Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 9, 1 September 1994 — Indian courts, Hawaiian judge [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Indian courts, Hawaiian judge

But justice important to both

by Ellen Blomquist People frequently compare the Hawaiian and Indian experience, both politically and historically, but at least one Hawaiian woman is living proof that Hawaiians and lndians meet on eommon ground - the search for justice. Violet Lui-Frank, a graduate of Kamehameha Schools and former researcher at its Kamehameha Schools Early Education Program, is currently Chief Judge for the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Court in Tucson. Lui-Frank was in town to visit family and attend the Native Hawaiian Bar Association's retreat July 30. She took time to meet with OHA administration and staff and share her experiences with tribal justice. After leaving the employ of Kamehameha Schools, Lui-Frank attended UC Berkeley's law school, graduating in 1978. Her decision to go to law school was

prompted in part by a desire to "make a difference for our people" and attending an A.L.O.H.A. meeting in the early '70s was her first opportunity to meet lawyers, and

find out there was "something I could do." Her decision to eoneentrate on Indian law led to her first job in Indian Legal Services, at the White Mountain Apaehe reservation in Arizona. After stints in Alaska and on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, Lui-Frank was appointed in 1990 to her present position.

1 he Pascua Y aqui number 8,000 with about 3,000 living on the reservation. According to Lui-Frank, they are a very young recognized tribe, achieving their status through act of Congress in 1978.

Apparently some Indians consider Yaquis an upstart tribe since they eome from "south of the border," though LuiFrank notes that there was no border to be

south of when the Yaquis reached their present location. And we ean all take great pride in surviving, she adds. As far as federal recognition goes, Lui-Frank says "It's about establishing a political relationship with the federal government. The people exist before and after that." But she also says there is heavy emotional vesting in that recognition and that tribes who have

had tnat relationship removed - usually because of substantial interest in

their land, mineral and other resources — suffer a great deal.

The first step toward recognition is selfidentifying, she says, and commended OHA for its Operation 'Ohana enrollment. She also noted, though, that one-quarter blood quantum is generally the cut-off for federal benefits, although tribes differ in their blood quantum requirements. And how does Indian justice proceed? Lui-Frank says that tribes differ in their governmental processes. In many instances, the processes were imposed by the federal government but the tribes made them their own. She cites the Navajo Council as an example. "The feds set up a Navajo Council and told the different villages to send their leaders. So the real leaders sent in the second string to feel out the

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Indian courts, Hawaiian judge

from page 5 situation anel repon back." And eventually, she added, the Navajos adopted a tripartite government, with separate legislative. executive and judicial branches. Whatever judicial system is adopted must involve, at a minimum, sensitivity to traditional culture. In contrast to Western interrogatories, "Don't ask," she says, "listen, watch and wait." She said, every onee in awhile someone asks, "Wh> dou'l \ou do something cultural?" And she says, "I am; I'm living it." As one instance. she said there's mueh discussion within the Yaqui judiciary of the Fifth Amendment and the Miranda decision. "We keep waming the defendant to not incriminate themselves, that they have the righi to remain silent, but they want to confess because they are known in the community and everyone in the community knows what's going on and what they did. We have to halanee this need with eomplianee with federal and state jurisdictions." In the old days, Yaqui elders would meet publicly to hash out a situation and mete out consequences, from lectures to flogging. In one story Lui-Frank heard, a tribal member who was too violent was sent to the oceans to "retum to his ancestors because he couldn't live with the

people the tribes down here." When asked whether Indians maintained more continuity in their culture than Hawaiians, Lui-Frank replied, "Some things were lost. Like us. But some of tho.se things were meant to be lost. Harmful things." She cautioned that if Hawaiians seek sovereignty, they niust be careful about the disposition of their resources. For example, "Don't let them put the water code in cement." she said, "throw in a monkey wrench. We are the monkey wrench because we exist." In surnming up the native experience, Lui-Frank said, "There's no one magic solution, but we must all keep working together. There's no perfect time to be ready. You just have to make it work."