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New Thinking, from the Center for Justice Innovation - ‘Each One’s a Success When They Walk Through That Door’: Creating and Sustaining a Tribal Peacemaking
        Program

‘Each One’s a Success When They Walk Through That Door’: Creating and Sustaining a Tribal Peacemaking Program

07/06/12 • -1 min

New Thinking, from the Center for Justice Innovation

Peacemaker Administrator Anna Francis-Jack discusses tribal history and how The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington State have
launched and grown their peacemaking program. May 2012

ROBERT V. WOLF: Hi, I’m Rob Wolf, director of communications at the Center for Court Innovation. During
a visit to the Colville tribes in Washington State, I had a chance to interview a number of different people about
peacemaking, which is a traditional Native American approach to justice. In earlier podcasts, I spoke with two elders
and a client about their experiences with peacemaking, and in this podcast I talk with Anna Francis-Jack, who coordinates
the program. One of the first things we talked about was the building we were sitting in, which allowed Anna to talk
a bit about her tribe’s history.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

ANNA
FRANCIS-JACK: Yes, of course.

WOLF: Why don’t you say where we are actually.

FRANCIS-JACK:
We are at the Nesperse Long (sp?) house, which is one of the very last living legend of the Nesperse that went to
war, and we were exiled here as—my forefathers were exiled here as prisoners of war.

WOLF: And
approximately when was that?

FRANCIS-JACK: Late 1800’s.

WOLF: Okay.

FRANCIS-JACK: So some of the tribes refused to talk to us because—well refused to talk to my forefathers
because they had blood on their hands, because some of the tribes here on the Colville reservation never went to
war. That’s one of the intergenerational family traumas that still goes on today.

WOLF: And
this was a war against the whites, against the government?

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes, yes. but because
of who the chief Joseph Nesperse were, when they came here they weren’t quite welcome, so at one point I called
myself an Indian without a country because you know, we are still here despite all the odds. This is the only Long
House on the Colville reservation that practices tradition. We chose our religion, we chose our language—well not
me personally but my family, my forefathers, ancestors, and the ones that came before me. It’s what I was born
into.

WOLF: Why don’t you tell me how did your program get off the ground? You found some
peacemakers and you trained them? You trained each other?

FRANCIS-JACK: They gave me a resolution
that authorized the creation of the peacemaking circle program, and a list of elders.

WOLF: And
this was from the tribal council?

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes. So I began from there and I did a mail-out,
of course. I managed to get like 15 people to inquire. We started having meetings. I went off to Green Bay to the
traditional peacemaking, and I went to one of Fillmore Blue House’s presentations there and then I came back,
and then I started putting together information and sharing it with the elders, and then they would come and they
would give me things. And so everyone was doing research on peacemaking.

WOLF: And trying to look
at traditions.

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes.

WOLF: A traditional way of resolving conflict
and dealing with criminal behavior or misbehavior.

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes, but first we had to figure
out exactly what peacemaking was, and then they could relate it back to their different tribes within this specific
Colville reservation, since we’re a confederation—we have 12 tribes. And as I explained earlier, it’s the
prayer, it’s the smudging, it’s the talking, healing circle, and it’s the elders coming together,
you know, with the best needs of the client in mind at all times, trying to make him feel welcome, trying to make
him feel equal, trying to make him feel at ease, trying to make him trust. They have to search within themselves
to find that place that they can say, okay, I did this. I can be responsible. I can stand up and I can tell the elders
yes, I did this, yes, I was wrong. And maybe initially they just may mouth it but somewhere later on down the line,
they actually start conveying it. It’s not just words anymore.

WOLF: So just to be clear,
what you said before and what you just reiterated was that it starts, there’s a prayer involved, and then there’s
the ceremony, the smudge ceremony if someone wants to do that, and there’s a talking piece which can be handed
around and whoever holds the talking piece then speaks?

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes.

WOLF:
So what are some, what are the typical issues or offenses that are brought to a peacemaking circle?

FRANCIS-JACK:
Peacemaking was originally formed to handle juvenile cases but we don’t have an active juvenile code. But the
peacemaker was still created so don’t ask me why.

WOLF: But you do work with ju...

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Peacemaker Administrator Anna Francis-Jack discusses tribal history and how The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington State have
launched and grown their peacemaking program. May 2012

ROBERT V. WOLF: Hi, I’m Rob Wolf, director of communications at the Center for Court Innovation. During
a visit to the Colville tribes in Washington State, I had a chance to interview a number of different people about
peacemaking, which is a traditional Native American approach to justice. In earlier podcasts, I spoke with two elders
and a client about their experiences with peacemaking, and in this podcast I talk with Anna Francis-Jack, who coordinates
the program. One of the first things we talked about was the building we were sitting in, which allowed Anna to talk
a bit about her tribe’s history.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

ANNA
FRANCIS-JACK: Yes, of course.

WOLF: Why don’t you say where we are actually.

FRANCIS-JACK:
We are at the Nesperse Long (sp?) house, which is one of the very last living legend of the Nesperse that went to
war, and we were exiled here as—my forefathers were exiled here as prisoners of war.

WOLF: And
approximately when was that?

FRANCIS-JACK: Late 1800’s.

WOLF: Okay.

FRANCIS-JACK: So some of the tribes refused to talk to us because—well refused to talk to my forefathers
because they had blood on their hands, because some of the tribes here on the Colville reservation never went to
war. That’s one of the intergenerational family traumas that still goes on today.

WOLF: And
this was a war against the whites, against the government?

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes, yes. but because
of who the chief Joseph Nesperse were, when they came here they weren’t quite welcome, so at one point I called
myself an Indian without a country because you know, we are still here despite all the odds. This is the only Long
House on the Colville reservation that practices tradition. We chose our religion, we chose our language—well not
me personally but my family, my forefathers, ancestors, and the ones that came before me. It’s what I was born
into.

WOLF: Why don’t you tell me how did your program get off the ground? You found some
peacemakers and you trained them? You trained each other?

FRANCIS-JACK: They gave me a resolution
that authorized the creation of the peacemaking circle program, and a list of elders.

WOLF: And
this was from the tribal council?

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes. So I began from there and I did a mail-out,
of course. I managed to get like 15 people to inquire. We started having meetings. I went off to Green Bay to the
traditional peacemaking, and I went to one of Fillmore Blue House’s presentations there and then I came back,
and then I started putting together information and sharing it with the elders, and then they would come and they
would give me things. And so everyone was doing research on peacemaking.

WOLF: And trying to look
at traditions.

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes.

WOLF: A traditional way of resolving conflict
and dealing with criminal behavior or misbehavior.

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes, but first we had to figure
out exactly what peacemaking was, and then they could relate it back to their different tribes within this specific
Colville reservation, since we’re a confederation—we have 12 tribes. And as I explained earlier, it’s the
prayer, it’s the smudging, it’s the talking, healing circle, and it’s the elders coming together,
you know, with the best needs of the client in mind at all times, trying to make him feel welcome, trying to make
him feel equal, trying to make him feel at ease, trying to make him trust. They have to search within themselves
to find that place that they can say, okay, I did this. I can be responsible. I can stand up and I can tell the elders
yes, I did this, yes, I was wrong. And maybe initially they just may mouth it but somewhere later on down the line,
they actually start conveying it. It’s not just words anymore.

WOLF: So just to be clear,
what you said before and what you just reiterated was that it starts, there’s a prayer involved, and then there’s
the ceremony, the smudge ceremony if someone wants to do that, and there’s a talking piece which can be handed
around and whoever holds the talking piece then speaks?

FRANCIS-JACK: Yes.

WOLF:
So what are some, what are the typical issues or offenses that are brought to a peacemaking circle?

FRANCIS-JACK:
Peacemaking was originally formed to handle juvenile cases but we don’t have an active juvenile code. But the
peacemaker was still created so don’t ask me why.

WOLF: But you do work with ju...

Previous Episode

undefined - Peacemaking: How Native American Elders Use Tradition to Support Offender Reintegration

Peacemaking: How Native American Elders Use Tradition to Support Offender Reintegration

During a visit by the Tribal Justice Exchange to the Confederated
Tribes of the Colville Reservation
in Washington State, Robert V. Wolf talks with two elders–Matthew Dick
Jr. and Darlene Wilder–and a client about peacemaking, a traditional Native American approach to resolving both
criminal and civil issues. May 2012

ROB WOLF: Hi, I’m Rob Wolf, director of communications at the Center for Court Innovation. In this
New Thinking podcast, the focus is on peacemaking, the traditional Native American approach to resolving both criminal
and civil issues. Peacemaking focuses on repairing harm. In a peacemaking session, an offender might meet with a
group of elders who will talk about how the offender can make restitution and get his or her life back on track.
The Center for Court Innovation’s tribal justice exchange is in the process of exploring the creation of a pilot
peacemaking project in state court. I was lucky enough to join two of my colleagues on a visit to the Confederated
Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington State, where we had a chance to see a peacemaking session firsthand.
After that session, I recorded the following interview with two elders and a client about their personal take on
the peacemaking process.

ROB WOLF: With me are Matthew Dick, Jr., and elder and peacemaker, and
Darlene Wilder, also an elder and a peacemaker, and then Brad, who is a 29-year-old client who has participated in
peacemaking. So I’ll direct this to the elders here. If someone says to you, gosh what is peacemaking? How do
you explain it to someone? Matthew?

MATTHEW DICK, JR: From my perspective, peacemaking has been
in our culture forever. It’s just that we haven’t practiced it for a long time and peacemaking is the ability
to live together with a lot of people, like our tribes did a long time ago in harmony.

ROB WOLF:
Darlene? Take it from there.

DARLENE WILDER: I never really thought about it so much of what it
is, but how it’s done. And I think aboriginally or traditionally we did it in our family units, and predominantly
with what was called a talking circle, where you gather like we did earlier today and you just went around and spoke
about whatever it is that you needed to discuss or resolve, or question that had more than one point of view that
needed to be heard. And I was just recollecting, we kind of celebrated a birthday, but I went around and each one
of them, I had all of those around that circle talk about something in their lifetime, an experience that they had,
that they would like somebody else to have because they learned something from it, or an experience that they would
caution no one to have because they learned something from it. So that way even the smallest child who could speak
is able to relate to that. Some of it might just be a scary dream, they’d wake up and think there’s something
under the bed or whatever, and they’d go look under the bed and there really isn’t anything there. So that’s
how I think a long time ago our family probably did this peacemaking. We would talk about what our experience was
and how we could benefit others by that experience. To me, that’s what peacemaking is, where we can share whatever
it is we’ve had in our life, with someone who is seeking more information that they don’t have or never
had the opportunity for that.

ROB WOLF: And so in the context of peacemaking here in Colville
now, you’re using those same principles you’ve just described in situations involving offending, and I
wonder how that goes. I’ll ask Brad in a minute about his experience, but I don’t know if Matthew wanted
to say anything about taking what Darlene described and putting it into this setting where you’re working with
someone who maybe has committed a serious crime, or some sort of crime.

MATTHEW DICK, JR: And
what the traditions that Darlene was talking about is some of the rights of passage of our people a long time ago,
their transition from being a child to a teenager and to an adult, and that’s one of the things, some of the
things that at least the peacemaker circle that I’ve been involved in, is that we try to bring those kinds of
traditions back up and talk about them, and explain why they were so important. And it’s so amazing the reception
that we get from the people that have been involved with us, because when I was 29 years old, I would have never
thought to sit down with my elders and try to learn something. I was one of those kids that knew it all and I was
bullet proof. Once you begin to learn about those traditions that have made the Native Americans such a strong people,
that have lasted through all these traumatic events that I was talking about ...

Next Episode

undefined - Can Batterers be Rehabilitated?

Can Batterers be Rehabilitated?

David Adams, co-founder and co-director of Emerge,
the first counseling program in the nation for men who abuse women, discusses the inner workings, challenges,
and potential benefits of group counseling for men who batter. (July 2012)

SARAH SCHWEIG: Hi, I’m Sarah Schweig, of the Center for Court Innovation, and today I’m speaking
with Dr. David Adams. Dr. Adams is co-founder and co-director of Emerge, the first counseling program in the nation
for men who abuse women. He is one of the nation’s leading experts on men who batter and has conducted trainings
for social service and criminal justice professionals in 46 states and 18 nations. Dr. Adams has also conducted outreach
to victims of abuse for 35 years. Thanks for speaking with me today.

DR. DAVID ADAMS: Thank you.

SARAH SCHWEIG: Can you give us a little background about the kind of counseling you do? What kinds of issues
does counseling in this case seek to address? And is there a kind of model you use or promising practice?

DR. DAVID ADAMS: Well, I mean first of all, it’s small groups, and secondly the model that we use is
male/female co-facilitated. And the reason we do that is that we really want to provide a role modeling opportunity
for the abusive men to see women and men working together operatively and sharing leadership. Our program is divided
into two phases. There’s an educational phase, which is the first eight weeks where they’re exposed to
just really basic information about what is abusive behavior, broadening their understanding that it’s not just
the illegal behavior. How does it affect their partner, how does it affect their children, other alternatives and
so forth. But then the more interesting phase, you know, the second phase which is the remaining 32 weeks is more
of an interactive group. And that’s where we’re a little different as a model from other kinds of programs.
because we’re a psycho-educational model, not just an educational model, which really means that we’re
able to give individualized feedback to the men in the program, and to really kind of like focus more in depth about
each person’s history of abusive behavior. We actually do a very interesting exercise, which I call a relationship
history, where we ask each person 14 questions about every intimate relationship he’s had. And it’s done
right in the group. The other men ask the questions. And we do another interesting exercise where we really develop
very individualized goals for each man in the group, and the other men, again, are very involved in that process,
making suggestions about what goals make sense for that person. And so really the whole purpose of the goal of our
program is to really learn two things. One is respect, and how is respect communicated in relationships—not just
with your partner or with your children, but also empathy too. Because most abusers are very—kind of have a narcissistic
orientation and so the beginning stages, it’s really clear that it’s hard for them to see their own behavior
from their partner’s perspective. And so over time, we’re really trying to do that. We’re trying to build
that into the program so that even when men are giving each other feedback in a group, we’re asking men to try
to see things from the partner’s perspective. So when a man’s reporting an interaction with his partner,
for instance, we’re asking all the other men to say, okay, what do you think his partner’s perspective
was in that interaction? And in the process, they are learning empathy too. Because it’s easier, I think sometimes
to recognize another person’s abusive behavior than one’s own, you know? So we kind of take advantage of
that natural ability that abusers have. They’re very good at actually spotting other people’s abusive behavior,
not so much their own. And so we really kind of teach the men how to give each other constructive feedback, and how
to kind of hold each other to a higher standard. That’s really kind of the premise of our program.

SARAH SCHWEIG: So, as you know treating domestic violence offenders can be controversial. Some people say
that abusers can’t be reformed or treated. Can you talk a little bit about how this affects your work, and what
you have seen in your perspective?

DR. DAVID ADAMS: Yeah. Well, I think there’s been a lot
of misinformation about the outcome studies that have been done, first of all, and I also think it kind of reflects
that the outcome that has been done has a very kind of narrow definition of what outcome is, you know, too, because
I always say I’d like to get the same deal the substance abuse programs get. Because nobody ever questions the
value of substance abuse programs, and yet their outcomes aren’t any better than ours. And yet, somehow for
us...

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