There are, in the State of Washington, many tribal courts which hear cases arising on reservation lands. I am privileged to be part of the same state judges organization as are many of the fine judges who sit in these tribal courts. Few, if any, of them are legally trained, in the Western sense of going to law school. The principles and practices they employ are a remarkable mixture of tribal law and English Common Law.

Now that forward-thinking courts in the non-Indian systems are investigating concepts like restorative justice, judges and lawyers are turning more and more to Native American judges to show them how it works ... 'cause they've been practicing it for a long while.