Peacemaker Court: the Traditional Alternative

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming,United States
• Citation: Vol. 28 No. 6 Pg. 8
• Publication year: 2005
• Pages: 8
• Year: 2005
• topic: Family Law

Wyoming Bar Journal 2005.

Vol. 28, No. 6 #8 (December 2005). Peacemaker Court: The Traditional Alternative

WYOMING LAWYER
December 2005/Vol. XXVIII, No. 6

Peacemaker Court: The Traditional Alternative

By Andrew W. Baldwin

Debates about how to reform the American legal system to better meet the needs of children and families have spawned the emergence of drug courts, mandatory counseling programs increased dispute mediation, family courts, and other important efforts

While some of these are relatively new to the Anglo-American judicial system, American Indian tribes have maintained traditional ways of resolving and healing disputes which already provide much of the benefits sought by these reforms. The Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming has codified support for its traditional dispute resolution system in what many tribes now call a "Peacemaker Court." The Eastern Shoshone Tribe of Wyoming recently took similar legislative action.

Traditional American Indian justice has been described as "horizontal." It emphasizes problem-solving on a wider basis than just the individuals involved in a specific event, pulling in families and community to address underlying causes of behavioral problems. Peacemaking allows for discussions about why a crime occurred, why the people involved took the action they did, and what...