Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa · Métis

About

Twenty-seven years in tribal, county, and federal law enforcement. A Chippewa and Métis writer descended from a songwriter. One book coming, and a lot of country behind it.

Who I Am

Hi, I’m Jerin Falcon

Jerin Falcon, Indigenous author and Indian Country law enforcement consultant. — Taken at Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu in Tokyo, the restaurant that inspired the House of Blue Leaves setting in *Kill Bill*. My family and I lived in Japan for two years immediately after I retired from federal service. It was there that I drafted *No One Came Looking*. The country and its people are fantastic. If you haven’t been, you need to go.

I spent twenty-seven years in tribal, county, and federal law enforcement, retiring in 2024 as Deputy Associate Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services.

In that role, I oversaw drug-enforcement and major-crimes investigations across Indian Country, supporting operations nationwide and working on the ground on more than twenty-five reservations across thirteen states.

My career spans the justice system from the ground level to senior federal leadership. I began in county corrections and tribal policing before moving into federal law enforcement as a patrol officer. I later became a Special Agent, investigating violent crime and working undercover narcotics on an FBI Safe Trails Task Force. I served twice as a Special Agent in Charge, leading complex investigations involving drug trafficking, violent crime, and interagency coordination.

Heritage

Writing runs through the family

Portrait of Pierre Falcon, 1793 to 1876, Métis poet and song-writer of Red River, and direct ancestor of Jerin Falcon. — Poet and song-writer, a Métis of Red River. Born at Elbow Fort, died at Saint-François-Xavier, Manitoba. My direct ancestor.

I am an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and a proud member of the Métis/Michif people. That lived connection to Indian Country informed my work throughout my career, particularly at the intersection of federal authority, tribal sovereignty, and public safety.

I am a direct descendant of Pierre Falcon, one of the earliest Métis songwriters. His songs preserved the events, humor, politics, and national spirit of our people and were carried across the fur-trade country by generations of voyageurs. His best-known work, La Chanson de la Grenouillère, told the Métis story of the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816.

More than two hundred years later, I am proud to continue writing under the Falcon name.

Training & Work Today

Where it came from, and what I do now

I am a graduate of Minot State University, the U.S. Indian Police Academy, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. I am also a veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard.

Today, I consult selectively on Indian Country law-enforcement issues and write Indigenous fiction grounded in real cultural and investigative experience. My writing on federal leadership has appeared in Government Executive.

The Book → Speaking & Consulting →

My Approach

Servant leadership

I believe in servant leadership. When you step into a supervisory role, your job changes. You are no longer there to be the expert. You are there to clear obstacles, develop your people, and take responsibility when things go sideways. There are no gotchas. We actually want people to succeed. When they do, you succeed.

After twenty-seven years watching colleagues come and go, I learned something that surprised me. The organization keeps moving after you leave. That is not sad. It is freeing. It means you can delegate, train people properly, take real vacations, and stop carrying everything yourself.

I have written about these ideas for Government Executive and trained hundreds of federal supervisors and executives across DOI and DOJ. The principles are not complicated. The hard part is doing them consistently.

The best leaders I have known did not build empires. They built people who went on to lead well themselves.

Jerin Falcon presenting SAC Brian Archdale with a stuffed squirrel as the Year of Affluence Award after Brian succeeded him as Special Agent in Charge of District VII. — Presenting SAC Brian Archdale with a stuffed squirrel after he succeeded me as Special Agent in Charge of District VII.

Twenty-Seven Years

The work behind the writing

The Indian Police Academy, tribal policing in eastern Oregon, undercover narcotics, two tours as Special Agent in Charge, and a federal executive desk. The fiction comes out of this.

Jerin Falcon serving in the honor guard at a law enforcement funeral while a cadet at the U.S. Indian Police Academy, circa 1999.

Jerin Falcon as a Umatilla Tribal Police Officer, 1999.

Jerin Falcon eradicating a large illegal marijuana grow in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, circa 2000.

Jerin Falcon in uniform with fellow BIA OJS Special Agents in Charge at the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, circa 2015.

Jerin Falcon with fellow BIA OJS Special Agents in Charge at the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, circa 2018.

Jerin Falcon, Deputy Associate Director, instructing a BIA OJS 1801 police officer at an indoor range in Vancouver, Washington, 2023.

Jerin Falcon's Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services Special Agent (Retired) badge.

Retirement plaque honoring Jerin Falcon's federal service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services.

“Show up for your people. Tell them the truth. Give them what they need to succeed. Then get out of the way.”

Simple ideas