Consultation on the FY 2024 Tribal Set-Aside from the Crime Victims Fund | Day 2 | January 18, 2024

MARLENE MACK: We would like to welcome you to the Office for Victims of Crime Consultation on the FY 2024 Set-Aside from the Crime Victims Fund. For awareness, this session will be recorded. If you do not consent to recording, we ask that you disconnect at this time. 

To help with audio quality, all lines are in listening mode. This Consultation is closed to the press, so we ask if you are a member of the press to disconnect at this time. 

Live captioning is available. To enable it, click on the “Show Captions” option in your Zoom menu bar. I invite you to use the chat feature to tell us where you are from and say hello to everyone. If you have any technical difficulties, please let us know by chat so that we can help make sure that you are able to fully support in the conversation today. You can also email our technical support, using the email on the screen – [email protected]. 

During this consultation, Tribal leaders and their designees will offer testimony or statements on the Tribal Set Aside from the Crime Victims Fund for the Fiscal Year 2024. Thank you to all the Tribal leaders and their designees who preregister to give oral testimony during this consultation. Our colleagues who are managing the logistics behind the event will be checking in with you to make sure you are ready to speak at the appropriate time. 

If you are a Tribal leader or a Tribal designee and did not register to give testimony but wish to speak, please use the chat to type “testimony request” and give your name, Tribal affiliation, and title. You will be added to the queue of speakers. You can do this at any time during today's consultation. 

When it is your time to give testimony, your name will be announced. And your video and audio feeds will be live and unmuted. You can decide if you would like to have your video enabled while you speak. 

If you don't wish to have your video enabled, that is fine. We will unmute your audio and we will receive your audio testimony. We will ask that you restate your name, Tribal affiliation, and title as you begin your testimony. If you are a Tribal leader designee, then we ask you to also say the name of the Tribal Chief or chairperson on whose behalf you are offering testimony today. Thank you for reconfirming this information for us so that we can include it in the recording of this event. 

OVC also welcomes written testimony from Tribal leaders. Please send your written testimony to [email protected] no later than February 28th. This email address is being added to the chat. It will be in the email that will go out to all registered for this consultation after the event concludes. 

I will now turn over the meeting to our facilitator, LeBretia White, director of OVC's Tribal Division. 

LEBRETIA WHITE: Thank you, Marlene. Greetings and welcome to all who have joined day 2 of the Office for Victims of Crime Tribal consultation for the FY 2024 Tribal Victim Services Set Aside from the Crime Victims Fund. I am LeBretia White, the Office for Victims of Crime Tribal Division director. And I consider it a privilege to lead a team of 14 committed grant management specialists responsible for the administration of funding and provision of supportive services to Tribal grantees who work daily to provide services to crime victims in their communities. We appreciate your attendance and look forward to hearing the testimony from Tribal leaders or their designees. 

I will be the consultation facilitator today along with my supervisor, Katherine Darke Schmitt, OVC’s Principal Deputy Director. 

I will say we are honored today to have with us Irene Arnold, Tribal Elder from Tanacross, Alaska, to open our Consultation today with a prayer. Irene was born and raised in Tanacross, Alaska. Her mother’s side of the family is from Diihthaad. Her name was Stella Luke Solomon. Her father’s side of the family was from Saages Cheeg, Ketchumstock. His name was Silas Solomon. Irene’s maternal grandparents were Harry and Jennie Luke. Her paternal grandparents were Peter and Annie Solomon. 

In 1992, Irene began teaching the Tanacross language in Tok, Alaska, for the Alaska Gateway School District. She completed an Associate of Applied Science degree in Native Language Education with the Yukon Native Language Centre at Yukon College in Whitehorse, in conjunction with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

She has been a lifelong advocate for language and cultural education for younger generations. Tribal elder Irene Arnold, please begin when you are ready. 

IRENE ARNOLD: [Speaking in Native language] 

KATHERINE DARKE SCHMITT: We are very grateful to elder Arnold for opening our consultation in a good way today. Thank you very much for honoring us with that blessing. 

I am Katherine Darke Schmitt. I am the Principal Deputy Director of the Office for Victims of Crime. We are so grateful to have all of you here to participate in our annual consultation. This consultation provides a forum for our government-to-government communication about the challenges, chronic and emergent, that Tribes encounter in serving victims of crime in American Indian and Alaskan Native communities. 

At the Office for Victims of Crime, we value our partnership with Tribes, and we try to demonstrate through the Tribal Division's efforts to incorporate your recommendations into how the Tribal set-aside funding is administered. 

I would now like to introduce the Director for the Office for Victims of Crime, Kristina Rose, who will provide opening remarks. Director Rose was appointed to the position of Director by President Joe Biden and sworn in on July 12, 2021. Prior to her appointment, Director Rose spent nearly 20 years at the U.S. Department of Justice serving in various roles including as the Deputy Director of OVC as well as the Deputy Director and the acting Director at the National Institute of Justice and Chief of Staff at the Office on Violence Against Women. Director Rose, we are happy to have you share opening remarks at this time. 

KRISTINA ROSE: Thanks so much, Katherine. Hello everyone, I know for some of you it’s good morning, and for some of you it’s good afternoon. We are so glad to have you here today. Let me start by thanking Tribal elder Irene Arnold for providing the taping of that beautiful prayer. We are grateful and honored by her participation. And I am honored to be here with all of you today too, in this government-to-government setting. Today we’re going to talk about the FY 24 Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside from the Crime Victims Fund. And you will hear me and others refer to it as the Tribal set-aside, or the set-aside program, or the TVSSA. We’ll try to be as consistent as we can, but we do refer to it in a couple of different ways. 

Today's consultation supports President Biden's commitment to strengthening nation-to-nation relationships and it is rooted in his commitment to the trust and treaty responsibilities and the desire to strengthen Tribal sovereignty and advance Tribal self-determination. We are so grateful for this opportunity to have direct conversations with you about the implementation of the Tribal set-aside and other critical issues that are facing Tribal nations. So thank you to the Tribal leaders from whom we will hear today. We thank you for your leadership and for your advocacy. We are honored that you have chosen to join us here for this important conversation.

I also want to thank all of our Tribal grantees. Some of whom are joining us today. They provide the support every single day to crime victims, survivors, and their family members. We know that the work you do really hard. And it can often seem overwhelming. But you continue on and you ensure that crime victims have the information, the options, the services that they need to find their justice. Thank you for all that you do. 

I'm grateful for the efforts of Katherine Darke Schmitt and LeBretia White and the entire OVC Tribal Division for their innovative efforts to incorporate Tribal leaders’ recommendations into the TVSSA program. Special thank you to my wonderful colleague, Mary Atlas-Terry, for leading the effort to prepare the framing paper and the annual report in preparation for this consultation. If you have not seen these documents, if there isn’t yet, there will be a link in the chat for you to get to those. 

Now as many of you are already aware, in 2018, Congress authorized a set-aside from the Crime Victims Fund cap for grants to Tribal communities to enhance services for victims of crime. And since 2019 , the set-aside has been 5 percent of the CVF cap. As a reminder, the CVF cap is the amount of money that Congress authorizes OVC to spend in a given Fiscal Year. And the amount of funding under the set-aside varies from year to year. 

For example, the set-aside totaled about $133 million in FY 18. But it decreased to $95 million in FY 23 in that Fiscal Year. You can find more details about each of the Fiscal Years in the annual report in the chat. Now, Congress has not yet passed an appropriations bill for the Department of Justice for FY 24. We don’t have confirmation on how much the set-aside will be. However, the house and the Senate Mark suggests a $1.2 billion cap on the CVF. 5 percent of that is $60 million and that is what would be set-aside for the Tribal program. Now that is a decrease from last year. And I know this is not welcomed news. 

The proposed reduction in the cap seeks to align spending with the estimated projections for the revenue that comes into the fund so that we can protect the balance of the fund over the long term. We monitor the balance of the CVF very closely. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, to your grant manager, or you can visit the OVC website, and we post all of the information about the income, deposits to the Crime Victims Fund on our website. I also do a monthly broadcast called “From the Director's Desk", and it is in that broadcast that I provide monthly updates on not only some of the activities of our Office, and I often speak about the wonderful visits that we have with our Tribal grantees, but I also give updates on the Crime Victims Fund. If you go to our website, there is information on the page there you can link directly to the “From the Director’s Desk” and you’ll start getting emails about that. So, Congress – okay, we talked about that. Let’s go back to TVSSA. 

Since FY 20, following consultation with the Tribes, OVC has been administrating the TVSSA program using what we call a population-based administrative formula. This change transformed the TVSSA from a competitive discretionary grant program to a noncompetitive formula program. And that helped to reduce many of the administrative barriers to accessing the funds that folks so desperately needed. And that change was because you told us that you did not want to compete with other Tribes for funding. You wanted it to be a formula program so that you wouldn’t have the competition as part of your approach. In FY 23, 267 Tribes signaled their intent to apply for TVSSA funds by submitting these population certificates and that was the most we have received to date. 

However, 55 Tribes that initially submitted those certificates they later formally withdrew their applications or they just did not complete the application process. This is not a new phenomenon. We have encountered similar attrition rates since switching to this formula process. The reasons that Tribal communities cite for not putting their applications in – sometimes Tribes will realize that new funding was not needed to continue their victim service programs. Sometimes the decision was made for Tribes to come together and apply as a consortium. Others cited staff turnover, insufficient time to complete their application, or a lack of communication or confusion about the application process. 

In FY 23, after careful and thoughtful deliberation with Tribal leaders, OVC allocated the remaining amount that was there because of the folks that did not apply. We were able to allocate that money to support Tribal programs and activities, and we detailed all of that information in our annual report. I encourage you to take a look at that. 

Ultimately, 212 Tribes completed the two phased TVSSA application process and OVC awarded nearly $70 million from the Tribal set-aside in FY 23. And now that brings us to FY 24. And as you probably know, we are currently accepting population certification forms under the first phase of the program. And that will go on until February 9th. All federally recognized Tribes including those that previously received a TVSSA award, whether it was in 2023 or earlier, are invited to submit your population certifications. And a link to the online form has been or will be very shortly placed in the chat. I can’t see the chat, so I am just making the assumption that it is going to get there. 

For those of you who have not yet submitted your population certification or have not sought funding in the past, I want to share some unique features of the TVSSA formula program, many of which were implemented after consultations like this one and getting the valuable input about what works and what didn’t work for you all in that application process. 

Applicants can choose the project period for their annual awards to be from anywhere between 12 months and 60 months. 

Applicants have the option to complete a checklist or an interview instead of writing a traditional program narrative. And in fact, during FY 23, four Tribal Division staff spent over four weeks in Alaska to conduct 25 in-person interviews and provide technical assistance to Tribal communities. Additionally, OVC staff hosted 65 virtual interviews with other applicants in Alaska and but also including the lower 48. 

Allowable expenses include those related to culturally specific services. This can include traditional arts, ceremonies, or foods as part of a ceremonial healing response to an individual who has undergone trauma and is seeking to become realigned with the community and restored to health and balance. 

Options to expend funds on construction expenses has led to the approval of projects like building tiny houses to provide temporary shelter to domestic violence survivors. It has enabled extensive renovations to existing shelters and victim services offices and the purchase, installation, and site preparation for modular buildings and other prefabricated structures. 

Grantees can now use their funds to address the needs of families of missing persons. We believe that this change creates a wonderful opportunity for Tribal communities to direct much needed funding towards serving the loved ones of missing and murdered Indigenous persons to help generate awareness around this. To also create systemic change to really push that culture change that needs to happen to remove the barriers that currently exist. So, I encourage you to submit those population certifications. But I’m just going to say again, another note of caution, and I said this earlier. Congress has not yet passed an appropriations bill for FY 24. Until Congress passes that bill, we will not know how much the set-aside will be. 

Before I close, I want to share some efforts underway at OVC that we are doing to support our Tribal partners. We executed a contract to provide support and technical assistance to grantees with plans to complete construction projects. So now we have expert help for Tribes as they complete those projects. 

OVC's Tribal Division is expanding from 13 to 21 team members so that we can fully support the over 900 active grants that have been awarded to 342 individual Tribes, Tribal designees or consortia. One of our new employees and two recently selected candidates are enrolled Tribal members and four of the six new grant members will be working remotely in Alaska or in one of the lower 48 states.

Efforts are underway to plan how OVC in collaboration with other agencies can address the recommendations from the Not Invisible Act commission report. 

We are preparing for the National Indian Nations Conference, which is tentatively scheduled for December of 2024. We are very excited about this. I can’t believe it has been more than a year since we had the last one. It was such a transformative experience for me and for many of the OVC staff who were in attendance. I look forward to seeing if not all of you, many of you there. That is it for now. 

Again to reiterate, that when we reach the testimony portion of today's consultation, know that we welcome your comments and recommendations on any topics related to OVC's Tribal programming whether it is the needs of your communities or any other issues related to crime victimization that you think should be addressed by OVC or DOJ. 

Before we start, I have the great pleasure of introducing my boss. She has recorded a message for you. I have to say, that Amy Solomon, the Assistance Attorney General for Office of Justice Programs, is someone who so supports the work that we do and is strongly behind all of our efforts and has really helped make many of them possible. She recognizes the importance of consultations and how they impact the way we are able to interact and support Tribal communities. So here's Amy and thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to seeing you all in the future. 

AMY SOLOMON: Hello. I am Amy Solomon, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. I want to thank you for attending this Tribal consultation hosted by OJP’s Office for Victims of Crime. The information discussed in the stories shared over these two days will be instrumental in determining how we improve the ways the Department of Justice and OVC can support crime victims in Tribal communities. I'm grateful for the invaluable testimony, Tribal leaders will provide both during this consultation and in writing.

OVC has always relied on your feedback, insights, and perspectives to refine programs that serve Tribal communities. And the successful implementation of the Tribal victim services set-aside formula program demonstrates our commitment to reaching American Indian and Alaska Native victims. 

Since 2018, OVC has awarded approximately $738 million in set-aside funding to support the delivery of victim services and Tribal communities. These awards have supported critical services to thousands of crime victims in Tribal communities across the nation. They are paying the salaries of victim advocates. They are providing shelter and providing groceries for victims. They are being used to strengthen victim protection and Tribal codes. And they are helping to support healing ceremonies. 

OVC is working hard to make sure this program is administered as efficiently as possible so that we are able to maximize the services available to crime victims. After listening to feedback from Tribal leaders, OVC has ensured that funding for the Tribal victim set-aside program will address a broad range of needs. 

For example, in the past two years, they have expanded the program guidelines to open opportunities for services in cases involving missing or murdered Indigenous people. The guidelines also now allow funding for certain construction or renovation projects. We are committed to working with you to enhance and expand access to victim services in your communities. That pledge reflects a larger Justice Department commitment to safety of Tribal communities. Attorney General Garland has made it clear that working hand-in-hand with Tribes to help reduce crime and support victims is a top priority of this Department of Justice. 

The Attorney General has called on U.S. attorneys with Indian country jurisdiction to be proactive in addressing existing and emerging public safety issues and he has directed their offices to develop updated operational plans to improve safety and justice on Tribal lands. What you do daily to support victims and to advocate on their behalf with Tribal courts supports this effort. 

I am so proud of the work that OVC is doing in support of Tribal communities and I'm also aware that none of that work is possible without guidance from Tribal leaders. With your feedback, we are constantly refining and improving our programs so that you have the resources you need to provide effective and compassionate services to crime victims in your communities. We are honored by your participation in this consultation, and we look forward to hearing from you and learning from your experiences. Thank you for the gift of your time today and for all that you do to serve crime victims in your communities. 

LEBRETIA WHITE: Thank you so much, Director Rose and Assistant Attorney General Solomon for your remarks and your ongoing support for victims of crime and all of the department's Tribal grant programs.

I'm pleased to say we are honored to have 4 Tribal leaders and their designees registered to speak at this consultation. As a reminder, if you are a Tribal leader or a Tribal leader designee, and you wish to give testimony, but have not registered to do so, we also welcome your participation. Please use the chat to type “testimony request” and give your name, Tribal affiliation, and title. You will be added to the queue of speakers, you can do this at any time during today's consultation. 

When it is your time to give testimony, your name will be announced, and your video and audio feeds will be live and unmuted. You can decide if you would like to have a video enabled while you speak. If you don't wish to, that is perfectly fine. We will unmute your audio and you will then be able to deliver your testimony via audio. We will ask that you restate your name, Tribal affiliation, and title as you begin your testimony. If you are a Tribal leader's designee, then we ask that you also say the name and title of the Tribal leader on whose behalf you are offering your testimony today. 

Thank you for reconfirming this information for us so that we can include it in the record of this event. As a reminder, we also welcome written testimony from Tribal leaders, please send your written testimony to us by February 28th, 2024, via email at [email protected]. My colleagues are putting the email address in the chat for you so that you can connect with us in that way. Again, written testimonies are due by February 28th, 2024.

And I want to reiterate that if you have any technical difficulties understanding us speak, making yourself understood, using the features, please let us know in the chat so that we can help to make sure that you are able to fully participate in the conversation on today. 

As a reminder, the consultation questions for this session are available. I think -- there may be a slide available to show those. Okay. And if not, you have already received the questions as well as other information relative to today's consultation.

I will continue on by saying only Tribal leaders and their designees -- So we have looks like -- there we go. Information is now being made available about the framing paper and the questions. And that is available to you on the screen.

So only Tribal leaders and their designees will be called to testify and we plan to host a listening session at a later day for any attendees who would like to otherwise share. Written testimonies is reviewed by the Tribal Division of the Office for Victims of Crime. For those providing oral presentations and as well for those who solely submit written testimonies.

At this time, we are now ready to open the consultation for testimony. Our first speaker today will be Samantha Thornsberry. She is a Tribal Councilmember and director of the Cahuilla consortium victim advocacy program. At this time, Tribal Councilmember Thornsberry, you have the floor for giving your testimony. You can now unmute your line. Begin your testimony when you are ready by repeating your name, Tribal affiliation, and title.

SAMANTHA THORNSBERRY: [Speaking in Native language] Good day, good morning from Southern California. My name is Samantha Thornsberry. I am Tribal Councilmember for the Cahuilla Band of Indians and I'm the program director of our victim advocacy program. We as  known as the Cahuilla Consortium and we are a consortium of four Tribes which includes the Cahuilla Band of Indians, the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indiana, the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians, and the Torres Martinez Band of Desert Cahuilla Indians. 

I always like to start out and say thank you, humbled to be with all of you today. I'm glad that everyone is here. I'm happy for the opportunity to provide testimony because I think that is a really important thing that we do when we have these discussions to better collaborate and improve upon the work that we are all doing. I started out with the Cahuilla consortium as the first advocate. I was the staff of one in 2010. I've been fortunate to, I guess, realize the importance of this work and this is going on 14 years. Now I'm the program director and we have added to our staff and we have infrastructure now and, you know, this is really good work. And it is needed work. It is necessary, and it is becoming my life's work actually. 

I'm tasked with writing all the grants. My background was in education, so that has kind of help me out being a bit of a nerd. So, I am tasked with writing the grants for the consortium, managing them, and then directing the program. 

Before I jump in, again, just a thank you to everybody and to OVC and the other Tribal leaders who are here today with us. Again, I emphasize that I believe that this is very important, what we are doing here. And I don't do this lightly. 

So, I guess just a tiny bit of context going back to my familiarity with Tribal Set-Aside. So the Cahuilla, Band on behalf of the Cahuilla consortium, we have participated in the 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022 OVC Tribal victims set-aside grant funding opportunities and we have been awarded in those years. Our last award in 2022 was a pretty good award of $1.3 million and these funds, I can't emphasize it enough, have allowed us to grow our program and our infrastructure. 

We started out in 2010 very heavily funded through OVW and FVPSA as just solely a DVSA program and now, you know, we have grown into this robust victim advocacy program. And we have become, and I will be honest with you, we have become somewhat reliant upon our OVC funding. We have grown like I said, the infrastructure, I'm sitting an office space of a new modular that we bought with the 2020 award. And now we offer a multitude of services and like I said, you know, jokingly in 2010, introduce my team. It was just me and now I actually have a team that I can introduce, and it is not just me anymore and we’re doing really good work. 

I'm just going to kind of jump into some of the issues that were put out in the white paper. The first one, administration of the formula grant program. The assumption that the appropriation for the set-aside is going to be reduced, you know, the thought of the award of $180,000, is just, well, that is not going to staff our program. One that we have grown with all of the adequate funding from 2018 to 2022. So again, we have built the program. And now we are faced with less funding to actually run the program. I just, you know, the question of, how does the 2024 budget impact our programming? I guess I would leave that with a question, how do I employ, let's say, three staff, for, let’s say, 3 years on $180,000? You know?

What funding is appropriated must be given out to all the applicants who meet the application requirements. There should be nothing left on the table. And I guess I should say the reason we did not go after 2023 funding, you know, I'm only one person. And so our capacity, by the way, we went after OVW. So the capacity and time and effort, that is what we focus on for last year. And now this year, I wanted to go after the 2024 set-aside. 

This set-aside, the appropriation from the victims of crime, it needs to be equitable. Tribes need, you know, we have a disproportionate amount of victimization in Indian country. I think this fluctuation in every year since 2018, it becomes less and less and less. You know, it almost feels a little bit like we are being set up for failure. And listen, I don't say that lightly. But it is like, we have built it, this funding was so valuable, invaluable to us and what we are doing and now there's going to be less. It is as if we took five steps forward and three steps back.

So I think what is out there needs to be divided equitably between all the grantees. We should never be leaving anything on the table because these funds are needed. Sometimes I think Tribes, and I was appreciative of the comments that were made, you know, sometimes, there's other reasons, maybe in this capacity, staffing, all of the things listed earlier, why we don't go after funding each year. Things come up.

I think if we know what it is the potential award after the first phase of the population certification. We need to know as soon as possible what that potential award would look like. I'm going to need time to plan and budget appropriately because I'm not going to be able to put in my mind, in my planning, I was planning for a $1.2, $1.3 million award. And it is, you know, far from that. So, I'm going to have to really be looking to other funding streams, whether that is OVW or FVPSA to fill in, there will be gaps that have been created because of this deficit appropriation. 

Issue number two, just about the application process. Again, we did not apply in 2023 but we plan to in 2024, our last application was in 2022. I did really appreciate the afforded flexibility. I chose to do the checklist instead of the narrative or the interview and that worked for us. I will say, and I'm sure it has been worked out now, there was some formatting or some kind of a technical issue with the actual checklist form. But I think that was worked out now. But it did cause a little, kerfuffle. I would just encourage timely review and approval of the final budget. It is always welcome. 

I did want to say one little thing. It is not so much about the application process but it is related. While I appreciate technical support and our TA providers and input, I would emphasize in my particular case, I think grantees should know that we, the grantees, ultimately the person, you know, that is responsible for writing something that we understand. So my experience with the TA provider was really, who really wanted to do a lot of edits on my budget. A budget, I will be the first to say, a budget always needs proofing. You can have little errors here and there, right? Crossing the T's, making sure things add up. But I felt at the end of the day, after that proofing, that my budget was pretty good because it was something that I understood, that I can speak to and work with. So I did take the recommendations from the TA provider. But then I chose not to use the recommended edits. I submitted the budget that I felt comfortable with, that I had drafted, it was something I wrote. Again, I understood and I could speak to. And it was approved. So just a note here that I think technical support is needed at times. And it is appreciated. But I think we need to be careful that technical support is used when needed or requested and not just because the TA is there and maybe they need something to do because there's been a carveout of funds to put them online with us. Right? 

If I had one last request also, is time is always needed when it comes to the application process. So just as an example, in December, we got on a call about the phase one of the application process. In particular to learn about the population certification knowing that it is due in February. Well, for many Tribes around me and part of the four that are part of this consortium, you know, the December or the winter month is really a time when things slow down a bit, there’s a bit of a break. But not necessarily because of the holidays but sometimes it can be. And other Tribes of the consortium, they basically meet. They convene with General Counsels on the second Sunday of the month. So that meant that the request to have the information, by the way, since I’m a consortium, I got to give the resolutions, and the population certifications. 

I knew that I had to get that information out to the Tribes and that when they met at the beginning of January by, January 14, I needed to have that to them so that they could present it to their counsel or membership. So, you know, I think this is a lack of understanding sometimes of how Tribal governments work. And we all work differently. I will be the first to admit that. And we are all unique in our own ways. But I think it is safe to say for most Tribes, especially, you know, in the winter, at least a 60-day turnaround for the population certification and to get that information or resolution signed, you know, I'm working really hard. And I hope I get, you know, all of the Tribes to provide me with that information so I can get it in by February 9th. It is the 18th today. I still don't have it because most of the Tribes met the 13th and 14th. So just a little, and I don’t mean to digress too much. But at least 60-day turnaround for anything that we have to do to get that signed off by the Tribes and/or resolution. 

I guess just another little side note. I would love to see better communication, collaboration, or coordination, or whatever you want to call it, between OVC and OVW, both as part of the DOJ. Just to better, you know, grant opportunities moving forward because it looks like, you know, there's going to be a need for the various funding streams because of the deficit in the FY 24 appropriations, you know, it, you know, it is going to cause an impact. And now I feel a little bit like I'm scrambling to figure out how to fill the gaps here. 

I was going to skip issue three. But I could just say quickly, we did use our 2020 funds to purchase a modular trailer. Other than having to do modifications because of inflation at that time because by the time you draft the budget, prices went up to after we were awarded and we wanted to make the actual purchase. I will say from 2020 to present, I'm really thankful that this -- everything that has to do with construction  has become more flexible and opened up. I think this, going after modular's does not really support sustainability. So maybe that is a secondary conversation. But I guess that is all I really wanted to say on issue three. 

On issue four, strengthening services for families of MMIP, our 2020 award has at the heart of its scope the MMIP epidemic and what we hope to do. It is, you know, a ton of education, knowledge sharing, just building up community, network building, and ultimately, we want to produce some kind of toolkit that is for multiple audiences. Tribal leadership, our network of providers, our local non-Native counterparts, and of course, most importantly, our community members, both survivors and family members of those who have lost MMIP. 

But, and this may have changed since 2022 application and the guidance. I just want to emphasize that the funding of surrounding work with MMIP and MMIW, it has to be flexible. It must be. Program policy must not be limiting. For example, I just remembered this. And again, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong or it may have changed since the 2022 guidance. But there were funding percentages that you had to stay within, like if you're going to advertise a missing person by way of a billboard. So I just want to say, when you are working with survivors, especially of human trafficking, it is so complex. It is never straightforward. More often than not, we don't realize from the very start that the survivor is a survivor of HT or MMIP. Meaning that oftentimes, that individual, that survivor comes to us under a cross-section of other crimes or victimization. And it is only after time and space is given, the rapport and trust is developed, that, you know, often times, we realize, oh, wow, this is a case of human trafficking. 

Often times they come to us under things like a SA or DV. These cases are very complicated. And there's a multitude of needs and requests for services that are specialized. So, you know, and likewise, what we are working with survivor families, it is just as complicated and unique. And I'm saying, I guess, we as the Cahuilla consortium. We do not have this figured out. I will say that most don't. Because of the complexity and shifting, you know, approaches and strategies by those who perpetrate these crimes, right? But we just need flexibility to utilize funding, that supports the survivor and survivor family in unique ways. And we don't want to see limits in policies. Because that can quickly derail, you know, what it is we are trying to do in the way of advocacy. So the key words here are flexibility and trust in the ideas and the narratives that outline with that support may -- can look like as much as possible. 

We want to be prepared. We want to be ready to support. But we need the understanding that this support calls for a lot of leeway and flexibility and it can withstand because MMIW is complicated. It is complex. It is multifaceted. It is multilayered. It might look like a billboard on the interstate for a year. Right? I guess -- I'm very thankful to the Tribal Set-Aside. It has allowed us to do a lot. But I'm really concerned now that, you know, we started off strong in 2018 and the years, you know, it is starting to dwindle. And I would like to see that set-aside, that appropriation for Tribes, that that is a fixed number that is equitable, and it meets the needs, you know, our victimization is here, yet our funding is here. And so now it has me and our program, we are going to scramble a bit this year in FY 24 to figure how we keep all the staff, all the advocates employed, how we continue all the services that we have just developed, you know, all the things coming out of our previous awards. 

So with that, I just would like to say on behalf of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and the Cahuilla consortium, I thank you for allowing me time and space to provide some testimony. I will submit my written testimony by the due date. And I just would like to say, thank you so much. And I appreciate everybody. Thank you.

KATHERINE DARKE SCHMITT: Samantha Thornsberry, we are so grateful for your very detailed and concrete testimony coming from your perspective of someone who has handled the nuts and bolts of these funding streams and we are grateful to know you will be sending us written comments as well. I would like to invite Traditional Councilmember Estelle Thomson, if she is ready. She is next in the list. There she is. Lovely. Thank you. Councilmember Thomson, when you are ready to go ahead and unmute and the floor is yours. Thank you.

ESTELLE THOMSON: Thank you. My Yupik calling name is [speaking in Yupik]. It means the one who will provide or, the one who will be a man. I represent the Native Village of Paimiut. It is a displaced Tribal community in the Southwestern Bering seacoast of Alaska. My Tribal members live in primarily Hooper Bay which is about 15 to 20 miles south of where my village is. And we also have Tribal members that live in Scammon Bay and Chevak.

Our Tribal office, our administration office is in Anchorage, Alaska, which is the largest city in Alaska. And we do that for several reasons. One because we have that displaced Tribal membership that is in multiple communities. Two, the connectivity for us in the city for our administration is so much better than out in the Village and over the past seven years, I’ve spent more time in Tribal consultation than I could possibly relay to you. It seems that every month, there's something that I am sitting in consultation for. I have spent a number of weeks traveling to different destinations to provide consultation. And my testimony both for your agencies but also for the legislative bodies that help provide us funds. 

We are grantees, two times over. We just recently received our notification for FY 23 . We established our Tribal victim set-aside program in order to meet some of the needs that are lacking within our health and our judicial systems, being from a small village on Southwestern Bering seacoast means that we are isolated from larger communities where resources and providers are generally located. 

The current programs that we have worked with counseling with some of our victims and victims of crime and also even some of our perpetrators because those of us that work in Tribal justice also are aware that our perpetrators are victims themselves. So, you know, this has been a great opportunity for us to put into place something that is a little bit more accessible for them to receive. Our regional health corporation in our area of Alaska can be really difficult to get into and it serves a great number of people. 

Just to give you an idea, the Tribal health organization in Anchorage a few years ago was in service of 75,000 Alaska Native people. And just recently added additional facilities to house even more. So we serve a lot of people here in Alaska. And many of those programs related to counseling, related to treatment, related to therapies are extraordinarily difficult to get people into. So, for us to be able to provide some of Tribal members access is huge. 

We still do have a lot of barriers to service. One of them being the broadband program. And likely, you know, the federal government has been working diligently with us in Alaska to provide Tribal grant broadband to our smaller villages. And one of the things that has been really difficult in providing services for some of our people ,because our providers in the city as well, has been the access to Zoom sessions or access to distance sessions or even just to contact people to give them opportunities to educate themselves on a number of different topics related to things that victims go through. Historical and intergenerational trauma, you know, parenting, all these different, these different options that people in metropolitan areas have options for. 

So, communication is still an issue for us. We are working with the BIA on their Tribal broadband program. However, you know, we still don't have the infrastructure in place to provide service that is fast, or affordable, and we don't have the capabilities right now for all of our Tribal members to be connected to this. So we hope to see that in the next couple of years. But, you know, we are still faced with connectivity and the ability for our people who are receiving services through our TVSSA program to receive services and resources and all that type of thing. 

Another thing is our geography. Being on the southwestern Bering seacoast, our villages are difficult to get to. Even here within the state. It is cost-prohibitive to travel back and forth to the village very frequently as well. And in addition to the distance, we also encounter weather. My village is actually one of the villages that is experiencing some significant effects of climate change and the Native Village of Paimiut is working very hard to move our village back to our ancestral lands which is on a mountain built upon granite bedrock. So we are worried about the progression of permafrost for storm surge, all these different things that really should not affect things like victim service program. But, you know, we have to look for ways to continue meeting the needs of our Tribal members. And also, you know, we are worried about, like, our existence. 

So, you know, we are in Alaska. There's a number of our villages that were experiencing this dilemma, this crisis, this collapse of systems that we are so familiar with. So, you know, sometimes our capacity is stretched thin. I spent a great deal of my time working with agencies when I still have to write all the grants. I still have to attend to the governance of our Tribe. I still am, you know, on relationships to build out programs and to develop programs that are supposed to help with economic development in youth and that kind of stuff. 

So, I echo what the former speaker testified to in the sense that, you know, money is an issue. It is always an issue, especially up here in Alaska. Our dollar does not necessarily go as far as places in the lower 48. And to give you an idea of what that dollar looks like it for, you know, for most of you folks in the lower 48, like a gallon of milk is like three or four bucks maybe. And my village, it is close to $20. So you can imagine being able to pay any of our employees a living wage, how quickly those federal dollars get eaten up by salary, by travel. So, you know, influx of additional funding would be really helpful so that our service providers can go to the village. We can hire people that will be sustainable for their families out of the village and to provide adequate service, you know. The money that we received, I think, is around the $251,000 mark. And it is great. We really appreciate it. But, you know, it does not go very far.

And I think that, you probably heard the same argument, the same sentiments being echoed by other Tribal leaders and other program managers. So, for those of us with really small villages, my village, we have roughly 105 Tribal members, I think. And so for my village, our capacity has diminished by the fact that we don't have a lot of people to pull from. 

We do hire outsiders, our Tribal administrator is not one of our Tribal members. We do have other employees that are not Tribal. But, you know, one of the big things that we are faced with is we don't have the capacity to do this. And for us to be able to hire someone that is knowledgeable, it takes money away from the services or it takes money away from being able to put it back into our community and into our Tribal members. So it just, it is frustrating for us. 

I have received other federal funds, especially from the Department of Justice related to our Tribal funds. We are a TVSSA and CTAS recipient. We also received money from BIA and other things related to Tribal justice and such. But to have to constantly put together programs piecemeal by a few dollars here and a few dollars there, it can be extremely stressful, especially if we don't know if we're going to receive the same amount of funding as we did in previous years or if that is going to be diminished even further. We can't, just as our previous testifier mentioned, we can't bank on creating a budget that is going to be sustainable if we have no idea what that number is going to look like. And for those of us in Alaska with geographical, technological, and capacity issues, in accessing resources and not just money resources and service resources but people, human resources. It is even more challenging. 

And for those of us with small Tribes, and many of us are serving multiple purposes. And many of the arenas that I work in, I tell them, I don't wear multiple hats in my position. I have a whole wardrobe. So, being able to bank on a specific amount of money for our Tribal program, for our TVSSA program, is going to be at least comforting in knowing that I won’t necessarily have to worry about, where am I going to get the money to fill the shortfalls that the fluctuation in federal funding is giving us?

I don't want to take up a ton of time. I'm very appreciative of the ability for us to receive funding. It actually helped us, I think, in large part helped us receive the grant funding that we just received from the CTAS grant. And it is helpful. It has been extremely helpful. But I implore you as representatives of us and this agency that you do as much as you possibly can to keep some of these unusual situations and circumstances that we are facing in really rural areas, in areas that aren’t on road systems, in areas that are remote and expensive and face access issues, in mind because the money helps. But, you know, our dollars don't go as far as some other places in the lower 48. So Quyana from the Native Village of Paimiut and on behalf of my people, we say thank you. We are grateful for your ability to fund us. But, like I said, we implore you to be able to be consistent in funding and also to take into consideration our unique circumstances in Alaska. Thank you.

LEBRETIA WHITE: Thank you so much, Councilmember Estelle Thomson. We appreciate your detailed testimony including your sharing of some of the critical challenges you are facing in delivering crime victim services to persons in your community. We appreciate your testimony today. Our next speaker for today will be Cathleen Osborne-Gowey, Tribal designee of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. We want to welcome Cathleen Osborne-Gowey. You can now unmute your line. Please begin  your testimony when you're ready by repeating your name, Tribal affiliation, and title. We also request that you state the name of the Tribal Chief or chairperson on whose behalf you are offering testimony today.

CATHLEEN OSBORNE-GOWEY: Can you hear me? Great. Thanks. [Speaking in Native language]. Good morning. I'm here in Colorado. So it is still morning. I am Eastern Shawnee. My name is Cathleen Osborne-Gowey. I'm speaking on behalf of our Eastern Shawnee Tribe and specifically our chief, Glenna Wallace. 

Looking over the different things that we were asked to speak about today, first I wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to be able to come in to speak today. Thank you to OVC for providing this space and for our Chief Glenna Wallace, for deferring to me provide this information. I have been working as an advocate for over 15 years. I am still an advocate, I mainly lead to the administrative side for advocacy programs these days. Looking over the issues to discuss today, I feel like I'm going to mainly be parroting back what others have said. But I think it does a good job at laying a foundation of our needs to hear these things over and over. 

Regarding issue one, the reduction in funding from FY 23 to FY 24, when we received our FY 23 funding, and it was greatly reduced, we had to reduce our program that was going to be assigned to those funds from 5 years to 3 years, to reduce the staff that we could hire, reduce the services we could provide. It greatly impacted our program. We have been receiving OVC funding since 2018 when the first funding came out. If FY 24 is reduced even further, it would not just negatively impact our program. It would greatly put our program in jeopardy. To go from 5-year grants that are over a million dollars to, you know, grants that are potentially only $150,000, $130,000 or $180,000 would mean that we would be lucky if we could use those for a 1-year project. It would not allow for much staffing. 

We feel like the fairest way to distribute the funding is based on service area size. Letting Tribes establish what our service area population sizes are instead of having those things decided for us. Looking over recommendations for FY 24, I put down some thoughts. For many years, funder have held consultations and asked Tribes to explain their unique experiences surrounding violence and how they, as funders, can better distribute funds to assist Tribal communities. I myself over the last 15 years have traveled all over the U.S., providing consultation testimony to provide thoughts and ideas of how funders can better assist Tribal communities. 

I have traveled all over the United States providing testimony only to come home and realize we were not heard as the grant solicitations came out and they have changed little. Most grants use outdated census data to determine our population size instead of letting Tribal communities list population size, giving the message that our voice is not heard. We said, please don't make these grant competitive as not all Tribal committees are professional grant writers. Yet most have stayed competitive. We said, please understand that we don't only serve those in our Tribal communities. We have larger service areas that often include local community members in our larger counties. Yet most grants still determine awards based solely on Tribal population size and don’t asked Tribes to list their actual service area. We have explained over and over that we need shelter space for victims of domestic violence only to be told funds can be used to furnish and rent shelters, but we have to fund the building, the largest expense, ourselves. We have explained in length that food is essential to our culture and providing food at events is key to healing only to be told that no funds can be used for food in events. 

The image harkens back to the days when Tribal communities would be asked to sign treaties that would not be honored. And in 2018, a new stream of funding came from OVC. Over the past few years, we have been asked again to give testimony about grant funding and how OVC can work to better assist Tribes. This time, Tribal communities were heard. We give our thoughts and ideas on what works best for us in each year and the solicitation has changed to meet our needs. Our grants management specialist work to understand our individual needs and help walk us through using funding to fit those needs. You have created an allowable and unallowable list of expenses, not in an effort to encumber us, but to make creating goals easier and make funds more accessible. 

In just the 5 short years, this grant has been around, OVC has opened up possibilities for Tribal community programs based on what we have said we needed. You have listened to us when no one else did. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate that. You have allowed us to tell you what our service area is and our population size. 

We have said we need to be able to create shelters and you have found ways to allow us to renovate buildings and use modular spaces. We have said we need to not have to compete with each other to bring healing to Tribal communities and you made the grants noncompetitive. We said that food is an essential part of our culture and you have allowed us to provide food as part of cultural and traditional activities. 

We need to see this type of communication continue for FY 24 funding. We need to see that OVC understands that a cookie-cutter approach to the funding is not effective for Tribal communities as we are not all the same. Our needs are different. And thus, our program and program needs differ. But we need to see that our funding will not be drastically reduced and that funds will be distributed based on service area and not a generic formulated fashion.

Looking at the issue number two, enhancing the 2024 application process, we have really appreciated that the narratives, you know, that there's a vast array of ways we can do a narrative, whether it is a checklist or a phone consultation or a traditional narrative. Strategies for enhancing the new FY 24 application, one of the things that really came out to me in my mind was the NEPA requirements, if you're going to be doing construction or renovation. Making those more user-friendly for Tribes, helping them establish what is NEPA and what does that mean if you are even thinking about renovations, what do you need to think of in advance? So, before Tribes go through the process of creating an entire budget around renovations of a space or construction, that they have already gone through most of the process that is a doable thing for them to be able to do before they invest their time and efforts in putting the funding in that direction. 

Which leads into the discussion of issue number three, improving outcomes for projects with renovations. Basically, the same thing as I had said before. We appreciate the ability to be able to construct and renovate. It is wonderful. We have been able to open tiny homes to be used as a shorter space. We have been able to take an old existing building and renovate it into an advocacy center, which is an amazing thing to be able to do that we have not been able to do with other funding streams. So, we really appreciate that. But again, the NEPA requirements to be able to walk Tribal communities through the process of what that looks like before budgets and narratives are created around those kinds of projects so that we are set up for success. 

Also, I think it would be great to have some tutorials set up and created so that Tribal folks if they don't have a grant writer on staff, that is okay. They can still tap into these different tutorials that would tell them how to create a narrative, a checklist, a budget, all of those different things so that they could instead of having to set time aside from an already busy schedule, to link into a webinar where they may or may not be able to ask questions, they will be able to log onto these online classes, if you will, to be able to learn how to do those things, to make them as successful as possible when writing for OVC grant funding as well as any other funding stream. 

For issue number four, strengthening MMIP applications, processes, I just want to parrot what the other folks have talked about, which is making the funding flexible, making it open for being able to assist with families. I heard earlier that that is something that we are able to do. We have yet to use our funding for MMIP at this point. As other folks have talked about, we often find once we built a rapport with the client, maybe six months down the road, that we actually learned that they have been trafficked. And so they have already been marked as domestic violence, but came in as something else. But to be able to have those funds be flexible to meet the intricate and difficult needs of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples and their families. So to have those funds flexible enough to be able to assist the families while they are going through the process of looking for their loved ones and seeking justice, I think it is imperative to be flexible with policy. 

Around all OVC Tribal funding I think is really important because as I said before, we are not all the same. We all live in different areas. We have different needs so to have policy around the grant funding that understands that and is as flexible to help us meet our varying needs, I think, is essential. 

And as a final thought, I really want to reinforce the concept that starting grant funding, you know, 5 years ago with the level of funding where we were at, allowed many of us to create programs that we had never thought of before. And 5 years down the road to watch that funding dwindle down the years is setting us all back. It is as if we are taking, you know, it is five steps forward and going back three steps. 

Many of us now will have to try to scramble and figure out how to keep these programs that we started with OVC alive because a generic funding of $180,000, is not going to hardly cover the cost of an employee and their benefits, let alone services, outreach, and all the various needs that go along with many of the programs that we have that are essential. So, it is really important that we have the ability to have consistent funding. So, to see the funding drastically cut will greatly impact most of our Tribal programs. And it is imperative that we have a consistent set of funding that we can rely on. Otherwise, it is setting us up to fail. That is my testimony today. Thank you for giving me the space to present. Thank you.

KATHERINE DARKE SCHMITT: Miss Osborne-Gowey, we are very glad to have had your feedback. We appreciate your perspective on these issues. And the improvements that you called for that will make this work better for Tribes. We have now heard from the Tribal leaders or designees who registered in advance to provide testimony this afternoon during this second day of our consultation. So, we have a plan. We will go to a standby status during which the federal staff and our partners who are facilitating this event will stay on the line. We will keep it open during the time that the consultation was scheduled, just in case there is a Tribal leader who planned to join us but was not intending to join us until the end of the ceremony. So we will be on standby, the Zoom meeting will remain open. 

There will be a slide that explains we are in standby mode. Our staff will go off camera. But we will be here in case a Tribal leader or their designee joins us and will be added to the speaker queue before the event is scheduled to end at 3:30. So that is the plan. So, in a moment, after our closing, you will see that slide go up and it will suddenly become very quiet in the Zoom meeting room. 

If you are here to observe the consultation or listen to others, you are welcome to stay and wait to see if there will be further testimony or if you have heard what you need to hear and you need your time back today, we understand that. It may not be feasible for you to hang around. I do see that we may have a Tribal designee from Hoopa Valley on the queue here. So Lauren, if you think it is feasible to switch for just a moment and have the Hoopa Valley designee take the floor. We will proceed that way. After which my colleague, LeBretia White, will return. And she will either send us into closing or make whatever further arrangements she feels will work best.

Thank you. We are going through the mechanics of promoting the Hoopa Valley designee so that she becomes the panelist and in a few seconds she will be able to unmute and turn on her camera if she wishes to be on camera.

LEBRETIA WHITE: It seems like we have a first name Danielle representing Hoopa Valley. Sorry I don’t have a last name, but Danielle, if you are available and ready, you can unmute and share your name, your title, Tribal affiliation and if you are a designee, the name of your Tribal leader.

DANIELLE VIGIL-MASTEN: Hi. I'm sorry. I was trying to figure out the microphone. Good morning, good afternoon. I believe it is afternoon where you guys are at. We are here in Hoopa Valley, California. Hoopa Valley is one of the largest land-based Tribes in the state of California. We have, we were one of the first reservations that was established out of the four reservations in the state of California. 

We have been receiving the OVC grant and have been very grateful since 2019. I am a staff of two. I write the grants. I also have to manage the grants and then also work with clients. We started with the MMIP function to be able to offer services to families that are victims of crime that have been missing or murdered. And the first cycle, we were really grateful that you guys were able to make the status where individuals didn’t have to write the grants anymore because it was really hard and they were really competitive to get and that you guys did the Tribal Set-Aside. 

One of the hurdles that we see within our Tribe is that the budget process to try to get the budget approved to be able to do the culturally relevant services that we need – it is very tedious. We spent months and months trying to get through and I know it is not your guys' fault. But we have a really hard time with the JustGrants program and I heard that also I work 50 percent for OVC and 50 percent for OVW. When we went on their consultation, we heard a lot of people talk about the trouble that they had with uploading, doing stuff in the grant system. 

And so of any note, it is hard for us to get messages and stuff through that program because it does not come directly to us as administrator of the grant. And so it sits there for some time until whoever it goes to notifies us that something needs to be done unless we check in there. So any note, what I guess the problem that or the areas that we like is that it is a Tribal Set-Aside area that needs to be improved, is that as the administrator and the grant writer and the program and the person that administrates the grants is that one of the hurdles that we foresee is that you are spending most of your time doing budget modifications or GAMS and trying to get the approval and it feels like a micromanagement process that you have to go for approvals for all the stuff to be able to run it to meet the needs of a Tribe in which they have culturally specific things like we do, the gas and food and different things for our clients. 

But I know in the regulations, saying that food is not allowed but that is something that is traditional and a part of our people. We’re taking them to the coast to go to a court to advocate for them, you know, for a hearing that is located outside of our region. And so it is traveling. And so we need to be able to provide per diem and stuff for their clients. We take them because it is a long day for them to fast with children. And so that needs to be fixed. 

I know that as doing this program, we get a lot of negative feedback from perpetrator families in our small communities, just like the last testimony that you heard that was excellent, kudos, we agree with that. So, like, you get a lot of negative feedback from the communities where they don't want to see some people prosecuted for cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, or sex trafficking or even for missing or murdered. With that we have to fight a lot of politics which should not be in the program on a local level and those should be looked at and so if there is somebody that is related to the perpetrator or family member they shouldn’t have the right to try to shut programs down or voice against them. 

So any note, we worked really hard to try to help families in our program. We have been able to help 450 families for the past 4 years. We are going on our fifth year in operation. We're really proud about that. And we worked -- we have added the missing and murdered component and we are very grateful for the OVC office because we were able to build, or not build, but we purchased a modular and got it set up to be a one-stop shop. It is amazing. We love it. We were able to get culturally relevant stuff. So, like artwork and stuff that makes it feel more comfortable for our clients to come in and enter the office to seek help because when they go into other settings, many complained about it being institutionalized, like, a probation office or jail setting and it was a turnoff for them to want to come and seek help. 

So ours is more of going to an atmosphere where it is more like you're going to an auntie’s or grandma’s to be able to get help. So, more people come into our office versus a sterile environment. And so each year, we have to compete with own local, you know, different entities. So because of the funding that is still limited, we have to compete against one another to get the funding to be able to offer the services that we have for victims because Tribal court has a different program than us for victims of crime which is they help, like, a courthouse where they help victims with going through the process as far as, like, victim compensation through the state and stuff.

So with our program, what we do is, we are outside of the court system where it has no influence over us and is nonjudgmental and we’re able to help on that capacity and level. And so we have a larger clientele base. But each year, we have to compete against them for the funding because it is on a yearly cycle and so I think before when it was the larger amount and was for more timeframe, we were able to do more with it. So with limited funding for this year, we are grateful we got $289,000. It was really wonderful. And so we are looking forward to doing the construction of an ADA porch. 

Some of that money was held back which we really needed because we have clients that have handicaps and they have put in there a need to be able to get into our building. The building, unfortunately, did not come up with an ADA handicap accessible ramp. So, on the reservation we have our own, our own TPA department which does the clearances for construction of building and we got held up with the national level on your guy’s level. Even though we provided the paperwork saying that the money got held back for that handicap accessible porch to be able to give us accessibility to our building for handicapped clients. And so it got held back because it has to go through the process and we need help to move through there. Something so simple seemed like it got really complicated. 

We -- because we don't have, like, a large staff, like other Tribes, we have to -- we have to manage, write, track, keep the database and do everything for our clients which is cumbersome. And with the amount of money that we received, which was $200,000, it is barely enough to be able to provide the services that we need for our families. And so, I think that we really need to go back, you know, after the Savanna’s Act passed and the Not Invisible Act passed, I believe in 2020 that there was a promise that they just finished the reports in the Department of Interior. We were one of the Tribes that they came out and visited because the Hoopa Valley Tribe has the most missing and murdered in the state of California. We are at 22 percent.

And so overall, the state of California has the most missing within the United States according to the crime reports that we have seen. And so, I know that the movement for missing and murdered started in Canada and other Tribes have missing and murdered as well. But I feel that we need to be able to have the ability to hire, like, investigators and to work with different agencies to try to move our cases and get closure for our families of missing and murdered. 

It is really hard as an advocate to listen to the stories of the families and try to provide the assistance when you come against walls and barriers. And so, I'm really grateful for the help that we received through OVC and we are really glad and fortunate to receive the funding. And we will continue to apply for funding. But there's so much restrictions. And it really makes it hard when we try to run a culturally- relevant program, because I know that there's regulations and stuff that is there. But at the same time, like, we should not get nitpicked over buying a piece of artwork or taking somebody to eat you know, when we have huger issues where someone is dealing with PTSD and just trying to survive. 

So as a Native American person being a victim and a survivor as myself and working in this field, I feel that I have firsthand knowledge of working with victims of crime and I'm doing the best that I can as an advocate to be able to help the clients that are suffering in these types of things. And then I think everyone that is on this call today, these issues are all important to all of us as Tribes. And I believe that with your guys' continued support, I think that we can make changes to better meet the needs of our people and better address these acts that have not been really followed. 

And so I know COVID hit. So, I know a lot of the programs were shut down. Ours continued to run because it is considered an essential function of the Tribe. Our government would not allow us to close the doors. So our numbers were a lot higher than others. And so I know, like, you know, even though some people were able to work at home, we were not. We still had to work with clients. 

So, with all of that being said, I know it is a lot to hear. I echo a lot of the things that was said prior to this. And I just want to say that it has just been, I think that we need to have cultural representation to be able to look at our Tribes and look at the circumstances we are going through because it is really hard to maximize services when you are limited to a year. 

So when 1 year is like, we are running to try to accomplish all the things that we have put in the grant to try to meet the needs. So, I can say this. We are successful in collecting the data. We have over 200 Tribal members that we have for the whereabouts unknown and we have currently in our program, we have been able to assist through this program, we have 30 active families that are missing. And we have been able to assist with murder cases of individuals by getting billboards and being able to help with putting posters up around the community. 

And so one thing in our Tribe, we developed our own policies and procedures. I think that OVC should respect the policies and procedures because we know what works best for our Tribes. Because we worked firsthand in fields and deal with the membership and the people that come into our offices that seek help and we know with their immediate needs are. 

So in closing, we have received a grant from 2019, it is now 2024. I would like to see a lot of changes. I do want to give you guys kudos for the report that you do, the report that you guys have for the OVC collection quarterly report because your guys' is hands down is better than the Office on Violence Against Women. Theirs is 78 pages, your guys’ is like 2 to 3. That is a great improvement. And as far as other things, I think technical support should be improved working with the program so that that way they can meet the needs that are culturally relevant for our programs.

So, I just want to say thank you for your time and it was really good listening to all of the other Tribes and the obstacles that they face and barriers through this grant and how it can all work together to better improve the services to our Native people because we have a lot of walking wounded and a lot of people that are depending on us to get this right. So let's do right by them and let's work together and let's accomplish great things for them and bring closure. Thank you. [Speaking in Native language].

LEBRETIA WHITE: Thank you so much Ms. Vigil-Masten for your thorough testimony which highlighted how OVC has worked in the past based on recommendations made by Tribes at our consultations. Know that we will continue to do as much as we can in the future and I make this statement, not just to you but to all of the testimony presenters. We’ll do as much as we can to address your recommendations. And we appreciate everyone's thoughtful and detailed sharing on today. 

At this time, we will do one more call to see if there are others who would like to render testimony. And we will wait maybe a minute to see if anyone comes forward. And after that minute, if no one comes forward, we will go ahead and move towards our closing.

But as Katherine stated, just a minute ago, if we have others that would like to present between this time and 3:00 p.m., we will remain available for those testimonies. I'm going to check to see if anyone is in queue. Okay. It appears no one else is in queue to render or share testimony on today.

So at this time, I want to welcome back Elder Estelle Thomson from the Paimiut Tribe to offer our closing for today's consultation. Ms. Thomson, are you available and ready?

ESTELLE THOMSON: Yes, I am. I am not an elder. I am a [Speaking in Native language] which is a traditional medicine practitioner or in my Tribe’s or my language, it means the one who works with the spirit and the bodies of a real human being. 

If we could take a deep breath altogether. [Speaking in Native language]. Thank you, Creator. Thank you, God. Thank you Great Spirit, however you may address the universal being.

Thank you for bringing us today and putting the right words in our mouth to speak on behalf of our peoples. Please allow for courageousness to build within those people that have not testified to give them the words they need to speak for the things within their community that they lack. Please allow them the courage, the strength and the ability to continue to do their work within the communities, to help our people.

Please allow the people at the agencies to have open hearts, open ears, and open minds to be able to use their creativeness to help us fulfill the needs of helping the most vulnerable within our communities.

Please allow for the healing that we need to happen within ourselves, our Tribes, our communities, and our people. Please allow the people in the agencies to know that we are all related. And as relatives, as good relatives, we do our best to look out for one another.

And to my relatives on the call, from all over Indian country, please allow, Creator, the strength and the will free to continue to do the difficult work that we have. Thank you so much for the time. Quyana.

LEBRETIA WHITE Thank you so much, Estelle. We really appreciate not only your testimony today but that inspiring closing prayer. Thank you again.

So at this time, I would like to thank everyone for attending, whether you were a presenter or listened into today's session or day one of our consultation. This concludes day two for the FY 2024 consultation of the Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside from our Crime Victims Fund.

To all in attendance, as you go throughout your day, the remainder of today, please do so in a good way. Thank you, again. We look forward to seeing you, those of you who may be attending our National Indian Nations Conference in December or other future events throughout the year. We ask that you take good care of yourselves, your families, and your communities.

And I will also state that if you would like to remain on or if there are others that were not in our queue previously to give testimony. We will remain on the Zoom line until 3:00 p.m. eastern time. Again, thank you so very much and take good care.