Judicial Services

If you are a Leech Lake or White Earth Member and need representation in a criminal matter, please contact the Regional Native Public Defense to apply for services. Service Areas are in Cass County, Becker County, Clearwater County, Beltrami County, Mahnomen County and Itasca County.

Anishinabe Legal Services is a Legal Services Corporation (LSC) grantee and independent 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides free legal assistance to low-income individuals living on or near the Leech Lake, Red Lake, & White Earth Reservations in Northwestern Minnesota.

A guardian ad litem (GAL) is court appointed to investigate what the best interests of the child are in cases involving matters such as child protection, orders for protection, custody and divorces. The GAL will advise the court on matters such as where the children should reside, whether the child is harmed by substance abuse, and what contact the child should have with a parent.

The Legal Department tracks changes in State and Federal Government including Legislators, legislation, decisions, rulings and relevant court decisions to determine how they may impact the Tribe and closely reviews all contracts.

The White Earth/Mahnomen County DWI Court will provide accountability and culturally specific treatment to the high risk/high need DWI offender thereby enhancing public safety and creating healthier families and communities.

The White Earth/Mahnomen County DWI Court hopes to accomplish this mission by achieving the following goals:

• Promote public safety by reducing the number of DWI incidents, thereby saving lives.
• Provide individualized, culturally specific treatment programming as a sustainable alternative to incarceration.
• Assist high risk/high need DWI offenders to become productive citizens and healthy family members.

Improving the participant quality of life through clean sober independent, and productive living; with the option of voluntary exposure to the best-practices principles of an Anishinaabe. The Mino-Bimaadiziwin (The Good Life) traditional/cultural model of living life in a good way including the seven teachings ( Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Humility and Truth).

The goal of the Program is to reduce drug-related crime and improve the quality of life for all residents by providing a balance of treatment, sanctions, incentives and services to substance abusing offenders in a judicially supervised program that makes available Anishinaabe and Western best-practices healing services, for the purpose of ensuring the chance of achieving and maintaining Mino-Bimaadiziwin (The Good Life) health of our community.

The Program strives to accomplish this mission by:

• Protecting the public through increasing public safety, reducing crime/recidivism, and making participants and the community whole by giving clients the option of both Modern and traditional support options.
• Improving communication among all stakeholders, which will in turn increase effectiveness between agencies.
• Improving the quality of life of the participants in leading clean, sober, independent and productive lives; with the option of participating in the best-practices principles of an Anishinaabe Mino-Bimaadiziwin (The Good Life) traditional/cultural model of living life in a good way.

The tools used to provide this assistance include strengths-based treatment planning and case management, substance abuse treatment, rigorous court supervision, evidence based incentives and sanctions, best practices, as well as the collaboration of inter-disciplinary team members. The Healing to Wellness Court provides access to holistic, structured, and phased alcohol and drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation services that incorporate the option of Anishinaabe Mino-Bimaadiziwin (The Good Life) best-practices culture and tradition.