Commission coordinates battle against drug crime
By Edna Sailor
The Mandan Hidatsa and Arickara Nation, like other communities of people in western North Dakota has had to deal with a tidal wave of illegal drugs, according to Gerald White, TAT Public Safety Commissioner/Chief of Drug Enforcement White is a an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, & Arikara Nation. Last May, 2014, he retired from federal service as a Special Agent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He has a twenty-eight year career in law enforcement.
The task has not been a small one for White or tribal law enforcement.
"The Public Safety Commission is responsible for assisting and providing guidance to our tribal public safety departments in order to identify and develop goals and facilitate their implementation." he said. "These public safety departments consist of the tribal police department, tribal criminal investigations, tribal drug enforcement, domestic violence, and tribal emergency management and corrections. The Public Safety Commission is not only essential to the mission of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation), but our primary goal in the public safety is to promote and provide for the overall safety of our tribal members and people who reside on and call Fort Berthold and their homes. It also extends to those who visit or are passing through the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation."
