INDIANZ.COM LISTENING LOUNGE Senate Indian Affairs Committee oversight hearing on on Tracking Sex Offenders in Indian Country: Tribal Implementation of the Adam Walsh Act. July 17, 2008. • Opening Statement • Testimony | Q&A • Written Testimony | Webcast

"A looming federal deadline that requires tribes to track and register sex offenders in their communities was both embraced and denounced by tribal leaders in a Senate hearing on Thursday.

The Adam Walsh Act, a law to track the whereabouts of people who commit sex crimes, calls for tribes to comply with the federal law by next April or step aside so a state's attorney general can do the job.

Sen. Byron Dorgan D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, called on tribal leaders and national spokesmen to testify on Indian Country's success and failures in complying with the sex offender registration act.

“Warm Springs was surprised and upset, as was most of Indian Country, to learn that Congress has jeopardized our sovereignty, subjecting our governments to the mandates of the Adam Walsh Act,” said Chairman Ron Suppah of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. “Faced with the option to comply or lose our jurisdiction, we have opted to comply even though we have little experience in registering sex offenders.”

States, on the other hand, have had decades to create sex offender monitoring systems, said Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C."

Get the Story:
Jodi Rave: Tribal leaders testify to Congress on mandate to register sex offenders (The Missoulian 7/18)

Committee Notice:
OVERSIGHT HEARING on Tracking Sex Offenders in Indian Country: Tribal Implementation of the Adam Walsh Act (July 17, 2008)

Relevant Laws:
Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act | Violence Against Women Act of 2005

Relevant Documents:
White House Fact Sheet: The Adam Walsh Child Protection And Safety Act Of 2006 | President Signs H.R. 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006

Minnesota Supreme Court Decision:
Minnesota v Peter John Jones (March 22, 2007)

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