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Advocates sought for Native kids;
COURT: Volunteers will look out for children taken from their parents
October 24, 2002
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News
"They may have a guardian attorney and a caseworker and a foster parent, but
Alaska Native children taken from their parents because of abuse or neglect
typically don't have a volunteer advocate to stand up for them in court,
officials said Wednesday at a daylong forum on Native child welfare.
As a result, they may stay in foster care too long, or may not get
counseling they need, or may struggle in school without special services.
Now two Native organizations -- Copper River Native Association in Copper
Center and Association of Village Council Presidents in Bethel -- are
launching programs in which tribal volunteers will be recruited to watch out
for the children's interests and wishes. Native social service leaders from
other parts of the state say they hope to do the same soon.
"I think it is important the child has in their corner someone they call
their own, not someone in a suit but someone they can turn to and say 'You
are my friend,' " said Angel Craig, who works for the regional tribal court
under the Copper River Native Association. She is overseeing the
organization's new child advocacy effort, which aims to recruit tribal
elders.
The forum at the Hilton Anchorage brought together dozens of advocates and
experts from around the nation.
The volunteers are known as court-appointed special advocates, or CASAs, and
the event was sponsored by the National CASA Association, Alaska Tribal
CASA, and the National Indian Child Welfare Association. Judges say they
rely heavily on what the CASA volunteers tell them.
CASAs typically work with one or two families at a time, while caseworkers
and attorneys have many cases. For instance, every child is supposed to have
a guardian ad litem -- a professional advocate who can be an attorney -- but
the guardians are responsible for the cases of about 100 children each.
In Alaska, tribal advocates can help children in tribal and state courts,
said Kimberly Martus, director of Alaska Tribal CASA. The advocates may be
the link between the two systems, she said.
"We see tribal CASAs as being the shepherds of cases from state court into
the safe harbor of tribal courts," Martus said.
Children can become lost in and hurt by the system that is supposed to
protect them, said Michelle Chino, executive director of the Nevada
Institute for Children under the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
A federal review of the state Division of Family and Youth Services
completed in September found that it often did not serve families well,
Chino said.
She noted some review findings: Children had enough contact with their
caseworker in just one in three cases. Mental health needs weren't addressed
for one in three children, and educational needs weren't met for one in
five. Only one in three children were placed with relatives.
"We cannot rely on the state to effectively meet the needs of children,"
Chino said.
About 60 percent of the Alaska children in foster care are Native, according
to DFYS. But only a quarter of Alaska's children are Native. That means
Native children are dramatically overrepresented in foster care, Chino said
Only South Dakota is worse in that sense, she said. There, almost 66 percent
of the children in care are American Indian while the number in the general
population is just 14 percent.
"We have to be watchdogs. We have to monitor the process. We have to demand
accountability," Chino said.
About 400 children statewide have CASAs. But only about 140 of those
children are Native, said Brenda Dickison, director of Alaska's 15-year-old
CASA program. Her state office is helping the tribal efforts get started.
The new program of the Association of Village Council Presidents aims to
have a CASA in each of the 56 tribes it serves, said Joan Dewey, who is
overseeing the effort.
Tribal volunteers will know the children in ways that state social workers
cannot, she said.
"It will be a very holistic approach," she said, looking at a child's
physical, emotional, spiritual and mental needs.
That's how tribal courts approach families, but even tribal courts need
CASAs to advocate for the children, said Ed Krause, a regional tribal court
judge and director of behavioral and health services for the Copper River
Native Association.
The association's tribal court has returned 14 children to the region from
Anchorage foster homes over the last year, he said.
Some organizations Outside have found that Native American parents respond
better to tribal advocates than to state caseworkers, said Arlana
Bettelyoun, who directs the Oglala Lakota Tribal CASA program on the Pine
Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
"There is a resistance here," she said. "We are the children of Wounded
Knee." Their advocates have made breakthroughs with parents who otherwise
might have lost their children forever, she said.
Around the country, there are some 18 tribal CASA programs. Both the
National CASA Association, based in Seattle, and the Tribal Law and Policy
Institute, which has a branch in Anchorage, help tribal groups start such
programs."
[Reporter Lisa Demer can be reached at ldemer@adn.com and 907-257-4390.]
Copyright © 2002 The Anchorage Daily News
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Photograph--Alfred Bone Shirt Sr. wearing a peace medal.