‘We look deeper’: the Native court settling cases outside the justice system

In South Dakota, the Oyate Court - made up of Lakota elders - uses traditional peacemaking principles to stress healing over punishment

Robert Jones was on edge, a Native American teen in a reservation border town courtroom.

He faced felony assault charges in Rapid City, South Dakota, home to a criminal justice system stubbornly plagued by racial disparities. Nearly all of the police, prosecutors, judges and jailers are white and more than half of the accused and incarcerated are Native American - despite comprising a fraction of the city's population.