Justice Department and Indian Law Expert Working Groups Convened

The SMART Office has convened two Indian Country working groups. The first group consists of Indian Country experts from the U.S. Department of Justice and is focusing on complex issues of law raised during implementation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) in Indian Country. This group initially met in September 2008 and continues to work on these issues with the Office of Justice Programs' SMART Office and the Office of General Counsel.

In addition, the SMART Office is working with several respected Indian law experts from around the country on model codes, memorandums of agreement, and cooperative agreements. This second working group met in November 2008, in the District of Columbia. Ongoing participants in this endeavor with SMART staff are—

• Joshua J. Breedlove, Staff Attorney for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
• M. Brent Leonhard, Deputy Attorney General for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
• Pablo H. Padilla, Attorney with the Nordhaus Law Firm.
• Sarah Deer, Professor, William Mitchell School of Law.
• Maureen White Eagle, Attorney with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute.
• Hallie Bonger White, Attorney and Executive Director for the Southwest Center for Law and Policy.
• Michelle Rivard, Associate Director, Tribal Judicial Institute, University of North Dakota School of Law.
• Sarah Brubaker, Prosecutor for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
• Virginia Davis, Associate Counsel for the National Congress of American Indians.

The goal of this working group is to provide a SORNA-compliant template or sample language for tribal leaders to consider as they work to implement SORNA by the statutory deadline.