Information


Name: Rocky Boy's

Tribe: Chippewa Cree

Population: 3,500

Native: 98%

Counties: Hill,
Choteau

"Anybody who is entrusted to hold an office should be held to the highest standard. If you don't have that, what good is the system?" Gopher asks. "What good is the law?" Others agree that abuse of power isn't uncommon. Parker says it's well known that if a tribal council member's child gets in trouble with drugs, prosecutors will be pressured to drop charges. "If you don't let my kid out of jail and if you don't drop the charges, you won't have a job. That's how it's been as long as I can remember," Parker says.

Parker's family has felt the effects first hand. She says her father, Mike, was fired from his prosecutor's job after a councilman's son was caught in 2003 with an ounce of cocaine. Twenty minutes before the defendant was to be sentenced, her father was called into council chambers and fired.

Mike Parker packed up his belongings and decided never to go back to work for the tribe. He recently underwent both cranial and heart surgery and is limited in his ability to speak about the topic.

"I think everything would be better if the BIA took over instead of the tribal council," Charon Parker says. "It's always going to be family here. I don't think that'll ever change."

The present tribal council has taken one step that could lead to change, however. It has created a judicial commission to serve as a barrier between the council and the courts. Bert Corcoran chairs the commission that meets once a month. A retired school superintendent, Corcoran says that when he took the position, he had little knowledge of the intricacies of the tribal court system. One of the commission's first actions was to find funding for a court administrator. Corcoran says when Gopher was chief judge, the workload created by not having a court administrator made Gopher's job nearly impossible.

Corcoran points out that since judges are hired by the council, they must also answer to them. Even now council members persist in trying to influence decisions and rulings, he says.

Still, he emphasizes that judges must refuse to bend the rules. "And Joel has certainly done that so far," Corcoran says. "If you listen to council you're going to get yourself into hot water really fast because you can't continue to do these favors."

Though mindful of past pressures, Rosette says so far he loves his job and hasn't felt intimidation from the tribal council. He agreed to take the job only temporarily at first, but has since decided to stay. He's found one way to lessen the pressures of the job.

He lives 30 miles north of the reservation, in the old railroad town of Havre. Rosette says he likes to be able to go grocery shopping without being approached about cases.

Rosette considers Gopher a mentor and model judge and says the best advice he got from him was to not take criticism personally.

"Sometimes I feel like the job as a judge can often overwhelm," Rosette says. "But I feel like my energy and passion can make up for that."