Joint Tribal-State Jurisdiction

Across Indian Country tribes are strengthening and better defining their governments in order to meet the unique needs of their communities. As Native nations work to expand their sovereign powers, tribal justice departments can play a critical role in achieving those goals.

Approximately 60% of the Leech Lake community’s Native residents struggle with serious drug and alcohol addictions. For many Leech Lake offenders, substance abuse is also linked to other root causes of crime, such as family violence and historical trauma.


Because Minnesota is subject to Public Law 280, Leech Lake citizens who break the law are adjudicated in state court. As it was constituted, however, the state justice system could not address these root causes of crime.

The new system is embodied in a Wellness Court, created through tribal-county partnerships, that is focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment.

As of 2011, Leech Lake had signed two “Joint Powers” agreements to formalize judicial cooperation. In the agreements, the tribal and county courts pledge to “jointly exercise the powers and authorities conferred upon us as judges of our respective jurisdictions.” The tribe’s two joint Wellness Courts (in Cass and Itasca counties) monitor and provide services to participants after their sentencing in county court.

The Wellness Court has maintained an impressive recidivism rate of .03%, with only 1 of their 35 graduates reoffending since 2006. A program participant who had been incarcerated over 15 times and had been an addict since age 13 noted, “This program has taught me how to change.”

One county district court judge noted that he used to think tribal courts were inferior to state and federal courts but has “come to understand that they are equal and parallel systems.”