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Native American Rights Fund Welcomes Newly Established National Tribal Justice Resource Center.

BOULDER, CO - The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is pleased to welcome the National Tribal Justice Resource Center (NTJRC) to Boulder, Colorado. The Resource Center is currently setting up its offices at NARF's National Indian Law Library - 1522 Broadway.

The National Tribal Justice Resource Center, a project of the National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA), has been established with start-up funding from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance. The purpose of the Resource Center is to make available a wide range of resources to tribal judges and court personnel, as well as tribal justice systems. Some initial services to be provided include:

* creating a clearinghouse of existing written tribal judicial resources
* providing a free searchable database of tribal justice system opinions
* developing and expanding internet resources available to tribal courts
* establishing a toll-free "Helpline" offering technical assistance
* establishing a mentor system for tribal justice systems * assessing tribal justice technical assistance needs

Jill Shibles (Penobscot), Executive Director of the Resource Center, is the former Chief Judge of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court in Connecticut, Appellate Justice for the Passamaquoddy Appellate Court of Maine and the Mashantucket Pequot Court of Appeals, and First Vice- President of NAICJA. She will be joined by Tina M. Farrenkopf, Esq. (Passamaquoddy) who will assume the duties of Associate Director on November 1, 2000. Farrenkopf most recently was the Clerk of Courts with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court, and is currently the Co-Chair of the United South and Eastern Tribe's Inc.'s Tribal Justice Committee. The Resource Center is presently conducting a national search for its third staff position of Office Manager (www.naicja.org/jobs.htm).

"The National Tribal Justice Resource Center has the potential to provide very real and practical benefits to every Native American and Alaska Native tribal justice system in the United States," says Jill Shibles. "It will allow us to assist tribes, to strengthen their methods of government and improve the climate within tribal lands for economic prosperity by offering tools to enhance tribal justice systems."

John Echohawk, Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund is pleased with the collaboration. "NARF is very honored to be a partner on a project of this caliber. A national resource center that can provide reference and technical assistance to Indian tribal court systems is long overdue. We look forward to having the National Indian Law Library provide access to its unparalleled collection of tribal opinions, tribal codes and tribal constitutions."

The Native American Rights Fund has collaborated with NAICJA, the Resource Center's parent organization, on previous projects. Most recently, NARF and NAICJA worked with the National Congress of American Indians to develop a Model Tribal Notice Law (MTNL). If adopted by Indian Tribes, the MTNL would provide for giving adequate and timely notice to Tribes of cases in a Tribe's court to which the Tribe is not a party, but which raise issues of tribal sovereignty or tribal jurisdiction. The three groups are also developing a similar Model State Notice Law.