What gets lost in the debate back in Washington about energy development in general, and coal in particular, is what it means to real people in real places like Crow Agency, Montana, where this is not some abstract policy, not some abstract debate in the halls of Congress, but this is a debate about the lives of real people. This is a debate about the future of sovereign nations looking to be self-sufficient and providing for their own livelihood. The key issue is jobs and the numbers are absolutely staggering. According to the Montana Chamber of Commerce and Chairman Darrin Old Coyote, the...

American Indian and Alaska Native communities and lands are frequently less safe-and sometimes dramatically more dangerous-than most other places in our country. Ironically, the U.S. government, which has a trust responsibility for Indian Tribes, is fundamentally at fault for this public safety gap. Federal government policies have displaced and diminished the very institutions that are best positioned to provide trusted, accountable, accessible, and cost-effective justice in Tribal communities. The Federal government exercises substantial criminal jurisdiction on reservations. As a result,...

The Self-Determination Act of 1975 provided a shift in the way the Federal Government provides services in Indian Country, providing tribes with the authority to take over those services and tailor them to meet their communities. Self-governance began with only seven tribes in 1991, now over half of all federally-recognized tribes have self-governance agreements with the Department of the Interior for Indian Health Services. S. 919 is the culmination of discussions between tribal leaders and the Department of the Interior and other stakeholders that would streamline the self-governance...