To become Tribal law, the Sitka Tribal Council must “accept” an Ordinance at three readings at Tribal Council meetings. If the proposed Ordinance is approved by Tribal Council on the third reading, it will become effective in 30 days.

Tribal Citizens are invited and encouraged to attend the first, second, and third readings of proposed Ordinances and provide feedback on the proposed Ordinances. Tribal Citizens may also provide feedback on a proposed Ordinance by emailing Deputy Legal Director Annika Krafcik at annika.krafcik@sitkatribe-nsn.gov or calling 907-747-7163.

Tribal Judiciary Ordinance

Sitka Tribal Council will review the Tribal Judiciary Ordinance at the June 17, September 16, and October 21 Tribal Council meetings. The proposed Tribal Judiciary Ordinance was recommended “do pass” by the Governance Committee on June 1, 2026. The draft Tribal Judiciary Ordinance is available for review at the link above.
The Tribal Judiciary Ordinance is intended to supersede the Code Governing Tribal Court Rules and Civil Procedure and the Appellate Code. The Tribal Judiciary Ordinance is intended to reflect the Tribal Court’s current practices, make Tribal Court law more legible to all court participants regardless of representation, allow the Chief Judge to appoint a pro tempore judge when all Tribal Judges are recused from a case, and allow the Tribal Council to appoint a pro tempore appellate court judge for appellate cases.

Committee Ordinance

Sitka Tribal Council will review the Committee Ordinance at the June 17, October 21, and November 18 Tribal Council meetings. The proposed Tribal Judiciary Ordinance was recommended “do pass” by the Governance Committee. The draft Committee Ordinance is available for review at the link above.

Changes to the Committee Ordinance include, but are not limited to: 

1. Housekeeping: Changing Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA) to Sheet’ká Ḵwáan Tribe (SKT).

2. Updating the Standing Committees to committees that are currently operational at STA/SKT. Adding the Judiciary Committee as a Standing Committee, and specifying that the Judiciary Committee need only meet once a year (as opposed to 4 times a year) (02.03.09(a)).

3. Removing language that there are some Committees not governed by this Ordinance.

4. Clarifying that Commissions and Boards have the authority to act on issues within their scope without prior Tribal Council approval, unless otherwise stated.

5. Clarifying that a staff member is a voting member of the Committee, unless otherwise stated in Tribal Law. E.g., the Committee Ordinance says that the Governance Committee shall only be made up of Tribal Council members, therefore the staff person is not a voting member of the Governance Committee.

6. Adding a definition for regularly scheduled committee meetings.

7. Add a definition for a committee charter (02.03.03(a)) and adding a requirement that committees create charters and review them annually (02.03.08(b) and 02.03.09(a)).

8. Instituting terms for at-large Tribal Citizen committee seats. Term lengths will be set by the Committee, with a maximum term length of 5 years (as opposed to an indefinite term length). (02.03.07(a)). Note: at-large Tribal Citizen committee members are already subject to a Criminal Background Check under 02.03.08(b).