The Youth Justice Committee members form "sentencing panels" whenever requested to do so by the court and hold hearings to obtain information with which to make recommendations to the court for appropriate sentences. The Youth Justice Committees primarily serve young offenders, although some assist adults, and in some communities the committees occasionally bypass the courts to deal directly with disputes. The Peacemaker division is one of five divisions of the Navajo Nation court system. The Peacemakers help disputants arrive at a harmonious settlement of a dispute. Disputes may pertain to land use, grazing rights, and domestic conflict, including child custody and family violence; criminal offenses up to and including sexual assault have also been addressed, although most cases are civil disputes. The majority of disputants are adult members of the Navajo Nation. The Peacemakers are respected members of the Navajo community, male and female, who are chosen by their communities. Based on literature reviews and interviews with strategic persons, an exploratory study was conducted to determine the impact of colonial processes on the social organization of these two initiatives. Four basic and discernible aspects of organizational development were examined: structure, operational technology, developmental issues, and ideology. Study objectives were to determine whether there were patterns of similarity between the two initiatives in organizational development and to lay the foundations for the development of a theoretical framework for the comparative study of the impact of colonialism on justice organizations operated by indigenous people. This framework combined concepts from social organizational theory and colonization theory. The study found that the two organizations were similar in their modified indigenous culture-based structures and in the developmental issues of resistance they faced. This suggests that a colonial-based social Darwinistic ideology impacted their development. The organizations chose to respond by using a discourse of organizational effectiveness rather than of discrimination, thereby not endangering their resource-dependent relationship with the state. 5 notes and 46 references