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Montana Department of Justice  ·  Victim Services

2005 Montana Restorative Justice and
Montana-Wyoming Tribal Judges' Conference

Presenters

Brenda C. Desmond

Brenda C. Desmond of Missoula, Montana has served as Standing Master for the State of Montana, Fourth Judicial District Court since 1996. From 1997 to 2003, she was also a part-time Associate Appellate Justice of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Court of Appeals. Ms. Desmond was admitted to practice in the State of Montana in 1980 and in the State of New York in 1977.

A graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, Ms. Desmond has been involved in the planning and programming of the Missoula Youth Drug Court since its inception in 1996 and presides over the weekly drug court staffing and court session when Presiding Judge John W. Larson is absent. From 1999-2002, she was a member of the Tribal Advisory Committee of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, in cooperation with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute and the U.S. Drug Courts Program Office. She is a consulting faculty member for the U.S. Department of Justice Juvenile Drug Court Planning Initiative administered by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

Ms. Desmond was on the faculty of the University of Montana School of Law from 1985 - 1994 where she taught in the areas of appellate practice, legal writing, legislation, public land and resources law and served as Supervising Attorney and Director of the Indian Law Clinic. Ms. Desmond has worked extensively in the field of Indian law: as court advisor for the Crow Tribal Court, as staff attorney in the Montana Legal Services office serving the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations and as staff attorney for the Montana Legislative Committee on Indian Affairs. Ms. Desmond has also worked for the Montana Legislative Council and as Staff Attorney to the Montana House Judiciary Committee. Ms. Desmond has extensive experience in legal and grant writing and in drafting both tribal and state legislation.

Harley Eagle

Harley Eagle is of the Dakota/Saulteaux First Nations, enrolled in the Wapaha Ska Dakota First Nations Reserve, in Saskatchewan, Canada. He currently lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada with his wife, Sue, and daughters Danielle and Emma. Previous to this he lived and worked for almost seven years as a youth worker and program coordinator of Mennonite Central Committee's Oglala Lakota Nation Unit on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Harley and his wife are Coordinators of Aboriginal Work for Mennonite Central Committee Canada. Their work includes supporting the network of people who carry out MCC's work with First Nations as well as drawing the organization's attention to the many issues that face First Nations people and giving direction on actions to be taken regarding these peace and justice issues.

Recently Harley has filled the position with Mennonite Central Committee's Dismantling Racism Program as Co-Director (USA) providing leadership for development of new work in Internalized Racist Oppression. He is a core trainer with an anti-racism program through Mennonite Central Committee, a facilitator/trainer with Indigenous Issues Forums, and a Restorative Justice trainer.

Eleanor J. Guerrero

Eleanor J. Guerrero has been an attorney for approximately 25 years. She practiced in New York, New Jersey, Florida and Colorado before relocating to Montana. She served as one of fifty county prosecutors in Bergen County, New Jersey, a county of approximately one million residents. She headed the Environmental Crimes Squad dealing with the application of new federal laws to the enforcement of new state criminal laws against pollution. In one case, she obtained the highest county fine in its history. She was chosen by the Office of the Attorney General to attend a federal training course on how to teach professionals. She then served in the Domestic Violence Squad directing a group of detectives prosecuting all county violations. She conducted domestic violence police training for city and county law enforcement. Ms. Guerrero was a member of the steering committee for the international Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, N.Y.C., and provided representation in human rights cases as a volunteer attorney.

In 1995, Ms. Guerrero moved out West and was hired as the Southern Ute Tribal Prosecutor. The territory covered a checkerboard of state, Tribal and federal jurisdictions. Thereafter, she set up a private law practice in Durango, Colorado. For eight years her office handled state and federal cases and tribal police training for local tribes emphasizing domestic violence. She worked with teenagers in programs she created for Native American youth on art and culture. In 1997, she was designated by the local United States Attorney's office as keynote speaker for the Four Corners Conference on Family Violence. The conference included United States attorneys, tribal judges, prosecutors, advocates and police from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Her courses are certified by the Federal Indian Police Academy. Ms. Guerrero is single and lives in Red Lodge, Montana.

Susan Woodrow

Susan Woodrow is Community Affairs Managing Project Director for the Helena, Montana Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Ms. Woodrow joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in 1990 as an attorney. Prior to her transfer to the Helena Branch in 1999, Ms. Woodrow served as Senior Counsel providing, among other things, legal support to Community Affairs with particular emphasis on Indian Country issues. During her tenure in the Law Department, she traveled twice to Central Asia where she worked with the central banks of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic to draft laws and regulations.

In her current position, Ms. Woodrow works extensively on tribal economic development issues, including legal infrastructure development. Recent speaking engagements include presentations on tribal commercial law at the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians "Trading at the River" Conference in Portland, Oregon; the Northern Cheyenne Economic Development Summit in Lame Deer, Montana; the National American Indian Housing Council's Legal Symposium in Las Vegas, Nevada; the United South and Eastern Tribe's Impact Week in Arlington, Virginia; the Montana/Wyoming Tribal Economic Development Conference in Billings, Montana; and the United Sioux Tribes' Rural Development Conference in Pierre, South Dakota. She is currently serving on a National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws committee that is drafting a model tribal secured transaction code.

Ms. Woodrow received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota in 1990, and her Bachelor's degree in Education from the University of Wales (United Kingdom) in 1980.

Ruth Yellow Hawk

Ruth Yellow Hawk focuses her personal and professional interests in learning. She actively works to understand the depth and breadth of our human connections to one another and to the natural world. Currently she serves as the Co-Director of the Indigenous Issues Forums, a non-profit team dedicated to community building practices. Much of her work is done in collaboration with other organizations and individuals including The Kettering Foundation, National Issues Forums Institute, Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking, the Pu'a Foundation, Independent Television Services (ITVS), Tribal Colleges, and many diverse educational centers and public broadcasting entities.

An Ohio Native American of Huron/Wyandot/German ancestry, Ruth lives in a cabin the Black Hills with her husband Jim, an internationally acclaimed Lakota/Iroquois artist, and their son Gabriel. As a family, the Yellow Hawks follow the Pow Wow and Native American Fine Arts circuit. They enjoy music, reading, kayaking, traditional dancing, motorcycling, and walking around the Black Hills.