U.S. attorney general proposes long-term solutions for village public safety needs

In what Alaska Native leaders are calling an unprecedented exchange in Anchorage, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch declared Friday that high levels of violence against Natives "are completely unacceptable in the United States of America in 2016."

In her first visit to Alaska, Lynch, the nation's top law-enforcement officer, vowed the U.S. Department of Justice will work with Alaska Natives on solutions to public safety concerns in rural areas of the state. She proposed adding a new attorney position to the U.S. attorney's office in Alaska to work on Native issues.

[Photos: Attorney General Loretta Lynch meets with Alaska Native leaders]

That position, senior counselor for Alaska Native affairs, would be one way to "institutionalize" efforts to ensure Native needs are met by future administrations after President Barack Obama's second term — and her own tenure — is history, she said.

The announcement by Lynch followed a closed-door discussion with Native leaders who pressed for DOJ support to combat heroin use and traffic in rural Alaska among other issues.

Joined by Native leaders in a press event afterward, Lynch said a recent DOJ study found more than 80 percent of Native women and 33 percent of Native men have experienced violence in their lifetimes.

"These alarming numbers are much higher than we previously understood and they are completely unacceptable in the United States of America in 2016," she declared.

The hourlong meeting, held in the newly built Anchorage headquarters of local Native regional corporation Cook Inlet Region Inc., is part of an ongoing dialogue between the Obama administration and American Indian and Alaska Native leaders. Obama himself held his own private session with Native leaders during his Alaska visit last fall.

The support has contributed to key gains for Natives, including an expansion of tribal court jurisdiction in the state that has allowed small courts in villages to increasingly combat domestic violence.

Gail Schubert, an Alaska Federation of Natives board member and president of  Bering Straits Native Corp. in Northwest Alaska, said afterward she asked Lynch for stable funding for tribal courts instead of unpredictable grants.

Those courts are a first line of defense to protect families in villages, and many are underfunded, said Schubert.

"We want them to make the funding more permanent, because there is a huge need in rural Alaska," she said.

Schubert said Lynch took notes and listened carefully.

"It was obvious she had a real interest in what we were saying," she said.

Later in a short press conference, Lynch told reporters the meeting was "thought-provoking and substantive."

She said the department is committed to using all tools — litigation, election monitoring and enforcing the language minority provisions in the Voting Rights Act — to ensure Natives have "unfettered access" to the voting booth.

"In the days ahead, we will continue to speak up, to speak out and to stand with Alaska Natives to guarantee that every eligible individual can make his or her voice heard," she said.

Lynch said the Anchorage meeting stemmed from a phone conversation she had with AFN President Julie Kitka before she was confirmed by Congress last year, where a number of "pressing" issues affecting Natives were discussed, Lynch said.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Lynch promised to visit the state during a hearing in Congress in 2015. Murkowski applauded the new senior counselor position in a prepared statement.

During the meeting, Lynch sat at a table occupied by 15 people, including AFN leaders and key members of her agency who serve as "main points of interface" with Natives, including Tracy Toulou, director of the Office of Tribal Justice.

Also in the room, but not at the table, were representatives of the state's Congressional delegation.

Requests from Native leaders included:

* Support for criminal-reform legislation to combat the high numbers of Natives in prison.

* Support to ensure the Bureau of Indian Affairs can put land into trust for Alaska tribes, a measure the state is fighting in court over concern it would bring a version of sovereign Indian Country to new areas of Alaska.

* Providing stable funding to combat heroin, and addiction to other opiates, in rural Alaska, including three new rural treatment centers.

* Requests to support relocation efforts in climate-imperiled coastal villages.

Lynch said Tolou and Karen Loeffler, the U.S. attorney in Alaska, will set up the consultations.

A goal of the proposed committee will be targeting "actionable" solutions to public-safety problems, such as legislative proposals, funding opportunities, or policy changes, Lynch said.

Following the meeting, Kitka said Lynch wants to be a "force multiplier for making things happen" by working with the Alaska congressional delegation, Gov. Bill Walker, federal agencies and Natives.

"I fully expect we're going to see some concrete things happen," she said.