NATIVE VILLAGE OF BARROW TRIBAL COURTS

We are 1100 Miles From The North Pole We Are From Here

Barrow is 320 miles above the Arctic Circle. We are the Northern most town in the United States. The sun sets November 17 and we don’t see it again til January 22. Then the sun rises above the horizon on May 13 and doesn’t Set for 84 days until August.

The Native Village of Barrow through its Traditional Councils have always been in existence since time immemorial. It has been since 1920 when our Tribe started documenting bits and pieces of our history. The Native Village of Barrow Tribal Court was established in 2001 with written governing Codes being ratified in 2002.

NATIVE VILLAGE OF BARROW MISSION STATEMENT: To protect and promote Inupiat Rights, Self-Determination and Self-Sufficiency; as well as preserve and strengthen Inupiat Culture/Traditions for Tribal Members by providing quality services in a fair and accountable manner.

Our Tribal members subsistence hunt to Provide for their families and extended families. We do have grocery stores, but milk being $12.00 per gallon and the high freight prices to haul things through the airlines, we would not be able to survive the harsh winters without our native foods. We hunt caribou, fish and marine mammals for sustenance.

The subsistence lifestyle has and is still the heart, core and strength of our Iňupiat culture and people for more than 2000 years. The Subsistence lifestyle is still the identity of our Iňupiat people and these resources have to be maintained and protected. The historic and current subsistence patterns are embedded to the Iňupiat character of life.

Utqiaġvik, as known by our ancestors has always been a whaling community since time immemorial. It was and is a self-sufficient Iňupiaq community historically. The Iňupiat adhered to the pattern of life handed down to them by their ancestors and still perpetuate and preserve their non-monetary subsistence economy based on hunting and fishing. The hunting of land and sea mammals depends on the season but gathering for sustenance was and still is a necessity for survival.

The Iňupiat people lived and hunted for food and survival in the arctic for centuries and continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The Iňupiat traveled with their food source all across the Arctic Slope region until the Federal Government imposed on them to settle down so that their children can attend school.

Between 1920 and 1940, our Tribal Council was busy learning of incorporating and being recognized by the Federal Government. Our fathers and grandfathers with no western higher education worked with then the Alaska Native Services to put our organization into place.

Today, the Native Village of Barrow is the Northernmost Federally Recognized tribe incorporated under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, as amended in 1936 for the Alaska Natives. Its’ Corporate charter and constitution and bylaws were certified on March 21, 1940.

There is so much more history in between then and now. Today we have Exclusive Jurisdiction with our children Cases because we are not a reservation. Exclusive Jurisdiction is: where one court has the power to adjudicate a case to the exclusion of all other courts. WE reassumed this jurisdiction in 1999.

We went from a community court to a fully operating Tribal Court in 2002 after Training and writing codes.

The Native village of Barrow Has the following Codes adopted By the Membership and ratified By the Tribal Council: Judicial Code Children’s Code Juvenile Wellness Code

Like any other community In the United States, we have An alcohol and drug problem. With that comes children in Need of aid which our social Services Department handles.

We have a Children’s Court with 40 cases that involve about 65 kids. We have limited Resources in our community, which means foster parent shortage. We have a children Youth facility operated by our municipality but they only have 14 beds.

We also have a Juvenile Wellness Court We also have a Juvenile Wellness Court. Our partners consist of people from our 4 schools, The Police Department, North Slope Borough Health Department, State of Alaska Probation Officer, Children Youth Services, Tribal Social Services and others.

For youth in our wellness program, When we Get a case where a juvenile is a Habitual Runaway, an IV user, or a Juvenile delinquent that is doing Minimum Criminal Behavior, we don’t have a holding Facility for them. When we have one of these youths in our Custody, our Tribe holds them in a local Hotel until a bed opens in a Juvenile Treatment facility. Our nearest Juvenile holding facility is 500 miles away.

As Inupiat people, we have to be creative in our Livelihood as well as in our workforce and in our Tribe with limited resources

We as a court get Creative With our sentencing or sanctioning to the juvenile Offenders. We can have them do essays, Create posters, do community Work service or go help with The whaling crews. Sanctions for the parents could mean, having lunch with their child at their school or writing an essay on Parenting.

Questions & Comments We are 3400 miles away From home.