French - POLICING AMERICAN INDIANS: a unique chapter in american jurisprudence

A topic such as this requires a mix of academic research and field experience. The academic element involves the disciplines of criminology, sociology, anthropology, historical analysis of geopolitics, and cultural psychology, which my training at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Nebraska provided. Equally important was the invaluable experience I acquired through my interactions with American Indian groups. This began with my first full-time teaching position in 1972 at Western Carolina University, located a mere 26 miles from the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Jim Hornbuckle, a student in my criminology class, got me involved with the reservation. An enrolled member of the tribe (father, Eastern Cherokee; mother, Western Cherokee) and former tribal police officer, Jim went on to become the director of the Cherokee Mental Health and Alcohol Program, where I served as an advisor. Jim and other nontraditional Cherokee students, Reuben Teesatuskie, Karen French, Yvonne Bushyhead, and Richard Yogi Crowe, encouraged me to start the Cherokee Student Organization at Western Carolina University as well as establish a satellite campus on the reservation. Cherokee elders Johnson Catolster and Elsie Bugga Martin served as tribal advisors for our educational and social programs. I have continued my affiliation with the Eastern Cherokee to the present. Jim went on to become an associate magistrate in the Cherokee Tribal Court, juvenile court counselor, and administrative court counselor, and later served as the clinical supervisor of the Indian Health Service Regional Youth Treatment Center located on the reservation, serving troubled Indian youth throughout Indian country. While at Western Carolina University, Jim Hornbuckle and I established a lifelong relationship with Rupert Costo and Jeannette Henry-Costo, American Indian founders of the American Indian Historical Society.

My initial work with the Eastern Cherokee, notably the inquiry into the murder of three young Cherokee men while they were held in the local jail for whites, effectively ended my tenure at Western Carolina University (19721977), but I was fortunate to move on to the University of Nebraska, teaching at the Lincoln campus. Here, I had the opportunity to work with the few American Indian faculty members at the University of Nebraska, Teresa LaFromboise (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma) and Webster Robbins (Western Cherokee), and John Cross (Western Seminole) at the University of Omaha. While in Nebraska, I became involved with the Nebraska Indian Commission and the Lincoln Indian Center, serving on the criminal justice and mental health boards. My main field contact was Charles LaPlante (Santee Sioux), along with Perry Wounded-Shield (Lakota Sioux) and Marshall Prichard (Ponca), executive director at the Lincoln Indian Center. It was during this time (19771980) that we worked with Walter Echo-Hawk of the Native American Rights Fund on bringing traditional Indian customs to the Nebraska Penal Complex, as well as conducting field visits to the tribes in Nebraska and North and South Dakota for the Nebraska Indian Commission. Charles LaPlante later moved back to the Santee Reservation, where he became a tribal leader and elder, having completed four Sun Dances and raised his children in the traditional ways. His son Whalen went on to become a tribal police officer and is currently head of security at the Santee casino. His daughter Liz is a schoolteacher. All of his offspring have close traditional ties to the reservation in Niobrara, Nebraska, and Wagner, South Dakota.

My experience working with contemporary social issues plaguing American Indians compelled me to embark on a second doctorate, this time in cultural psychology. While gaining clinical experience as a staff psychologist working with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (19801989), I continued my involvement with American Indian issues via colleagues Jeff Gaudet (Micmac), psychologist (University of CaliforniaBerkeley), New Hampshire state probation officer, and federal law enforcement officer, division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Becky Storey (Sioux), community planning, Federal Emergency Management Agency. Armed with this clinical experience, I took a teaching position at Western New Mexico University and continued my involvement with American Indian groups (Navajo, Apache, Pueblo, Yaqui, Mestizo), again organizing a Native American student organization and working on critical issues such as substance abuse and law enforcement with colleagues Peter Garcia (Hopi Pueblo); Paul Lucero (Laguna Pueblo), Western New Mexico University police, captain, Isleta Police Department; Abe Maria Rama (Navajo), tribal leader and peacemaker elder; Dennis Lorenzo (Acoma Pueblo), tribal priest, substance abuse counselor, and human resources manager; Patsy Madrid (Yaqui/Mestizo), Curanderismo, community leader; Arturo Romero (Navajo/Mestizo), U.S. Marine (Vietnam veteran), substance abuse counselor, trainer, and administrator; and Harry L. Begay (Navajo), head counselor and administrator, Fort Wingate Indian Boarding School. We reinstated the annual summer Alcohol Treatment Institute at Western New Mexico University that served Anglos, Hispanics, and American Indians within the region (Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas). I also had the opportunity to work with members of the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona as part of my private clinical practice housed in Safford, Arizona. Another valuable experience was serving as the police psychologist for the police academy at Western New Mexico University and for the Isleta Pueblo Reservation. I also was a contract psychologist for U.S. Border Patrol personnel (mainly family members) stationed along the New MexicoMexico border.