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Native American Press/Ojibwe News

Tribal court/state court forum

By Clara Niiska - September 27, 2002

Eugene L. White-Fish, president of the National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA) and judge of the Forest County Potawatomi tribal court in Wisconsin, gave a presentation to the Minnesota Tribal Court State Court Forum in Shakopee on September 20th, while Mille Lacs Anishinabe elder Vince Hill listens. White-fish gave a presentation on tribal courts, and in the context of the forum’s lobbying efforts to gain Minnesota Supreme Court acceptance of the forum’s proposed ‘Full Faith and Credit rule” despite the Supreme Court rules committee’s unanimous rejection of the rule, “if NAICJA can assist you in any way, give me a call.”

White-Fish was not on the agenda for the September 20th Tribal Court State Court Forum, which after opening preliminaries originally included only a report on the September 13th Board of Governor’s response to the Full Faith & Credit proposal, and forum consideration of the “Supreme Court Hearing set for October 29, 2001” for consideration of the forum’s proposed rule to grant tribal court decisions the full force of Minnesota state law.

The forum’s September 20th meeting, according to tribal attorney and forum chair Andrew Small’s statements to Minnesota court administration, was initially slated to be a “closed” meeting. However, after pressure from the media and citizens’ groups, forum organizers made non-publicized changes to the forum agenda, with White-Fish’s presentation open to the public.

The forum then intended to go into “executive session,” excluding the media and concerned members of the public, although not apparently planning on excluding invited guests. However, after on-the-record objections by community members and attorney Randy Thompson’s promise to file a judicial ethics complaint if the Minnesota judiciary who are members of the Tribal Court State Court forum met in private with tribal attorneys, the meeting was informally adjourned during an intermission.

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