Navajo Peacemaking

CAV Paper Navajo Peacemaking passim Indian Country tribes have their own courts to address heavy matters. However, the Navajo ground has a court system that stands apart from different tribes. Howard L. brownness Esq. wrote, The Navajo countrys Peacemaker Division An Integrated Community-Based enmity Re source fabrication which was published in the American Indian Law Review 1999-2000 edit and was reprinted in the May/July 2002 issue of junk resolving power Journal. As a former judicial lawfulness clerk for the Supreme Court of the Navajo realm, chocolate-brown gained firsthand experience with the Peacemaker Division within the Navajo soils Judicial Branch.He details the history, development and ceremonies associated with this resolution forum. Two other authors in either case covered the same topic, maintaining with Browns opinion although from different perspectives. This typography will compare Browns viewpoint to Jona F. Meyers name, It is a authorise From t he Creator to accompaniment Us in Harmony authorized (vs. Alternative) Dispute Resolution on the Navajo Nation published in the external Journal of Public authorities and Jeanmarie Pintos article Peacemaking as rite the Mediation Model of the Navajo Nation. published in The outside(a) Journal of mesh care. Browns article opens with statistical information ab break d mavin the Navajo Nations reservation size and population, its status as a milkweed more thanoverterfly nation, and system of political sympathies. The article provides a brief history and evolution of the Navajo Nations judicial system, clearly apologiseing the difference between Navajo common law and contrasts it with the more adversarial federal or state law. The Navajo Nation Tribal Council realised the Navajo courts, which make up one of the three branches of tribal government.In 1982, after look for for more usageal ways to solve animositys the Peacemaker Court began. It is kip down referred to as the Peacemaker Division within the judicial branch of government and uses Navajo Common law. 1 In Peacemaking as Ceremony The Mediation Model of the Navajo Nation, Pinto agrees with Browns explanation of the Navajo court and government system, and explains the difference between Original Dispute Resolution (ODR) and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). The Navajo legal term for peacemaking s Original Dispute Resolution, because it is the customsal Navajo method for solving disputes while ADR is a term for unique mediation methods within the federal, state, and topical anesthetic court systems. 2 Jona Meyer s description of the history of Navajo peacemaking also agrees with the other two authors version of the history of the Navajo Nations judicial system, but the article It is a Gift From the Creator to Keep Us in Harmony Original (vs. Alternative) Dispute Resolution on the Navajo Nation includes a history King Henry Is use of fee for crimes which is a component of the Navajo peacemaking process. 3 According to Brown, Navajo common law is also cognise as traditional law which reflects the customs, usages and traditions of the Navajo People, formed by Navajo values in action, reinforcing the Nations sovereignty, preserving Navajo tradition, and pr even soting the state from interfering in Navajo judicial matters. 4 The article relates why the use of Navajo common law is important as it employs traditional cultural values to resolve disputes which is something familiar to the disputants, making them more disposed to go through the legal process to settle disputes.Pinto agrees with Brown, but points go forth that there are some younger Navajos who are not adjuvant of returning to the old ways of resolving disputes and prefer to use the more mainstream Navajo Court System. 5 Meyers article mentions the use of Navajo common law in the Navajo as did Brown and Pinto, but states peacemaking never fully ceased to occur in the remote regions of the reservation . 6 Unlike Pinto, Meyer did not mention the lack of support for Navajo peacekeeping within the younger generation.Peacemaking or hozhooji naataanii comes from Navajo common law and tradition and includes a justness eucharist in which disputants and every last(predicate)iance members gather to talk things out with the assistance of a respected community leader or naataannii (peacemaker) to pass off a consensual settlement. 7 Brown describes how a peacemaker is chosen, how tradition is followed by opening the session with a prayer to create a symmetrical atmosphere, and the protocol that if followed during the mediation leading to the final consensual solution.While talking things out family and community members will explain to the offender how they have violated tradition and failed to fulfill the expectation of their role as a family or community member and how it has impacted them. Browns description of the peacemaking process is corresponding to Pintos which is illustrate d via a table comparing three mannequins of dispute resolution. The table clearly shows the importance of Navajo tradition in peacemaking and how it is reflected in each stones throw of the process via a healing ceremony and cerebrate on restoring harmony to the community. 8 Pinto also includes three pages detailing the seven travel and components of the peacemaking process. The draught format makes the process easy to understand and reinforces many points brought up by the other two authors. Meyer describes the peacemaking process in terms comparable to Brown and Pintos, but compares the Navajo process to other tribal resolution methods. development the Ojibwe example of cleansing the spirits of offenders and victims of a crime, Meyer points out that the Navajo peacemaking process full-length works to eliminate the causes of discord rather than focus on the dispute itself. 9 afterwards the period of discussion the peacemaker will often use a story to illustrate the wrongd oing and to find a consensual solution that is in accordance with traditional Navajo beliefs. Brown relates how the story of the Horned batrachian and Lightning resolved a dispute over land ownership. 10 Lightning felt that he owned every last(predicate) of the land and was upset when Horned batrachian entered it and enjoin him to leave. When Horned Toad ref utilize to leave, Lightning threw a lightning bolt which landed very boney to Horned Toad who left.The next day Horned Toad returned wearing armor and when Lightning hit him with a lightning bolt it was deflected by the armor. Horned Toad explained that the Creator was the same one that gave them the land and the armor and questioned why they were conflict over something that had been given to them. This story reminds disputants of the importance of talking things out and future(a) traditional ways. While Pinto agrees with Browns account of how stories are used as a part of the peacemaking process, the article does not m ention any specific stories.However, Pinto states, through the telling of Sacred Navajo Narratives, and in relating wisdom gained through somebodyal experience, the peacemakers teaches basic Navajo principles and guides the participants from a negative frame of mind to one that is positive enough to promote problem solving. 11 Meyer also mentions the use of stories, but states that they are used to illustrate issues in the dispute. 12 All three authors agree that during the peacemaking solutions are achieved through discussion of the dispute and that the resolution reached is one that satisfies on the whole parties.Meyers article is the only one that mentions the term restorative justice and it is in reference to the 1881 Brule Sioux Crow Dog case, in which the offender counterbalance the victims family. Crow Dog murdered Chief spotted Tail and was ordered by the tribe to make reparations to the victims family, a sanction that was commonly imposed in Sioux homicides. 13 Pintos ou tline of the peacemaking process includes the nalyeeh, a process resulting in restitution, restoration, and making a person whole for an injury. 14 The person who caused the injury or is the responsible party for the dispute is required to make sure that restitution is given to the victim or victims family, which will help make the community whole again. Brown does not mention the term restorative justice, but does explain that the solution must be something agreed upon and satisfactory for all parties complex in the dispute. The agreement by consensus implies that community harmony is restored.The Navajo Nations Peacemaking Division has been victorful and other tribes in the United States and Canada have analogous successes. Meyers article uses an example taken from Hollow Water, Manitoba where tribal leading allowed sexual abusers to plead guilty and complete a 13 step two year program that helped them address the issues they struggle with due to their having been put-upon dur ing their childhood. After completion of the program the former abuser foes through a cleansing ceremony to mark a new beginning for all involved.During the ceremony, the former abuser washed his victims feet, symbolically allowing her to come in womanhood, then throws a mask he has worn throughout the ceremony into the fire, symbolically destroying his identity as an abuser. 15 The tribe has been incredibly successful with little than 5% of the abusers committing a sexual offense again, compared to much higher recidivism rank in mainstream courts. Pintos article agrees with Meyer that the Navajo peacekeeping system is successful and even goes as far to suggest it serving as a model or Western mediation to improve the mediation methods currently cosmos used. 16 Browns article suggest that the Navajo Peacemaking system is successful and that success is reflected in the increased number of cases in the Peacekeeping Division. 17 Three authors wrote slightly Navajo peacekeeping fro m different perspectives, bringing up various points, but all agreed that it is successful. With the success of the Navajo Peacemaking Division of the Navajo Nation court system, it is clear that this long-standing tradition will continue to bring back restore harmony to communities divide apart by disputes.Works Cited Brown, Howard L. Nations Peacemaker Division An Integrated, Community-Based Dispute Resolution Forum, Dispute Resolution Journal 57 (May 2002) 42- 48. Meyer, Jona. It is a Gift From the Creator to Keep Us in Harmony Original (vs. Alternative) Dispute Resolution on the Navajo Nation International Journal of Public Administration 25 (2002) 1379 1401. Pinto, Jeanmarie. Peacemaking as Ceremony The Mediation Model of the Navajo Nation, The International Journal of Conflict Management 11 (2000) 267-286. 1 Howard L. Brown, Nations Peacemaker Division An Integrated, Community-Based Dispute Resolution Forum, Dispute Resolution Journal 57 (May 2002), 44. 2 Jeanmarie Pinto , Peacemaking as Ceremony The Mediation Model of the Navajo Nation, The International Journal of Conflict Management 11 (2000), 269. 3 Meyer, Jona It is a Gift From the Creator to Keep Us in Harmony Original (vs. Alternative) Dispute Resolution on the Navajo Nation International Journal of Public Administration 25 (2002) 1380. 4 Brown, Nations Peacemaker Division, 45. 5 Pinto, Peacemaking as Ceremony, 270. 6 Meyer, It is a Gift From the Creator, 1387. 7 Brown, Nations Peacemaker Division, 45. 8 Pinto, Peacemaking as Ceremony, 275. 9 Meyer, It is a Gift From the Creator, 1388. 10 Brown, Nations Peacemaker Division, 47. 11 Pinto, Peacemaking as Ceremony, 278. 12 Meyer, It is a Gift From the Creator, 1388. 13 Ibid, 1384. 14 Pinto, Peacemaking as Ceremony, 282. 15 Meyer, It is a Gift From the Creator, 1383. 16 Pinto, Peacemaking as Ceremony, 283. 17 Brown, Nations Peacemaker Division, 47.