Column: Judge tries to make court friendly for Alaska Natives

In the interest of full disclosure, let me begin by saying that I've known Barrow Superior Court Judge Michael Jeffery for well over 30 years. I first met him when he arrived in Barrow as a legal services attorney. Since then, I have worked with him in a variety of capacities. There was a time I was the social worker and he was the attorney representing the parents of children in state custody. There was a long time when I was a guardian ad litem with the Barrow court overseeing cases involving children in state custody. I still occasionally work with the court as a court visitor, doing investigations and producing reports in cases involving requests for appointment of a guardian for an adult.

Both the high and low point of my time in Mike's court occurred many years ago when the state did not provide an assistant attorney general to represent the precursor of the Office of Children's Services, the Division of Family and Youth Services. The assistant district attorney, a position that represents the state primarily in criminal matters, was assigned to go to court with the social worker as needed. Needless to say, children's law was not their forte. The Indian Child Welfare Act was totally foreign territory to them.

I was in court in a custody dispute involving Inupiat children. A legal services attorney represented the parents. While that attorney was quoting from the commentary of senate debate over the tweaking of ICWA as it related to the intent of the law, the DA passed me a piece of paper on which were written the words, "What is ICWA?"

At the time, that was the low point in my court career. Now it's a high point because it is, in retrospect, pretty sadly funny.