[Singing]

Mike Jackson:

“Circle peacemaking is from traditional ways was called in the Tlingit language [Tlingit language], that meant that they were the 'People of the Deer.”

Kake Circle Peacemaking

[Singing]

Mike Jackson:

“Traditionally, there’s the two moieties that are part of our Tlingit heritage and it’s Eagle and the Raven moiety and under that there’s a clan system under each one. And when you look at the [Tlingit language], no one claims the Deer because the Deer Clan is a sacred clan because it means they’re the peacemakers. Okay, my name is Mike Jackson. I’m the Kake, local Kake magistrate and also Keeper of the Circle.

Our circle peacemaking we began and brought out from our traditional way of living here in Kake five years ago and it’s been five years that we’ve been having the circle peacemaking at Kake where we’re finding it really helps people in terms of remedial restorative justice where we have set up a plan for people who are referred to the circle and they’re referred either by friends, family, themselves or the court.

And the court, the way they do it is that the defendant would propose it to their attorney, the attorney would propose it to the state DA [district attorney] and the DA and the attorney would take it to the judge and come up with what’s called a Rule 11 agreement. And that they would ask the judge to defer the state case and send the case over for circle sentencing. The judge will tell the defendant to, that he’s bound and when the defendant agrees that’s what he wants to do, he’s bound by what’s called the consensus agreement where we come up with a sentence that everybody agrees on that are participants in the community circle sentencing.

So that has been going fairly well because we work with the Superior Court judge and the District Court judges that over the years have referred cases to the circle. And sometimes the DA will put out in front of the defendant if they follow everything that is in the circle sentence, after the probationary period is done that they might dismiss the case, but if the defendant does not follow through with circle sentence, then we will have another hearing to see if that’s what his intention is or if he just forgot to do something within the agreement we’ll give him another chance, but if he blows that chance then he is referred back to the District Attorney and the judge will do a sentencing on him. That has happened with two cases.

So probably out of 70 cases in adult circles, only two did not agree to follow up on the circle sentencing. But that is a real high rate of success. That’s around about 98 percent, just a roundabout figure, whereas in the state way there is a high rate of recidivism. I’m not going to put a percentage on it, but it’s pretty low compared to our rate of success.”

Justin McDonald:

“We formed this group and they’re pretty much the core group for the circle. We try to get, we have reps from the different entities in the community, from the city council, tribal government, corporation, local corporations, the school, law enforcement and then elders and just anyone who’s concerned about wellness in the community.”

Mike Jackson:

“When you look at the state archives, you don’t see any record of Kake criminal history until the state sets up a magistrate business here in the 1960s, but there’s nothing really until the ‘70s. And all felonies were dealt with, there’s some felonies that does show up, but it’s rare that you see a misdemeanor because all the problems were solved by the people themselves by talking it out and talking it out in a circle setting where you talk from the heart.

And by talking from the heart, I mean you bring up things that have happened to you similar to what was done by say a wrongdoer that was there, the state calls them offenders, and then there’s the victim. And in circle peacemaking, the victim is the most important component of the circle because they have to understand that they did not do anything to deserve what they ended up being victims of. And by victims through the circle process they come out survivors at the end of it. The important part of circles is the process. It’s not about the wrongdoer, the offender -- it’s about the process when people start talking from the heart to support the victim, but also to support the wrongdoer.”

Justin McDonald:

“We don’t just handle criminal cases either. We also handle interventions, interventions of family members, a family’s concerned about a family member and they’ll refer them to the circle. We get more so of that, that happening more so with the youth and it’s just been very, very powerful.”

Lakrista Ekis:

“It’s kind of like a big counseling group. I like it. You can talk about your problems and you don’t, they find a punishment for you that suits your crime.”

Justin McDonald:

“Whenever there’s a youth who gets in trouble, we try to, we make it a point to invite anyone directly involved with the youth, in their life -- teachers, friends, parents, grandparents, people who know them, places they hang out. Just basically it’s open to anybody.”

Mike Jackson:

“For years it has really calmed down that revolving door that I’ve almost started to see...because I’ve been the magistrate for the last 14 years now and I’ve seen kids grow up from kindergarten, Head Start, all the way to graduation and ended up in the chair there. We knew that their behavior was something that they should have been addressed.”

Lakrista Ekis:

“Life moves by so fast that we don’t really realize what’s going on around us. So I think that when you come into a circle and you sit down and you actually listen to what is really going on I think it gets pretty interesting. You get interested in it and what’s really going on, you finally get to see it.”

Justin McDonald:

“When an incident happens, the incident happens, then they go to an arraignment in the district court and right there, that’s when they have that opportunity to choose, take an alternative. Either if they want to plead not guilty and fight it then they can take it all the way to court, but if they’re obviously guilty then they can plead guilty or no contest and that’s where they have a choice is to either go to the alternative, which is the circle peacemaking or go to the regular system. So from there we try to, if they go to the regular court system, then their court hearing could be delayed a couple months and nothing happens. A lot of things can happen within two months and we feel it’s very important to act on it immediately, respond to the incident immediately. So after they have the arraignment we’ll either try to do it that night or the next day.”

Lakrista Ekis:

“If someone is having trouble, I think a lot of people actually show up for it. They really do care. I never realized how much people cared until we had a real circle and I seen all these people. I was like, ‘Whoa! These people really do care.’ So it’s pretty cool.”

[Singing]

Guidelines of Peacemaking

Mike Jackson:

“The ‘guidelines of peacemaking’ is that everyone is equal, like I come in as the magistrate, but when I sit down I’m part of the community, that’s all I am. Same way as the police, they’ll take their hat off and they’re part of the circle because every heart is at the same level. One person talks at a time, we respect each other, we do not point the blame and we take timely breaks. Everyone is inclusive, there’s a prayer at the beginning and at the end.

Now this is where spirituality comes into it. We find out a lot of people find themselves and their greater power when they go through the process of healing or counseling and it comes up to be, they come up to be a better person for it. They kind of gain their soul back because they say when you’re out of control, your spirit leaves you because it sits there waiting for you if you get too involved in say drugs and alcohol or other addictions. But everyone in the room is part of the circle. Everything that is said in the circle is confidential.”

[Singing]

The Circle Process

Mike Jackson:

Stage I: Opening

“Stage one, the opening of the circle, there’s the welcoming by the Keeper of the Circle. There’s an opening prayer that is asked for, usually elders would say that. There are circle guidelines where we explain, just like we did here, the guidelines of the circle. There’s introductions, it’s a real quick introduction of who you are sitting there and what you’ve come there for like support of the victim or the offender or just for support of the community and the circle by itself."

Stage II: Legal Facts

"Then the legal facts are said. Usually it’s the judge or police or somebody volunteers to do that. The police might be there. If they’re not, that’s all right. There’s a defense opening, which is usually, a lot of times they aren’t there, the public defender. And if there was something like a probation, there was a broken probation then there’s a probation report either by police or one of the local circle keepers. And what the legal facts are, the legal summary, what could have been sentenced if they went to court."

Stage III: Clarifying Information

“But the Stage Three, the clarifying of information is by the support groups. A lot of times they will just wait to say their part when it comes their time to speak. But the last persons to speak in every round, especially after, except for the introductions, is going to be the, the last person really to speak would be the wrongdoer."

Stage IIII: Finding Common Ground

"But Stage Four is really searching for common ground where we use our talking stick and it could be anything, the talking circle, a stone, the spirituality of it like our elders have said this diamond willow that was given to us for the process, it represents our elders that have passed on, by them looking at us with the diamond eyes, and then it also represents today’s issues of what we’re sitting there talking about, but it also represents a support of the people that do get up to talk. Sometimes people get up in respect of one another, but it also talks about, and they talk about the future of things."

Stage V: Exploring Options

"So people are looking for common ground, they start speaking from the heart on what they might have experienced and how they might be able to help the victim or the wrongdoer to get past the incident."

Stage VI: Developing Consensus

"Then after it all goes around, it comes back to looking at developing a consensus where usually there’s a support group or counselor that will say, ‘Well, the offender would like to say this, that they were going to go to alcohol counseling or anger management or they’re going to write a letter of apology to the victim, their family and the community,’ and it starts the process of looking at a consensus or coming up with a circle sentence where it brings all the community’s concern, it brings and develops a remedial part of the circle where there’s a plan laid out where the offender is going to learn from it and how the healing is going to start for the victim and for the offender, their families and the community."

Stage VII: Closing of Circle

Now we go over, and it closes with a prayer and usually on all of ours that we do there are shaking of hands, a lot of times more in closely there’s hugging, there’s tears. A lot of times it gets very emotional and like the old people say, ‘Tears are starting the process of healing to get the poison out of you and it starts the healing.’ And it says, ‘Anybody can shed a tear.”

Justin McDonald:

“It’s all about the encouragement, the ongoing support, and when we know they’re doing good we get together, people bring the food and it’s a little potluck afterwards. It’s just small, just munchies and everything. That’s the only money we spent, too.”

Mike Jackson:

“We cannot afford to wait any longer to have somebody come in to cure us. We have to do that within ourselves. It would be way too more, too expensive to try to do that with today’s modern way of approaching curing people.”

Justin McDonald:

“We started out with no money at all ‘cause this really doesn’t take money, just concerned people.”

Mike Jackson:

“I would say we’ve saved the State of Alaska hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future from people sobering up; the State of Alaska and the different say non-profit organizations, health organizations. People are now doing things that are relevant in their lives. The costs, we have no budget. We run on zero, because who else is going to do it?”

Justin McDonald:

“This is a situation where we’re seeing results immediately, the next day, within the next week. It’s nothing we have to wait a few months down the road or to a year to see if we had an impact at all.”

Mike Jackson:

“A lot of times in a macho male world they say we’ve been brought up to say that it’s not good for men to cry, but we know in a circle and we tell them, ‘Once you find safety in a circle, a lot of times you talk from the heart and from the heart there’s that emotion that comes out, the expression of it and we do not try to hold those things back. We try to say that’s just part of the process of how people heal.”

[Singing]

Principles Common To All Circles

Mike Jackson:

“But the principles common to all circles is their process. The consensus approach where everyone is agreeing, even if they disagree, they’re agreeing to go along with it because it’ll benefit the whole circle but it will also benefit the whole community. There’s interest based, it’s really subject to what really happened. It’s self designed because every circle is different, we’re finding out. The flexibility of circles is one of the best parts of it because we can have that any time, anywhere, anyplace and that people are always invited, anyone that’s invited to come and that is willing to come to volunteer. The spirituality part, you noticed that we’ve had prayers in the openings and prayers at the end, to open it and start it in a good way because circles are sacred when people come together to talk about a healing process. There’s, like I said, the holistic healing. There’s a plan laid out and if it’s not followed, then there’s another circle done as a follow up circle. We just don’t give up on people. On some people we’ve had three, four circles because in a way they start changing. We meet with them over and over again and then they’ll start seeing the change and starting to get their soul back and that is really something to watch people grow.

There’s the participants, there’s anybody that’s inclusive that would like to volunteer. There’s a direct participation by everyone with an equal opportunity to talk, to give their heart, sharing their heart and their perspective and the respect of one another. The people that have come voluntarily, every time that are inclusive come back saying that it’s also good for them. The whole process is that they’re becoming better people in the community. I know it has been a calming effect on me, on my perspective of different religions and to me, I didn’t know what '12 Steps' were until people that were in the '12-Step' program started really telling me what it was about. So I’ve learned a lot about addictions from people that are right in it.

There’s the principles derived from circles, there’s the peacemaking people that go through, they learn it and as we have in our community there are the youth circles, that’s what we call youth courts. There’s the mediation, people start learning how to compromise and give and take. Then there’s consensus building in our community. People start learning how to give up oneself and say, ‘Well, I can give up that much of myself because it’s good for the victim, it’s good for the wrongdoer, it’s good for the community.’ They start learning, to me, it’s a personal observation, we start learning to be Tlingits again. Tlingit’s not just about like some elders mentioned that I read somewhere, it’s not about just language, it’s not about just dance or the oral part of it, but it’s about listening, it’s about participation, it’s about caring for the community, it’s about practicing being Tlingit, about sharing oneself for the betterment of the community and the children.”

[Singing]

Benefits of Integrating the Court System with the Community Circle

Mike Jackson:

“‘It’s important for communities to be involved in the process that directly affects the community,’ Judge Barry Stuart says. ‘It’s also essential that the community members establish a working relationship and partnership with the formal system,’ in our sense it’s Alaska court system, ‘and the circle peacemaking and acknowledge that our experiences shows that when this is done, it develops a much stronger community.’ It just helps our whole community out. There’s not so much money being spent on wrongdoers anymore. The changes from courts to community circle peacemaking is really radical. We’re not saying that one process is better than the other, but we’re knowing that when we get together and work together it becomes a better community.

The court system, community circles, who’s involved in the circles is local people, who’s involved in the court is lawyers and non-residents. Just like today, we had a hearing. The judge and the lawyers were from out of town and the local residents were sitting here listening telephonically. Who knows better what to do with local people than ourselves? The consensus agreement of the process is community versus the problem. The process in the court system is adversarial, state versus offender. It’s very different. The legal issues in the court are laws are broken. Here in our circles, relationships are broken and it’s really dramatic when you look at things like assault fourth degree, domestic violence. It affects everybody. The focus in the court is about guilt and offender. So over here in the community circles, it’s about holistic view, the needs of the victim, the community, the source of the problem, the wrongdoer, the resources for the solutions. In Kake, we’re real fortunate to have counselors and social workers to help us out to come up with resolutions and trying to make people work on their healing path.

The tools of the court system is punishment and control, but we’re finding out that it always goes and it’s always proven, assault for domestic violence, you punish the wrongdoer or offender and you put them in jail, that’s what he expects and you notice and they all kind of stick together in jail because they all know that they can blame somebody else for their wrongdoing. So it gives, it empowers them and it gives them still control in their own minds. Whereas you look over here in the community circles, it’s about healing and support. When you start supporting those wrongdoers, you’ll never see anybody change so radically because maybe it’s a first time somebody, ‘I love you, I care for you,’ rather than putting them down. Like I said, words could be clubs and maybe that’s all they’ve ever heard all their lives. Even in our small community, we’re really surprised that so few people ever heard the words, ‘We’re here just because we care about you.”

Justin McDonald:

“Then we also have follow-up circles. We check on these people: a month, three months and then six months down the road and if they, and this is just to see how they’re doing, check on them. Everyone in the circle, it’s very, it’s confidential. That’s a very important aspect of the circle also. It’s confidential, but anyone in the circle, they can talk amongst themselves about the circle hearing and they’re all the eyes and ears out there in the community. Like I was saying, we all see each other so we know what the person, the offender or the youth in question, what’s going on with them, what to watch for now. And everyone makes a commitment to check on this person, at least stop and say hi if they see them. If they see they’re feeling bummed out, they’re feeling a little bad, depressed or what have you or may be acting out, they’ll make a commitment to stop and talk to them or let the group know and we’ll call another circle, call them in and ask them, just do a follow-up.”

Mike Jackson:

“As a small individual group in Kake, we’re starting to be called all over to see if we can come and talk about what we’re doing here. To me that’s remarkable in a five-year period because all we’re doing is what’s called self-determination and practicing autonomy. Who is going to come in to change us? All our lives we’ve been up against change but who, are we going to make ourselves better? It depends upon ourselves. We cannot wait for the government or someone to come and save us. We have to do it ourselves because we would like to have our children have a better day.”

Justin McDonald:

“We’re starting to do more trainings, getting calls to come out and train. We’ve, our kids have gone to Mount Edgecumbe Boarding School, Mount Edgecumbe High School, and worked with the kids over there. We’ve gone to Ketchikan to work with their youth court over there. Our adult circle’s getting called out now to do trainings in different communities. It’s just really taking off. That’s why we talk about the spirit it has of it’s own. It’s just branching out.”

Mike Jackson:

“In other communities like Haines where they started this a year and a half ago, that it works up in an all non-native, really a non-native community, but it works there. It’s working in mid Anchorage where the juvenile homes are using it for talking circles and to start talking about juvenile probation issues. So it works anywhere.”

Justin McDonald:

“Wanted to build this relationship again within the community, it’s all about restoring a relationship and balance within the people and the community and we’ve found that the circle is just the perfect way to do this because when you attend a circle, you’re there to support one person, but everyone in there is sharing from their heart. It’s all about compassion and encouragement and support.”

Mike Jackson:

“And to us this stick has supported a lot of people on their way to healing. It has become very shiny and kind of a sacred stick to us and it’s just the diamond willow and it might be called an ugly stick, but it sure is a beauty stick to people who have changed their lives. [Tlingit language]. Good luck.”

[Singing]

For More Information Contact

Mike A. Jackson
(907) 785-3651 or 6471

Organized Village of Kake
Post Office Box 316
Kake, Alaska 90830

Kellogg Video Productions 2003
Edited by Brian Kellogg
907 351 6439

Property of OVK