Ending Abuse, Securing Justice for Alaskans
By Sen. Lisa Murkowski

Alaska is known for its natural beauty, geographic vastness, and tremendous
energy potential. Behind the beauty is a difficult reality that many of us, even
in Alaska, fail to recognize. Our State has among the highest rates of domes-
tic violence and sexual assault in the Nation. This is a horrific reality that
threatens thousands of vulnerable Alaskans-both rural and urban-and also
could have a shameful legacy and impact for our future generations.
Since the enactment of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reau-
theorization on March 7, tribes as well as tribal advocacy groups in Alaska
have been upset by what they have heard about my amendment to VAWA clar-
ifying the jurisdiction of Alaska tribes. I hear your voices loud and clear, but
there has been some confusion about the interpretation of law and intention
of my amendment which has led to this emotion.
"the enactment the reauthorization"?
I will get the key question answered right away: VAWA never was designed
or intended to expand the powers of Alaska tribes over non-members of a
tribe. While the bill was written vaguely-and that broad language contributed
to Alaskans' concerns-the reports from the Senate Committees that wrote the
bill spell out what their plan was. If you look at the Senate Committee on In-
dian Affairs or the Senate Committee on the Judiciary reports, they zoom in
on Lower 48 Indian tribes and restrictive court decisions that prevented those
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-Opinion
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reservation tribes from asserting jurisdiction over non-
members. The law of the land in Alaska would have
never been changed through this VAWA bill.
We all know that the expansion of tribal jurisdiction
over non-members of a tribe is a controversial issue in
our state. My firm commitment to addressing our pub-
lic safety crisis in rural Alaska by working with tribes
has not changed since I was elected to the Senate ten
years ago.
We all agree the status quo is not keeping our rural
families safe. With nearly one in two women in rural
Alaska experiencing physical or sexual violence in their
life time, we face a public safety crisis on our State that
elected leaders cannot ignore. But we must all find the
common ground that enables us to pull in the same si-
rection towards a better future, rather than get mired in
jurisdictional battles.
We need to solve this public safety crisis together.
That is the spirit of the Rural Public Safety Initiative that
I proposed recently for Alaska tribes' consideration. I
sent every single Tribal Leader a letter outlining my con-
cept to allow for an integrated rural justice system, bring-
ing together the efforts of Tribes, as well as the State of
Alaska.
My proposal calls for the cross-deputization of tribal
or village law enforcement officers as "Special Officers" cap.
that will assist in the enforcement of criminal laws in the
State of Alaska. The law enforcement officer may offer
civil tribal diversion remedies to offenders in drug and
alcohol related state misdemeanors in the village as a
possible alternative to misdemeanor criminal prosecu-
tion by the State.
Tribal courts may impose santions for drug and al-
cohol related state misdemeanor offenses as it determines
to be appropriate and consistent with the Indian Civil
Rights Act and tribal law-including measures such as:
restorative justice, community service, fines, forfeitures,
commitments for treatment, restraining orders, emer-
gency detentions, and banishment from the village.
I remain deeply committed to addressing the public
safety crisis in rural Alaska, from all angles-whether
it's policy proposals or working with government agen-
cies. Just last summer, when I learned that the Emmonak
Women's Shelter was at risk of closing its doors because
of funding issues-basically, I reached out to the Bureau
of Indian Affairs and came to an agreement for the
needed funds to be directed to that clinic.
Keeping the Emmonak Women's Shelter open was a
small victory, but the piecemeal approach to the issue is
only a Band-Aid. Something bigger must be done. Re-
muteness and need should be no barriers for justice. I
will not lose my focus on public safety over jurisic-
tional battle that others may choose to fight. I look for-
ward to hearing from our tribal leaders in Alaska, as well
as tribal health organizations and public safety officials
in our rural communities on my draft concepts.