'We look deeper': the Native court settling cases outside the justice system

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/06/native-elders-oyate-court-south-dakota

‘We look deeper’: the Native court settling cases outside the justice system


In South Dakota, the Oyate Court – made up of Lakota elders – uses traditional peacemaking principles to stress healing over punishment

Robert Jones was an early participant in the Oyate court. ‘These are your elders and in Native culture you have to respect your elders,’ he said.

Stewart Huntington in Rapid City
Sat 6 Aug 2022 03.00 EDT

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The effort is part of a wave of initiatives across the nation in Indigenous communities seeking to reclaim Native heritage and craft homegrown, culturally based solutions to the problems of poverty – and the host of traumas it nurtures – that have defined life for American Indians since they were forced to abandon their ancestral lands and lifeways for urban or reservation life. In Rapid City, those efforts include a new elementary school Lakota immersion language program and a grassroots volunteer effort to build an urban Indian center.

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“When people get in trouble, just locking them up won’t help,” said Chris White Eagle, a Cheyenne River citizen who sits on the circle of elders. “With Oyate court we look deeper into trying to heal them. We get to ask the questions the courts don’t ask. Get to the root of the problem.”

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Some tools used in peacemaking are accountability, forgiveness and sincere apologies,” said Dr Polly Hyslop, an Upper Tanana River Athabascan and advisory committee member for the Native American Rights Fund Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative. “It really works to create healthier and safer communities.”

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We recognize huge racial disparities in our community with our Native American population,” said Lara Roetzel, the deputy state’s attorney for Pennington county. “They make up only – depending on what study you look at – 9 or 11% of our population but they are incarcerated at 60 or 70% of our jail population. That’s just wrong.”

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Roetzel agreed. “I think that’s how we move forward with criminal justice in the 21st century,” she said. “We’re not going to solve problems by incarcerating people, we know that. We’re not going to solve problems with probation and parole. The statistics have proven that. I think the way we solve problems as prosecutors is by allowing communities that are impacted by crime to right those wrongs.”

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