Post by Moon Seeker on Jul 7, 2009 11:48:31 GMT -5
Sheriffs Department, Indian tribes launch program to ease tension
10:47 PM PDT on Monday, July 6, 2009
By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise
The Riverside County sheriff's deputies were greeted with a question that brought careful pause.
"What do you all know about Native Americans?"
It wasn't a quiz, assured Alex Tortes, a Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian and a recent addition to the Sheriff's Department. But before he and his partners led a two-hour lesson on Indian history and culture, they needed to take the room's pulse.
"They're tight-knit," answered Deputy Vincent Munoz, one of five Lake Elsinore station employees at a recent training session.
"They police themselves," said Deputy Christian Brisonet.
Tortes nodded. It was OK not to know more, he told them. That is the purpose of the sheriff's Tribal Liaison Unit.
The fledgling program was conceived earlier this decade, but not launched until after two fatal shootouts with deputies at the Soboba Reservation near San Jacinto created an air of hostility and mistrust.
The program aims to increase understanding on two levels. Part of it focuses on changing deputies' mindset when they enter the self-governed reservations. Equally important is educating Riverside County's 12 tribes about the role of law enforcement.
In the nine months since the Tribal Liaison Unit has operated, three orientations have been held for Native American leaders. They described how the Sheriff's Department does much more than just make arrests.
Its roles in overseeing the jails and coroner's office, providing security to the courts and its strenuous hiring process were reviewed. Tribal members also got the chance to use laser guns and video screens to simulate life-and-death scenarios deputies may face.
The internal presentations are planned for each of the sheriff's patrol stations and special bureaus, even if, as was the case in Lake Elsinore, employees have no daily contact with tribes.
"We're bridging the gap from both sides," said sheriff's Lt. Ray Wood, the Tribal Liaison Unit commander. "There had been some tension, and there was a need for improvement on both sides."
As far back as 2002, Tortes said he was in touch with Stanley Sniff, then a commander within the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, about such a venture. At that time, Tortes was a city of Riverside police lieutenant.
They discussed using Tortes' background as both a member of the Torres-Martinez tribe and as a supervisor of a police program that had frequent interaction with community leaders. But it wasn't until Tortes retired and Sniff was appointed sheriff that those conversations were revived.
That was August 2008, amid the aftermath of the two high-profile fatal shootings by sheriff's deputies on the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians Reservation.
The tribe and the sheriff initially disagreed on the interpretation of Public Law 280, which allows law enforcement officers unobstructed access to sovereign reservations for criminal investigations. SWAT teams were requested for some calls.
But a series of meetings and the creation of the Tribal Liaison Unit have helped smooth relations, said Rose Salgado, Soboba's tribal secretary.
"There's been a lot of progress by the grace of God," she said.
LESSONS LEARNED
After appointing Tortes to the unit last August, Sniff brought in Wood, the commander, in October and sheriff's Investigator Joshua Adams, who has become the resident historian.
"When I first met tribal leaders, I asked them, 'What can you tell me that I can take back?' " Adams said. "They said, 'I want you to go back and tell the deputies that we're scientists and we're mathematicians.' "
During the recent training of Lake Elsinore deputies, Adams covered the distinct stages of early U.S. policy on tribes, from extermination to assimilation, later transitioning to the traditions of tribal elders and the respect they're given.
"We found a culture that's rich and diverse," Adams said. "What we're taught in school is not really correct."
The Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians near Coachella hosted one of the recent orientations after attending the initial session last December at the sheriff's Ben Clark Training Center southeast of Riverside.
"It broke down a lot of barriers," said Joe Rodriguez, public safety director for the tribe's Spotlight 29 Casino. "Anytime law enforcement goes into the community and explains how they do things and why they do things, it's a big plus."
MEET AND GREETS
Tortes said he has met with members of all 12 county tribes, which account for 28,000 people, and sought guidance on the unit's teachings from Joely Proudfit, a Luiseño Indian and Director of Native Studies at Cal State San Marcos.
"If they really want a good relationship with the tribal nations they need to understand the social, political and cultural history," Proudfit said. "We have to understand where each other is coming from, since no one is going anywhere."
LOST CULTURE
After showing a clip from the film "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," meant to show the toll that 19th century assimilation had on Native Americans, Tortes made the class personal.
He recalled his own childhood, being pulled from the Torres-Martinez tribe in 1949 and placed into foster care. Raised without knowledge of his Indian name, he only recently learned of a photograph that shows him doing a traditional snake dance at a powwow.
"I lost all that," Tortes told the deputies. "They wanted us to change, to lose our customs."
In April, the unit added sheriff's Deputy Cindy Pierce, who previously patrolled the Morongo Band of Mission Indians Reservation near Banning.
She said her experience, which has included being embraced by elders at tribal powwows, tells her that authenticity is what counts.
"It doesn't mean anything to them just to say it," Pierce said. "They want to see us live up to what we say."
Staff writer John Asbury contributed to this report.
Reach Paul LaRocco at 951-368-9468 or plarocco@PE.com
www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_outreach07.413b2eb.html
10:47 PM PDT on Monday, July 6, 2009
By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise
The Riverside County sheriff's deputies were greeted with a question that brought careful pause.
"What do you all know about Native Americans?"
It wasn't a quiz, assured Alex Tortes, a Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian and a recent addition to the Sheriff's Department. But before he and his partners led a two-hour lesson on Indian history and culture, they needed to take the room's pulse.
"They're tight-knit," answered Deputy Vincent Munoz, one of five Lake Elsinore station employees at a recent training session.
"They police themselves," said Deputy Christian Brisonet.
Tortes nodded. It was OK not to know more, he told them. That is the purpose of the sheriff's Tribal Liaison Unit.
The fledgling program was conceived earlier this decade, but not launched until after two fatal shootouts with deputies at the Soboba Reservation near San Jacinto created an air of hostility and mistrust.
The program aims to increase understanding on two levels. Part of it focuses on changing deputies' mindset when they enter the self-governed reservations. Equally important is educating Riverside County's 12 tribes about the role of law enforcement.
In the nine months since the Tribal Liaison Unit has operated, three orientations have been held for Native American leaders. They described how the Sheriff's Department does much more than just make arrests.
Its roles in overseeing the jails and coroner's office, providing security to the courts and its strenuous hiring process were reviewed. Tribal members also got the chance to use laser guns and video screens to simulate life-and-death scenarios deputies may face.
The internal presentations are planned for each of the sheriff's patrol stations and special bureaus, even if, as was the case in Lake Elsinore, employees have no daily contact with tribes.
"We're bridging the gap from both sides," said sheriff's Lt. Ray Wood, the Tribal Liaison Unit commander. "There had been some tension, and there was a need for improvement on both sides."
As far back as 2002, Tortes said he was in touch with Stanley Sniff, then a commander within the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, about such a venture. At that time, Tortes was a city of Riverside police lieutenant.
They discussed using Tortes' background as both a member of the Torres-Martinez tribe and as a supervisor of a police program that had frequent interaction with community leaders. But it wasn't until Tortes retired and Sniff was appointed sheriff that those conversations were revived.
That was August 2008, amid the aftermath of the two high-profile fatal shootings by sheriff's deputies on the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians Reservation.
The tribe and the sheriff initially disagreed on the interpretation of Public Law 280, which allows law enforcement officers unobstructed access to sovereign reservations for criminal investigations. SWAT teams were requested for some calls.
But a series of meetings and the creation of the Tribal Liaison Unit have helped smooth relations, said Rose Salgado, Soboba's tribal secretary.
"There's been a lot of progress by the grace of God," she said.
LESSONS LEARNED
After appointing Tortes to the unit last August, Sniff brought in Wood, the commander, in October and sheriff's Investigator Joshua Adams, who has become the resident historian.
"When I first met tribal leaders, I asked them, 'What can you tell me that I can take back?' " Adams said. "They said, 'I want you to go back and tell the deputies that we're scientists and we're mathematicians.' "
During the recent training of Lake Elsinore deputies, Adams covered the distinct stages of early U.S. policy on tribes, from extermination to assimilation, later transitioning to the traditions of tribal elders and the respect they're given.
"We found a culture that's rich and diverse," Adams said. "What we're taught in school is not really correct."
The Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians near Coachella hosted one of the recent orientations after attending the initial session last December at the sheriff's Ben Clark Training Center southeast of Riverside.
"It broke down a lot of barriers," said Joe Rodriguez, public safety director for the tribe's Spotlight 29 Casino. "Anytime law enforcement goes into the community and explains how they do things and why they do things, it's a big plus."
MEET AND GREETS
Tortes said he has met with members of all 12 county tribes, which account for 28,000 people, and sought guidance on the unit's teachings from Joely Proudfit, a Luiseño Indian and Director of Native Studies at Cal State San Marcos.
"If they really want a good relationship with the tribal nations they need to understand the social, political and cultural history," Proudfit said. "We have to understand where each other is coming from, since no one is going anywhere."
LOST CULTURE
After showing a clip from the film "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," meant to show the toll that 19th century assimilation had on Native Americans, Tortes made the class personal.
He recalled his own childhood, being pulled from the Torres-Martinez tribe in 1949 and placed into foster care. Raised without knowledge of his Indian name, he only recently learned of a photograph that shows him doing a traditional snake dance at a powwow.
"I lost all that," Tortes told the deputies. "They wanted us to change, to lose our customs."
In April, the unit added sheriff's Deputy Cindy Pierce, who previously patrolled the Morongo Band of Mission Indians Reservation near Banning.
She said her experience, which has included being embraced by elders at tribal powwows, tells her that authenticity is what counts.
"It doesn't mean anything to them just to say it," Pierce said. "They want to see us live up to what we say."
Staff writer John Asbury contributed to this report.
Reach Paul LaRocco at 951-368-9468 or plarocco@PE.com
www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_outreach07.413b2eb.html