June 19, 2008

Prepared Statement of Honorable Floyd Jourdain, Jr., Chairman, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians

On June 19, 2008, Floyd Jourdain, Jr., Chairman, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, testified before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about the situation with a juvenile detention facility built in 2005 with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota. The facility has never been used because the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) never requested funds for staffing and program operations. The Red Lake Juvenile Jail was a joint project between BIA and DOJ; the facility was intended to house and rehabilitate juvenile offenders on the Red Lake Reservation.