Joaqlin Estus
ICT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska tribe has signed a historic agreement with Washington state to help keep Tlingit and Haida children with their families and tribes.
“This is the first contract of its kind between Washington and a tribe located out of state to assist with child welfare responsibilities,” said Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Family Services Division Director Mary Johnson, who is enrolled in the Native Village of Scammon Bay, and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, in a prepared statement.
Tribal President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson, who is Tlingit and Haida, signed the contract on April 20 for the tribe “to be able to provide child welfare services in Washington state and receive resources from the state of Washington to support this effort,” Johnson told ICT. Washington state signed the agreement on April 23, agreeing it will contribute $80,000 toward child welfare services of the tribe’s Washington office.
“It’s really exciting. We opened up our office virtually three years ago and then opened up a physical location in Lynnwood (just north of Seattle) at the end of 2023,” Johnson said. Tlingit & Haida has four Child Welfare program staff based out of the Lynnwood office. The tribe said its rolls show more than 1,600 enrolled citizens under the age of 18 live in the state of Washington.
The tribe “will collaborate closely with the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families to deliver culturally sensitive and responsive services that prioritize the well-being of tribal children and families,” Tlingit & Haida said in the statement.
When Tlingit & Haida opened its Lynnwood office, KTOO reported the 20 staff there would provide tribal court services, enrollment, case management in child welfare cases as well as language, art, and cultural programs. One goal of the office is to help build a sense of community among tribal citizens who live in Washington.
For the opening, Peterson told KTOO, “In an area like Seattle, you could go about your daily life and never look across and see somebody who looks like you, who has your background,” he said. “(In the new office) you’re going to be able to go in and feel like you’re home.” Some of the office’s recent offerings included classes on earring and regalia making, and most recently a give-away of herring eggs on kelp, a popular sign of spring in southeast Alaska, the traditional homelands of the Tlingit and Haida.
Tlingit & Haida’s Chief Operating Officer Roald Helgesen said in the statement. “Together, we can better meet the unique needs of families and protect our children’s rights to cultural identity, connection and belonging.”
Tlingit & Haida said the number of tribal citizens engaged with their Washington agency has grown since the Lynnwood office opened. “If Tlingit & Haida was a Tribe located in-state, based on Tribal Citizen state residency, the Tribe could be considered the third largest tribe in the state,” said the statement.
Johnson said the state of Washington fully embraced Peterson’s vision of meeting tribal citizens where they are. “They have been progressive and are committed to working with the Tribe. They understand the Tribe’s effort to serve families is more meaningful when we can provide the services and be a part of our tribal children and families’ healing journey,” Johnson said in the statement.
Johnson said the state of Washington expressed a more open approach than the tribe has experienced working with the state of Alaska, which in the past has sued over the tribe’s rights under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act to issue tribal court orders and have a say in the protection of tribal children. The Indian Child Welfare Act was created to help keep Native American children, who were being removed from their families at a disproportionate rate, with their families and tribes.
“It was interesting to begin working in the state of Washington, and experience first-hand how the state embraced working with a Tribe,” Johnson said in an email.
“I think that’s what’s so historic about this contract is that the actions behind the state of Washington and their administration really reflected that they supported tribal sovereignty…that’s one of the most exciting things about it, is it’s something that we have not been able to accomplish quite like this in Alaska. We’ve been able to accomplish other successes, but nothing quite like this,” Johnson told ICT.
Director of Tribal Relations for Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families, Tleena Ives, of the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe, told ICT the agreement joins 29 others with federally recognized tribes in Washington State. “And then we have three more with recognized American Indian organizations, urban Indian Native-serving organizations. So that would be 32. (It’s) pretty exciting—the first time that we have entered into one of these agreements with an out-of-state tribe.”
Washington Communications Administrator Nancy Gutierrez told ICT, “Ultimately, we want to engage with the families and keep them connected to culture. And so that could be anything from classes to help support with case management to those culturally appropriate services…so we have flexibility on what that may look like, but it could range from the things I just mentioned.”
Ives said the agreements with tribes and Indian-serving organizations are all contractual intergovernmental agreements that range from $80,000 to $220,000 paid by the state for a range of services including cultural education, child protection, and case management.
“So we do have a lot of great services that we are able to support with that, but we recognize that the work that tribes do to support their children in care, whether it’s within their tribal court or Washington state court, that it’s an unfunded mandate that is unfortunate. So the work that tribes are doing are often using their own hard dollars to help support the needed services. So I do see this as something that we could always do better in, and are always trying to find other ways to help provide those services.”
She said the state has a lot of flexibility on the terms of statements of work in the tribal agreements, “based off of tribal self-determination for them to be able to determine for themselves how they would want to use this money. So some of the challenges historically that we’ve had with this funding is really looking at how can we look at service as a quality, and help with making sure that the reports are working both to meet tribal need and also state need.”
She said some people see the arrangements as a grant, “but we’re really looking at it as a way to be able to support tribal needs, and work in our government-to-government relations to partner in working with the tribe to provide those needed services.”
She said the agreement has become a model. “Because we have a lot of children in care that are from out-of-state tribes… we just recently rewrote our Indian Child Welfare policies and procedures that are due to go live on July 1st. And we have a whole chapter dedicated to our memorandum of agreements. And this is the first time that we have included working to develop MOAs (memorandum of agreement) with out-of-state tribes.”
Ives said “most importantly, the agreement is needed because child welfare systems across our nation struggle to meet a standard of practice, let alone the gold standard, as required for the Indian Child Welfare Act.
“Not only Tlingit & Haida, but all tribes should have the opportunity to offer help to the states. Our children and parents involved in a state system enter in with current trauma, along with the historical distrust of government programs. If the option to work with the tribe is given, the family has a better chance of working toward well-being in their family,” Ives said.
Corrected to show there are 29 federally recognized tribes in Washington, not 28.
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