ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL VANITA GUPTA TOURS MILLE LACS RESERVATION ON HER FIRST TOUR OF INDIAN COUNTRY

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta toured the Mille Lacs Band Reservation on June 15, 2023 as part of the Justice Department’s continued efforts to strengthen ties to Indian Country. The tour included a working lunch at Eddy's, followed by tours of the government center, court rooms, Band Assembly, tribal police department, Aanjibimaadizing, and Health and Humans Services. Front row: Office of Tribal Justice Director Tracy Toulou, District II Representative Wendy Merrill, AAG Gupta, Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin, Speaker Sheldon Boyd. Back row: Solicitor General Caleb Dogeagle, District I Represntative Virgil Wind, and TPD Chief of Police James West.

By VIVIAN LaMOORE, INAAJIMOWIN EDITOR

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta traveled to Minnesota last month and met with Mille Lacs Band officials and staff on June 15, 2023. The trip focused on areas where the Justice Department provides substantial grant funding to support tribal self-governance, including public safety, justice administration, reentry, and victims’ services. The Associate Attorney General’s trip to the Mille Lacs Band is the first in a series of meetings with tribal governments on tribal land in the coming months and is part of the Justice Department’s continued efforts to strengthen ties to Indian Country and elevate the voices and concerns of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Mille Lacs Band Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin welcomed AAG Gupta and her staff, including Director Tracy Toulou of the Justice Department’s Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ), to the Reservation with a working lunch and meeting beginning at Eddy’s. Officials and staff from the Band introduced themselves with a brief explanation of their official duties. Secretary/Treasurer Sheldon Boyd, District I Representative Virgil Wind, District II Representative Wendy Merrill, Associate Justice Brenda Moose, Associate Justice Rhonda Sam, Family Healing to Wellness Court Case Manager Theresa James, Tribal Police Chief James West, Deputy Chief Derrick Naumann, Solicitor General Caleb Dogeagle, commissioners Kelly Applegate, Nicole Anderson, and Sam Moose, and Legal and Policy Counsel Syngen Kanassatega, along with other staff members, attended the meeting.

Kanassatega gave a brief summary of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe's constitution and sovereignty as well as the Mille Lacs Band's constitution and sovereignty, and the division of powers form of government.

AAG Gupta opened her remarks with a brief statement on the Supreme Court’s decision to reject constitutional challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act, a landmark statute that protects Indian children and families and safeguards tribal self-governance. As Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement following the decision, the Justice Department vigorously defended the Act before the Court and will continue to do everything in its power to protect tribal communities and affirm tribal sovereignty.

During the meeting, the AAG learned more about the operations of the Band’s government, day-to-day challenges, and exercise of sovereignty over their homelands. Chief Executive Benjamin is the Midwest representative on the Attorney General’s Tribal Nations Leadership Council.

AAG Gupta said she chose the Mille Lacs Reservation as a starting point on her tour of Indian Country in part because she had worked in the Anishinaabe Counsel and Job Developers in Minneapolis for a summer while in college. "But also, I had heard so much about Chief Executive Benjamin that I thought it was an important place for me to start. I think it is important for me to listen and learn, given in my portfolio are all of the grant-making components that can provide funding and support for the types of programs and services I have been inspired to see here."

Throughout the visit, the AAG and tribal leadership discussed the Justice Department’s grant programs and how they assist the Band’s self-government initiatives. Through the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), the Justice Department has provided the Band resources to construct new courtrooms, recruit and retain police officers, revise the Band’s statutes, and provide shelter and services for victims of domestic violence. The Justice Department has also designated a Band attorney as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to enable the Band to more effectively prosecute serious crimes.

AAG Gupta noted that the Deputy Attorney General sent out a memo to all 94 U.S. Attorney offices to make the MMIR crisis a priority. “We needed to bring more investigative resources, more prosecution resources to it. I think it is important for the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and I to uplift this crisis to move it out of the shadows and move it into visibility just like the tribal leaders and the tribal young people are doing and inspiring us to do," AAG Gupta said. "These partnerships that we can make with tribal leaders and other government officials is really important for us to be able to address the crisis."

The group provided a tour of the Reservation, opening with a tour of the government center, visiting Band Assembly Chambers and the police department, and an extensive tour of tribal court. The tour also included stops at Aanjibimaadizing and Health and Human Services.

OTJ, among other duties, serves as a primary point of contact for tribal governments and organizations regarding policies, programs, and issues relating to public safety and justice in Indian country. In line with a whole-of-department approach, the department recently announced the hiring of 44 additional Assistant U.S. Attorneys and support staff to serve Native communities nationwide. In Minnesota alone, five new department personnel will be added to address issues arising within Indian Country.

During her closing interview, AAG Gupta added, “What Mille Lacs really showed is an understanding of how people’s situations require an integrated approach,” she said. She provided an example of addressing domestic abuse. “There’s making sure the health and human services needs are met, the public safety needs met, the shelter needs met, and that is what I see is really building here in very powerful ways.”

AAG Gupta said her biggest takeaway from the trip was, “That Mille Lacs is an amazing community with amazing people. The infrastructure that the Tribe has developed is really inspiring. It has been great to see federal government support for all of these programs and services that, to me, fundamentally are also about self-determination and self-governance. The federal government can provide the support, but this community is building very long-lasting infrastructure. I was here to listen today, but I have met some amazing people and I will carry this with me in all of the meetings I have with our grant-making components as I think about how we can address tribal needs and what tools the federal government has to support self-determination.”

Associate Attorney General Gupta was gifted a small token designed by the students in the Ge-Niiganizijig program. The gifts were presented by Temple Thomas and Senicka Hardy.

Associate Attorney General Gupta said the U.S. Deputy Attorney General is requiring that all U.S. Attorney Offices make the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives crisis a priority.