Join us in Celebrating our 25th Anniversary!
Serving American Indian/Alaska Native communities since 1996
Commemorating the first 25 Years of
Tribal Law and Policy Institute (TLPI):
Celebrating our Journey; Honoring our Relatives;
Building a Vision for the Future
November 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of establishment of the Tribal Law and Policy Institute (TLPI). TLPI was officially incorporated on November 4, 1996 with an initial three member Board of Directors (Abby Abinanti, Margrett Kelley, and Pat Sekaquaptewa) and one paid staff member (Jerry Gardner). All three initial board members are still on the TLPI Board of Directors and Jerry Gardner has been TLPI Executive Director throughout TLPI’s 25-year history. TLPI began with a series of small consulting contracts with Indian Tribes (including Grand Traverse Band and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo) and with the National CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) Association. TLPI’s first direct federal funding was a 1998 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Courts Program Office, to provide training and technical assistance to Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts.
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Since then, TLPI has grown to 35 employees, conducted over 500 onsite technical assistance visits, worked with 100s of tribes, established a series of resource websites (beginning with the Tribal Court Clearinghouse www.TLPI.org in 1998), conducted 9 national Indian Nations Conferences www.OVCINC.org starting in 2002, trained 1,000s of Indian country service providers, and produced numerous resources to improve safety, justice and healing in Indian country.
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To commemorate the past 25 years, TLPI board and staff have chosen to shine a light on some of the incredible work being done in Indian country. We are centering our work around the theme: Celebrating our Journey; Honoring our Relatives; and Building a Vision for the Future.
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