Evan Erickson KYUK | A
wooden cross with the words "Four Yupiit Ancestors" marks the spot
where the remains of four Yup'ik inhabitants taken from the region in
1907 were buried in November 2024 after being returned to the
Orutsararmiut Traditional Native Council.
At the Bethel Memorial
Cemetery at the edge of the tundra, a large wooden cross protruding from
a single gravesite bears only the words “Four Yupiit Ancestors.”
In
November 2024, the partial remains of four Yup’ik inhabitants of the
Bethel area were finally laid to rest by Bethel’s tribe, the
Orutsararmiut Traditional Native Council (ONC). They’d been stored at
the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
(Penn Museum) for more than a century.
The repatriation is the
product of a yearslong process under the federal Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The law has facilitated the
transfer of the remains of tens of thousands of Native Americans stored
in museum collections and laboratories back to federally recognized
tribes since its passage in 1990.
Nevertheless, hundredsof
thousands of remains and sacred objects still remain in the possession
of museums, universities, and federal agencies across the United States.
At
the request of ONC in November 2024, the City of Bethel agreed to dig a
gravesite for the remains at the Bethel Memorial Cemetery. In a meeting
of the Bethel City Council shortly after the burial, Bethel City Clerk
Kevin Morgan shared an email sent to the city by the tribe describing
the remains.
"It was an adult male, the cranium and mandible,
mandible of a female, mandible and part of the skull of a female, and
the cranium and cranial bones of … about a 15-year-old female," Morgan
said.
Notice of the ancestral remains as required under NAGRA was
first made by the National Park Service in late 2022, though it is
unclear when Bethel’s tribe received the remains. ONC did not respond to
multiple requests for comment.
Little is known about the four recently buried Yupiit ancestors, but according to the federal register,
the remains were removed from a site near Bethel in September 1907 as
part of a Western Alaska expedition led by Penn Museum’s general curator
of American archaeology, George Byron Gordon.
That same year, Gordon collected and removed hundreds of cultural items from the region as part of a canoe expedition of the Kuskokwim River that brought the anthropologist to Bethel.
According to The Repatriation Database,
a project by nonprofit investigative journalism organization
ProPublica, the remains of at least one person of interest to Bethel’s
tribe are still being held by the Alaska State Medical Examiner's
Office, but have not been made available for repatriation.
The
Penn Museum did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the
history of the remains while in the museum’s possession.
Cases in new AK missing persons report go back to 1960
A first-of-its-kind report on missing persons in Alaska,
which maps out hundreds of cases going back to 1960, has been released
by state's Department of Public Safety and the Anchorage Police
Department, as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.
The State Department of Public Safety and the Anchorage Police Department collaborated to collect this data.
Austin McDaniel, a spokesman for the Public Safety Department, says the report maps out hundreds of cases going back to 1960.
“We think this is a good first effort, and we’re definitely interested in adding additional data points.”
McDaniel
says the work, which is an outgrowth of Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-AK)’s
People First Initiative, will be updated every quarter and can be found
online.
In the last quarter, from April to June, 200 Alaska Native
or American Indian people went missing in the state. Most of those have
been found, except for 25.
The database has an important new feature.
It categorizes the circumstances surrounding the disappearances, identifying those which are suspicious.
As
director of the Data for Indigenous Justice group, Charlene Apok
welcomes the new report and says it’s what advocates for missing
Indigenous people have been asking for – for years.
She worked on an earlier attempt to track their numbers.
“Sadly,
I think what this really illustrates is a systemic issue of violence
that’s being perpetrated in our community in the state of Alaska. And
that should raise flags and alarms, and really start igniting justice.”
Apok
hopes the database will continue to improve and provide more
information about those missing, including their hometowns and Native
cultural identities, so they become more than just points of data, but
reminders of loved ones, lost to their families.
my screenshot from the new report👆
**Maybe this TV show helped?👇👇
only one season, sadly
Yesterday I watched the last two episodes of Alaska Daily who had made a similar map and report... Devastating to watch... Trace
As Arlene Ballot prepares to finally pick up her murdered daughter’s
child from the couple who have had her for most of her 4 years of life,
she can be forgiven for being cautiously optimistic about actually
bringing Chanel home.
The July 17 decision to award Ballot custody is the second time the
Selawik Tribal Court in Alaska has ordered Chanel, an indigenous child,
to be returned to her grandmother. Nikki Richman, who is not related to
Chanel, gained temporary custody through the child’s father, Eric
Rustad, who murdered Chanel’s mother Kristen Huntington in January 2020.
"This is three years too long. They shouldn't be allowed to keep
dragging it on, abusing the court system to keep this child from her
grandmother," Antonia Commack, Huntington’s friend since childhood who
is also involved in the legal battle, tells PEOPLE. "I knew in my heart
that being quiet was wrong and it was time to speak up."
And a recent Supreme Court decision might add some extra weight going forward.
The week before the latest Selawik Tribal Court ruling, The Supreme Court upheld
the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which says the first priority is to
put the child in the care of a member of their extended family. If that
is not possible, the child should be placed with a member of their
tribe. The third option is to look for "other Indian families." Only
after those three options have been exhausted will they be eligible to
be placed with a non-Native family.
In their December ruling, the Selawik Tribal Court found tribal elder
Ballot able to meet the child’s needs and, in addition, "can better
connect her to her Native culture."
A new state law that took effect August 5 in
Alaska aims to “address and improve deep structural inequities” in the
state’s child welfare system — protecting residents should broader
federal protections be overturned by a pending Supreme Court case.
Specifically, HB 184
solidifies the state’s intergovernmental relationship with the tribes
and codifies the protections of the Indian Child Welfare Act, the 1978
federal law providing Indigenous communities enhanced protections from
foster care separation. The law known as ICWA faces a Nov. 9 challenge before the nation’s highest court.
But theAlaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact
will protect Alaska Native families, even when there are shifts in
state administrations. It became law earlier this month without the
sitting governor’s formal approval, following a bill signed by Alaska’s
former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, Department of Health and Social
Services Commissioner Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson, and 18 tribal
co-signers representing 161 federally-recognized tribes.
The Act ensures that tribes and tribal organizations can utilize
foster care prevention programs that integrate the traditional, cultural
beliefs of Indigenous communities in Alaska, paving the way for a more
relevant and culturally appropriate child welfare system in the state.
According to an Alaska House Coalition press release, signatories are
now empowered “to provide quality children and family services as close
to home as possible. The model is lauded nationally and has been
replicated in other states.
“Children are the most vulnerable members of our communities;
protecting them and helping them to thrive is the most important work we
can do,” Association of Village Council Presidents CEO Vivian Korthuis
stated in the press release. “We all have the responsibility to take
care of all our children. Tribes have the same goal as the State —
better outcomes for Alaskan children, and as partners we can transform
child welfare together.”
The makes Alaska one of many states now finding ways
to protect state residents in the event that the landmark ICWA law is
struck down by the Supreme Court. To date California, Oregon,
Washington, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Wisconsin
and Oklahoma have similar local laws in place.
States are either strengthening their versions of the federal law, or
are entering into government-to-government agreements — like this
recent Alaska legislation —between state child welfare agencies and one
or more tribes.
“Tribal compacting is the way out of Alaska’s child welfare crisis,”
said Alaska Federation of Natives Executive Vice President and General
Counsel Nicole Borromeo.
The landmark state-tribal compact Borromeo helped facilitate began in
2017, “to address and improve deep structural inequities in Alaska’s
child welfare system,” according to the press statement.
State leaders also praised the agreement. “The Tribal Child Welfare
Compact is an excellent example of the State capitalizing on the
excellent work of Alaska Tribes and working together to improve the way
we are meeting the needs of Alaska families,” stated Rep. Tiffany
Zulkosky (D), who served as prime sponsor of HB 184. “Healthy
communities begin with healthy families. When our children succeed, so
does Alaska.”
U.S. Catholic and Protestant denominations operated more than 150
boarding schools between the 19th and 20th centuries. Some U.S. churches have been reckoning with this activity for years
through ceremonies, apologies and archival investigations, while others
are just getting started. Some advocates say churches have more work to
do in opening their archives, educating the public about what was done
in the name of their faith and helping former students and their
relatives tell their stories of family trauma.
“We all need to work together on this,” said the Rev. Bradley Hauff, a
Minnesota-based Episcopal priest and missioner for Indigenous Ministries
with the Episcopal Church. “What’s happening in Canada, that’s a wakeup call to us,” said Hauff, who is enrolled with the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
This photo made available by the Presbyterian Historical Society,
Philadelphia shows students at a Presbyterian boarding school in Sitka,
Alaska in the summer of 1883. U.S. Catholic and Protestant denominations
operated more than 150 boarding schools between the 19th and 20th
centuries. Native American and Alaskan Native children were regularly
severed from their tribal families, customs, language and religion and
brought to the schools in a push to assimilate and Christianize them. (AP)
The Indian Child Welfare
Act, or ICWA, basically provides Tribes with an opportunity to intervene
when state child welfare and adoption agencies consider whether or not
to remove a Native child from a home. The children can be enrolled
citizens of the Tribe or be eligible for membership status.
Alaska
Native Justice Center policy director Alex Cleghorn says ICWA was
passed in 1978 in response to the disproportionate removal of Native
children from their homes, families and communities.
“They were
primarily being placed in the homes of non-Native people and growing up
without a connection to their culture or to the communities,” said
Cleghorn, who worked as a Tribal attorney for much of his career, is a
citizen of Tangirnaq Native Village and serves on the board of directors
for Koniag Incorporated regional Native corporation. “I believe the
Alaska Native culture is something that is a strength."
The
Alaska Native Justice Center is an advocacy organization that provides
Alaska Native people with direct services in education, victim advocacy,
Tribal court assistance and more.
(Disclosure: The Alaska Native Justice Center, KNBA and Koahnic Broadcast Corporation are tenants of Cook Inlet Tribal Council.)
“They
seem to believe that being a Native person is solely a racial
classification, which ignores many years of precedent and legal rulings
that as a Native person, our relationship with our Tribe is that of a
citizen who works in government.”
Erin Dougherty Lynch is a staff
attorney at Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit legal organization
that holds the U.S. governement to its treaty obligations with Tribes
as well as laws that affect Native people. Lynch works on a variety of
federal Native issues including Tribal jurisdiction, sovereignty – and
child welfare.
She says the plaintiffs in the Brackeen case argue
that ICWA is a law based on race: “That it's a race-based law that
provides preference to extra services to Native children, to provide
preferences to Native families, which should be struck down by the
Supreme Court on an equal protection ground.”
But Lynch says
ICWA, along with the bulk of federal Indian policy, is grounded in a
political relationship between governments – between federal and Tribal
governments, and between Tribes and their citizens.
ICWA is a
federal law that establishes a floor-level basis for reviewing Native
child adoption cases. Some states passed their own ICWA laws, but those
laws must offer additional benefits – not change or remove the
application of federal law: “States can never do less than what's in the
federal law, but they can always do more,” Lynch says.
For example, Washington state has its own ICWA law.
“(Compacts
are) another kind of tool that we've had in Alaska where Tribes are
working, have compacted on a government-to-government relationship with
the state government and with the goal of providing more culturally
appropriate services to children in the state's child welfare system.”
Tribal
leaders often testify at Alaska Legislature hearings that Alaska Native
children are over-represented in the foster care system.
According
to the Alaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact (2017), even though Alaska
Natives represent less than 20 percent of children in the state, they
make up more than half the children placed in foster care.
Cleghorn says the Brackeen case illustrates that more states should be looking at state-based ICWA protections.
“If
the federal law is going to continue to be under attack, it may be time
to look at a state equivalent to ensure that we continue to recognize
Tribes recognized as the gold standard in child welfare and protection,
and that those protective factors of having children connected to their
culture, the Tribes and their families are important and should be
enshrined in law.”
The Brackeen lawsuit worked its way to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers the
federal judicial district in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
A
three-member judges panel heard the case and upheld the
constitutionality of ICWA, but with partial dissent. That allowed the
plaintiffs to request and receive a full bench – or en banc – decision.
Sixteen
judges split down the middle and wrote a 325-page decision. Because of
the split, Lynch says the decision largely impacts cases in that
district’s region – and wouldn’t affect Alaska directly.
Alaska
Native Justice Center policy director Cleghorn is also confident the
split decision should not impact ICWA cases in Alaska or in states that
are outside of the Fifth Circuit.
“I also think it's important to
keep our eyes open for those of us who do work in this area and
represent Tribes in this area, because sometimes there are misguided
attempts to import reasoning or to import reasoning or decisions that
may not apply,” Cleghorn said.
For now, legal experts and Tribes will keep an eye on the Brackeen case, and will be on the lookout for others, Lynch said.
"Certainly,
if the case ends up going up before the United States Supreme Court,
what the Supreme Court determines will have an effect in Alaska. But
right now, you know, state and Tribal child welfare workers who are
involved in state child welfare cases don't have to worry about this
opinion."
But Lynch says it is possible that Alaska Native children living in the Fifth Circuit could be affected.
“When
you start talking about places that are in states that are in the Fifth
Circuit, like Texas and Louisiana and Mississippi, then the whether the
case applies is a maybe,” Lynch said. “Which I know might be sort of
unsatisfying, but there are sort of these general principles that
federal courts don't necessarily tell state courts what to do. And so it
sort of depends state-to- state as to whether or not this is going to
have precedential effect in the Fifth Circuit. But for our purposes in
Alaska, we we can ignore this decision for now.”
The legal
experts and attorneys following the case worked to unravel its many
threads and how each one would impact ICWA or their understanding of the
case and law.
“It definitely took us a few days to sit down and,
like, sort it all out,” Lynch said. “We literally had to map out every
issue that had been brought up in the case and then sit down and go
through all of the opinions and see how folks had come down. I know the
court in those first few pages did issue like a per curiam opinion where
they tried to give a synopsis of where the whole thing had come down.
But you still really have to sit down and go through it all. And it's
complicated for the lawyers.”
The ICWALawCenter provides legal services and advocacy to Indian families impacted by the child protection system. ICWALawCenter Suite 104 1730 Clifton Place Minneapolis, MN 55403. Telephone: 612-879-9165 Fax: 612-879-0323 E-mail: info@icwlc.org.
Six states
(Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington) have
enacted their own Indian Child Welfare Act, adopting provisions from the
federal ICWA in whole or in part. Other states have adopted some provisions, most commonly, the definition of "Indian child" and the notification requirements.
The Indian Child Welfare Act passed into law in 1978. The law protects American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children in state child welfare systems and helps them remain connected to their families, cultures, and communities.
A
lawsuit filed in federal court aims to stop the rollback of rules that
monitor American Indian and Alaska Native children foster care.
"I
was 12 years-old and there was reoccurring abuse in my house, as well
as neglect that resulted in us being taken away," said 22-year-old
Natilia Edwards of Anchorage, Alaska.
Edwards and her four sisters, all Alaskan Natives, were placed in foster care outside of their tribal community.
"So, I was in care for a total of seven years and then I was in a total of 14 different placements," said Edwards.
But
a change in the way the federal government protects and tracks kids
like Natilia and her sisters is worrying some. And there are special
reasons why.
Despite making up just 1% of the U.S. juvenile
population, American Indian/Alaska Native are disproportionately
represented in the foster care system. They make up 2.6% of kids in
foster care, according to the most recent government data.
"The
institutional racism, some of the bias and also just some of the staff
who are working with Native children and families, not having the kind
of the relationships you need to have with tribal communities, it leads
to children being removed in numbers that are much higher than they
should be," said David Simmons, Government Affairs and Advocacy Director
at National Indian Child Welfare Association.
For centuries,
American Indian children were forcibly taken from their families and
tribes; often placed in boarding schools and adopted by white families
without consent.
In 1978 Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare
Act, or ICWA. It requires, in part, that states first identify family or
tribal members who can take a child before placing them in a home
outside of the tribal community. And they had to continue to keep track
of Native children in their systems. However, that hasn't always
happened.
"There has never been data, federally mandated data
collected on all elements of the Indian Child Welfare Act," said
Professor Kate Fort of the University of Michigan Law School. "So we
actually don't have nationwide data at all on ICWA."
So, in 2016,
the Obama administration worked to change that. It required states to
use the federal, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System, or
AFCARS, to expand the amount of information states gather about American
Indian and Alaska Native children.
This summer, the Trump
Administration rolled back that expansion. States no longer needed to
gather all the additional data related to American Indian and Alaskan
Native children. Also, they will no longer collect information related
to youth who identify as LGBTQ+.
According to the Department of
Health and Human Services, its "streamlined" version came after some
states described the data collection as overly burdensome. The
administration also said it would be too costly.
A lawsuit filed today in federal court aims to stop the rollback and maintain the 2016 data collection.
"The
effect of this rollback, it's going to be to keep these issues in the
dark, to keep up, to keep LGBTQ plus children and American Indian and
Alaska native children essentially in the shadows so that we're not
collecting data on them and thus not doing all that we can to address
the problems," said Senior Attorney Jeffrey Dubner of Democracy
Forward.
Supporters say it’s all to ensure every effort is made
to keep American Indian and Native American foster children protected
and connected to their tribes and culture. Something Natalia wishes she
would have experienced.
"I mean, how cool could it be, you know. I
wouldn't have to have all these thoughts and these wonders," said
Edwards. "I would really know and be so secure within my culture, my
sense of community."
Here is the Complaint.
Plaintiffs include California Tribal Family Coalition, Cherokee Nation,
and Yurok Tribe along with a number of LGBTQ+ organizations.
Similarly,
Defendants eliminated most questions related to how child welfare
agencies treat children to whom ICWA applies. Although ACF had in 2016
found these questions essential to guide its allocation of resources to
help AI/AN youth, Defendants abandoned them without any discussion of
the value of the information being lost for AI/AN youth and the tribes
seeking to protect them.
Tribes say an end to hostilities with the state of Alaska is long overdue.
A
bill that would require state acknowledgement of federally-recognized
tribes had its second hearing Tuesday and was approved and moved out of
the Alaska House Special Committee on Tribal Affairs.
At the hearing questions were raised and addressed about the impact of the legislation on state jurisdiction and sovereignty.
Two
witnesses gave legislators a look at what could be a national model for
a state-tribal partnership, in 2017 the state of Alaska and a dozen
tribes signed an Alaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact.
Nicole
Borromeo, Athabascan, general counsel for the Alaska Federation of
Natives, said a compact is like a modern-day treaty. "[This one]
specifically defines the services and supports that are going to be
carried out by our tribes and tribal organizations on behalf of the
state as well as the funding streams required," she said.
“I
want to call the committee’s attention to the fact that this is the
first ever compact that has been negotiated at the state level. And that
is something for all of us to be proud of,” Borromeo said. “We
[Alaskans] tend to be at the top of the list of undesirables and at the
bottom of the good list. In this case we are truly breaking ground and
we're on the cutting edge of law and policy. It's just something that
all Alaskans should know about and be able to celebrate.”
Francine
Eddy Jones, director of tribal family and youth services, Central
Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. (Photo courtesy of
Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska)
Francine
Eddy Jones, Tlingit, is director of tribal family and youth services at
the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
🔻
“The
tribal co-signers don't want to take over the state child welfare
system the exact same way that the state has done it and continue to
provide services the exact same way the state does. The state is more
focused on intervention, including removal of children from homes,” said
Eddy Jones. “Tribes want to focus more on prevention.”
She
said being locally based, tribes are better able to get help and
services to children and parents, and to reach out to extended family
before it gets to the point of a child being removed from the family.
Eddy Jones said, “If we're able to continue on this path with tribes
providing services, we expect to see a decrease in the number of
children that are in state custody because they are no longer being be
removed from their home.”
She
said tribes have had more success in matching children going into
foster care with relatives and within tribes so they can maintain ties
to their families and to their culture.
“I'll
give you just one illustration of a particular case where the state was
having a hard time identifying who the child's family was and how to
match, whereas the tribe got involved and at the end of the day, this
particular case file had 70 names on it," Eddy Jones said. "That's just
because tribal members feel more comfortable sometimes talking to their
own tribe or tribal organization. So that's a very big win here for the
state."
Eddy
Jones concluded: “Tribes have been exercising tribal sovereignty under
the federal Indian child welfare act since its implementation in 1979,
when it was a federal law that was passed and tribes embraced that.
Tribes had been at the table working with the state not only in this
work under the compact but for the past 42 years, working with families,
whether that's on the prevention end or in the intervention side of in
terms of children coming into foster care system.”
The proposed legislation however would remove barriers for tribes that partner with the state on child welfare issues.
As
another example of the way a tribe can take a different approach than
the state, a tribal judge and former magistrate from the southeast
Alaska village of Kake described the tribal court’s focus on healing and
prevention. Michael Jackson said people can avoid a criminal
misdemeanor record by participating in Kake’s Peacemaking Circle.
“I
would say that our interventions without formal charges brought against
people here in our community were a preventative measure… They
prevented youth and adults from committing other crimes knowing that
people loved them in our community, that they were willing to change,
they righted the wrong to the victims,” Michael said. “And our community
became stronger because of apologies. And for love, respect and
forgiveness and our spiritual part, whether it was through the Western
way of religion or our culture, modified bad behavior,” Michael Jackson
said.
Roberta
Moto, Inupiaq, of Deering and Kotzebue in Northwest Alaska, has worked
in suicide and substance abuse prevention, and as an administrator in
child welfare. She said the state’s taking over services tribes once
managed hasn’t worked.
“With
the erosion of tribal powers, we have seen a rise in social problems in
our villages and I feel very strongly that if tribes resumed their role
as tribal courts and mediators in their village, we would see an
improvement in the areas of social issues,” Moto said. “Tribes would be
empowered to prevent adverse childhood experiences. Childhood trauma is
what contributes to higher rates of substance abuse, suicide, and even
chronic health problems like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.” She
went on to say studies have shown that local self determination helps
with school performance, cut juvenile delinquency, and reduce crime.
“If
this bill passes, the tribes will have a stable ground to build on and
not have to worry if their progress will be set back with each change in
administration… I support the recognition of tribes because I want my
grandchildren to live in a thriving community where they are safe, their
culture's protected, and there is hope for their future. This bill is a
historic event for the Alaska Native people,” Moto said.
Dawn
Jackson, Tlingit, is executive director of the Organized Village of
Kake. She said the tribe has existed since before the state of Alaska
and since 1995 has been operating programs in higher education, social
services, Indian child welfare, realty, tribal operations, housing and
tribal transportation. She said the village has a domestic violence
program, and environmental programs as well as the only tribal historic
preservation office in the state of Alaska.
“We
have built programs without the state's assistance through the years
due to the state not recognizing our existence,” said Dawn. The Kake
tribe “has been a partner in successful partnerships on regional and
national levels. And the missing link in these partnerships is the state
of Alaska,” Dawn said. “I urge your legislature, the Senate, the
administration, and the courts of Alaska to recognize tribes for Alaska
to not just heal, but to grow emotionally and economically in the
future.”
Nikki
Pollock, Yup’ik, is director of senior services for Orutsararmiut
Traditional Native Council, the federally recognized tribe for Bethel, a
regional hub in western Alaska.
She
said, “This lack of recognition of the Alaska Native tribe here in
their territorial jurisdiction creates silos. The lack creates barriers.
It's been historically, in my opinion, viewed as a pie where if one
gets a bigger slice that means someone else gets a smaller piece. But
one bigger slice, more rights for tribes, doesn't mean less pie for
other people,” Pollock said. “It doesn't take away state’s rights. It
supplements. It gives that recognition that tribes are already federally
recognized.”
Director
of Southeast Senior Services Maryann Mills said, “Alaska is the only
state in the United States that ever requires waivers of sovereign
immunity in order for tribes to access these federal funds.” She said
tribes get annual audits, handle budgets responsibly and competently
provide services,
“Yet
the state requires us to waive our sovereign immunity for federal funds
given to them by the federal government to give to us,” Mills said.
“This process results in costly pass-through fees, putting roadblocks to
the tribal government's ability to perform the functions of providing
critical services to its citizens. Alaskan Indigenous people face
insurmountable challenges. Many of these challenges come from the many
years of hostility from the state of Alaska.”
The
bill's sponsor Rep. Kopp noted that half of the nation’s federally
recognized tribes are in Alaska so state recognition is especially
important.
“Alaska
Native people and the tribes in particular never had an open
declaration of war or hostilities but yet they were removed from their
land and were resettled," he said, "and in return for that they gave up
aboriginal land claims.”
Rep.
Dave Talerica, a Republican from the Denali Borough in Interior Alaska,
said questions remain about the effects of the legislation on state and
tribal jurisdiction.
“Obviously
the topic of sovereign immunity is on everyone's minds and I think
that's something that needs to be addressed is what effect, what does
this bill do in regards to sovereign immunity; does it have any effect
on that with the state? Perhaps that can be answered as the bill moves
along through committee,” said Rep. Sarah Vance, a Republican from
Homer. “And, what impact does it have on tribal compacting with the
current compacts and in the future? These are just some of the questions
that have come up. “
Tribal
Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky, Yup’ik, said “I do want
to call out to address the concerns around trust obligations and
jurisdictional issues that there is explicit language in the bill that
says in section four that nothing in this section creates a concurrent
trust relationship between the state and federally recognized tribes.
“That
really what it's doing is putting into statute a recognition of
federally recognized tribes that are already inherently recognized just
through a trust relationship with the federal government regardless of
the passage of this legislation,” Zulkusky said.
“Especially
as the granddaughter of one of Alaska's Territorial Guard members who
put his life and his family's situation on the line to protect this
state before statehood, I believe that it is important to acknowledge
[tribes]," Zulkusky said. "I think one of the most profound moments of
the tribal affairs committee last year was when a representative asked
‘what is an opportunity for mutual respect moving forward?’ And the
comment of our invited testifier was, ‘visibility and acknowledgement,
just seeing and acknowledging the existence of the people.’”
“To
recognize Alaska Native people, by doing that we do not diminish the
state's sovereignty. We do not diminish the State‘s work moving forward”
Zulkosky called the bill long overdue.
The
committed voted unanimously to move HB 221 out of committee. It now
goes to the Alaska House Committee on Community and Regional Affairs.
Joaqlin Estus, Tlingit, is a national correspondent based in Anchorage, Alaska. Follow her on Twitter: @estus_m. Email her at: jestus@indiancountrytoday.com.
WASILLA
— The first of a handful of “Share Your OCS Story” meetings hosted by
Alaska House Representative Tammie Wilson, of North Pole, was held at
the Mat-Su Legislative Offices in Wasilla on Saturday.
Wilson
said the six meetings, which are being held throughout the state, are a
way of documenting people’s experiences with the Alaska Office of
Children’s Services (OCS) for the Alaska State Legislature and the Governor’s
office.
Wilson
said the meetings are follow-ups on previous work her office has done in
trying to address what some see as systemic problems with OCS. She said
her office had previously documented more than 100 cases with gaps in
proper documentation that occurred during family reunification efforts.
“I
started this panel, I figure the best way to go is I ask parents if
they want a public setting to be able to share their stories,” Wilson
said, “That way we could then share with the legislature and governor
and anyone else who could help us get this straightened out.”
Wilson
said she’s concerned that family reunification efforts fall short,
especially when compared to foster and adoption efforts, once children
are in the system.
Twenty-two
people showed up at the Saturday meeting, and shared stories of
following case plans and doing everything necessary to get their kids
back, only to have items indefinitely added to their case plans before
they could see their children again. Others said they were shuttled
through a revolving door of high-turnover caseworkers, who missed doing
their part to provide needed pieces for reunification.
Former state legislator Lynn Gattis of Wasilla also testified at the meeting.
“I
as a legislator, I got call after call after call,” Gattis said. “They
don’t’ know where else to go. They call us. They cry. Many times I’ve
had grandparents who wanted to be involved, where they weren’t being
challenged. And no one called them back.”
Wilson
said she understands it can be difficult for people to come forward and
talk about their experiences with OCS; some might be afraid that
speaking out could affect their own cases, and for others, it may just
be difficult to speak about something painful in a public forum.
But
she hopes the meetings across the state will shed some light on the
experiences that Alaskans have had with the office, and that documenting
what works and what doesn’t might lead to solutions.
One of those solutions may already be forthcoming.
Currently,
Alaska Native children have stronger protections in place that prevent
them from being adopted out to non-family members when a safe home with a
relative is available. Those laws also require consultation with
tribes.
That’s because they have federal protections under the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Wilson
said she thinks all Alaskan families should have more the more
stringent protections required by ICWA, with family members such as
grandparents having to be consulted before a child is fostered or
adopted outside of the family.
To that end, she said, she’s co-sponsored House Bill 10, short title, “Child In Need of Aid/Protection; Duties.”
Gabrielle LeDoux of Anchorage and George Rauscher of Sutton are co-sponsors on the bill.
“What
it does, is change everything to the ICWA standard,” Wilson said. “They
have to have active participation, make sure the parents do have the
resources necessary to get children back, and a higher standard making
sure the family is contacted in putting them in a home with the family.”
The Office of Children’s Services did not immediately return comment for this story.
A
“Share Your OCS Story” meeting was held in Juneau on Thursday, and
another is scheduled to be held in Kenai on Saturday. For more
information about the meetings, call Rep. Wilson’s office at
907-465-4797.
Rep.
Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole, addresses the Alaska House of
Representatives, April 8, 2015. She is calling for an investigation into
the Office of Children’s Services. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
State Representative Tammie Wilson of North Pole continues to press
for reform of the State Office of Children’s Services. Wilson cited a 30
percent growth in the number of reportedly endangered kids being
removed from parents in recent years, and some constituents unhappy with
how the system has treated them.
Wilson wants the Office of Children’s Services to refocus on parental
treatment and assistance, instead of removing kids from homes. Wilson
has resubmitted a bill that would adopt a uniform standard for when and
how children can be removed, based on federal law.
”And that would be the Indian Child Welfare Act,” Wilson said.
Wilson said the federal ICWA standard, which currently only applies
to Alaska Native and American Indian children, is a better formula for
addressing parental behavior, and keeping kids home or with extended
family.
”It also doesn’t allow as much hearsay as it does now,” Wilson said.
“You actually have to have proof that something is happening within the
family unit. And it also encourages more of keeping the child in the
home and putting the resources there – working with the parents versus
taking the children out. ICWA is largely known as the gold standard when
it comes to best practices.”
Alaska OCS Director Christy Lawton said the department is officially
neutral on Wilson’s bill, but acknowledged that ICWA policy mandates
beneficial services.
”We have to demonstrate that we’ve provided active efforts to prevent
removal or active efforts to promote reunification,” Lawton said.
That means actually taking family members to substance abuse
treatment, counseling or other help, not just recommending they get it.
Lawton said it would be great to do that for all families, but notes
ICWA was established to address systematic racism.
”It’s almost as if you’re saying that ICWA isn’t really needed
anymore because the playing field is level, which unfortunately is still
not the case in Alaska, or in many other parts of the country,” Lawton
said.
Lawton also pointed to potential loss of federal support for cases
involving Alaska Native families, funds contingent on meeting strict
ICWA requirements the financially strapped state may struggle to achieve
if applied in all child welfare cases. Representative Wilson maintained
the state has enough money and just needs to do a better job.
"My aspect is if we weren’t taking children that we should not be
taking, we would be able to use the resources into families that really
do need those resources,” Wilson said. “Cause, it’s much cheaper and
it’s better for the family to be able to keep the children in the home.
And then if you need the parents to do certain types of classes, then
you have those worked out at the same time”
Wilson’s take is based on case records obtained through constituents
critical of OCS practices.
Wilson is awaiting response from the State
Department of Law on a request for a grand jury investigation of OCS,
and is holding three public hearings on the agency in coming weeks. OCS
Director Lawton said she’ll continue to work with Wilson to improve
agency practices.
UPDATE Submitted by mbowen on 01/20/2017
The state office of children's services is being investigated.
State Representative Tammie Wilson said last week that she had
requested a grand jury investigation, but had heard nothing back from
the state.
The Department of Law now says that recommendations from a grand
jury have been unsealed, and will be looked at by the Alaska citizen
review panel and the state ombudsman.
The Citizen Review Panel meets four times a year, and its next meeting is in March.
Representative Wilson, who started the process that led to the
investigation, has also introduced legislation concerning the office of
children's services: "We have draft legislation to see what's going on
with OCS by bringing the standards up. We have the Indian Child Welfare
Act right now for Native children, not for those other children. We've
got to make sure that the higher standards are for everyone. The facts
are [that] we're taking more children out of the homes, and parents
never get their children back. That's just wrong."
Gov. Bill Walker has signed into law bills intended to help foster youths and ease adoption in Alaska.
Among other elements, House Bill 200 implements portions of the
Indian Child Welfare Act that ease the adoption process for tribal
members adopting a child of the same tribe. The bill also allows up to
four legal proceedings involved in adoption cases to be combined under
the purview of one judge.
House Bill 27, sponsored by Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, is a foster
care reform bill that requires the state Office of Children’s Services
to make greater efforts to work with tribal and Alaska Native
organizations, and perform more in-depth searches to determine whether a
relative may be able to care for a child.
Children may stay in the foster care system through age 21 (instead
of 18) in order to avoid homelessness, according to one provision in the
bill.
The bill calls for children to stay in their current schools (if
possible), and it states that one of the duties of the Alaska Department
of Health and Social Services is to recruit foster parents and adoptive
parents.
Walker added both bills to the agenda of the first special session when they failed to pass the Legislature in regular session.
The signing of HB 200 took place at the Anchorage offices of Bristol
Bay Native Corporation, while the signing of HB 27 took place at the
University of Alaska Anchorage.
— Kaleimamoowahinekapu (@candacekgalla) May 6, 2016
The
University of Alaska Southeast graduated its first Alaska Native
Languages and Studies majors in 2014. (Photo by Lisa Phu/KTOO)
Many of Alaska’s rural schools are not working. Low student performance and
high teacher turnover are just two of more obvious indicators of
problems in these mostly Native school districts. Those working in the
schools say it’s time for radical changes.
Paul Berg has taught in Alaska for more than 40 years — 10 of them in villages.
“You want to see racism go to a village school,” said Berg. “You’ll
see Outside, usually Anglo teachers have the best jobs, the most pay.
Vast majority of administrators will be Anglo. It is not working. The
statistics and the data are very clear. ”
Berg, now 70, teaches high school students during the summer and
works as a cross-cultural specialist for the Goldbelt Heritage
Foundation. He, among other educators meeting this month at the
University of Alaska’s Natives Studies Conference, describes schools as
colonial forces not that much different from the boarding schools of
years ago that punished Native children for speaking their languages.
“Education is the means whereby a culture perpetuates itself and
transfers itself to the young. Public education has taken this away from
the Yupik, the Inupiat, the Aleut and others and given basically
middle-class America to these people,” said Berg. “As to the degree that
they wish that… that should be their choice but they should have the
inalienable undeniable right to transfer the culture and the language to
their children. It’s called the right of culture sovereignty and
English-speaking nations are among the last on earth to recognize it.
Xh’unei
Lance Twitchell addresses a crowd at the 2014 Alaska Federation of
Natives Convention. At the event, Gov. Sean Parnell signed HB 216, a
bill making Alaska’s Native languages official state languages. (Photo
by Jennifer Canfield/KTOO)
“My prayer is that Tlingit is going to live forever because we want
our little babies to be talking,” said Xh’unei Lance Twitchell.
I’ve always dreamt in Indian. Vivid, lucid, in color and shaded with
symbols. One evening night quest, my body was carried in a stream. The water above and below me flowed horizontally from my head toward my toes. However, my body was carried in a current of
its own and moving me ahead. As
I approached a steep hill, I began to struggle. My brief panic subsided when I chose not to lose my strength fighting the
elements I could not control. I reached deep in cool water with both hands. Waiting below were fish who sucked on my
fingers and pulled me the rest of the way home. I think I am a Salmon. Instinctively, I was called home.
In the year of 2014 I located my cousins and my Koyukon
Athabascan tribe. I was welcomed with tears. Even
first cousin Barb felt like she needed to have a baby shower. When my tax return came in February 2015, the first thing I did was make
reservations from Los Angeles to Fairbanks, Alaska and a second reservation with a bush plane
to fly me to the Village of Koyukuk, AK. The Native Village
of Koyukuk lies where the Koyukuk river meets the Yukon. About 300 miles from Fairbanks. No running water to the cabins. No
roads in and out.
I landed in Fairbanks at 12 a.m. The summer sun still shown
during mid-July midnight. I was met with
an aunt and several cousins. As I came
down the escalator from the terminal, I was welcomed with Athabascan singing,
tears and hugs. My first cousin LaVern
opened her house to me and organized a family reunion for the next evening;
Barb took the day off work to spend with me. I had my first ever family reunion with people
related to me, my first native food and first stories of my father's life.
A day later LaVerne flew with me into Koyukuk, where my
father lived and died on the river. I cannot begin to explain my emotions at this time. I cried real tears. Tears I could not control. I had emotions and questions overcoming my sense of self. Anxiety set in. I began to ask myself… am I crazy? What
the hell am I doing flying over 2k miles and into the interior of Alaska on a bush plane to meet people and see a way of life that my
DNA says I am half of? I am nuts?
I was crying inside the plane before I even exited. My heart beating fast and I could feel it. I could see my first cousin Marylin.I could see Marilyn was just as scared as I
was. I could see people arriving to meet the plane on their quads and in
trucks. Even the unleashed dogs came to welcome.
Lump in my throat, crying and shaking I got out of the
plane. I embraced Marilyn first. Then the rest of the group. One by one they hugged me, introduced
themselves and welcomed me "home."
They held a huge banner which read “Welcome” and once again
I was serenaded with beautiful voices singing in Athabascan.
The next few days were life-changing for me. Another reunion dinner was held. I ate more Native food including moose, beaver, salmon and muktuk
(whale blubber). After dinner an Elder presented me with an Indian name that Marilyn chose for me. I still could not believe my ears when people welcomed me "home."
During my stay, I got to see cuzns LaVern and Peter catch
Salmon on the Yukon. While seining, I was reminded of my dream. I thank the spirit of the Salmon for guiding
me home and providing food for our people. I want to go back home now even stronger than
before.
I know now first-hand what I am missing and what has been
imprinted in me for many generations. My
DNA...my endless imprint from past, present to future which still calls me
home.
It is this present generation of Native adoptees who need to
continue to find our way home. It is you, it is me. We
must follow our instinct and swim upstream. Some of us make it, some won't but you still need to keep swimming. If you don't fight back, the predators win.
It's in our DNA and a matter of survival for Natives today and future
generations. Trust the forces that pull
you through to carry us home. Keep swimming upstream for yourself and all
adoptees.
Mary contributed to the anthology CALLED HOME: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects. LINK TO BOOK INFO here
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