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Mescalero Intergovenmental Agreement Project
The New Mexico Children’s Code (NMCC) underwent an expansive revision in the early nineties with ongoing amendments to the present. The first revision and those following have included significant provisions addressing matters affecting Indian children, youth and families living on and off Indian lands. Many of the NMCC Indian specific provisions mandate and/or encourage State and Tribal governments to work together to respond in culturally effective and relevant ways to the needs of court-involved Indian children, youth and families. Specifically, under NMCC §32A-1-8 (E), a Tribal Court order pertaining to an Indian child that accesses state resources shall be recognized and enforced pursuant to provisions of an intergovernmental agreement entered into by the Indian child’s Tribe and the Department (Children Youth & Families Department (CYFD)) or another State agency. Furthermore, “an Indian child residing on or off the reservation, as a citizen of this State, shall have the same right to services that are available to other children of the State, pursuant to intergovernmental agreements.”
Although the Section (E) provisions were passed from 1993 to 2003, neither the State or any New Mexico (NM) Tribe or Pueblo has put them to use. No significant impact in helping the State or tribal governments address the needs of court-involved Indian children and youth have been realized by the passage of these provisions due mainly to the lack of intergovernmental agreements (IGA) and accompanying polices and procedures to implement the law(s). Recognizing this IGA obstacle, the Mescalero Apache Tribe (MAT) initiated efforts to collaborate with the State represented by CYFD to negotiate an IGA that would enable the Tribe to implement the NMCC Indian provisions. The Tribe obtained support for the IGA project from the NM Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC) with a $50,000 grant. Additionally, the CYFD Tribal Liaisons provided extensive assistance in setting up key meetings with CYFD leadership to draft and negotiate various aspects of the IGA.
With the initial JJAC support the Tribe with technical assistance from American Indian Development Associates (AIDA) negotiated an IGA that was signed on January 7, 2008 by the MAT President Mark R. Chino and CYFD Cabinet Secretary Dorian Dodson. This is the first Tribal-State IGA and highlights the commitment of the Tribe and State to work together on issues of mutual interest and responsibility involving Indian children, youth and families.
Through this project, AIDA developed several methods, processes and products useful to other NM Tribes and Pueblos wishing to initiate IGA negotiations with the State in order to access State services and resources for court involved Indian children and youth. These include:
- Establishment and facilitation of local working groups,
- Steps needed to design and develop a tribal-state IGA,
- IGA development curriculum and training,
- Review, revision and drafting of tribal children’s codes, and
- Developing or redesigning policies and procedures to implement the IGA.
For further information about these products, please contact us at: info@aidainc.net or by phone at (505) 842-1122.
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