The Department of Justice invites tribal leaders from across the nation to join us October 4 and 5, 2010 at Northern Quest Resort and Casino in Airway Heights, WA, approximately 10 miles from Spokane, WA for a two-day government-to-government Tribal Consultation session.

The purpose of the first day of the consultation is to solicit recommendations from tribal government leaders on the following three topics related to ending violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women:

• Enhancing the safety of Indian women from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
• Strengthening the Federal response to crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
• Administering grant funds appropriated for tribal governments and programs created to benefit tribal governments by the Violence Against Women Act.

The second day will be a consultation on Department of Justice grant funding for tribal governments, focusing on the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) process that was implemented for a number of Department of Justice tribal grants in Fiscal Year 2010. This consultation will address grant programs at the Office on Violence Against Women, the Office of Justice Programs, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

Goals for the second day:

• Learn from tribal leaders what worked well with the CTAS process
• Learn what did not work well with the CTAS process
• Compare the CTAS process to the past separate tribal-specific grant applications by program office
• Discuss the future of  the DOJ grant making process
• Solicit other recommendations

DOJ hopes that tribal leaders from across the nation will join us in Washington State to share their recommendations about how we can better work together to improve safety in tribal communities.