The data from a longitudinal study of seven indigenous justice service organizations in four colonized countries were analyzed to identify the characteristics that made them "indigenous." Although nine common organizational characteristics emerged, of these, four are essential and specific to indigenous organizations (dependency on indigenous stakeholders, incorporation of indigenous values and practices, indigenous organizational governance, and support for indigenous self-determination) and are framed by a fifth (colonial socio-environmental) that is also constitutive but not specific to indigenous organizations. Through their services, values and operations, indigenous organizations are deeply embedded in the reconstruction of the reality of indigenous/non-indigenous relations.

INTRODUCTION Criminal justice organizations that are operated by indigenous peoples play many important roles beyond simply providing services for indigenous people involved with the criminal justice system or at risk of such involvement. Service provision is their explicit role, but these organizations also have important implicit roles in the community and, in some cases, regionally, nationally, and internationally. It is important to understand the full contributions that these (and other indigenous service) organizations make to indigenous and nonindigenous society because of their often precarious existence within the criminal justice systems of countries that were historically invaded and settled by European powers. The dominant society within these countries continues to marginalize indigenous inhabitants through a variety of economic, political, and legal processes that contribute to the overrepresentation of the indigenous population in crime statistics. Previous research has identified six general roles played in communities by any organization; however, because of the special needs and history of indigenous communities, these roles take on unusual characteristics. In this essay I describe and analyze the explicit and implicit roles of five organizations. Explicit roles include providing a variety of programs—directly related, indirectly related, and not related at all to criminal justice. As important as these explicit roles are, the implicit roles of the organizations are of more interest because they are seldom discussed in the literature and not always utilized to their full potential for the benefit of indigenous organizations and communities alike.