When he crosses the wide gates that separate the Seminole Tribe of Florida's headquarters from Hollywood, Judge Jose Izquierdo is only minutes from the main courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.

But in many ways, he's a world away.

On the tribe's reservation set back from a busy city street, he's an outsider — and one of only a few people with the inside knowledge to help the tribe accomplish a necessary task.

Izquierdo is a Broward circuit judge, where he has sat since 2016, and serves in the dependency division. He presides over cases of alleged child abuse or neglect, and makes daily rulings that affect the lives of children whose parents are either unable or unwilling to provide care.

For the last year, he has been both teacher and student serving a tribe with a rich history and troubling past with the federal and state government.

Every 60 days after handling his regular Friday docket, the judge picks up his laptop, scheduler and case files, and heads to the tribe's administrative office.

“I take my robe,” he said. “I usually pack it all up.”

Sometimes, he stops for lunch along the way because he'll spend the afternoon hearing up to a dozen cases involving Seminole children. On one of the top floors of the tribe's office tower, Izquierdo presides in the presence of a panel of Native American judges, judicial staff and court reporters. The idea is for mutual feedback: He teaches them how to run a Western-style dependency court, and they educate him on Seminole laws and traditions.

Chief Judge Moses Osceola, Seminole Tribal Court. Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM

“It's been kind of a unique relationship,” Seminole Tribal Court Chief Judge Moses Osceola said. “'He teaches us the traditional court system ways, and we can help him with some of the traditional Indian thinking.”

The Seminole Tribe is a sovereign nation, but it must still abide by U.S. rules under Public Law 280, which gives the federal government jurisdiction over criminal and civil matters on Indian reservations.

The Seminole Tribe gained recognition from the federal government in 1957 and has since created a tribal council and formal system of government. Its leaders launched a dispute-resolution center and signed an ordinance in 2011 to develop a court of civil jurisdiction. State and federal courts still handle criminal cases, which are often more expensive.

Stan Wolfe, Seminole Tribal Court director.

“With a lot of the tribes out there, a court as you know it is a foreign thing,” said Stan Wolfe, a Cherokee attorney from North Carolina who moved to Florida in 2005 to help the Seminoles establish a formal judiciary.

Although the tribe had a police force, it had no formal prosecution and law enforcement system.

“We've never gotten around to developing the trial court,” Wolfe said.