Tribal Strategies Against Violence: Cross-Sites Evaluation Report

The TSAV initiative was designed to empower American Indian Tribes to improve the quality of life of their communities by fostering strategic planning to identify community problems and to implement locally developed partnerships for addressing those problems. The ultimate purpose was the development of reservation and community-wide strategies to reduce crime, violence, and substance abuse. The evaluation sites included in this report are the Chickasaw Nation, Fort Peck Sioux, and Assiniboine Tribes, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. This evaluation was both a process and impact evaluation. Collection of data was achieved by site visits, observations and interviews, survey, document review, and analysis of crime data from law enforcement agencies and Tribal Courts. During the evaluation, it became apparent that there were differing expectations of the TSAV initiative between the Tribes and Federal administrators. Findings showed that changes in the Tribal Codes and Tribal Court Systems occurred for all three of the Tribes that had their own courts with jurisdiction over criminal, civil, and juvenile justice issues on their reservations. Two of the four Tribes developed extensive services for dealing specifically with youth offenders through their TSAV efforts. Most sites brought about key changes in their support systems for crime and violence victims and perpetrators. New coordination linkages or partnerships with community entities were formalized for addressing overall crime and violence programs. All four Tribes felt that their TSAV programs had been very effective in building community awareness about violence. TSAV efforts clearly led to improved law enforcement operations in at least three of the participating tribal communities. These efforts included improvement in surveillance of local low-middle income housing areas, community policing, and sobriety and seat belt checks. One drawback was that the TSAV model primarily allowed for incorporation of cultural considerations only at the short-term activity level. As a result the model is not likely to be considered sufficiently culturally appropriate in a wide spectrum of Indian country. 3 appendixes