IV-E Scholar Courtney Knoll is interning within the ICWA unit at Hennepin County. She has had the opportunity as an MSW IV-E student to attend both the 2013 Summer Institute in American Indian Child Welfare coordinated by the University of Minnesota—Duluth’s Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies and the 2014 Winter Institute on Reducing Child Welfare Disparities in Minnesota. Below Courtney blogs about her experience at this year’s Winter Institute and some of the questions it raised for her regarding understanding tribal sovereignty and disparities within child welfare.

Understanding sovereignty key to addressing disparity?

Tribal sovereignty is a complicated concept for the everyday US citizen. In fact, even government officials like Supreme Court justices and former presidents have struggled and continue to struggle with the concept of sovereignty and what it truly means for American Indians and our country. As a participant at the recent Winter Institute on Reducing Child Welfare Disparities in Minnesota, put on by the University of Minnesota—Duluth, Priscilla Day, Director of the Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies, explained sovereignty in a way that really challenged me to think deeper about what it means for tribes to truly be sovereign and what then it looks like to address disparities.

A Historical View of Sovereignty

Day gave us a glimpse of history, as she explained that the rights of tribes were not granted and are not “special protections,” but were retained—that is, never given over to the United States. The US government signed treaties with independently self-governed nations and in those treaties tribes never ceded their rights to be their own nations. During the “founding” of our nation we made treaties with sovereign tribal nations acknowledging them as independent and yet incorporating them into our nation and promising them certain benefits. Therefore, enrollment in a tribal nation is not a special protection but a political status, a political status that goes above and beyond race or ethnicity.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) likens their sovereignty to other nations and even US States because they have the right to self-govern. Being independent and afforded the right to preserve culture and identity is of utmost importance to American Indians; however, the NCAI identifies three primary threats to tribal sovereignty: “outmoded bureaucratic processes, lack of federal agency coordination, and regulations and laws that prevent tribal governments to equitable access to federal programs on par with state and local governments.”

The Indian Child Welfare Act

Following Day’s presentation, Elaine Sullivan spoke about active efforts, a requirement of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), and about working directly with tribes. Two things from her presentation that stood out were:

  1. the limited capacity of tribes to respond fully to child welfare concerns and
  2. when she called children tribes’ “greatest resource” for the future.

She noted that some tribes may have many inquiries per month and literally only one person on staff to weed through them. Because of this limited capacity child welfare agencies may become disillusioned with the requirements of ICWA, simply because it’s “more work” and not necessarily producing the results.

Would this look different if Tribal Nations were able to access the same resources as state or local governments and were able to increase their capacity? If time was taken to fully understand this political status and what it means—could that offer more commitment on the part of agencies? As we look at the stagnant disparities that exist for American Indian children in child welfare, do we think of their children as great resources? How do we change the conversation to start producing results of decreased disparities instead of watching them continue to persist? These are not questions that I believe that I can answer. I think these are questions the child welfare field as a whole needs to wrestle with and needs to consult with Tribal Nations about. Having a strong sense of cultural identity and community are protective factors that create a buffer for children and for families. I believe that if we find ways to protect Tribal Sovereignty and children (tribes’ greatest resource) that we may just start to see some benefits.