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Native Alaskan leaders say police protection is scarce in their
communities.
"I've always been mindful that it's the responsibility of the
attorney general to serve all the people of the United States,
in every state, in every community," Barr said at the meeting in
Anchorage.
"I've always thought it was critical that our legal system work
for every American and that no one is left out of that."
The meeting was held on the day U.S. Special Counsel Robert
Mueller appeared before reporters in Washington at the
Department of Justice, which Barr oversees, to discuss his
investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Barr, who faces criticism from Democrats for his decision to
clear President Donald Trump, a Republican, of criminal
obstruction of justice after Mueller wrapped up his effort, is
leading a review of the origins of the Russia investigation.
The topic of the investigation did not come up at Barr's meeting
in Alaska and he took no questions from reporters.
Barr's trip fulfilled a promise given months ago to Alaska's two
U.S. senators, who had pressed the attorney general to visit the
northernmost U.S. state and its crime-plagued rural areas.
From Anchorage, Barr was set to travel on Thursday to Galena, an
Athabascan village on the Yukon River, and on Friday to Bethel,
a Yup'ik hub community in southwestern Alaska, and to a smaller
Yup'ik village nearby.
Though Alaska Natives make up about a fifth of the state
population, Native women account for more than half of the
victims of reported sexual assaults, state reports show.
"The statistics speak for themselves," said Leonard Wallner of
Chugiachmiut, a consortium of tribes in the Prince William Sound
and Gulf of Alaska area.
Cases of domestic violence were 10 times the national average,
and those of sexual assault were 12 times the national average,
he added.
"Public safety is non-existent in many Alaska Native villages,"
Wallner said.
The Native leaders, who met Barr at the headquarters of the
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, also blasted state
budget cuts they said would put Alaska Natives at risk.
(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Clarence Fernandez)
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