Jun 13, 2005 - 23:16:10 CDT
PIERRE, S.D. -- Jessica Hinsley didn't know where to turn for help after Standing Rock Sioux Tribe officials took her 1-year-old daughter. The girl had been hurt in a fall at a day care center, and a tribal judge kept asking why Hinsley's three children had to be in day care.Hinsley, a 23-year-old who is going through a divorce and works full time while attending college, had trouble finding a private lawyer who could take her case. But then she found out Dakota Plains Legal Services had a new lawyer on the reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.
The lawyer, Judith Roberts, went to work and quickly got the infant returned to Hinsley.
"They wouldn't listen to me or anything, and then, once I got an attorney, which is Judy, that's when they pretty much had to listen," Hinsley said. "I didn't even know we had a legal service or else I would have gone there a long time ago."
Many Indian reservations across the nation have a shortage of lawyers and other legal services, said Ron Hutchinson, executive director of Dakota Plains Legal Services, which has six offices in South Dakota and one just across the border in North Dakota.
Dakota Plains is part of a network of nonprofit organizations nationwide that provide legal services to low-income people with the help of federal funding. Some, like Dakota Plains, primarily serve American Indians.
Court-appointed attorneys and public defenders help poor people charged with crimes, so the greatest unmet need is for civil matters such as divorce, child custody, wills, land issues and commercial disputes, Hutchinson said.
And while Indians need legal help in state and federal courts, one of the greatest needs is in tribal court, where many people represent themselves without hiring a lawyer, Hutchinson said.
A 1994 American Bar Association study estimated that three-quarters of the nation's low- and moderate-income families facing civil legal issues handle those problems without getting formal help. Legal aid lawyers estimate only about 20 percent of Indians' legal needs are met, Hutchinson said.
"The bottom line here is we don't have the resources to help everyone who needs help. We don't even come close," he said.
Help is on the way, thanks to a grant from the American College of Trial Lawyers, a national organization of courtroom attorneys. The $50,000 grant is intended to let Dakota Plains set up an Internet site to provide a wide range of information related to Indian legal issues, including forms and instructions for those who represent themselves in tribal court.
Jimmy Morris, of Richmond, Va., president of the American College of Trial Lawyers, said poor people need adequate legal services so they are not at the mercy of people who can afford lawyers.
"There is an appalling need for legal services to the poor everywhere in the country," Morris said. "But it is particularly acute among Native Americans."
Steve Moore of the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colo., said there is a lack of legal resources to help Indians in tribal, state and federal courts.
"The word 'crisis,' I think, doesn't overdramatize the situation," Moore said.
Indians not only have to deal with state and federal laws and regulations, but they also are subject to tribal laws on reservations and a host of tribal and federal programs for housing, health and other issues that apply only to Indians, Moore said.
That means Indians likely will need legal help to deal with the many regulations that apply to them, Moore said.
"We think that Native Americans are the most regulated segment of the American population," Moore said. "Being Native American just adds multiple layers and layers of regulations and bureaucracy into your life."
The Native American Rights Fund handles high-profile cases for tribal governments and other organizations, disputes that focus on Indian rights, tribal sovereignty, voting issues, land and other issues. But it also works with organizations like Dakota Plains Legal Services to help develop and improve tribal laws and court systems, including traditional systems of resolving disputes, Moore said.
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