the work you are doing to impact the families and young people there at fort belknap.
▶ 0:30:42Sen. Daines: I appreciate her record of service and willingness to testify on behalf of her tribe. Representing the gros ventre, the councilman was just elected to the council. Decades of experience serving the youth in her community and is an expert on the tiwahe program. When he speaks of the community today, this is not from academic research, it is actually seeing what this does for the people in indian country, particularly fort belknap. Councilwoman, thank you for your work.
▶ 0:31:12Sen. Daines: We look forward to your testimony.
▶ 0:31:14Chair Murkowski: Thank you, senator daines. I will introduce the rest of the panel. Mr. patterson has been introduced by the vice chair. Thank you. Welcome, Mr. patterson. We have the honorable lana street. The chairwoman for spirit lake tried in fort totten, north dakota. Welcome to the committee. Chair councilwoman johnson has been introduced, welcome. We are please you are here.
▶ 0:31:42Chair Murkowski: We have anita fineday, the former commissioner for the alice spotted bear and water so the left commission on native children. She was not able to make the travel today but we have her participating virtually. Pleased that she is here. Also in person is Ms. lori jump, executive director for stronghearts native helpline based in sault ste. Marie. Welcome to all of you.
▶ 0:32:13Chair Murkowski: I want to remind our witnesses that we do have your full written testimony, and it will be included as part of the official hearing record. We would ask that you keep your oral remarks today tomorrow -- no more than five minutes so we have plenty of time to ask questions of you. We will begin the witness statements with the honorable lonna jackson-street. Welcome.
▶ 0:32:43Ms. Jackson-Street: Thank you, Mr. chair. It's an honor to be here today to have the opportunity to provide testimony on behalf of of these very important matters that we are here to discuss today. I also want to say thank you to vice chair and to members of the committee as well, to have the opportunity to provide my testimony.
▶ 0:33:09Ms. Jackson-Street: My name is lonna jackson-street, I'm the current chairwoman of the spirit lake try it in north dakota. -- tribe in north dakota. We come from north-central north dakota, part of the original 1857 treaty along with the sioux tribe of dakotas. It gives me great honor to speak on behalf of our people back at home.
▶ 0:33:40Ms. Jackson-Street: The spirit lake tribe is a sovereign nation. Like I said, we are recognized by the 1867 treaty. The spirit lake tribe is home to about 8000 trial. Tribal members, 400,000 miles of land including the doubles lake waters which is north dakota's largest natural lake. Our lake is vital. It is part of our traditional and cultural heritage and is essential for tourism, hospitality, and is the mainstay of our economy.
▶ 0:34:12Ms. Jackson-Street: Despite our efforts, we suffered poor health and reduced life expectancy, poor infrastructure, high unemployment, and social and economic dislocation are major factors for us. Our homicide rate is four times higher than the non-hispanic whites. Within this year, five murders occurred within our reservation boundaries, and this is far too many.
▶ 0:34:38Ms. Jackson-Street: To protect our children and families, we have developed our tiwahe program, a community-based approach to providing caring family type support for troubled youth and adults. Our tiwahe program effectively marshall's resources to better provide support for our youth and families to improve employment opportunities and to enhance social service support while reducing the need for foster care by keeping families intact.
▶ 0:35:10Ms. Jackson-Street: We also endorse key recommendations of the native children's commission study, including providing culturally relevant trauma care for our youth in the juvenile justice system, integrating native history, culture, and languages into education for our children. And to also recognize and treat the historical trauma that continues to injure our youth in our nations.
▶ 0:35:35Ms. Jackson-Street: Similarly, we support passage of the native children's commission implementation act because our youth are significantly overrepresented in the federal justice system. We urgently need help for our children to avoid such incarcerations which often expose them to drug dealers and other serious offenders.
▶ 0:35:57Ms. Jackson-Street: A tribe on juvenile justice advisory commission could help gather resources from doj and other agencies to address juvenile justice needs, and it could help fund and develop programs like tiwahe to reduce foster care replacements and native youth incarcerations. Mmip continues to be a scourge for us at spirit lake. We are very thankful for the passage of savannah's act. Savannah gray wind was our tribal member who grew up at spirit lake.
▶ 0:36:29Ms. Jackson-Street: Savanna was murdered, had her baby torn from her body, and thrown into a river like she didn't matter. But we honor her memory with our annual savanna gray wind day at home.
▶ 0:36:45Ms. Jackson-Street: Tragically, we continue to have mmip cases such as gemini posey, who is still missing, isaac hunt , who was missing for a year, and about 10 months, and has recently his remains have been found Mr. gray bear who was found and recovered in arizona.
▶ 0:37:13Ms. Jackson-Street: These cases underscore the need to work across jurisdictional lines to protect our women, children, and men. We therefore propose a model law enforcement copper addition agreement with our neighbors so that when we have a missing person, our U.S. attorney will help coordinate search and rescue efforts. This is the best chance of rescue for our people within the first 72 hours of them going missing. So today we stand ready to develop this initiative which could be a model framework to help other tribes.
▶ 0:37:44Ms. Jackson-Street: In addition, we need more funding for law enforcement needs on indian reservations under federal and tribal criminal law enforcement jurisdiction. Congress should increase funding forojs and interior to the 950 million dollars in fiscal year 27. We also call for the passage of an indian country violent crime fighting act with the interior secretary and U.S.
▶ 0:38:12Ms. Jackson-Street: Attorney general as cochairs alongside of tribal leaders across indian country. Basically codifying the lady justice task force. To back up this effort, we need major doj block grants, 63 eight contracts and compact funding, and joint bia doj funding for annual law enforcement plans.
▶ 0:38:36Ms. Jackson-Street: To protect native peoples, congress should also require homeland security, ice agents to receive training to work with indian tribes, including education on the rights of tribes, to issue tribal ids. Congress should also establish an interior bia program to support public law 102 477 framework and should fund much tribal government law enforcement training, staffing, equipment, and facilities on dhs
▶ 0:39:06Ms. Jackson-Street: Or per fabey -- appropriations. In closing, our tiwahe program, the passing of the native children's commission's a limitation act, as well as other recommendations are essential to save the generations of our youth in indian country. As sitting bull once said, if we can put our hearts and minds together, we can make a better life for our children. With that, thank you for my opportunity to testify.
▶ 0:39:34Chair Murkowski: Thank you, chairwoman. We will next turn to councilmember johnson. Welcome.
▶ 0:39:48Ms. Johnson: Good afternoon, chair murkowski and members of the committee. My indian name is -- my english name is joan johnson. I am honored to represent the fort belknap community, home of the lakota people.
▶ 0:40:09Ms. Johnson: We are here to join the 22 tiwahe pilot demonstrator and incubator to express our strong support for the native children's commission implementation act of 2025. On august 12, 2020 five, our community joined a collective of tiwahe tribes and formed their letter to this committee urging the permanent authorization of the tiwahe initiative.
▶ 0:40:37Ms. Johnson: Four fort belknap, tiwahe is not just a line item in a budget, it's a cornerstone of our success and protecting our most sacred resources, which are our children. Our reservation is remote, sitting just 35 miles from the canadian border. In such isolation, the flexibility of the tiwahe model is a necessity.
▶ 0:41:04Ms. Johnson: It allows us to move away from one-size-fits-all federal mandates and toward a whole response that integrates our culture, traditions and spirituality into every service we provide. The proof of the tiwahe model is found in our results. Before tiwahe, we lacked the resources to support youth struggling with trauma or substance abuse addictions. Today, our soaring eagle juvenile justice program is a national model.
▶ 0:41:35Ms. Johnson: By replacing punishment with cultural immersion led by our elders, we have reduced our six month recidivism rate 35% well below the national average. Our family wellness program has removed the stigma of intervention by meeting families in their homes as wellness specialists.
▶ 0:42:00Ms. Johnson: We help them clear the specific hurdles to independence from obtaining tribal ids to accessing lifesaving health care through our tiwahe transit system. We now facilitate over 100 vital transports per month. To understand why making this program permanent is so vital, we must hear the voices of those that serve.
▶ 0:42:25Ms. Johnson: One of our participants who once struggled with addiction and homelessness recently shared, tiwahe gave me the knowledge I needed that guided me to become closer to my creator and help me learn who I am. Today, I am sober, happy, and enjoying motherhood. She recently had twins. As we discussed the future of native children, we must confront the harrowing reality.
▶ 0:42:50Ms. Johnson: Section 202 of the act correctly identifies the need for formal study on the status of missing american indian and alaska native children, however, for the stated to be truly effective, it must account for the full scope of the crisis, including noncustodial familial abductions. In indian country, children's safety is often complicated by jurisdictional gaps and lack of boots on the ground.
▶ 0:43:24Ms. Johnson: While national attention often focuses on stranger danger, we know that family abductions were a child is taken or concealed in violation of a custody order accounts for a massive portion of missing children cases. For our remote communities, these incidents are not just private family matters, they are emergencies that require coordination between law enforcement and families like soaring eagle.
▶ 0:43:51Ms. Johnson: A lot of times in the justice system, because there are custodial issues between the parents, the child's voice gets lost, and a guardian steps in to be that voice for that child, so that child's voice is not lost. However, coordination is only possible if the officers actually exist. True sovereignty is impossible without the resources to protect it.
▶ 0:44:16Ms. Johnson: Currently, the federal government provides fort belknap for funding for only nine enforcement officers to patrol an area the size of rhode island. In 1997, the federal government provided our community $1.2 million or law enforcement. Nearly 30 years later, that figure has only increased to $1.3 million. This is not a budget, it is a state of emergency. We cannot protect our children with a department that is funded at a fraction of its actual need.
▶ 0:44:48Ms. Johnson: For the native children's commission implementation act to succeed, it must be paired with the full mandatory funding for tribal law enforcement. We urge the committee to move away from the historical funding models that keep our departments understaffed and underpaid. A lot of times, we always look at law enforcement for keeping our community and our people safe. But what about the law enforcement?
▶ 0:45:15Ms. Johnson: At the end of the day, they have to go home safe to their families, too. With one on patrol, that kind of makes the risks higher. While various transportation modes exist within the region, the tiwahe transportation initiative serves as a critical last-minute solution for the fort belknap indian community by strategically coordinating tribal resources we have
▶ 0:45:46Ms. Johnson: Successfully breached the geographic divide that historically isolates our most vulnerable members. The fort belknap indian community is proof that when tribes are given flexibility to lead, our families thrive. However, as noted in our joint letter for tribes to fully realize the potential of this initiative, increase in authorized funding will be necessary to meet the vast needs across indian country.
▶ 0:46:15Ms. Johnson: We urge you to pass the native children's commission implementation act of 2025. Help us ensure the decade of action and healing become a permanent reality for our children. Chairman, we love our children on the reservation. Our children are going to grow up one day. We want them to heal, it doesn't matter who they are, where they come from, or what they've done. They still deserve to heal and live a good life.
▶ 0:46:47Ms. Johnson: We would like them to have their dreams come true, have stories to tell their children and their grandchildren someday, not stories of unhealthy things, but stories of growth and how they survived, what healing is really about. Because it certainly isn't about drugs or alcohol or anything unhealthy. Thank you for your time.
▶ 0:47:10Chair Murkowski: Thank you for your testimony, councilwoman. We will next year virtually from Ms. anita fineday, one of our commissioners on the alyce spotted bear and walter soboleff commission.
▶ 0:47:25Ms. Fineday: Thank you to the commission. I want to thank the members of the committee for continuing to raise the issues of native children and providing opportunities such as these to improve outcomes for native children and native communities. I was honored to serve on the commission, and I would just say I served as chief judge for my tribe in northwest minnesota for 14 years.
▶ 0:47:58Ms. Fineday: I have worked as an attorney and tribal judge, focusing on children's issues, child welfare, and also on developing tribal court systems. I was honored to serve on this commission on native children, serve as one of 11 members. I just want to say a word about our work.
▶ 0:48:24Ms. Fineday: We gathered baseline data on topics including juvenile justice, socioeconomic issues, mental health, suicide, infant and child mortality, child welfare, substance use, aces, adverse childhood experiences, educational achievement, physical health, and we held hearings both in person and during covid virtually. We heard from elected officials, community leaders.
▶ 0:48:54Ms. Fineday: We had 26 site visits and 10 regional hearings, as well as 20 five virtual hearings. We heard from experts in their fields and we heard from scholars who had worked in each of these areas throughout their careers. I want to focus on one of our recommendations out of many. My background, as I said, is working in tribal courts.
▶ 0:49:25Ms. Fineday: I want to talk about 4e funding, which comes from the children's bureau, which is part of acf. We talked during hearings about the potential of having 4e funding made more readily available for tribes. 4e funding is accessed by all 50 states. It funds child welfare in this country.
▶ 0:49:57Ms. Fineday: Currently, only 14 tribes received 4e funding. The reason only 14 tribes receive this funding is because of the huge burden of administering the program. This is a huge obstacle for many tribes. The reporting requirements and the data requirements are very burdensome.
▶ 0:50:27Ms. Fineday: We propose that 4e funding, which is an already existing funding source, it is already accessed by all 50 states, as I said. It is not new funding. It is something that already exists.
▶ 0:50:45Ms. Fineday: So taking 4e funding and also using 4b funding which more tribes to access 4b funding now, but not all tribes do. Again, because of the burden some reporting requirements, especially for small tribes.
▶ 0:51:08Ms. Fineday: One of the recommendations is to combine 4e and 4b funding with 477 programs. We have heard 477 programs mentioned a couple of times.
▶ 0:51:24Ms. Fineday: That is a way to make federal funding streams more readily accessible for tribes, to provide flexibility, and to allow tribes to come up with one funding agreement that covers all of the different funding streams that are included in that agreement.
▶ 0:51:44Ms. Fineday: We would propose that the committee consider that recommendation as a way to fund child will appear for tribes, also to fund tribal courts through that funding stream, and to allow tribes to access that funding through the 477 programs that now already exist. I will stop there and wait for more questions. Thank you.
▶ 0:52:11Chair Murkowski: Thank you so much for that very specific suggestion. Appreciate that. Next we will turn to lori jump. Welcome.
▶ 0:52:21Ms. Jump: Thank you. Good afternoon. My spirit name is -- my given name is lori jump. I'm a citizen of the sault ste. Marie tribe of chippewa indians, survivor of both domestic and sexual violence. I've been an advocate for survivors for almost four years, and I come here today as the executive officer for stronghearts native helpline.
▶ 0:52:48Ms. Jump: Thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony on title to justice and safety for native children. Title ii offers a number of provisions that will have a positive impact on access to justice and healing for american indian, alaskan native, and native hawaiian peoples. While all of the provisions are important, I will focus my remarks on section 204, which will have the most impact of the work that we do at stronghearts.
▶ 0:53:16Ms. Jump: Indian country has the highest rates of violence across our country, and yet, our relatives have the least access to services intended to respond to that violence. There are 570 five federally recognized tribes in the united states but less than half of them have funding to provide the life-saving services that so many of our relatives need.
▶ 0:53:40Ms. Jump: In our stronghearts directory of native center resources, we have 274 domestic violence programs and 67 domestic violence shelters. Remember, there are 575 tribal nations, so that number is willfully -- it doesn't meet the need.
▶ 0:54:04Ms. Jump: Section two of the proposed legislation will codify several important provisions that are currently funded through discretionary appropriations. These include the alaska native women's resource center, the native hawaiian resource center, and stronghearts native helpline.
▶ 0:54:29Ms. Jump: Indigenous people have a different worldview that is often misunderstood by western organizations. Where others may say they have rights, we say that we have obligations. And where others may say that I don't know that person, we say that they are our relative. As a relative, we have an obligation to care for them.
▶ 0:54:55Ms. Jump: And that worldview, I think, is precisely why this legislation is so important to us. The services provided by the three organizations that I mentioned help to ensure that survivors have access to services that meet their needs.
▶ 0:55:17Ms. Jump: The resource centers and the resource centers and tribal coalitions all provide incredibly important training and technical assistance to tribal nations, to tribal programs, tribal communities. This training ensures that programs developed are victim-centered, trauma-informed, and empowerment-based. Stronghearts is a national, anonymous, and confidential helpline for our relatives.
▶ 0:55:45Ms. Jump: For those communities that do not have domestic violence services, we can fill that gap, giving all of our relatives, no matter where they are or what time of day or night, access to peer support, safety planning, and warm handoffs to services for ongoing support.
▶ 0:56:09Ms. Jump: In just nine years of operation, we have received more than 80,000 contacts and made more than 32,000 Rep. of the referras for ongoing support. In the early years, stronghearts had limited hours of operations. We used a recording that allowed callers to transfer to the national domestic violence hotline simply by pressing one to ensure that no call went unanswered.
▶ 0:56:39Ms. Jump: Less than 10% of callers chose to use the transfer option. To me, this speaks to the desire for culturally honoring services that our relatives are seeking and deserve. The proposed legislation will ensure that we can continue to do this work on behalf of and with our relatives.
▶ 0:57:04Ms. Jump: In closing, I would like to thank you all, express my genuine gratitude to the committee for considering my testimony. I would like to conclude by reminding our federal partners of the significance of codifying the critical support to tribes and tribal organizations. It shows an investment in our communities, promoting solutions that come from our strengths, our culture, and our collective knowledge.
▶ 0:57:33Ms. Jump: That investment advances safer, healthier communities where access to not only justice, but access to healing is achievable, and where native individuals, families, and communities can not only survive but thrive.
▶ 0:57:49Chair Murkowski: Thank you so much, Ms. jump. Our final contributed to the panel this morning is Mr. mark patterson. I guess it is afternoon but it is morning in hawaii still. Mr. patterson. Welcome.
▶ 0:58:11Mr. Patterson: Hawaii's story. Good morning, everyone. Chair, vice chair. Thank you for the invitation to be here this morning. Thank you, vice chair, for your introduction. I must be transparent and honest and say there is no one person that has caused all these changes in hawaii but a collaboration of agencies and community leaders to bring about the change that has occurred.
▶ 0:58:40Mr. Patterson: But I thank you for that warm introduction. In 2022, I was honored to be appointed by this committee to be on the corded council on the office of juvenile justice. That was a real honor for me and learning experience where I see all the federal agency that were part of the council, and the budgets they had for native communities or native americans, native alaskans and native hawaiians.
▶ 0:59:11Mr. Patterson: What was amazing to me, most or all of them, were working in silos. It was an interesting point to me in trying to figure out how we get the coordinated counsel at that time to create a more coordinated effort on their funding to improve the systems, the justice systems, the family plates on the reservations and in alaska, etc.
▶ 0:59:37Mr. Patterson: It was a great experience for me, however, the coordinating council has not met since 2024, but our report is online to the congress. Some of our recommendations can be seen. I share this with you because, for generations, native hawaiian families of care with the weight of historical trauma.
▶ 0:59:58Mr. Patterson: Systemic inequities and the erosion of traditional structure that once protected our children , yet despite these challenges, our communities have never lost the belief that healing begins with culture, with family and with a deep relationship that binds us to one another and to our ancestral lands. That belief has guided hawaii's justice reform for more than two decades and it is why our state is now recognized nationally for what culturally grounded trauma informed care and land-based education can achieve.
▶ 1:00:28Mr. Patterson: A major reason for this progress is growing presence of native hawaiians in leadership roles and on the front lines of state agencies and community organizations when our own people are shipping decisions and directly serving our families, our cultural values and our methods of healing move faster with greater integrity and with deeper impact. Nationally, we often describe restorative justice as a reform for indigenous people, native american nations, alaska native communities, native hawaiians.
▶ 1:00:58Mr. Patterson: It is a continuation of practices that have sustained families for generations. What we now call restorative justice reflects the same values at the heart of the tiwahe initiative, strengthening families, restoring cultural identity, and empowering communities to design their own pathways to healing. Tiwahe's approach of giving federal resources, elevating indigenous governance, and restoring cultural identity creates the conditions for these models to drive.
▶ 1:01:24Mr. Patterson: When we invest in tiwahe, we invest in justice systems that heal, rather than harm, and on other cultural wisdom and sovereignty of the communities they serve. Restorative justice in america is strongest when it stands on the foundation indigenous people have built. Across the country, especially courts have shown we address the real drivers of system involvement, addiction, trauma, mental illness, family instability, and cultural disconnection.
▶ 1:01:52Mr. Patterson: People heal and communities become safer. Hawaii has demonstrated this will more than a decade. At girls court and juvenile drug court, when native american youth are supported with cultural mentors, family engagements, restorative model that we call -- incarceration drops and identity is restored. Our adult drug court, mental health court, women's court extends this hearing across generations.
▶ 1:02:19Mr. Patterson: Native hawaiian women remain among the most overrepresented and least visible in our systems, which makes this urgent. Hawaii cultural based course are the next step. They formalize what already works by routing justice in culture and healing. This direction aligns with the tiwahe initiative and the federal trust response ability to support the well-being and cultural survival of indigenous people.
▶ 1:02:45Mr. Patterson: Hawaii cultural based courts offer a proven grounded model that strengthens families and reduces incarceration. Even when our local sex is native hawaiian women and children face structural barriers that no state innovation convicts, the most significant is the lack of consistent, accurate federal data. Unlike tribal nations, native hawaiians are excluded from the indian child welfare act. There is no federal oversight, no mandatory reporting, and no inclusion in national databases.
▶ 1:03:14Mr. Patterson: As a result, native hawaiian children, one of the largest indigenous populations in the country, remain invisible from the very systems meant to protect indigenous families. This is my titles two and three of the bill are so critical. The correct decades of erasure by ensuring native american, alaskan native, native hawaiian children are actively counted and their families are counted and actionable.
▶ 1:03:42Mr. Patterson: Section 304 is a slowly essential and directs a federal study on tribal capacity and native hawaiian organizations must be especially concluded. Our culture and our practitioner deliver land-based healing and family centered interventions but they are often shut out of federal resources because of administrative barriers. This work aligns with the tiwahe initiative with strengthens family systems, restores cultural identity, and empowers indigenous communities to lead. Titles two and three mix indigenous families visible.
▶ 1:04:15Mr. Patterson: Section 304 ensures indigenous organizations are supported and tiwahe provides a framework for indigenous communities including native hawaiians to drive. Together these provisions create the conditions for indigenous families to thrive on their own terms without exquisite inclusion of native hawaiians in section 304, we risk repeating the very patterns of exclusion this bill seeks to correct. That inclusion, we take immutable step toward justice, equity, and the restoration of indigenous well-being.
▶ 1:04:45Mr. Patterson: Hawaiian experience shows that when indigenous communities lead with culture and the family, healing, outcomes improve and systems augment declines. Included native hawaiians in tiwahe will not only strengthen our families, it will provide a proven model that can uplift tribal communities nationwide. Thank you. I will be around for questions.
▶ 1:05:06Chair Murkowski: Thank you, Mr.. Thank you all for your testimony today. As I listen to the comments that you have made, it just reinforces to me why we set out on this commission in the first place, to really focus in on what more we can be doing when it comes to the health of native children, a recognition that there is no one thing we just
▶ 1:05:39Chair Murkowski: Cannot focus on education. We cannot just focus on safety. We just cannot focus on housing. It has got to be a comprehensive, has to be holistic. It has to acknowledge the emphasis on culture and identity , and how that is so central to healing for children and for youth and for the families in your communities.
▶ 1:06:08Chair Murkowski: I think each one of you has echoed that in different areas of social services and the justice programs. I had mentioned the tiwahe program in my comments. Both chairwoman street, councilman johnson, you have both acknowledged that. Mr. patterson has acknowledged the tiwahe.
▶ 1:06:34Chair Murkowski: You have been part of the initial pilot, if you will come up the tiwahe program, so you have seen how a more traditional federal program has worked. Now how with tiwahe you have greater coordination across services, integrating the culture in the language and the traditional practices.
▶ 1:07:03Chair Murkowski: You have spoken to the benefits of what we have with tiwahe. How, in your words, -- I think you have given us a sense as to the priority of it, but if we are able to expand on tiwahe, so that others may follow this as a model, what would be some of
▶ 1:07:34Chair Murkowski: Your recommendations, why do we need to reinforce that this approach is better than what we have seen traditionally or perhaps more historically with the traditional federal programs? I will throw that out to either one of you.
▶ 1:07:51Ms. Johnson: I guess what makes tiwahe so extraordinary in our community is because of the flexibility. I have been working with youth for 24 years, I have been under other grants that have a more strict policy, guidelines. Doing what we can and cannot do.
▶ 1:08:11Ms. Johnson: Tiwahe actually, we are able to work with lex ability, able to work with our children the way that we know will heal them. That is our culture, our spirituality. A lot of the children that come to us don't know or have an identity, they don't know where they come from. Yes, they know they are native american, but what is their family tree?
▶ 1:08:45Ms. Johnson: What are their traditions and culture? So, we introduce them to the sweat lodge, introduced them to prayer, language. We introduced them to our culture and our traditions that our people have been living for a long time. We are very fortunate to have spiritual leaders.
▶ 1:09:10Ms. Johnson: Every aspect of our tiwahe, whether it is the juvenile justice we do to the family wellness, has a culture component in it, a holistic healing component marie our children to heal. I know, I am living proof. It was the holistic healing and our traditional ceremonies that have saved me.
▶ 1:09:39Ms. Johnson: I believe strongly in what we do to heal our children.
▶ 1:09:41Chair Murkowski: You have spoken to some of the cultural, historical aspects of it. Chair woman street, I understand all of the social service staff have either a bachelors or masters degree in social work. And that tiwahe has made that possible. It is clearly an investment in workforce capacity.
▶ 1:10:11Chair Murkowski: Can you speak to that aspect of it?
▶ 1:10:12Ms. Jackson-Street: Yes, absolutely. Through the tiwahe and related initiatives, staff increased capacity to 16 full-time positions. They are serving a population of more than 2400 children within our boundaries. The program is made up of entirely enrolled members. The majority are from the spirit lake area, are all people that have been educated and are serving our own communities.
▶ 1:10:41Ms. Jackson-Street: This expansion has allowed tribal social services to safely manage foster care, cps, prevention caseloads, which improve oversight, documentation, and accountability. Equally important, the tiwahe supported education like you are mentioning of the professional advancement of the tribal workforce.
▶ 1:11:03Ms. Jackson-Street: As a result of that, we have two staff members who now hold masters social work degrees, eight staff members who hold bachelors of science and social work degrees, and six staff members who hold associate of arts in social work degrees. So for us, this represents a significant transformation in workforce qualifications, and reflects the tribe's commitment to build a highly trained, credentialed child welfare workforce rooted in the spirit lake community.
▶ 1:11:34Ms. Jackson-Street: Thank you.
▶ 1:11:35Chair Murkowski: Let me turn to senator schatz.
▶ 1:11:38Sen. Schatz: Thank you, chair. Thank you to the test of fires, not just for your testimony but for your incredibly important work. I will start with Mr. patterson. As you know in the early 2000's, why begin to improve the criminal justice system by restoring justice and incorporating traditional hawaiian practices. How did this shift improve the juvenile justice system in the state to reduce recidivism among native hawaiians?
▶ 1:12:11Mr. Patterson: Thank you, senator. That's a really good question, complex question in itself. For everyone present, you have to understand, native hawaiian -- we are in and among the community in the state of hawaii, not a part.
▶ 1:12:37Mr. Patterson: Though we are the highest in the criminal justice system, there came a point, from the perspective of our family court, where the judges took the leadership and said we are no longer going to put children in prison. We are not going to put children in prison. And so, once the judges made that announcement, they needed to figure out how they were going to do that.
▶ 1:13:04Mr. Patterson: That is when the office of youth service stepped up and began to create the collaborative leadership that needed to bring state agencies together with their community service providers and start looking at things that they wanted to see that included trauma informed care, restorative justice methods, and cultural programming. A lot of that was already going on among the community organizations.
▶ 1:13:31Mr. Patterson: But now that you have a state organization, agencies wanting to go in that direction, it was just a matter of bringing them all together and creating a continuum of care throughout our state systems involving cultural programs at every level, from department of education to child welfare systems, two department of health and all the mental health issues in their families and children.
▶ 1:14:00Mr. Patterson: Bringing them together so they could identify all the issues and provide their service providers the cultural program that is necessary. This was profound and innovative 15 years ago. But let's try it.
▶ 1:14:17Mr. Patterson: Basically what we did is we gave the judges toold -- tools in their decision-making to say we are not going to send you here we are going to send you there to build a diversion in this program to help identify the needs of not just the juvenile offender, but the needs of the family, yeah? Back into those communities for them to restore and resolve the issues.
▶ 1:14:45Mr. Patterson: We want from punitive consequences to non-punitive consequences. They were just given non punitive consequences where they had actionable things to do in their community so they can improve on their behavior. That was a real success in the incarceration of the native hawaiian population and overall population as well.
▶ 1:15:11Mr. Patterson: Even as of today the population of 1.5 one million -- the hawaii youth correctional facility houses 20 youth at this time. >> that is incredible. Final question for you -- if you could talk to me about how the specialty courts, including women and girls' courts have been essential to getting these good outcomes?
▶ 1:15:38Mr. Patterson: It would seem to me without these, it would be difficult to deal with these things as a public health problem, as a family and community problem and not narrowly as a criminal justice question. Talk to me about the role of the specialty courts. President trump the most --
▶ 1:15:56Mr. Patterson: The most successful is family court as a whole. This is a gross court. -- a girls court. Designed specifically for justice involved girls and runaway youth. We can keep native kids out of incarceration entirely. They are built on three core principles. Culture is essential.
▶ 1:16:24Mr. Patterson: When young people reconnect to identity, language, place and community, they stabilize. Culture becomes a protective factor that keeps them safe. Second, healing and accountability happen together. Bringing judges, clinicians, educators, and peer mentors into one coordinated team. Instead of pushing youth deeper into the system, it wraps around them and their families with structure, support and clear expectations.
▶ 1:16:53Mr. Patterson: And third we measure success by long-term stability, school engagement, family reconnection, cultural participation and wellness. Not by how many sanctions we impose. Those are the things that especially are successful. >> thank you very much. One amendment I wanted to flag -- I know I'm going to get a yes from the test fires. In the interest of time, I will just flag it.
▶ 1:17:24Mr. Patterson: There was a good idea for a hotline. For both cultural reasons and times on reasons, we wanted to specify why hawaii may need its own hotline. Thank you. Alaska and hawaii, excuse me. And we are cousins. Yes.
▶ 1:17:40Chair Murkowski: Registered. Thank you. >> chair murkowski, thank you. Welcome to councilwoman johnson and thank you for coming to this committee. I applaud the trump administration's immediate actions to close the southern border.
▶ 1:18:09Chair Murkowski: In the opening of the new fbi field office in billings bodes well for future corporations with our state, tribal and federal partners to address violent crime in the reservation. With more law enforcement resources certainly needed, there is still more to be done to address public safety than just arrest and drug interdictions.
▶ 1:18:35Chair Murkowski: The fort belknap community was the first time in the country to participate in the to wanting -- the tiwahe initiative to better serve young people in the reservation and help the parents. You are also addressing the youth, but also the parents to break the generational trauma that is passed on. My question for you is, could you explain briefly the biggest impact you have seen since implementing the tiwahe framework?
▶ 1:19:12Chair Murkowski: >> I guess I would have to answer that in a spiritual way. We are helping them find their culture and identity and knowing who they are. Like we see in a native name. Understanding the label. When they first started, a mod of our clients dd -- a lot of our clients did not even know where they came from.
▶ 1:19:42Chair Murkowski: Some have been with us since the beginning. They taught them about our culture and tradition. >> thank you. You mentioned about the results. The efficacy of the program when we met this morning. In the first four years, fort belknap saw decreases in child abuse cases, family assaults and elder abuse cases.
▶ 1:20:05Chair Murkowski: The recidivism rate decreased from 80% to 35% and the number of program participants increased. Has the fort belknap tried been able to sustain that success over the last four years? >> --
▶ 1:20:22Ms. Johnson: Yes, we have, they are with their culture. Teaching these kids with ar so they grow up with identity, simply like having a native name and learning the language, learning about ceremonies like sun dance, fasting, circles, knowing their self-worth and knowing they are worthy and loved -- a lot of these kids never thought they were.
▶ 1:20:51Ms. Johnson: Teaching parents how to be supportive of their children. As I stated earlier in the conversation, not only do we work with the youth, the parents kind of fell in. We are teaching the parents how to be role models and support -- how to support their child and how to love them not only emotionally but physically, too.
▶ 1:21:14Ms. Johnson: When these kids learn to love themselves, they stop reoffending. With no identity, they feel abandoned. They have anger issues. Some of them come in with addiction. And so -- these kids want to go to school. They don't want to go to school hungry. They don't want to go to school and be bullied because of the lifestyle they live.
▶ 1:21:44Ms. Johnson: They just want to go to school and get an education and have a better life. And they want their parents to love them and support them. A lot of these kids will always love their parents no matter what. But they want that support, not love from their parents. They want to feel safe and protected. That's what the elders provide them with -- the understanding of what true self-love is.
▶ 1:22:16Ms. Johnson: Teaching them the core values of being respectful. And they become -- our clients become role models themselves to the new clients that come in, the younger ones. They take them kind of under their arm, trying to guide them in the way that the elders guided them. And we do a lot of follow-ups. Three months, six months, nine months, even after they turn 18.
▶ 1:22:46Ms. Johnson: The case manager goes out and does the follow-up. I think follow-ups are very important when you work with children youth at a young age. To know that there is somebody out there that believes in them. And we have -- fort belknap has the largest rate of follow-ups being done. >> thank you. It's a long way to washington, D.C., thank you for making the journey for your testimony.
▶ 1:23:18Chair Murkowski: Thank you. I want to thank all of you for testifying today. Whether you flew out here or you are participating remotely, it is so important to hear your voices. I also have to thank the chairwoman and her former colleague for the creation of the commission and continued work in the space which is so important. I want to write my first question to Ms. anita fineday.
▶ 1:23:47Chair Murkowski: I know she is participating remotely. I would love to talk to about some of the work that you did on the commission and specifically not just the alice commission but there was also a field hearing for the commission report as well, both commissions and reports were consistent in one thing, this overarching topic that there is a lack of information sharing and
▶ 1:24:20Chair Murkowski: Coordination between nontribal and tribal governments. And specifically this is my concern. Here's an example. Many social media and tech companies do not even honor warrants for electronic evidence issued by tribal courts but they do if you are a nontribal cord.
▶ 1:24:41Chair Murkowski: As we all know, anybody who works in law enforcement, when there's a delay in getting the evidence, it really is a delayed access to justice and preventing justice and particularly in our tribal communities. I am wondering if you can touch a little bit more about the concerns about the lack of information sharing and some of the recommendations, if you can hear me.
▶ 1:25:03Ms. Fineday: I can hear you. Can you hear me?
▶ 1:25:09Mr. Bedford: Yes --
▶ 1:25:12Sen. Cortez Masto: Yes.
▶ 1:25:14Ms. Fineday: Ok great. I do something that came up frequently in my work as a tribal judge. Working in the reservation in northwest minnesota, very rural area, sparsely populated.
▶ 1:25:36Ms. Fineday: When law enforcement was not in communication, when our -- with our tribal law enforcement, they often did not have the ability to access the same information streams that county and state law enforcement agencies accessed. So it could be state-generated information or it could have been and could still be today federally-generated information.
▶ 1:26:03Ms. Fineday: And this could be something as simple as trying to locate a person and/or having a missing person or missing child. I think minnesota has done a good job of integrating both systems, but I don't think that is the case nationally.
▶ 1:26:29Ms. Fineday: One of the things we brought up in the state of minnesota was amber alerts -- when there is a missing child. At the amber alerts -- but the amber alerts did not include tribal children because the tribal systems did not talk to the state systems. The databases were not connected.
▶ 1:26:52Ms. Fineday: And they did not have mechanisma -- a mechanism for sharing that kind of information. It takes work. But as an example. It takes work. Every state is different. Every state has its own way of handling citations.
▶ 1:27:17Ms. Fineday: Agreements to share that information need to be hammered out between each state and each tribe. And it can lead to -- had a situation where a mother was deceased and the father took the child to a state court and got custody of the child. He had a birth certificate and mom was deceased.
▶ 1:27:47Ms. Fineday: But he had had a number of criminal charges against him regarding the child. But the state was unaware of that because it was in a tribal system.
▶ 1:28:02Ms. Fineday: So, yes, that arises many times and takes a lot of work and effort and communication on building partnerships with our local law enforcement agencies to be able to share information and work out a way that that information is routinely shared. >> thank you. >> excuse me. I know my time is up.
▶ 1:28:32Ms. Fineday: There is legislation at a federal level we are looking to address, the tribal access to electronic evidence act for the very reasons we just heard and another piece of legislation that addresses the importance of finding missing children. And one thing I know is that U.S. marshals service that actually works with local state law enforcement to track on fugitives and missing children is not allowed to work with our tribal immunities. -- tribal communities. We need to fix that. Thank you, chairwoman.
▶ 1:29:03Chair Murkowski: Strong suggestions. Thank you for that. Senator hoeven.
▶ 1:29:09Senator Hoeven: Thanks to the witnesses for being here and for those testifying remotely as well. I want to thank chairman jackson-street for being here. I know you had some trouble with your reservations. Certainly would know what that's like -- we know what that's like. Thanks for hanging in there and joining us today.
▶ 1:29:40Senator Hoeven: Thanks for your strong leadership not only as chairman but eight years as secretary treasurer for the tribal council. Doing so much good work for the tribe. We appreciate you. I want to start out in regard to the missing and murdered unit mmu. The department of interior is so important for investigating missing people in indian country.
▶ 1:30:11Senator Hoeven: Has this unit supported spirit lake and your efforts and if so, how? Can you tell us how they are doing? And also what they can do to improve or increase support for your efforts.
▶ 1:30:27Ms. Jackson-Street: Thank you for the question, senator hoeven. I appreciate your support on this effort. Spirit lake has been a strong advocate as far as mmip. I also serve on the committee for the state of north dakota for the mmip test was. -- task force. Recently the state of north dakota did pass and approved the mmip task force for tribal nations within indian country.
▶ 1:30:55Ms. Jackson-Street: Spirit lake is very familiar with the issues that we face with mmip. When I talked earlier about our missing individuals, gemini, isaac hunt, linden, just to name a few, savanna g., who we now have an act after, so spirit lake is -- it is not unfamiliar territory for us.
▶ 1:31:21Ms. Jackson-Street: And we have faced a lot of those challenges working with our partners now that we have been able to establish mou's with the state of north dakota, savannah's was great and provided that structure for us and through that we have been able to also develop her own incident has was -- our own incident task force within our tribal community because we had
▶ 1:31:52Ms. Jackson-Street: So many missing persons within our tribe. And at the time we felt there -- felt the response was not quick enough. 72 hours is pretty much the time you have. And it is crucial time.
▶ 1:32:08Ms. Jackson-Street: By being able to establish what we have established at home, it was reassurance for us that we would not have any other -- another missing person go missing and not be found.
▶ 1:32:26Ms. Jackson-Street: So our goal is always to rescue and not recover, unfortunately, because of our lack of law enforcement, we recently had a young lady who had just turned 21 who did everything right in terms of calling 911 and notify law enforcement that she was lost.
▶ 1:32:48Ms. Jackson-Street: However because of the lack of resources and lack of law enforcement that most of our tribal nations face, unfortunately, she succumbed to what happened to her, her situation, where she ended up drowning in the water.
▶ 1:33:05Ms. Jackson-Street: It took about six days with relentless support from outside agencies that came into what we developed and whether incident command team to come in and find her, recover her remains. Her name was tiny white. She just turned 21 years old.
▶ 1:33:26Sen. Hoeven: One of the things I worked very hard on is the advanced training center at camp grafton. Across the upper midwest, we have a lot of bia law enforcement officer positions are vacant and we need to have training closer to the northern part of the country. They can't all go down to new mexico for training. And that's all we have the advanced training center.
▶ 1:33:56Sen. Hoeven: We need to continue to build on it. We are getting a lot of good response. A lot of people coming. Numbers in the thousands. Is very impressive. We need the basic training as well. Can you speak to how important it is particularly with the very strong and able chairman here who are no shares and also is from a northern state as well, how important it is to support that advanced training center for that and get these law
▶ 1:34:27Sen. Hoeven: Enforcement positions filled for the northern states.
▶ 1:34:30Ms. Jackson-Street: Thanks for the question, senator hoeven, and thank you for allowing me to address this particular subject. It is very critical for indian country to be supported in this effort to increase the capacity of law enforcement officers back into our communities to handle such cases as the one I had just talked about involving one of our tribal members, tiny white, where if we had the adequate
▶ 1:35:00Ms. Jackson-Street: Number of law enforcement officers on duty on any -- at any given time, their response, the quicker response could have made the difference in her life. So specifically for spirit lake, we have 250,000 acres of land. We are considered a large land-based. Not comparable to other tribes with an estate that are much larger.
▶ 1:35:24Ms. Jackson-Street: But I think we all face the same amount of struggles when it comes to lacking those resources for our communities. Your support on increasing that funding and I guess on supporting camp grafton's base, for law enforcement training center, not just for advanced training but for entry level police officers be very supportive.
▶ 1:35:56Ms. Jackson-Street: A lot of our tribal nations have the capability to provide that workforce planto their communities -- plan into their communities. I know we do an officer peace training program but we have to work with tribal colleges to do the same.
▶ 1:36:16Sen. Hoeven: The reservation of course is colocated with our national guard army base, camp grafton, that is rght -- right there. And with the lake region college with also -- which also trains law enforcement highway patrol. It can be leveraged in place.
▶ 1:36:40Sen. Hoeven: It's a real benefit for the federal government to do it there because of the facilities we have that can be used for both training and -- training in indian country and off reservation. Correct?
▶ 1:36:51Ms. Jackson-Street: Absolutely. We've done the work. We've done the legwork. We made the connections and establish the mou with our local resources and highway patrol an hour county offices and we just need the funding to be able to carry out those plans for how we want to police our tribal nations in indian country. Thank you.
▶ 1:37:15Sen. Hoeven: Thank you, chairman.
▶ 1:37:18Chair Murkowski: Thank you. Know that your good senator is always a strong advocate for this and for all the right reasons as you have pointed out in terms of the dual use infrastructure and training. There is a very clear recognition that throughout indian the, certainly in my state of alaska, the lack of a law enforcement presence, whether it is at the state trooper level or tribal police
▶ 1:37:48Chair Murkowski: Officer -- I think we recognize there are far too many communities that are either unserved or underserved. Huge distances. And many challenges as we understand. I just have a couple more questions for our witnesses this afternoon. And I want to go back online to you, Ms. fineday.
▶ 1:38:19Chair Murkowski: He raised the issue for 4b and 477 agreements. I have long been a supporter of 477's that really allow for a much better coordination of services. But we are seeing that our federal agencies are increasingly limiting access to 477. Particularly interior.
▶ 1:38:47Chair Murkowski: I think what you said -- I think you said burden and administering 4b's, can you just speak a little bit more to the committee here about why strengthening 477's through the cross departmental coordination is really key, and giving it that flexibility that allows us to better address the child
▶ 1:39:18Chair Murkowski: Welfare challenges that we see across indian country?
▶ 1:39:24Ms. Fineday: Yes. I would just say -- I'm sure you know this better than I did. 477 started in 2000, in the year 2000. It allows tribes and tribal organizations more flexibility in fud in f -- in funding.
▶ 1:39:48Ms. Fineday: It was expanded in 2017 to include 12 departments that became eligible to be included in these four seven seven programs. The lead agency united states -- the lead agency in approving the plans, there are currently 67 477 tribal plans in 18 states.
▶ 1:40:16Ms. Fineday: What 477 does is it reduces paperwork. It consolidates services. It focuses on client needs and uses existing funding more efficiently. It is taking programs that are operated -- I don't have the names of the federal agencies in front of me right now.
▶ 1:40:38Ms. Fineday: But the children's bureau, acf, is currently not one of the programs that participates in 4 77. In expanding 477 to include the children's bureau or acf could possibly allow tribes to access 4e and 4b funding through a 477 plan.
▶ 1:41:08Ms. Fineday: You could combine that into the 477 and it would transform tribal child welfare I believe and it would also form a component for family stability and would support crosstraining and pledges really transform the services that are available.
▶ 1:41:34Ms. Fineday: Most tribes are not able to access that funding at all today.
▶ 1:41:40Chair Murkowski: Thank you for that. I want to direct a question to you, Ms. jump, about fipsa and the importance of reauthorizing that. They are still getting appropriations. But it has not been reauthorized1 since 205. -- since 2015.
▶ 1:42:05Chair Murkowski: It lacks a statutory authorization for tribal and culturally specific services. That's one of the reasons we have included these provisions in our discussion draft. Can you speak a little more about why it is important that we have clear authorization for tribes and culturally specific programs?
▶ 1:42:33Chair Murkowski: There is no dispute about the need our children have for these services that are more culturally connected as they are facing their trauma. You have some who say, you have money that is still being directed to fipsa, so the reauthorization is perhaps not as key to that.
▶ 1:43:05Chair Murkowski: Can you address that piece of it? It is another piece to this bigger puzzle that we have been trying to put together.
▶ 1:43:13Ms. Jump: Yes, so,
▶ 1:43:18Ms. Jump: Yes, so --
▶ 1:43:19Chair Murkowski: I'm sorry. I directed this to Ms. jump.
▶ 1:43:24Ms. Fineday: I'm sorry.
▶ 1:43:25Chair Murkowski: Go ahead. I thought you were talking and I didn't see her mouth moving. Pretty amazing. [laughter]
▶ 1:43:36Ms. Jump: I was throwing my voice. Fipsa is the major funding source for domestic violence shelters. Our state coalitions and national resource centers for the past four years have been doing that work. And it was last authorized as you mentioned in 2010. It's been expired now for 10 years. Advocates have been working on reauthorization without success. Which is probably the biggest reason I am so excited about this proposed legislation.
▶ 1:44:05Ms. Jump: As you said, congress has continued to provide funding. But without authorization, funding really is at risk. Last year, the unauthorized spending accountability act was introduced, which would have reduced appropriations for unauthorized programs over a three-year period resulting in eventual termination.
▶ 1:44:32Ms. Jump: Advocates across the country were terrified not just in indian country but across the country because this funding provides such critical services, right? Shelter when somebody is seeking safety.
▶ 1:44:46Chair Murkowski: You said there were 65 shelters? Total?
▶ 1:44:51Ms. Jump: No, across the country, there are about 354. Shelters in indian country, there are 67. 67 throughout indian country serving the tribal nations. We were terrified, right? And everybody was holding their breath until we found out that, ok, yes.
▶ 1:45:19Ms. Jump: We were going to maintain some funding. That feeling is not new across indian country, right? There is a risk of programming that is not authorized to being cut.
▶ 1:45:43Ms. Jump: And tribes are already underfunded and under resourced so our communities know that as sparse as the services are, the funding is critical. Further what really is important about reauthorization as it reflects a commitment, right?
▶ 1:46:08Ms. Jump: To survivors, that they are seen, heard, and they matter. We will continue to support these programs that are so critical and life-saving. That commitment is important. You know, for all of our survivors.
▶ 1:46:28Chair Murkowski: Thank you for reinforcing that. I want to ask you a final question, councilwoman johnson. You spoke when you were talking about missing native children -- you also recommended that we ensure that this includes noncustodial family abductions.
▶ 1:47:00Chair Murkowski: And I think you kind of underscored why that was important. But I guess I would ask you to expand on why these contacts -- contexts are significant to include in the legislation and why it is important to have the information from bia and doj to help you respond to the needs.
▶ 1:47:30Chair Murkowski: I think sometimes we want to focus our legislation but you have reminded us that often times these noncustodial family matters require us to look more expensively at the definition.
▶ 1:47:50Ms. Johnson: Thank you for the question, chairwoman murkowski. Missing often involves complex family dynamics when a child is taken by a noncustodial family member. Sometimes there is a family dispute rather than a disappearance.
▶ 1:48:14Ms. Johnson: Including these cases ensures that children don't fall through the cracks of the legal system -- regardless of who the child -- who took the child. Theresult is the same -- the result is the same. When drug activity is involved, the risk of the child increases dramatically.
▶ 1:48:43Ms. Johnson: By tracking cases linked to drug activity, we can identify patterns and hotspots. This is not about criminalizing families. It's about understanding the specific dangers like trafficking or neglect that our children face so that we can intervene faster. Currently information is often scattered.
▶ 1:49:13Ms. Johnson: We are not starting from scratch any time a child goes missing for a rural family life for belknap sec. Matter. We will time coordination data between federal agencies and mcmec gives law enforcement the tools, alerts and resources that they need. And a lot of times like I said, the -- when law enforcement response to these calls, seconds matter.
▶ 1:49:38Ms. Johnson: If we are understaffed with law enforcement and they are at a major -- another major call, trying to prioritize which one is more important, and you only have one officer on, it makes a big difference in saving someone's life. Thank you.
▶ 1:49:57Chair Murkowski: . Thank you. . --
▶ 1:50:00Chair Murkowski: Thank you. I want to thank all of you. What we are developing has generated a lot of interest among colleagues here on the committee. We have seen that as we have engaged in the outreach, seeking input that only from members of congress but more importantly out in indian country.
▶ 1:50:32Chair Murkowski: Really trying to take the recommendations from the commission and put them into actionable items -- actionable legislation. But trying to be most responsive in a way that acknowledges the cultural implications, what we want to do to build on best practices that have been developed.
▶ 1:50:57Chair Murkowski: Not because we in washington have drafted something and said it is going to be this way -- but because it has been more organically built and more responsibly built based on traditional practices and ways of knowing, ways of learning. We respect that and want to see that reflected in this legislation that we will ultimately introduce.
▶ 1:51:23Chair Murkowski: I think it is fair to say that you can anticipate more questions from colleagues. We will hold the hearing record additional two weeks. Before I close, I want to acknowledge not only those of you that have participated, but there's been an extraordinary amount of work that's been done by this staff of this committee.
▶ 1:51:49Chair Murkowski: My team has been extraordinary in what they have done and working with the ranking member young other members as we have tried to engage in field hearings, listening sessions, and really trying to build on what we hear from you.
▶ 1:52:08Chair Murkowski: I think the teams for your work and all that you are doing, I know we've got a lot more to do before we move forward with it, but my hope is that with good input across the spectrum from republicans to democrats to more rural areas, to more rural areas, turbine indians, that we
▶ 1:52:38Chair Murkowski: Do develop legislation that is responsive to the need in a way that we are all proud of. I thank you all and with that the committee stands adjourned. And we say happy birthday to sam today, too. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap.org]