00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 3 01 Urging members of the Alaska delegation to the United States Congress to introduce 02 substantially similar legislation to the Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act of 2013; 03 urging the United States Congress to affirm the criminal jurisdiction of Alaska tribal 04 governments over tribal members within the boundaries of their villages; urging the 05 United States Congress to cooperate with tribes' efforts to transfer Native land to trust; 06 and supporting multilateral negotiations between tribal governments, nontribal 07 municipalities, and the state and federal governments to delineate clearly tribal 08 geographical jurisdictions. 09 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 10 WHEREAS the 229 federally recognized tribes in the state represent a vast 11 continuum of cultural legacies enriched by thousands of years of traditions and place-based 12 ways of life; and 13 WHEREAS many Alaska tribal communities face severe problems relating to 14 poverty, lack of economic opportunity, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, and sexual 01 assault; and 02 WHEREAS the percentage of Alaska Natives living below the federal poverty 03 guideline is nearly twice the national average; and 04 WHEREAS the unemployment rate for Alaska Natives is dramatically higher than the 05 national average; and 06 WHEREAS the alcohol-related death rate for Alaska Natives has, in recent years, 07 been more than 16 times higher than the alcohol-related death rate for Caucasians; and 08 WHEREAS rural communities in the state have, in recent years, reported alarming 09 opioid, heroin, and methamphetamine abuse; and 10 WHEREAS Alaska Native women in rural communities have reported rates of 11 domestic violence multiple times higher than the national average; and 12 WHEREAS Alaska Native women suffer the highest rate of sexual assault of any 13 population in the United States, and the rate of sexual assault for Alaska Native children is six 14 times the national average; and 15 WHEREAS, while Alaska Natives represent 19 percent of the population of the state, 16 they make up 36 percent of Alaskans in prisons or jails; and 17 WHEREAS, in the past 25 years, state, federal, and joint commissions, task forces, 18 and committees established to address those issues have included the Alaska Natives 19 Commission, created in 1990; the Alaska Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Fairness 20 and Access, created in 1995; the Alaska Commission on Rural Governance and 21 Empowerment, created in 1998; the Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission, 22 created in 2004; the Indian Law and Order Commission, created in 2010; and the United 23 States Attorney General's Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native 24 Children Exposed to Violence, created in 2013; and 25 WHEREAS each of those bodies concluded that the strongly centralized law 26 enforcement and justice systems of the state have been inadequate to alleviate crime, social 27 ills, and community distress in rural Alaska; and 28 WHEREAS each of those bodies identified the need to strengthen the authority, 29 responsibility, and capacity of local tribal governments to administer public safety and justice 30 in their communities; and 31 WHEREAS many experts agree that greater control, better defined jurisdiction, and 01 increased accountability at the local level will lead to swifter response to violence and 02 criminal activity in communities, increased crime prevention, and increased rehabilitative, 03 rather than punitive, sentencing models; and 04 WHEREAS, in matters of jurisdiction and the delivery of justice at the local level, the 05 state has too often and for too long been the adversary of Alaska Native tribes; and 06 WHEREAS ambiguities in federal laws deprive Alaska tribes of jurisdictional tools to 07 make their communities safer and healthier; and 08 WHEREAS the original version of the Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act of 09 2013, which failed to pass the 113th United States Congress, included provisions to establish 10 a demonstration project under which a number of Alaska Native tribes would possess 11 enhanced authority over domestic violence and child abuse and neglect, greater local law 12 enforcement responsibilities to combat alcohol and drug abuse, increased federal funding for 13 development of their tribal courts and local law enforcement needs, and improved 14 coordination and communication among federal, state, tribal, and local law enforcement 15 agencies; 16 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the members of the 17 Alaska delegation in the United States Congress to introduce legislation substantially similar 18 to the original Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act of 2013, reported to the Senate in the 19 First Regular Session of the 113th United States Congress; and be it 20 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 21 Congress to affirm the criminal jurisdiction of Alaska tribal governments over tribal members 22 within the boundaries of their villages, to be defined as an Alaska Native Village Statistical 23 Area delineated for the Director of the United States Census Bureau by officials of a village 24 for the purpose of presenting data for the decennial census conducted under 13 U.S.C. 141(a); 25 and be it 26 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 27 Congress to cooperate with tribes' efforts to transfer Native land to trust in order to affirm 28 concurrent state and tribal jurisdiction; and be it 29 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports eventual 30 multilateral negotiations between tribal governments, nontribal municipalities, and the state 31 and federal governments to delineate clearly tribal geographical jurisdictions. 01 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 02 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and 03 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of 04 Representatives; the Honorable Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader of the U.S. House of 05 Representatives; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader of the U.S. House of 06 Representatives; the Honorable Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the 07 Honorable Harry Reid, Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate; and the Honorable Lisa 08 Murkowski and the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, 09 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.