A looming federal deadline that requires tribes to track and register sex offenders in their communities was both embraced and denounced by tribal leaders in a Senate hearing on Thursday.

The Adam Walsh Act, a law to track the whereabouts of people who commit sex crimes, calls for tribes to comply with the federal law by next April or step aside so a state's attorney general can do the job.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian affairs, called on tribal leaders and national spokesmen to testify on Indian Country's success and failures in complying with the sex offender registration act.

"Warm Springs was surprised and upset, as was most of Indian Country, to learn that Congress has jeopardized our sovereignty, subjecting our governments to the mandates of the Adam Walsh Act," said Chairman Ron Suppah of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. "Faced with the option to comply or lose our jurisdiction, we have opted to comply even though we have little experience in registering sex offenders."

States, on the other hand, have had decades to create sex offender monitoring systems, said Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C

Johnson and Robert Moore, a Rosebud Sioux tribal councilman, thanked Senate members for their vote on Wednesday to direct $2 billion to American Indians from a $50 billion global AIDS health bill. The money would be used for the Indian Health Service, water projects and law enforcement.

The AIDS bill, meant to combat global illnesses such as HIV and malaria, is expected to pass the full Senate early next week.

Moore said the money will go a long way in addressing issues such as implementing the Adam Walsh Act, including increased financial support for victim services and law enforcement and tribal clinics and hospitals responsible for assisting victims of sexual assault.

Johnson, who represents the largest and oldest Native advocacy organization in the country, suggested several steps Congress could take to help tribes successfully create a sex offender registry system.

First, all tribes should be allowed to implement the act, she said. Second, the Bureau of Indian Affairs should also be a part of the sex offender system. And third, Congress should amend the law to prevent state attorney generals from stripping tribes of their criminal and civil jurisdictions to monitor sex offenders. "It sets an extremely dangerous precedent," she said.

Johnson also urged Congress to extend the compliance deadline for all tribes.

"As the deadline for implementation approaches, we're still finding there's this great deal of confusion," Johnson said. "We also found that the many tribes who opted in to protect their sovereignty who were eligible to opt in have recognized they must work through and collaborate with states."

She said some states have been good, while others have been more challenging.

"We have great jurisdictional issues with the state of South Dakota, and they would jump at the chance to have any entrance to any of our tribal jurisdictions," Moore told the committee.

Meanwhile, Johnson said many states are reporting they do not have enough resources to comply with the act. Some states are even saying it's too expensive for them to comply. "If a state chooses not to comply, they make it even more difficult for a tribe to comply."

The Tohono O'odham Nation of Sells, Ariz., has had a sexual offender register in place, so it's been easier for tribal law enforcement to comply with the Adam Walsh Act. The tribe has tracked 216 sex offenders living on the reservation, which has a population of 14,000.

Tohono O'odham Vice Chairman Isidro Lopez said the tribe needs additional money to fully implement the Adam Walsh Act. But its success, so far, is attributed to a positive relationship with state law enforcement.

"Our successful efforts reflect on the environment of cooperation with the state of Arizona, spurred by the motivation to protect our women and children, the most common victims of these terrible crimes."

Lopez said the Adam Walsh Act would "only truly succeed if states fully include tribes as fellow governments fighting crime together."

Reporter Jodi Rave: 800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net