Alaska Legislature: House Tribal Affairs, 4/21/26, 8am

Good morning. This hearing of the House Tribal Affairs Committee will now come to order. The time is 8:02 a.m., Tuesday, April 21st, 2022. June 26th in Capitol Room 106. Members present are Representative Storey, Representative Carrick, Representative Ruffridge, and myself, Chair Dibert.

Please let the record reflect that we have a quorum to conduct business. Please take this time to silence your cell phones during the duration of the meeting. Thank you so much. Before we begin, I'd like to thank Jordan Nicholson, the Tribal Affairs Secretary from Records. And Susan Quigley from the Juneau LIO for staffing the committee room today and keeping us running smoothly.

Before we go into our agenda, I have to step out briefly to do some— I have another bill hearing in another room and I'll be back. So I'm going to hand the gavel over to Representative Story and she will run the meeting, and, um, and I shall be back.

Uh, thank you, Chair Dyckert, and welcome everyone. And I'd like the record to reflect that we have Representative Underwood joining us at 8:03. We have 2 items on the agenda today. First, we will have a brief introduction of House Bill 384, definition of victim counseling center, sponsored by Representative Gray. We have 15 minutes to introduce this bill before moving on to the second item of our agenda, so I ask that committee members please hold the majority of their questions as we will be hearing this bill again on Thursday with both invited and public testimony.

Second on the agenda is a group of presentations related to the Alaska Federation of Natives' report on the overrepresentation of Alaska Native people in the criminal justice system. We are joined in the room and online by presenters from AFN, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Southcentral Foundation, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, and the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center. Thank you all very much for being here. All of these entities do great work, and I am looking forward to hearing from them this morning. We will take questions throughout the presentation, but I'd like to remind committee members that we have a hard stop at 10 AM due to floor session at 10:30 today.

So I see Representative Gray, please come forward with your staff. Welcome to Tribal Affairs. Please put yourself on record and proceed with your introduction to House Bill 384. Thank you, Acting Chair Storey and the rest of the Tribal Affairs Committee, for hearing HB 384 today. Alaska law provides robust confidentiality protections for communications between victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and a victim counselor advocate.

These protections are vital. Survivors must be able to seek care and counseling without fear that their communications could later be disclosed if their case is ever in a court of law. As the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Victims of Crime has found, when quote, "Services are not confidential. Victims are clearly hesitant to seek help they need and deserve," end quote. These protections apply only to victims served by organizations that qualify as a victim counseling center.

The definition was drafted to include the organizations providing counseling and advocacy services at the time of enactment in Alaska statute, and that would have been in 1992. As the landscape of service providers has expanded, it has become necessary to update that statute accordingly. The legislature last recognized recognized the changing landscape in 2013, when confidentiality protections were extended to include military organizations, either those operated directly by the military or contracted by a branch of the armed services. More recently, tribal governments have become essential frontline providers of victim services in Alaska. With expanded federal support, tribal governments now offer counseling and advocacy services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault across the state, but our current statutes do not honor or reflect the broad victim service work and assistance provided by tribal governments.

Tribal governments are not included in the current definition of victim counseling center, meaning victims who receive care from a tribal counseling center lack the same confidentiality protection afforded those served by a nonprofit, a local government, or a military-affiliated organization. HB 384 remedies this failure with the addition of two words: or tribal to AS 18.66.250. Ensuring equal confidentiality protections for all victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in Alaska is essential. I would like to have my staff, Dylan Hitchcock Lopez, walk you through the sectional, if it be the will of the committee. Ah, thank you, Representative Gray, and yes, please proceed.

I know it's a very short sectional analysis, but it's It's good to have it on the record. Good morning. Dylan Hitchcock Lopez, staff to Rep. Gray. So, yeah, it's a robust sectional here. We have two sections.

Section 1 adds two words, "or tribal," to the statute that was just referenced by Representative Gray, and Section 2 is the applicability section. So it's a very, I would say, targeted strategic change in law. I'm happy to answer any technical questions at a certain level the committee may have. We do have Rick Garcia from the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center online. I do know that the committee is tight on time, so we are going to have— many more subject matter experts and some of the providers who do this work on the ground who can really speak to why this is so necessary on Thursday.

So I may punt questions to them if that is all right with the chair. Yes, thank you very much for that. And I wanted to note that there's a zero fiscal note for this bill. Do I have any questions right now from committee members? Representative Ruprich.

Yeah, thank you, Vice Chair Storey. Okay, through the Chair, welcome to committee this morning. So I guess the question I had was just in general, is this a— tell me why this is a problem thus far. I haven't heard that. Is there an area or a circumstance where this is being seen as not, um, like, I don't know, not counting or not getting funding, or what, what, what is the problem that we're solving here?

Um, through the chair to Representative Ruffridge, um, right now if a victim seeks care from a tribal organization, they do not have confidentiality protection. I think we can go to the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center to talk about the fact that people actually do seek care from tribally run organizations, and they don't have the same confidentiality protection that they would have if they sought that care elsewhere. And I guess a follow-up, if I may. Follow-up? Yeah, thank you.

I, I guess, wouldn't our constitutional right to privacy sort of COVID everyone with like a blanket coverage? I'm confused as to why that wouldn't happen. Thank you. Through the chair to Representative Ruffridge, I will punt that to my staff who is also an attorney, Dylan Hitchcock Lopez. Perfect, thank you.

Through the chair, Dylan Hitchcock Lopez here, staff to Rep. Gray and in-house counsel to Rep. Gray. So the short answer is no. So yeah, we have a broad right to privacy in the Alaska Constitution. Confidentiality for purposes of a criminal or civil proceeding is governed by the confidentiality statutes, which are more narrowly tailored. And part of that is because you know, you have, in the context, per se, of a criminal proceeding, right, you have the constitutional privacy interest that the victim has.

You also have the Sixth Amendment right to a plethora of Sixth Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and Fifth Amendment rights that a criminal defendant has to put on a case and to seek discovery. And so you have, these constitutional rights are in dialogue with one another, and in some situations, the defendant's Sixth Amendment right sort of wins, and you get criminal discovery. You have a whole host of discovery called Brady material, and so in order to kind kind of balance these interests. If you read through the Victim Counseling Center definition, it's under the subsections, the counseling center cannot be affiliated with a law enforcement agency, and it cannot be doing contract work to provide services under Title 47, like civil commitment work, some certain kinds of behavioral health work, and that is specifically to avoid those constitutional interests. Does that make— So, what we have here is, again, that was a long answer, but the short answer is no.

The constitutional privacy right does not provide these kind of protections. And I do think that— I see Mr. Garcia up here on the big screen. I think in terms of what specifically has happened in recent years to demonstrate the need for this, I think he would be most well-poised to answer. [Speaker:MR. GARCIA] Yeah, thank you. And just a final follow-up, if I may.

So, I mean, what I think I hear you say is, potentially if an individual seeks sort of services or care in some sort of way, that interaction could be admissible in court? Correct. Yeah, short answer, it would be that, you know, there are— if somebody right now, my understanding is somebody right now goes to a victim counseling center that is run by a tribal organization, or by— sorry, by a tribal government, directly, they would potentially have their— any statements made pursuant to seeking treatment could be discoverable in a later criminal case, whereas if that same person was to go to an organization providing that same service but is a nonprofit, think— I know on the Kenai Peninsula you have, I think it's Haven House in Homer, for example, that would be confidential. So you have an anomaly. You have people who are getting different levels of protection depending on essentially the funding source of the organization that they're going to, or the affiliation of the organization, and that creates a chilling effect, right?

You might say, "Well, I'm not going to go to the tribal-run organization." And Mr. Garcia can probably speak more to this, but we're trying to avoid that kind of anomaly. The idea here is that victims should be able to obtain— if they seek the same services, they should have the same confidentiality protections across the board, and that should be regardless of affiliation of the organization providing those services. And that's critically important, I think, here in Alaska because, right, we have a patchwork system. We have different entities are most well situated to provide those services in different communities. And so we want to make sure that, you know, regardless of who is the frontline provider, victims and survivors are able to get that same protection.

Understood. Thank you. Thank you for that question, Rep. Refridge. That was a good question. And I am going to see if Mr. Garcia would like to add any comments to that.

And then I think we're going to have to hold our rest of our questions until our next hearing on this bill on Thursday. So, Mr. Garcia, welcome, and please introduce yourself, put your name on the record, and respond. Thank you. Through the Chair, for the record, Rick Haskins Garcia, Director of Law Policy and Tribal Justice for the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center. And again, through the Chair, to Representative Ruffridge, I think there's two reasons why this is needed currently, and in practice As the representative General Counsel stated, we have 229 federally recognized tribal governments in Alaska.

Each of those tribal governments has the authority and the ability to create victim services programs within their tribal governments through their victim advocates. Currently, tribes are doing that work as an on-need basis, or some tribes may have established programs that do this day-to-day. But the reality of the situation is for survivors that are experiencing domestic violence and sexual assault until we are able in Alaska to build up our tribal justice systems, many of those cases are being prosecuted either in our state criminal system or our state civil system. And with the lack of confidentiality for our advocates, it is going to create a chilling effect. Advocates recognize that their notes and their confidential communications are not currently protected.

Therefore, they're able to be part of discovery. They can be subpoenaed by opposing counsel. It contains safety plans, confidential information about the survivor, as well as safe locations. And until that is changed, it could create a chilling effect with our tribal advocates working with survivors of domestic violence and gender-based violence. We understand that these tribal governments and their services provide a critical role, especially in our predominantly rural communities, our Alaska Native, in filling the gap for the services that are not available.

And providing that real-time support on the ground to survivors of domestic violence. Again, where those cases are going to be largely prosecuted or handled in our state criminal justice and civil justice systems. Secondly, in practice, we did have a tribe in the interior region that has developed a fully functioning SART team, so Sexual Assault Response Team, and we're looking to coordinate their efforts with the Department of Public Safety through an MOU. This was a really big conversation with the Department of Law and Alaska Department of Safety last summer, and they opined that because of the statutory void of confidentiality and privilege for our tribal advocates that's currently in state statute, that they were not able to enter into an MOU with this tribal government in the Interior to coordinate and to collaborate on their sexual assault response teams. Largely because if we take it in practice, if we have somebody's confidential communications that are not granted privilege or not protected under our state law, I don't know of a prosecutor in the state that's gonna take that case that's gonna rely on that advocate first, and also the information that's gained through that confidential advocate-client relationship.

So in practice, this is critically important. Our tribal governments in Alaska are working side-by-side with our state governments. We are developing programs and resources that provide public safety not only to our Alaska Native and American Indian residents and citizens, but to Alaska as a whole. And again, until we are able to build up our tribal justice systems, we are really relying on our state justice systems to receive the justice and accountability that our survivors deserve. Thank you for that, Mr. Haskins with Garcia.

We look forward to hearing, learning more, and I am going to switch to the other presentation now. And I see that we've got our fearless leader back in the room, Rep. Dibert. And so again, thank you, Rep. Gray and Mr. Hitchcock Lopez. And we will be bringing this bill back up on Thursday for more in-depth conversation. In the meantime, I am setting an amendment deadline for Friday the April 4th at 5:00 p.m. And so I am going to just switch this over.

Madam Chair? Yes, Rep. Raffridge. I am wondering if when we bring that bill back, the presenter that was just there potentially could join us again. I really appreciated the context there and might have some questions. Future hearing.

Thank you for that. I see that Rep. Dibert is writing that down, and now I'm officially passing the gavel back to her. So thank you all.

Thank you, Representative Ruffridge, for that comment, and we will definitely note it. Thank you.

Good morning. Okay.

And we are— yeah, okay. All right, get settled. Starting off the presentations this morning is Katie Cueva, a research associate professor at UAF, who is here in the room as well as Kendra Kloster, Director of Government Relations at AFN, who is joining us online. Ms. Cueva and Ms. Kloster, welcome to the Tribal Affairs. Please come forward to the table, put yourself on record, and proceed with your presentation.

Good morning, welcome to House Tribal Affairs. Good morning, and thank you so much for having us here, Rep. Daibert and the rest of the committee. My name is Katie Cueva. I'm an associate professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks at the Center for Alaska Native Health Research.

And good morning, this is Kendra Kloster, Director of Government Relations at the Alaska Federation of Natives. Sorry I can't join you all in person today. A wave of sickness has gone through my house, so I have had multiple kids homesick, but glad I could be online with you all. Good morning, Ms. Kloster. Thank you so much for being with us, even though sadly it is online, but thank you for being here.

Alright, please proceed with your presentation. Thank you. Great, well, thank you. I'm just gonna jump off and do a little bit of introduction and then hand it over to Katie since she's there in person. And so starting on slide 1, I'm gonna— this is a presentation that we were working on together.

It's the recommendations to reduce The Overrepresentation of Alaska Native People in the Criminal Justice System. And I just, if we go to the next slide, I wanna introduce the team who helped put this report together. And the Department of Corrections through House Bill 66, the Omnibus Crime Bill that passed in 2024, the funding went over to the Department of Corrections to work with Alaska Native organizations to put the study together. So we signed a contract, the Alaska Federation of Natives working with the Department of Corrections and also the University of Alaska Fairbanks Center for Alaska Native Health Research, University of Alaska Anchorage Alaska Justice Information Center, and then we also put together an advisory team of some amazing individuals to help guide this report through the many different stages. Dr. Charlene Apak, Rick Haskins Garcia, Alex Clegg-Horn, and Doreen Shickenburger.

And next slide, please.

So, just a little bit of background on kind of how we got to this point. I mentioned where we had House Bill 66 is where we kind of came into it, how this report came about. But really looking at why did they do this. Alaska Native people experience disproportionately high rates of incarceration, reflecting deep systematic inequalities. Although Alaska Native people make roughly 19% of Alaska's population, about 44% of those— makes up 44% of those incarcerated.

So just seeing those disparities and wanted to do a study to really do a deep dive into this.

And these disparities begin kind of long before the criminalization the justice system. And so through this study, I think you're gonna— you would see a lot of the different recommendations that have come about, but also looking back and saying, you know, what really got us to this point and understanding, you know, even looking back since, you know, colonization and the way Alaska Native people have been treated and the different stories, unfortunately, that I hear from people, you know, systematic racism and things that have gone in through understanding that when we had colonization, the way Alaska Native people were treated then, and when you look at boarding schools, when you look at just kind of the general historical traumas, the inadequate access to cultural appropriate health and behavioral services, social and economic. So this is just kind of just a little bit of background on how we're getting to where we are. And next slide, please. And I'll just stop right there if Katie has something to add in there.

Uh, thank you, Ms. Kloster. We have, um, on the— on this slide, we have a question from Representative Ruffridge. Yeah, thank you. And I might just be, uh, being picky, but Um, I'm not— in the first paragraph where it says, um, that the population is made up of 14 to 19%, um, I guess it's odd to see a range there, and I'm wondering if someone could explain that to me. And I would assume if that's a range there, it would also be a range of individuals who represent incarceration, but that number is very specific.

So I guess, um, I don't know, the math is funny there, and I'm just wondering if somebody can tell me why. Thank you, Representative Ruffridge. Through the chair, okay, I believe I can address that. Um, so the range there is due to different ways of counting Alaska Native people. So 14% was what was included in the House bill, but that counts Alaska Native people alone.

However, when we looked at proportionality, we looked at Alaska Native people who checked Alaska Native either alone or in addition to other racial categories. However, in the Department of Corrections, there's only one method of counting, not two. That's why that's a specific number. Okay, thank you. That's very helpful.

All right, please continue, Ms. Kloster.

And I believe that Kendra just turned things over to me. For the record, this is Dr. Katie Cueva, and I, along with the team at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, helped lead the research portion of this study. So we looked at— we did interviews with 25 different key informants from throughout the state, individuals who are working directly in the different 8 areas that were specified in that bill. We also did surveys of individuals who were working in organizations that worked in recidivism or incarceration prevention in the state of Alaska. And then we did a literature review to see what was already there.

So these are some of the things we found. Just for background, we have about 17 out of every 1,000 Alaskan adults were in the care of the Alaska Department of Corrections at the most recent data available in 2024. And although Alaska's recidivism rate has declined in the past decade, Alaska Native people continue to have the highest recidivism rate, which is about 60% of the different races and ethnicities that are monitored by the Department of Corrections. Of course, individuals removed from their communities to be incarcerated destabilizes their families, their communities, takes away providers often in the prime of their life, and imposes high costs, both financial and social, on the state of Alaska. When we were looking at reasons for incarceration recidivism The majority of individuals who were reincarcerated, about 62%, were due to probation parole violations.

And this is a theme that came out in the rest of the research that we did as well.

So one of the reasons why we might want to reduce these disparities, it's both a matter of justice and cost-effectiveness, both because it creates such a high financial burden, but also if we would like to have a healthier, safer, and more resilient Alaska. We need individuals to be healthy and to be able to be safe and well where they are. And Alaska Native people suffer the highest rates of victimization in the state of Alaska as well. So we want people to be safe within their own communities.

So Kendra, I'm not sure if you wanted to address this.

Um, no, this is Kendra Kloster. With AFN, and I would say we could go to the next slide on the background. I just wanted to show the language there of House Bill 66. Hopefully that's the one we're looking at.

Yes, looking at the background. Okay, perfect. So House Bill 66, there's different areas of study, and so that was what I just wanted to make sure you all see the different areas that we are required to be looking into based off the, the language. Is looking at restorative justice programs, intervening earlier with at-risk youth and young adults, mental health diagnosis. Number 4, providing low-income housing options, improving drug and alcohol treatment options, providing job training and mentoring opportunities, offering digital training, and number 8 was identifying federal programs.

So these are the different areas that we looked at. In addition, there is kind of— we created a number 9 for other things that came up. And so this report addresses many of those different things, and we're not going to do like a deep dive into those. We have done 3 presentations in the legislature which dives into those different areas, and it's also part of the report, which you're all of course welcome to read and hopefully part of your packet.

And then going on to the next slide, and I'm going to hand it back over to Katie. Thank you. For the record, Dr. Katie Cueva. So when we were looking, diving into reasons for this disproportionate incarceration, I think we have to keep in mind the context in which this incarceration happens. So speaking again about historical and ongoing trauma, systemic inequalities, which have led to higher rates impacting Alaska Native people of poverty, of trauma, of houselessness, of substance misuse and abuse, and other challenges.

So individuals are coming into the, into the Department of Corrections with a number of contextual factors that influence things.

Because of this, and I already spoke to Alaska Native people kind of being disproportionate crime victims, that we really need to approach this with a more holistic lens in order to address the challenges. And kind of the highlight here is that efforts that begin earlier in life, so in a prenatal care environment, in early childhood, tend to have the most bang for the buck, the greatest return on investment, because those messages are individuals who are able to be started on a good way in life are more likely to avoid incarceration than those that we approach later in life. And offerings that support cultural identity, stabilize housing, or address mental health and substance misuse through community-based and Alaska Native approaches are more likely to be effective. So these are our high-level takeaways. Again, we have that this disproportionate incarceration recidivism is really driven by structural and systemic, as well as historic and ongoing factors.

It's not a matter of individual or personal responsibility. Disability so much as the environments that individuals live and work and grow in, as well as those that police officers or other correctional facility officers live and work and grow in, that leads to misunderstandings and potentially disproportionate bookings as well. So these early childhood interventions tend to have the greatest impact, including things like prenatal care or family support, culturally relevant family support, that can prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, parent training programs, as well as reduced cost, culturally relevant child care. We also heard again and again a need to make probation and parole conditions achievable for individuals. Just thinking about that high recidivism rate impacting Alaska Native people.

And just to speak to that, I wanted to share a quote from one of our interview participants who said, to me, it contributes to homelessness in Anchorage, in Fairbanks, in Ketchikan, in Juneau. 'Cause a lot of times these court orders say they have to stay in these urban places to receive anger management, alcoholism treatment. They gotta receive evidence they know how to get a job and how to get around, but they don't support them. They just kind of toss them out there and you have to try to survive. A lot of them fail.

They end up on the streets and then they get rearrested for hanging out with other felons. So consequently, a lot of Native inmates are doing time on the installment plan, as I call it, because they get violated again, and it's kind of a never-ending cycle. Some inmates whose original sentence was 3 or 4 years can end up serving much longer periods of time because of those violations. And we heard this from a number of different individuals who saw people who had been incarcerated potentially for a short period of time or a minor-level crime, who then, because of probation or parole requirements, were required to stay in a place where they didn't have access to housing or didn't have support. Or they would return to where they had a home but not have the funding or the resources to be able to return to a hub community in order to satisfy a requirement and then be reincarcerated.

Other things that rose to the surface are providing substance misuse treatment to people while they were incarcerated, which had very high returns on investment. Currently in the Department of Corrections, individuals who are actively receiving substance misuse treatment are eligible to continue medication-assisted therapy in the Department of Corrections, but only up to 30 days. Or if an individual is pregnant, they are eligible to receive medication-assisted therapy, but I would recommend that all individuals who enter the Department of Corrections be screened for substance misuse treatment disorders and that like a standard of care be available to those individuals, which includes medication-assisted therapy.

Also, augmenting tribal courts and restorative justice systems can promote these sovereignty and community-level protective factors, which can both decrease costs for the state and also help individuals avoid incarceration. We also heard from a number of individuals another recurrent theme of that we need more Alaska Native people in criminal justice or other behavioral health circumstances. You know, individuals told us that we need more Alaska Native lawyers, we need Alaska Native judges, we need Alaska Native behavioral health experts, we need everyone that touches the lives of individuals to be, to have some amount of individuals who are Alaska Native, and for those that aren't to be receiving training so they're aware of the unique cultures and context of Alaska Native people. And these are some of our takeaways from our interviews, but organized by those different categories. So you can see kind of in each of those areas what the most common themes were.

So in tribal courts and restorative justice, people talked about the lack of state support, the lack of resources that were available. A number of these courts are operating on a volunteer basis. So while people are committed to the health and well-being of their communities, having a fully volunteer tribal court system is not sustainable. Early interventions with youth, people talked about in, especially in rural areas, a lack of culturally relevant mental health interventions, which can look very different from talk therapy, which can look like taking individuals out on the land, having elder connections. Having conversations with people that connect them to their cultural identity.

For mental health, people talked about being connected to who they are, to their Alaska Native identity and culture, and helping to rebuild relationships that are impacted by generational trauma. So reconnecting elders, helping them understand and remember how to be elders, and connecting them with young people so that young people can learn about who they are and their traditional ways of life. For housing and reentry, low-barrier options such as Housing First can be crucial, especially for reentry services. So again, for folks who are maybe from a rural community, incarcerated in a hub community, and then are released in a community where they don't have connections and don't have housing, having supportive housing would allow those individuals to be able to maintain and satisfy the conditions of their release. Release, and also be able to assist them to seek employment, um, versus, uh, when an individual is released and has no housing, then it becomes much harder to both satisfy conditions of release and also to find employment, to find education, to be sustainable.

For substance misuse treatment, um, reducing waiting times for services when people are ready to seek care, that there is care available for them. Also expand tribal substance misuse treatment resources so they're culturally relevant services and addressing those traumas that can lead to substance use and misuse. So addressing those upstream factors like housing instability, early childhood experiences and traumas, and mental health resources and services so that people don't get to a place where they're seeking substances and, and end up misusing. Those. Increasing Alaska Native representation within the bucket on workforce education and mentorship, and addressing barriers for Alaska Native youth entering justice careers, such as career pathways, remote ways to satisfy educational requirements, and provide Alaska Native cultural trainings for individuals that work in the criminal justice system.

That, again, those parole, probation conditions must be feasible to reduce recidivism, that we don't want to set people up to fail. And if there are ways that those could be satisfied remotely from individuals' home communities where they have support networks and housing and other stability, that may help reduce both homelessness and recidivism. We also heard from individuals that desire to develop a task force, that this is an ongoing challenge And in our literature review, we found many of fairly identical recommendations from 20 years ago, from 50 years ago. We don't want this to be another report that, you know, we even had an interviewee say, you know, I'm telling you these same things, and in 20 years I don't want to be doing another interview saying the same things and nothing has changed. So to develop a task force to develop and ensure that these recommendations or culturally grounded and implemented could be another strategy to move this forward.

So thank you so much for being here and for listening, and I want to make sure that there is space and time for our presenters, our folks that work on the ground, to share with you. All right, thank you, Annabasi. Thank you so much for your— I don't know, do we have time for— does anyone have a thought or question?

Questions? I just, I'm looking at your key takeaways one slide before this.

I just want to hone in on the early interventions with youth, and I appreciate your words with recidivism and addressing that, you know, just the prenatal care, early childhood, but also that goes into our school system and having Alaska Native educators and principals, superintendents as our role models is also very important for our youth. I know that role models are very far and few between, in between, so addressing that I think would be very helpful. Helpful as well. And I also would like to see Alaska Native language added to that, where it's included, because we are— many Alaska Native languages, we are losing our language. So that could also help with having a long, healthy life.

But thank you so much for your presentation. Do you Oh, uh, yeah, Representative Underwood. Hey, thank you for being here. Through the chair, I just had a quick question, um, thinking about some of the services that we have like in the urban areas like Set Free Alaska or whatnot for treatment options where I know people fly in from all over the state and then they have really good recidivism rates for afterwards. Do you know what the barriers are?

I would love to see even if it's very, very small scale, take a model that we know is working and have it implemented in the community by community members and that collaboration to address some of the stuff that you presented today for, you know, cultural relevance, having people in their communities. Do you know what kind of the biggest barriers are, why somebody hasn't kind of implemented those in their community? Is it just financial? Is it— I mean, I would love to just see somehow like a working together to get some of those on a smaller scale, just, and then it grow, of course would be great. But I think having those in communities that aren't just in, let's say, the Matsu or Anchorage would be great.

Thank you, Representative Underwood. Through the chair, um, you know, not knowing the specifics of that program or what communities we're speaking of, it's a little hard for me to answer directly. But my initial assumptions would be, you know, a lack of resources. So, um, and perhaps a lack of adaptation to make sure that it was feasible within a small community setting. And there are certainly ways in which programs that are implemented in Anchorage or the Matsu could be translated and adapted to a smaller community.

But that work would still need to be done to make sure that it was relevant for the community in which it was implemented. And that work needs time and funding and people. In order to make it happen. In small communities, there's often a number of talented individuals who are wearing many hats, who are already running the community in so many different ways. And so to ask individuals without additional funding or additional resources, without a building and heat and all of those things that are so necessary in a small community, to take on that task without designated resources and funding to do that is, I think, quite a barrier.

Thank you. Follow-up? Follow-up? Quickly. No, I definitely hear what you're saying.

And I just feel like a lot of it's a program that's like for substance abuse or people needing to go find safe shelter. And then they have classes and programs. And so a lot of times they work with the corrections facilities as well. And they've gathered data that's really good for recidivism. Their percentages are high, but I know that when they started out, this is just a program that I'm— one of them that I'm just really familiar with was very tiny and in a nonprofit and were getting, you know, funding where they could, but just started out with a few people.

But I would just, I would just love to see more of it just spread out over Alaska so people don't always have to fly out of their communities. And I just think it would be really good. So if there's any way we can help collaborate with that, I would, I would I'd love to do that. Thank you for those thoughts. And yes, I'm sure there are folks that are coming from all over Alaska, but there are also folks for whom, you know, traveling to a hub is a barrier.

And so having those resources available in rural Alaska would be important. Thank you. Thank you, Rep Underwood. Representative Storey. Uh, thank you, Chair Divert.

Through the chair, thank you very much for going over the report again today and all the work done on it. And I think it's so important to know where we are trying to make— do some of the steps that you have talked about today. And I think particularly in the Department of Corrections, we put into law training for correctional officers and for our police officers about cultural items and heritage and awareness. And it always makes me think that— and I believe when Commissioner Cockrell was here, we talked about that, how that was going, and it was just being implemented. But it just reminds me that we have to really ask questions about, make sure these things are implemented and we're making the progress that we want to do, because it was great that that was put in, into law, and now we have to make sure that it is actually happening.

And what are the responses to it and how is it working, what needs to be changed, and is it really happening. So I'm always trying to think of where is best in management to make sure we are bringing these things up again and not letting them fall by the wayside. So thank you for reminding me of those things. Thank you. All right, thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms. Klaasen. For being online with us today, this morning as well, for sharing. Thank you. Gunasheesh. I appreciate it.

And I know we have lots of other presenters that have a lot of really amazing things to talk about, and they might be able to help talk more about answering some of those questions that came up. So yeah, I think we have Polly and Bobby that are up next with South Central Foundation to talk a little bit more about what is actually happening, and then we have folks from CITC Reentry Program to talk about some of the reentry programs, and then also Rick Garcia, who you heard from earlier, who is, as you can tell, has a wealth of knowledge on tribal justice and was also one of the advisory team members for this report. So again, thank you for having us here today and to do a deeper dive into this. So appreciate it. Anabaasi, thank you.

So we'll go right into We'll move on to the next presentation. Next up we have Southcentral Foundation. We are joined in the room this morning by Polly Andrews, Senior Learning and Development Advisor, as well as Bobbi Outten, the Director of the Family Wellness Warriors Program at Southcentral Foundation. Miss Andrews and Miss Outten, welcome to Tribal Affairs. Please come to the table, put yourself on record, and proceed with your presentation.

Good morning. Good morning. For the record, this is Bobbi Outen. I am a service line clinical director for the primary care service at South Central Foundation and the director of Family Wellness Warriors. Tiny bit about me real quick.

I've been with SCF for 26 years. I grew up in Haines, Alaska, daughter of a commercial fisherman. I am a mom to 9 and a grandma to 26. And Polly. Good morning.

For the record, this is Polly Andrews. I'm a senior learning and development advisor. I've been with Southcentral Foundation for 14 years. I'm Chupik. I'm originally from the village of Chevak, residing in Anchorage since 2006, and today I am mom to 3 children.

So a little bit about Southcentral Foundation. This is our vision and mission. We are a nonprofit healthcare organization for the SIRI region and currently serving 70,000 people with 12 rural clinics throughout Alaska, as well as 2 therapeutic community prison programs, community called Nuiju Healing Place And the program that runs our prison work is Family Wellness Warriors. You'll see our Dena'ina gifted name is called Nuiju, which means returning to our true selves. And this is— what that means is that when we go back to our cultural values and our strengths as Alaska Native people, that's where we can experience whole person health and wellness.

Our programs are rooted in culture and we've— we're grounded in traditional values, knowing that when we connect with our culture and our strengths of who we are as Alaska Native people, it's these very things that support well-being and community wellness for our people.

For the record, this is Bobbi Outten. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about what it looks like in the prison system. We call it on the inside. We also have some services on the outside. So our model, this is our conceptual model that you're looking at, and it is a model based on the belief that change is possible, and everything is peer-led.

And is founded on the premise of story. So this is a trauma-informed place where individuals can identify some thinking errors, where they can heal from trauma, where they can strengthen relationships. And really, it's a holistic approach where they can— like our Dena'ina name, Nuiju— it's a process of healing where they can come back to that healed, whole person.

So we have 3 main components of our work. We have the therapeutic communities that are located in 2 prisons, the women's prison at Highland Mountain Correctional, the men's prison at Palmer Correctional. Then we have a—. What's—. We call it RAW, Restricted Activity Wing, that's located in Highland Mountain.

And then our reentry, which we rent a place down at Partners for Progress and provide court-ordered learning circles like anger management, OCS-approved learning circles for parenting. So diving into our therapeutic communities at Palmer Correctional and Highland Mountain, these are 12 to 18 months long. We have multiple staff working in them full-time, and these are all culturally rooted and trauma-informed. So it's designed to change core beliefs and interrupt that cyclical pattern of abuse. And we— the goal is for those that are a few years prior to release to enter this program.

We look at a variety of things. You have an application in your packet to show you how people can apply. Anyone in any correctional setting throughout the state of Alaska can apply for the program. There is an interview process, and we're looking at several things. If they're— what their length of sentence is and their disciplinary history.

Once they're accepted, at the center of the Nuijoo Healing Place is community, and at the center of community is accountability. So they do have to be willing to break that convict code and to take responsibility for their crime, and they have to be willing to both be held accountable as well as hold others accountable. So that accountability process and what we call care fronting, where they're willing to confront one another to get people back on the right track is what makes it successful.

We have 4 curriculum domains that we focus on, so these are the categories, everything as you can see based on spirituality and indigenous culture, and then the 4 curriculum domains are trauma education, so those are held in like, we call them training intensives, like Arigahouse, and addiction and recovery, we use a curriculum called Wellbriety, relationship and communication skills, and then workforce development.

So the way it looks day to day on the inside, this is in House 10 and House 4, House 10 at Palmer Correctional, House 4 at Highland Mountain. And these are the modalities or the ways that they would experience those curriculum. It's through peer support, it's through intentional mentoring, it's learning circles and a very rigorous schedule. It does require a full commitment. There's a phased structure and in order to graduate, they have to go through each of these phases.

The AEP, or Admission Evaluation Phase, is the first 30 days. That's prior to actually being a full participant because we want to see if they are actually committed and wanting to do the work required. So once they're accepted past the AEP phase, they do have to meet with the leadership team, and the leadership team has to agree that they're ready for the next phase. There are paid coordinator positions, and, um, they can work their way up into those coordinator roles, and that's for leadership development opportunities. So the paid positions include, like, a senior coordinator, assistant senior coordinator, uh, that assistant focuses on graduates as well as, um, new people entering the program.

We have a service coordinator, a cultural coordinator, and an educational coordinator. So those are the peers that are actually running the program. RAW is one of a kind in the state of Alaska, and it's the first ever, really, and this was an ask by the superintendent of Highland Mountain, and he wanted an alternative to what you might formally know as segregation. And so this is held in the wing that would have been known as segregation, and it's an opportunity for people to be able to get some coping skills to understand why their behavior is continuing the way it is. It's 2 weeks long, and they are able to join learning circles for healthy coping, whether it's codependency or boundaries or recovery support, grief and loss, depending on what their need is.

They're offered learning circles.

So we've been doing this since 2004, and I would say what this program does really well is, is give people hope as well as the tools and skills to live life differently. I would describe this as a program for the inmate who has tried everything, who is cycling back in and out of prison and who is ready for a new way of living. So a couple outcomes that I think are worth mentioning, and this is— you can see the women wearing our t-shirts there, Nuijoo Healing Place. That's at Highland Mountain.

I did some calculations back in 2000 when we had served about 450 women and men, and our Our recidivism rate is less than half of the state of Alaska, so we've vacillated between 28% and 33%, and I thought it would be fun, 'cause I used to teach math, to do a little calculation on what that meant for the state of Alaska. So if we looked at the 450 that we had served at that time, and we calculated $136, which was the rate of what it costs the state of Alaska per inmate per day, and we took 28% of $450 versus 66% of $450, we would save the state of Alaska $8.5 million annually.

Polly? Thank you. For the record, this is Polly Andrews. So how do we know that our culturally focused program are working. Here's some data I would like to show everyone.

So this evaluation includes those in reentry and those in community, and the areas that we've been able to measure over the years include personal growth, quality of life, and protective factors.

And we are seeing in the area of protective factors factors, statistically significant positive change at 12 months in self-esteem, family cohesion, cultural connectedness, spiritual well-being. The M represents male and F represents female. And what I think is interesting here is that this shows us men are actually having a higher positive change than women in these areas.

Also, if we look at quality of life, we are seeing statistically significant reductions in these areas: 51% reductions in trauma symptomology, significant reductions in depression, substance abuse, and anxiety.

And looking at healthcare utilization, um, this was done in 2019. And it is a study that measured the impact of how are people who are going through our culturally responsive programs utilizing healthcare, and is there changes around that. And this is what, what we found is that for the folks who had completed our training intensives that are culturally rooted, we're seeing 55% reductions in emergency room visits among them, and 79% reductions in, uh, post, post-visits for substance use visits, and 38% reductions in total visits. So clearly this was impacting, um, whether people need to use the healthcare system or not. When people heal, they use it less.

[Speaker:KATHRYN] So, but even more than what numbers and evaluation tell us is seeing the ways that people's lives truly change in this process. We were able to gather kind of quotes that people have shared along the way, and the quote on the top there was shared just this past month by Sandra Martinson, who is the Division Operations Manager at Alaska DOC. And what she shared recently was, "This healing-centered support creates meaningful pathways for restoration, belonging, and hope for our reentrance." And the third quote down there was shared by a current participant who is incarcerated at Palmer Correctional, and he is currently in our Nuijoo Healing Place program, and he shared these words: I had pieces from years of self-help and programs, but nothing to glue them all together, and Nuijoo is that glue.

Thank you, Polly. For the record, this is Bobbi Outten. I was thinking this morning about some of my first participants in Palmer Correctional. So I've now been doing this work for 22 years as far as prison work, and I remember the names from the guys in that first group. Kenny, Bear, Jerry, to name a few.

And I think even more than our data, which I love data, I love science, is the faces of those first few men in that group. And one in particular lives a couple miles from me, but all three of those that I mentioned, I watched get married, start healthy families, not recidivate. The one that lives near me, I got to meet his fiancée, see him get married, have children, and run a very, very successful business in Anchorage that I'm pretty sure many of us use. So those are some of my, my whys. But I— we do have a couple of hopes and asks that we would like to bring forward.

First, I'd like to say that this is a replicable model. And any tribe can take it. We have an actual manual of how to, and they can take it, make it their own, and rename it for their community. We just completed— well, we didn't complete it, we're still in the process of doing replication with the state of North Dakota. We're in year 5.

A year ago, we were able to fly down there, meet with state leadership, their first lady, tribal leaders to celebrate North Dakota's first ever culturally rooted therapeutic community. It's known as Akiishnee Warrior Lodge, and so it's successful and they're continuing to expand that. I am aware of tribes in the state of Alaska who want increased opportunity within the Department of Corrections on the inside to work with their people. And so our hope and ask is to increase government-to-government conversations specifically around this to hear what the tribes are proposing and to increase access for volunteers to be able to go into the prison. It's—.

There is a model that the DOC has with church volunteers to be able to go in through— in fact, they have a state chaplaincy coordinator. We would like to propose a similar model for the tribes to have a volunteer process to increase access, so elders, tribal leaders, culture bearers, traditional healers would be able to go in and increase services.

Polly. Thank you, Bobby. For the record, this is Polly Andrews. And so really, we know that culturally responsive, culturally focused programs work. It's the research that tells us, and the outcomes that we're seeing at Nuijoo Healing Place, they tell a story of people who are healing and having success when they're reentering and lowered recidivism rates.

And so, you know, culturally connected programs matter in the lives of incarcerated Alaskan people, and it just really matters to bring that to the center, to the focus. And just want to thank you for your time and being able to hear us and see a part of that. That story. Koyaanichuknuk. For the record, this is Bobbie.

I have one more really important thing. We would like to invite you to come to prison, and if you are interested, please reach out to us. You could come to the men's prison or women's prison, 3 to 4 hours to actually experience it.

Awanabasi. Thank you for that invitation, and definitely We definitely will work with the committee members in the interim if we can make that possible. I think it's very important when we're trying to solve the problems of this recidivism in Alaska Native people. We have a comment— a question from Representative Storey. Okay.

I mean, then, Ms. Carrick. Yes, thank you. Through the chair, thank you very much. Thank you very much for your work and your passion around your work. So important.

I'm thinking about wait lists, curious about that. I do know that I have received a letter from a constituent whose loved one is supposed to be coming up for parole in actually a couple of years, and they are not able to get into the treatment programs that they need to have according to their parole office or to get out of— to have an early release, and they want to take advantage of that. And so my question, just thinking about that, my question is anything to do with wait lists.

Thank you. Through the chair, Representative Story, at this time the only wait list we have is in the women's prison. The men's prison did take a pause from when Palmer Correctional closed down, and so is back in its infancy. It's working on year 1. In the women's prison, there is a more— the women are released quicker, and so we're able to get them in quicker.

But there is a higher demand there at this time. No wait lists in the men's prison. [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE] [Speaker:DR. LINDA SUTTON] Yeah, it's more of a comment to the committee. It seems very appropriate that we as a committee could write a letter asking about increased access, the request that Ms. Auden had made, and to the Department of Corrections and just about the chaplaincy program and how that can be replicated for tribal support and programs, and I would like us to think about doing that.

Thank you. Absolutely. I'm going to go to Representative Carrick. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you both so much for presenting today.

Um, I am going to be in touch with you because I'm currently working with Commissioner Winkleman to do a, uh, probably 1 to 2 day summit during the Elders and Youth Conference, likely in October. And the goal will be to tour Palmer Correctional Center and Highland Mountain, but more importantly, the goal is to expose lawmakers and policymakers to programs like what's happening at, um, at both of these institutions. So I'm just absolutely thrilled to hear this presentation today. Um, I, I would, I am curious though. Um, Um, if they're— well, one, um, the 2-week program that raw— that happens in the restricted access facility, when does that typically take place, or is it just kind of ongoing?

It's 2 weeks and then there's another 2 weeks, or how many times are we able to offer that through the year? And then I have a follow-up. Through the chair, Representative Kerik, this is Bobbi. The—. It's every day that it's offered.

And so because that is a revolving door, so to speak, when people go to SEG, now the restricted activity wing, so it's while they're there for 2 weeks, they have access every day to the circles. I see. So people are in the restricted access wing for 2 weeks and they participate in whatever's happening that day. That's really great to hear.

Yeah, I guess I have so many questions. I guess I'll—. I know that we are short on time today, but I would love to follow up with you because I think showcasing the work of this— of these programs is pivotal. And the research you have backing up lower costs for healthcare, lower rates of recidivism, that's what a lot of folks are going to want to hear about too. And I think more importantly, people need to just meet these folks participating and hear directly from them about what effect it's having.

So just thank you so much for presenting today. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Representative Carrick. Representative Underwood. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Again, thank you for being here. Um, I've actually had the opportunity to visit multiple prisons My dad growing up, he actually did prison ministry, so got a big heart for people in there and want to see them come out healthy and whole as well. So appreciate all that you're doing in this realm. I am curious about what type of actions have you guys done when you talk about the chaplain program? Have you guys done in with DOC asking for that same thing?

What, like, what types of things have been done? And then what kind of opposition have you been met with for it not being implemented yet. Thank you. Through the chair, Representative Underwood, this is Bobbi. We are in current conversations, multiple tribes, with the Department of Corrections putting that ask forward.

At this time, the volunteer process is only for the religious card. Follow-up, follow-up. Is that something that would have to be changed in statute, or is that just a DOC change? Is that something that they can do just at their level that we're not needing to be involved in? Just curious.

Miss Salton. Yeah, I, I'm not sure I can get back to you on that question. I do believe that, um, the position that oversees that process is paid by the state of Alaska, and the state would have to implement a similar position. So there is a state chaplaincy coordinator position that oversees that volunteer process. There is not a similar cultural coordinator position to oversee a process.

Thank you. Thank you for your questions, committee members. I'm looking forward to doing further work in this area, and I love Representative Carrick's idea of maybe coming together with something during Elders and Youth Conference during AFN, and I think that'd be a great time to possibly do a tour and so we can see the whole system and see what we can do to help and work on a— and maybe work on some legislation too. Thank you, Annabasi, so much. We'll be reaching out and we'll move on to our next presentation.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Our next presentation is by the Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Dr. Tina Woods, the Chief Clinical Officer, as well as Caitlin Hickey from CITC's Youth Reentry Program have joined us online. This morning. So we have Dr.

Woods and Ms. Hickey. If you can hear us, all right, please put your name on record and proceed with your presentation.

Thank you. For the record, Tina Woods, Chief Clinical Officer at Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Good morning and thank you for your time and the opportunity to highlight our Pathways to Healing work at Cook Inlet Tribal Council and our work in addressing the statistics that Ms. Cueva described earlier. My background, I am anangna aliid originally from St. Paul Island, and I'm a clinical community psychologist with a rural indigenous emphasis. I oversee the clinical and wellness division at CITC, which is an integrated trauma-informed and holistic approach to healing, including recovery and re-entry victim services, and family wellness programs.

I will be sharing specifically, and, and very brief to hand it over to Caitlin to talk about our youth, I'll share specifically about our adult reentry services. Slide 2. Our services are grounded at a philosophy that promotes cultural connection and long-term wellness for formerly incarcerated Alaska Native American American Indian people integrating back into the community. We recognize that sense of belonging and connection is critical for our people to thrive. And as elders have taught us, these individuals belong to our community, and it goes deeper than the crime.

We also know that we cannot accomplish this without strong partnerships, such as the Department of Corrections. Slide 3. Early engagement is is key in our work for building rapport, trust, and creating personalized reentry plans with our participants prior to release. We can do this by our regular presence and in-reach throughout a number of facilities such as Goose Creek, Anchorage Correctional Complex, Palmer Correctional Complex, and Highland Mountain. In efforts to support these individuals successfully back into the community, Collaboration and a positive relationship with many community correction providers and DOC are essential in the work throughout the entire process, pre and post-release, to ensure a warm handoff and access to services immediately.

Slide 4. Cultural values are infused throughout the work that we do, and our staff blend and deliver evidence-based treatment such as MRT, Moral Recognition Therapy to address thinking errors in a culturally responsive manner by using methods such as talking circles and our cultural values. The service is provided twice a week at CITC and within two community correction centers, Parkview and Midtown. We are so fortunate to have employees with lived experience who they themselves are reformed and continuing their own personal journey to do this work.

Lastly, slide 5. Continued post-release services are critical for formerly incarcerated people. We often require— they often require stabilizing essentials and immediate assistance with things like housing referrals, food security, transportation to make their appointments, clothing, sometimes access to forms of communication. Wraparound services have been the backbone for decades at CITC, including peer mentorship to help with navigating complex situations and return to society, linking folks to internal programs such as those that you see on the slide, like financial assistance, as well as resources for families such as reunification, youth education support, parenting groups, and early learning programs for families. As early as prenatal home visiting programs like Chonakin, which stands for little ones, using the model of parents as teachers.

We work closely with our career development department and have partnership with felon-friendly employers like Lowe's to assist with job placement. And for individuals requiring support with addiction, CITC offers a large continuum of care of services including two residential treatment centers, levels of care 3.1 and 3.3, 5 outpatient levels of care 1 and 2.1, and we are continuing to increase access to care through our outpatient services providing psychiatric care and behavioral health expansion efforts. Last, I can't help but to think about how this work requires all of us and working together. And as we address social determinants of health here at CITC with this population and beyond, we strongly believe it's important to understand our past to recognize the disproportionate rates we observe today. So we have partnered with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium on facilitating the Alaska Blanket Exercise, which is an experiential activity learning about historical trauma.

And just last week, we partnered and hosted 40 judges and magistrates across Alaska as part of their annual training, with key objectives to increase understanding, compassion, and reduce recidivism. So at this time, I will hand it over to Katie, who will now talk about the great work with our youth reentry program. [Speaker:KATIE_HICKY] For the record, this is Caitlin Hickey. I'm a youth advocate with Cook Inlet Tribal Council, and really grateful to have some of your time today. We should be on slide 7 right now.

The majority of my work is at McLaughlin Youth Center, which is our state's largest juvenile correctional facility, and I wanted to spend some time today talking about how we integrate culture into a correctional facility rather than just specifically what we do, because we've learned a few lessons along the way. Slide 8, please. So for some context, Youth Reentry provides two services. We have cultural groups for in-facility youth and then case management for youth who are reentering into the community. And I think our in-facility presence plays a large role in our success as case managers because we're able to build a foundation of relationship that carries outside of the walls of McLaughlin.

Slide 9. As I've done my research on this type of work, I've noticed a problem that's not unique to Alaska, but we often use culturally relevant or culturally responsive as terms to, you know, point to solutions for some of these social problems, and I think rightly so. I think it's an incredibly appropriate solution, but I've also noticed there's it's been less common for us to articulate what that looks like. So that's kind of what I wanna try to do today, because I think that has led to what I would call an implementation gap, where we essentially have a direction that we're going, but we've not had a strategic framework that's accommodating to both culture, as well as these really unnatural settings like a correctional facility. And I think when you don't have that framework, that strategy, a correctional facility is going to be really reluctant to open its doors to the type of work that we would like to do.

And that's for good reason as well. In these settings, structure is equated with, with security. So it's really important that we're upfront about what we want to do and how we want to do it.

They need to be able to see our curriculum, our plan. And I think if we're going to have an increase in culture in correctional facilities, we're going to have to start to be strategic about how we approach. So we can move to slide 10. I think there are probably a dozen wonderful different ways to address what this implementation gap— I'm only going to touch on the ones that I practiced. So I rely on culture as a learning framework, not just a topic.

So that means that I allow it to shape how I teach rather than just what I teach. And I think culturally responsive work requires us to build that framework, that really thoughtful strategy. You know, when you have a curriculum that works in a setting and also honors the integrity of culture, you're, you're kind of set up for building a community in that setting. So this starts with investing in cultural knowledge, and that already exists in our community, so it's really about uplifting the voices in our communities, the people who are rooted in their cultural identity so that we can help those who have not been able to do that. When I started, I did not have a curriculum, so I kind of had to make it up as I go along.

It took a lot of time and a lot of research, and I think for this type of work to take root in a correctional facility, that's what you're gonna need, people who are willing to put in the time and the intention and the research. We can move to slide 11. I use a couple different tactics when I'm teaching culture in McLaughlin. I would like to say that I think culture is so powerful because it's so adaptive. I think that's what's made it resilient through generations.

It's able to evolve with us while also grounding us. And so I say that because I found that rigid curriculum has not been very effective in this setting. You know, at McLaughlin, each unit has its own environment, its own group of behavior problems. So I'm gonna do the same group 5 times in 1 week, but I'm gonna do it 5 different ways throughout the week. You know, different with our violent offenders than our drug offenders.

And so I build structure into my lesson plan, but I also have to build flexibility into that lesson plan. I like to think of like a skyscraper in the wind. It's strong and it's structured, but it moves with its environment. I also integrate different learning styles into my teaching, so I vary my groups every week. Sometimes we're doing something tactile, sometimes we use our voices or movement or critical thinking.

To me, I, I think meeting someone where they're at is more than just showing up in their environment. It's also taking the time to understand how they view the world and how they think. And so I try my best to to create a variety of different ways to meet the, the people that I serve. I also try to use Indigenous methods of learning, which are a bit more communal and experiential than Western methods of learning. And so what I mean by that is I try to learn through relationship and create shared experiences.

And I do this because my goal in McLaughlin is not really to have them absorb content, it's more to address behavior and relationship. And lastly, I position myself as a fellow learner, and this allows me to model behavior to them. So if we're in a group and we're supposed to be listening, I'm going to show them what that looks like. I'm going to show them what an appropriate response looks like in a conversation. And it also removes some of the hierarchy, which I find to be pretty helpful, especially in a group like a talking circle.

So that's what I mean by culture as a framework. I'm relying on it to shape how the learning happens and how we relate to each other. You can move to slide 12. I chose a group that I knew you wouldn't have seen before just to show off some of these tactics. This is a group I created on Indigenous boarding schools.

It's great in a correctional setting because it requires only paper. But I was inspired by the Alaska blanket exercise as well as these identity cards that were at the Holocaust Museum. So I'll sit all the kids in a circle and I'll give them a booklet that I've created on real people who went through the boarding school experience. And there's 6 chapters, each chapter has a sentence, and so read it in chapter 1 together, then chapter 2. So chapter 1 might be home, this is who I am, this is where I'm from.

And chapter 2 would be this is what it was like to leave home. Chapter 3, this is what it was like to show up at school. And so that story unfolds collectively, and it allows the youth to learn an important lesson in Indigenous history. While understanding an individual experience and also seeing it in its broader context. So this is a group that is structured, meaning DJJ knows exactly how we plan to move, what we plan to do and say, but it isn't rigid.

So if I have a behavior problem and somebody has to be removed from the group, the lesson doesn't change. The experience of the group actually doesn't change as well. It continues without disruption. So in this group, we're practicing auditory and experiential learning through that shared experience. We're taking the time to model listening and respect, all while learning about something that typically, you know, they would learn through a PowerPoint in class.

It's more of an experience. So slide 13. I almost always am going to end with an action item in my groups, and that's because I want cultural I want history and cultural values to be empowering and not defeating. So if they're struggling with something in a group, I don't want them to walk away frustrated. And that's a part of my framework.

I think that culture doesn't just teach us, it asks something of us. It's, it's a very relational thing. Slide 14. I'm consistently in McLaughlin Youth Center, so I have the privilege of knowing all of the fun things that happen in that building. So I'll create groups that are responsive to specific incidents or specific behaviors that we're having.

I love to use a talking circle in this situation because I think it gives our youth a chance to have a voice in a situation where they probably wouldn't have had it otherwise. So in those situations, I'm not there to lecture them. I'm there to prompt them and kind of let them take it from there. And I find those to be really helpful because we're able to support what DJJ is doing and also give the I give the kids a chance to kind of come up with the answer on their own. I find those groups are more relevant and more impactful because I'm talking about what they're dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

So I think that's probably one of my favorite places to see culture show up as a framework because the work is responding to what's happening in the room, and it's also giving the kids tools to respond back. Slide 15. I think all of us probably came in here thinking about some traditional groups, whether it be making a goodak or drum making or dance. So, I'm not gonna spend any time detailing those, but I did have a few lessons as I've tried to do traditional groups. I find that these groups require the most coordination with the facility.

If I want to do something, I usually have to start months in advance. You know, for example, last week I made spruce tip sap with the kids because they were saying they didn't have a lot of self-care items. And if you've made that yourself, you're going to know I needed a heat source. And so that immediately limited who could come to my group. So there are groups, especially these traditional groups, where you have to, one, work really closely with the facility and have their trust, and two, you have to know who you're working with and who can, who can participate.

And that includes behavior. I'm I'm way less patient with disrespect in a traditional group than I would be if we were doing a game, because I'm trying to teach them how to respond to this, this important knowledge. I also wanted to mention that I think groups that are based in traditional knowledge really require organizations that are gonna commit to these ethical standards and train staff how to teach culture that's not their own. I say that because I can't bring everybody into McLaughlin Youth Center and I can't represent everybody, so I have to have a team that, that understands how to teach something that is not their own and teach the kids how to be respectful with it. And so a lot of tribes have produced these types of ethical guidelines, so they're readily available, and they just take some time to integrate into your teaching, your teaching style.

I'm going to skip past slides 16 and 17 just for the sake of time, but I did want to point out that when culture is a framework, it really allows for creativity and diversity in teaching. And I think that's an opportunity for us to have some unexpected connections and some unexpected engagement with people who might not have been interested otherwise. And as I get close to the end on slide 18, I wanted to share a few lessons I've learned with DJJ. They have a really, really hard job. They're dealing with some of our most difficult people in their worst moments.

And so my job is not to come in and make things harder. I have found that clarity, that sounds simple, but I will send an email out every week detailing exactly what I want to bring onto that unit. How I want the kids to move in the space that they're in, and I give everybody a chance to veto it and have concerns, and then I adapt to whatever their concerns are. And so they should not be surprised when I walk in the building. They shouldn't be surprised by anything that I do on their unit.

I've also found that consistency is kind of my currency in the building, and what I mean by that is I'm not a new person every week. The staff know me and I know them, and we have this relationship where we can rely on each other, and that's really important in safety situations. Competency to me means I know where I'm at. I'm not in a normal setting, and when things escalate, if a code red is getting called, I'm not going to be in the way. I'm not going to cause a problem.

And then constraints for me means that I work with the system, not against it. I'm not there to disrupt things or challenge the structure. That structure exists for a reason, and it's my job to adapt my work to it. So as I end on slide 19, I wanted to share an image that I love to give the kids. I'll show them this picture and we'll have some fun.

I'll be like, what's happening? And they'll be like, oh, they're up in the air, they're flailing, they're, you know, they'll come up with some funny story. And I'll tell them, I say, that's how I see you right now. I don't know how you're going to land. You're up in the air and I don't know what the rest 'What do you think the rest of your story looks like?' And then you can go to slide 20.

I'll unfold the rest of the picture and they'll see that there's a circle of people beneath them, beneath this person holding up a blanket. And so I'll ask them, 'Who is holding up your blanket? That's the important question that we have to figure out.' I'll remind them that nobody's able to hold that type of thing on their own. It takes a community of people, and so we have to build their community. So that's really the goal of my work is to teach I want them to be able to return to their communities in healthy ways.

And I really believe that's the power of culture is its ability to create community. I think it changes us because it connects us. And so everything I've shared today is really about building that circle in that setting. I think that culture as a framework teaches us how to hold the blanket together, how to coordinate, how to together, how to have a plan and create that softer landing. So I appreciate you listening to me talk for so long.

I know I went over my time, but I'd just be encouraging you to be someone who holds up another person's blanket. Thank you, Miss Hickey. I love those last two slides. It perfectly sums up your beautiful presentation. Thank you, Dr. Woods, Miss Ms. Hickey, I think we might have 1 minute for a question.

Okay, we have a couple of questions. I'll go to Representative Underwood. Thank you to the chair. I'll be real quick. My husband actually worked at McLaughlin for about 5 years.

He's a barber, so he's African American, and him going in there and being able to cut a lot of those kids' hairs the way that they like their style and whatnot, it was actually kind of— that was like his ministry to the McLaughlin and those kids. And my question more so is when it comes to representation, there's a lot of like Pacific Islanders, there's a lot of mixed culture and mixed race children in that facility. And I was wondering if your program is only limited to Alaska Native only, because I feel like kids even from other cultures could benefit from learning about Alaska Native traditions, especially in their youth and being there and just community and how another culture functions, and especially because they are living in Alaska, I think that it would be really good. So I just didn't know if it was just for Alaska Natives, or is any kid that's in McLaughlin allowed to attend these classes? We're definitely open to everyone.

You know, when we use culture as a framework, we are, you know, obviously prioritizing some Alaska Native lessons, but it's actually creating a a foundation for us to talk about other people's culture. And you're right, we have such a diverse population. One of the slides I skipped is showing off some of the groups that we did to honor those other cultures. And so when we take the time to learn about Alaska Native history or Alaska Native culture, it actually sets us up to have a conversation about our commonalities. And I think it's such a fun thing to watch find connection in their differences.

And it's been pretty helpful to create that environment where they can have curiosity towards each other without conflict. And yeah, we— I would say 30% of my groups are not on Alaska Native topics. Thank you, Ms. Hickey. And Dr. Woods, I don't know if you Would you want— like to add anything? Or we have another question from Representative Carrick.

Actually, Madam Chair, Rep. Underwood just asked basically the exact thing I was going to ask, and I thought the answer was amazing. It's really good to hear that all students are— and I, I guessed the answer was yes, but it's good to hear that all students are benefiting from talking about Alaska Native of history and culture, and just incorporating that into this environment is so valuable. And just thank you so much for the work you do.

All right, I think that is it. We're gonna go ahead and move on to our next presentation. Thank you so much, Ms. Hickey, for your service, and Dr. Woods, for your presentation. Last up is a presentation from the Las Alaska Native Women's Resource Center. Mr. Rick Haskins Garcia, the Director of Law and Policy, has joined us online with— joined us online this morning.

Mr. Haskins Garcia, please put yourself on record and proceed with your presentation. Thank you, Chair Diver. For the record, Rick Haskins Garcia, Director of Law, Policy, and Tribal Justice for the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center. And I do want to thank Chair Diver and the committee for having us here today, and our partners at AFN, Southcentral Foundation, and CITC for the wonderful presentations and information they provided today. We can move to the next slides, please.

Again, my name is Rick Haskins Garcia, and I currently serve as the Director of Law Policy and Tribal Justice for the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, which is an Alaska Native tribal nonprofit organization that is based in Fairbanks. My mother is from South Korea. My dad was from Mexico, and my stepfather was from upstate New York. But in 2018, I moved from Miami to Bethel, Alaska, sight unseen, and immediately fell in love with Alaska, fell in love with our Alaska Tribes, and started working with our Alaska Tribes and tribal justice systems since 2018. In the past, I have served as a District Court Magistrate Judge for the Alaska court system based in Aniak and Hooper Bay and have been a licensed attorney since 2010, so almost 16 years now.

And we can move to the next slide, please. I did want to share a little bit of information about the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center before we get started. Next slide, please. Like I mentioned, the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center is an Alaska Native tribal nonprofit organization that was formerly established in 2015. We are very much a grassroots organization and was formed through the requests and information that was needed from our tribes, specifically regarding gender-based violence in our tribal communities and our Alaska Native villages.

The Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, we are a training and technical assistance organization. So unlike our partners at Southcentral Foundation, and Cook in the Tribal Council, we do not provide direct services, but we do provide broad training and technical assistance to our Alaska tribes, to our 3 tribal coalitions within the state, and also to our organizational partners, not only in Alaska, but nationally as well. Our board members are all Alaska Native women. They're all tribal advocates, and they have a combined a total of over 141 years of experience in not only tribal government, nonprofit management, but particularly in domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy. And our vision at the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center is simple.

We envision that our tribal communities, our women and our children, to be free from violence and really assisting our tribes with the resources and the assistance they need to build healthy, sustainable, and thriving resources and programs within their communities. Next slide, please. Of course, like many of our partners on the call today and many of you in the room there today and from the committee, we do not do this work alone. We rely heavily on our partnerships within Alaska and throughout the nation to really do this work well and do this work in a good way. And we have a number of partnerships in Alaska and and the Lower 48 that you can see on your screen there.

Next slide, please. I did want to just talk a little bit about tribal courts and justice systems, focusing in on Alaska tribal courts and justice systems. And I know that I had the pleasure of joining each of you last year talking a little bit about our tribal courts and justice systems, but before I talk about the services and resources that the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center provides in Alaska, Alaska, I did want to kind of ground us in some common language and understanding about Tribal Court and justice systems. If we can go to the next slide, please. So, as many of you know and understand, Alaska is home to 229 of the 575 federally recognized tribes in the nation.

So, we are fortunate to call Alaska home. Alaska has the most federally recognized tribes than any other state. Representing about 40% of all federally recognized tribes that call Alaska home. As sovereign nations, our Alaska tribal governments have the sovereign power to establish many things. They have the authority to form governments and establish tribal courts, to make and enforce laws in their own forums through their own tribal courts and justice systems, manage tribal resources and lands, determine membership and citizenship requirements.

They have the authority to enter into intergovernmental agreements, to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction, and of course to maintain that practice and traditional ways of life, many of which you are hearing today from our other partners. Alaska is a Public Law 280 state, so sometimes jurisdiction or sometimes the authority of our tribal courts is a little bit confusing, and there are several areas that Alaska tribal courts have exclusive jurisdiction and several areas of focus that we share concurrent jurisdiction with the State of Alaska because of Public Law 280. When we think about the exclusive jurisdiction or the authority that is exclusively given to our Alaska tribes and tribal governments, it is tribal membership and enrollment— and apologies for the spelling error there— tribal elections and governments, tribal domestic relations, iqwa placement and foster care decisions when we have a case that either originates in state court and is transferred to tribal jurisdiction. Of course, tribes have the exclusive jurisdiction regarding exclusion and banishment from our Alaska Native village. There are several areas that we share concurrent jurisdiction with the state, meaning that folks can either file in tribal court or they may file in state court, or it could possibly be both if it's a violation of both.

And that really is involving civil disputes that involve tribal members or tribal citizens, domestic violence protection orders— that is a concurrent jurisdiction type of proceeding that is available in state court and tribal courts— child in need of aid or child welfare proceedings, those can originate in our tribal courts or state courts, and of course, criminal matters as well, which we're going to talk about a little bit later. Next slide, please. And consistent with all of the testimony and presentations that you've heard today, our Alaska tribal courts, our tribal justice systems that are emerging or reemerging in our Alaska Native villages, they are by and large organized based on the needs of the the communities. Our Tribal Councils and our Tribal Governments take great care to really listen to the communities to determine what is the need at this point, what may be the need in the future, and are really designing and implementing Tribal Justice systems that reflect the needs of that particular community, the needs of their Tribal citizens, and the needs and the availability of resources from their Tribal Governments. And so when I say that, we we see oftentimes that tribal courts may be hearing a certain type of case today, and they may be pivoting to some type of different types of subject matter cases in the future.

Quite often, our tribal courts are hearing issues of child protection, issues of domestic relations, domestic violence, and gender-based violence. Those issues that are most closely connected to what the community and the village is experiencing at the time. But when we think about our tribal courts, our tribal courts in Alaska may not look like our Western or our state court systems, and that's okay. Again, tribal courts are organized based on the communities, so we may see where we have a fully functioning and separate tribal justice department and tribal courts. We may see cases or villages and tribes where the tribal council members are acting as a tribal court, courts.

We have many courts where we have elders panels that are sitting in on cases involving community members and those that are coming to the courts. And certainly we have a lot of tribes that are using a lot of restorative justice practices, including using circles involving not only the immediate person harmed and the person that is alleged to have harmed that person, but where we're bringing in the community members and families and relationships as well, and not only addressing the root cause of the behavior that brought them to Tribal Court as well, but discussing the impact on the community as a whole. And we see the many different versions of Tribal Courts. The Native Village of Anvik in the interior, they have their Tribal Council that acts as their Tribal Court. The Central Council of Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, they utilize a formal Tribal Court, to hear and decide cases.

And that picture on the right-hand side is their newly completed beautiful tribal court building down there in Juneau. And then in our southeast, the Organized Village of Cake, they have chosen to utilize a traditional peacemaking circle as their form of justice and accountability in their village. Next slide, please. There are some limitations on tribal authority, and I wanted to share some of that. Of course, our federal Congress has broad plenary power over tribes and tribal governments, and they are certainly able to enact legislation to limit tribal authority and tribal jurisdiction.

Treaties for our lower 48 brothers and sisters, those treaties delineate certain rights and authorities of the tribes in the lower 48. The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 also codifies certain requirements requirements of tribal governments in our tribal justice systems, certain protections that really mirror our United States Bill of Rights in the first 10 amendments, and then criminal jurisdiction limitations, which we're going to talk about next, primarily through the Oliphant v. Suquamish Tribe case in the 1970s. But it's important to note wherever Congress has has been silent either through the enactment of legislation or through the interpretation of that legislation through our United States federal courts and the Supreme Court of the United States. Whatever is not expressly prohibited remains within a tribe's authority and jurisdiction to go ahead and hear and act upon. Next slide, please.

I briefly mentioned in the context of criminal jurisdiction, the Olifante Olefont decision. And really briefly, this was a 1978 case that started, originated in the federal courts in Washington and moved its way up to the United States Supreme Court. But really briefly, it was, it involved Olefont, who was a non-native man who was living on the Suquamish Indian Tribe Reservation. He and another non-native person were engaging in some bad behaviors that caused the Suquamish Indian Tribe Police to pursue them in a chase, ultimately stop them, arrest them, and prosecute them in the Suquamish Indian Tribe tribal court. Up until that point, so from the early days of the United States founding, from 1776 to 1978, it was well-established federal Indian law that if a crime occurred on federal Indian lands in our reservations in our Alaska Native villages, that there were really two parties that were able to respond.

The tribe, of course, right? We would expect that the tribe would be able to respond because they had some bad behavior or criminal activity that was occurring on their tribal lands. But also the federal government. And in cases where it occurred in Alaska or another Public Law 280 state, it would have been the state government that would— could also criminally prosecute. But what was different in 1970, or what happened with the Oliphant case, is that Oliphant appealed this in federal district court.

He appealed at the Federal Court of Appeals, and it went to the United States Supreme Court. And so in the 1970s, the United States Supreme Court were left to determine whether or not an Alaska Native or American Indian tribe had jurisdiction to prosecute prosecute criminally a non-native who had committed certain bad acts or certain criminal acts or bad behavior in that tribe's reservation, in that tribe's traditional lands, or in the case of Alaska, in our Alaska Native villages. Surprisingly, in 1978, the United States Supreme Court said that tribes do not have jurisdiction over non-native defendants and that that in the cases of Washington, it would have to be the federal government, or in the case of an Alaska tribe, if there were a crime to occur in Alaska, it would have to be the state governments that would pick that up for criminal prosecution. Certainly a departure from 200 years of federal Indian law, and it really kind of, you know, for our tribes and our Alaska tribes, it really kind of put things upside down on their heads. And what we saw after Oliphant after the jurisdiction of our Alaska Native American Indian tribes to criminally prosecute non-native defendants.

What we found, or what the data shows us, is that there really were infrequent prosecutions by federal and state authorities that had jurisdiction over the crimes when a crime occurred in our Alaska Native villages or our lower-48 reservations in Indian Country. We found that The data shows that there were still high rates of violent crimes that were committed by non-Indigenous offenders with oftentimes no accountability. And we all know and understand when there is a lack of accountability that it oftentimes emboldens folks to continue to do bad behavior because they lack the repercussions or they lack the accountability and justice. And here in Alaska, we know and we understand that the state has not been able to provide consistent public safety services off the road system. So the Oliphant decision really created this legal vacuum, this prosecutorial vacuum, for our victims and survivors of violence that has been committed by the hands of non-native defendants.

That has changed, I'm happy to report, and similar to some of the information I shared last year in the committee, that the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 The reauthorization of 2022 has reaffirmed the tribal authority over non-native defendants for certain domestic violence and gender-based violence-related crimes. There are a few tribes in Alaska that are moving towards exerting criminal jurisdiction over non-native defendants, and some of them are, are pretty close, but we have no tribes that are actually exercising that criminal authority currently. So what that means for our state partners, what that means for our state legislators and our state justice systems, that by and large those crimes are likely being prosecuted in our state criminal justice systems. Next slide, please. Thank you, Mr. Haskins-Garcia.

Just a time check. We do have House floor today, so we have We have about 10 minutes left and I see about roughly 9 slides, so just a quick time check, but thank you for that overview and history. Yes. [Speaker:KARLA] Thank you, Chair, and I will make sure— I will try to quickly get through this. This next slide just kind of delineates or details out some of what we're seeing on the ground in Alaska right now about what our tribal courts and justice systems are hearing.

By and large, we are handling criminal behavior in civil ways, meaning that we are addressing criminal behaviors with, let us say, fines, or it may be community service. It may be chopping woods for elders. But we are not currently incarcerating any defendants or any parties that are coming through our Alaska Tribal Courts yet. But like I mentioned, there are several Tribes that are currently integrating criminal courts into their justice systems for both both Natives and non-natives alike. Next slide, please.

And so I did want to kind of wrap this portion up by talking about the study, and, you know, I really want to thank Kendra and her team at AFN. They really produced a really comprehensive and great overlook of the recidivism rates and the Department of Corrections rates against Alaska Natives currently. But there were some recommendations and that came regarding restorative justice program and tribal justice and tribal courts alike. And so some of the recommended actions is to expand state support for tribal courts and therapeutic courts, including staffing and infrastructures. And I want to say that if we are looking for a model of a state-tribe therapeutic court, I would really urge the committee to, to look at Konaitse Indian Tribe.

They are doing a great a good job on the Peninsula of having kind of a hybrid court where we have a tribal judge and a state court judge sitting on the bench and making determinations in kind of a forum with both the tribal judge and the state judge having input. But certainly we can expand the case purview of tribal courts to include additional types of offenses, and we are working towards that. There are recommendations to increase state diversion programs for low-level and minor offenses. We see really good examples of that currently with our Department of Juvenile Justice MOU Diversion Program, our Alaska Civil Rule Diversion Program, and Criminal Rule Diversion Program currently. But also improving coordination between state courts, law enforcement, and tribal justice systems.

And I know the last one, improving coordination, in the, in the almost 10 years that I have been doing this work in Alaska, I have seen a great increase between coordination, not only with our state justice systems, with our Department of Public Safety, but certainly within our legislature as well. Next slide, please. And so to find out— to finish up my presentation, I wanted to share a little bit about the resources and assistance that we provide, again, to tribes, to tribal programs, to tribal coalitions, and organizations organizations throughout the state and nationally. Next slide, please. I did want to share a little about our Law and Policy and Tribal Justice Department, which is my department.

Like I mentioned before, when the Resource Center began operations in 2015, it was very much a training and technical assistance type of organization providing training and technical assistance to tribes and tribal coalitions. In the 10 years, we have grown and we recognize I recognize that law and policy work, monitoring federal legislation and state legislation, getting the word out to our tribal leaders, our tribes, and our tribal coalitions is critically important in helping them to stay informed and to attend hearings such as this or the one we're going to have on Thursday where tribal leader input is necessary. So, that is what my department does. We monitor our state and federal legislation. I am oftentimes advocating on behalf of our tribes and tribal coalitions in Juneau, in D.C., and do this work internationally.

Our executive director is oftentimes invited to the United Nations as well. But in addition to the law and policy work that we do, we do provide broad training and technical assistance to tribes, tribal courts, and justice systems. This is oftentimes— it can be short-term immediate. It's oftentimes a long-term project. And I'm happy to report, like I did last year, that the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, in collaboration with the Inupiat Alaska Fairbanks and Judge David Bolick, we produced and helped a tribe pass the first tribal criminal law and criminal procedure code ever in Alaska.

So we know that tribes are looking towards criminal laws. They're starting to have these discussions at the tribal council at the Tribal Council level, and we're starting to see tribes that are implementing and passing laws regarding criminal jurisdiction in their Alaska Native villages. Next slide, please. We also have a broad training and technical assistance department that works closely with our Alaska tribes and tribal coalitions, with their survivor services, with their gender-based violence programs, and we have a team of experts sitting on our team that work day in and day out with our tribal communities. Although they are not providing direct services, oftentimes the assistance involves some type of direct services to clients.

And so the Resource Center is really on the ground and integrated in what is going on the ground through our work with our tribes. Next slide, please. Quickly, we also have a Planning and Sustainability team. And that is we understand that these large federal grants and these micro grants that our tribes are piecemealing together to provide the services and the work that they need for their community members, it's oftentimes challenging. They are labor intensive.

You oftentimes need many personnel to not only understand the regulations from our federal government but also to comply with those reporting requirements, and so we are able to provide that long-term in short-term planning and sustainability for tribes, and we really focus or specialize on Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. And finally, we do a lot of work around missing and murdered Indigenous women. I'm happy to share that we are a partner of the Alaska MMIWG-IIIS Working Group, and we work each and every day to focus our efforts on the pandemic and endemic and crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Alaska. We are hosting a week-long virtual event in May, from May 4th through 8th, to celebrate our second annual Alaska MMIW Week of Awareness, and I'll be happy to share that information with the members of the committee and the audience members. It is virtual, so I'm hoping that everyone can join us if you're able to.

And the last slide. And finally, I do want to offer up my Services, and if anybody has any questions or any resources, or, you know, please reach out to us. We're always available. We are a small but mighty team, but we are very responsive and always willing to help. And with that, I will conclude, and thank you so much, Chair Dibert and members of the committee.

Thank you so much, Ana Bassi, Mr. Haskins-Garcia, for your presentation. Always so— and all I learned so much, and I just want to thank you. Are there any final questions? Okay, thank you so much, Mr. Garcia-Haskins, for being here today, and we look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you.

Thank you all for the great presentations and conversations this morning. This This completes the agenda for our House Tribal Affairs Committee meeting today. Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 23rd, as we will be bringing back House Bill 384, which is sponsored by Representative Gray, as well as hearing Representative Schwanke's House Bill 307 for the first time. The time is 9:57 a.m., and this hearing is now adjourned.