Tribal Strategies Against Violence: Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Case Study

• NCJ Number: 206036
• Author(s): V. Richard Nichols; Anne Litchfield; Ted Holappa; Kit Van Stelle
• Date Published: January 2002
• Length: 38 pages
• Grant Number(s): 97-DD-BX-0031
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation

Annotation

This report documents the activities implemented by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, along with their impact, under two grant periods of the U.S. Justice Department's initiative of Tribal Strategies Against Violence (TSAV), which is a Federal-tribal partnership intended to reduce crime, violence, and drug demand in seven selected American Indian Tribes.

Abstract

The first TSAV grant period began October 1, 1996, and the program was extended through a second grant award that ended October 31, 1999. The evaluation involved on-site interviews with affiliated program staff of the Turtle Mountain Band, key TSAV core team members, key Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal law enforcement personnel, TSAV program partners, the Tribal Chairman and tribal council members, and other community service providers who participated in the local TSAV initiative's planning and implementation. A review was conducted of program documents in U.S. Justice Department files and tribal and project documents maintained on site. A survey was conducted of local TSAV stakeholders, and crime data were analyzed from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Turtle Mountain Agency. The assessment of program structure and chronology focused on program organization and structure; the planning process; goals and strategies; budget; and site monitoring, reporting, and local evaluation. An assessment of local TSAV strategies focused on programs that aimed to strengthen families, reduce family violence, and reduce youth involvement in substance abuse and other illegal activities. The extent to which grant objectives were addressed was also determined. The evaluators concluded that the Turtle Mountain Band TSAV program faithfully represented the TSAV's envisioned institutionalization of a communitywide problem solving process; it deserves to be a model for other tribes. In addition to the TSAV being institutionalized as a cross-agencies problem solving process, the criminal justice system was transformed to be more effective in addressing crime, violence, and substance abuse issues. The relative independence of the TSAV staff, in not being placed directly under any administrative bureaucratic body, facilitated their working across various tribal and nontribal entities. Future directions and the degree of institutionalization of TSAV as a tribal problem solving process are discussed. 2 tables