Child Welfare Information Gateway
Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
  • Administration for Children & Families
  • Children's Bureau
Child Welfare Information Gateway
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   

Home Topics Publications Library State Resources More Tools & Resources News & Events
REPORT ABUSE OR
NEGLECT
FIND HELP WITH A
PERSONAL SITUATION   
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Free Subscriptions
  • Resources in Spanish
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Chat
  • Resources in Spanish
  • Shopping Cart
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Family-Centered Practice
      • Philosophy and Key Elements of Family-Centered Practice
      • Family-Centered Practice Across the Service Continuum
      • Engaging Families
      • Family-Centered Casework Practice
      • Family Group Decision-Making
      • Engaging Communities to Support Families
      • Creating a Family-Centered Agency Culture
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Definitions of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Identification of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Risk Factors That Contribute to Child Abuse and Neglect
      • People Who Engage in Child Abuse or Neglect
      • Impact of Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Child Abuse & Neglect Fatalities
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
      • Overview: Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Promoting Child & Family Well-Being
      • Public Awareness & Creating Supportive Communities
      • Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs
      • Developing & Sustaining Prevention Programs
      • Evidence-Based Practice for Child Abuse Prevention
      • Evaluating Prevention Programs
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Introduction to Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
      • Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect
      • Assessment in Child Protection
      • Differential Response in Child Protective Services
      • Child Protection Casework Practice
      • Responding to Child Maltreatment Near Fatalities and Fatalities
      • Trauma-Informed Practice in Child Welfare
      • Collaborative Responses to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
      • Supporting Families With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
      • Introduction to Family Support and Preservation
      • In-Home Services Involved With Child Protection
      • Family Support Services
      • Resources for Managers of Family Support and Preservation Services
      • Family Preservation Services
    • Out-of-Home Care
      • National Foster Care Month
      • Overview: Out-of-Home Care
      • Foster Care
      • Group and Residential Care
      • Kinship Care
      • Casework Practice in Out-of-Home Care
      • Transition to Adulthood and Independent Living
      • Placement Decisions
      • Resources for Foster Families
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Overview: Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
      • Reunifying Families
      • Recruiting and Retaining Resource Families
      • Permanency With Relatives and Kin
      • Guardianship
      • Permanency for Specific Youth Populations
      • Legal and Court Issues in Permanency
      • Interjurisdictional Placements
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families in Permanency Planning
      • Working With Children, Youth, and Families After Permanency
      • Resources for Administrators and Managers About Permanency
      • Resources for Families About Permanency
    • Adoption
      • National Adoption Month
      • All-In Foster Adoption Challenge
      • Children's Bureau Adoption Call to Action
      • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
      • Introduction to Adoption
      • Ethical Issues in Adoption
      • For Adopted People
      • For Adoption Program Managers & Administrators
      • For Expectant Parents Considering Adoption and Birth Parents
      • How to Adopt
      • Laws Related to Adoption
      • Parenting After Adoption
      • Preplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Postplacement Adoption Casework Practice
      • Search & Reunion in Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
      • Administering & Managing Child Welfare Agencies & Programs
      • Child Welfare Practice Improvement
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Ethical Practice & Client Rights
      • Evaluating Program and Practice Effectiveness
      • Funding
      • Information Systems & Data
      • Supervising Child Welfare Services
      • System Reform
      • Training
      • Workforce
    • Systemwide
      • Assessment
      • Behavioral Health & Wellness
      • Courts
      • Cultural Responsiveness
      • Diverse Populations and Communities
      • Domestic Violence
      • Human Trafficking
      • Laws & Policies
      • Service Array
      • Statistics
      • Well-Being
      • Youth
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Topic
    • Browse by Title
    • índice de Títulos en Español (Spanish Title Index)
  • Library
    • Library Services
    • Library Search Help
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals Search
    • State-Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Resources From the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Discretionary Grants
      • The Story of the Children's Bureau
      • Children's Bureau Video Series
    • Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Webinars
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • News & Events
    • Free Subscriptions
    • Adoption Triad
    • Children's Bureau Express (CBX)
    • The Grantee Connection
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • Home
  • Topics
  • Systemwide
  • Diverse Populations and Communities
  • Engaging American Indian Children and Families

Engaging American Indian Children and Families

To effectively engage Native American clients and communities, child welfare professionals must be aware of their recent history, which includes violence, displacement, and forced assimilation. The formal role the government played in some of these events occurred recently enough that many living relatives of the families we work with experienced them directly. Understandably, this has led to intergenerational trauma and distrust of State and Federal Governments. In this section, find resources to help child welfare professionals build an understanding of key topics related to Tribal child welfare, including the history of policies and practices that harmed and led to historical and intergenerational trauma for Native families in this country, Tribal sovereignty, and how States can work in partnership with Tribes on various child welfare issues. 

In most cases, Tribes run their own child welfare systems. Tribal child welfare systems may be fully funded by the Tribe, receive direct Federal support, partner with States for funding, or some combination of these. 

With these resources, professionals who are new to working with Native American and Alaska Native families will gain a better understanding of the impact of intergenerational trauma, the Federal laws designed to protect Native families, and how to work in partnership with Tribes to help support children, youth, and families.  

  • Understanding the impact of intergenerational trauma
  • American Indian resilience: culture as a protective factor
  • Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)
  • Sovereignty, jurisdiction, and Tribal court considerations
  • Supporting health and well-being
  • Supporting American Indian and Alaska Native youth
  • Training

American Indian Tribal Directory
Indians.org (2018)
Lists federally recognized Tribes.

Bureau of Indian Affairs
Partners with Tribes to help guide them in maintaining the responsibilities of the government-to-government relationship.

Capacity Building Center for Tribes
Collaborates with American Indian and Alaska Native nations to help strengthen Tribal child and family systems and services in order to nurture the safety, permanency, and well-being of children, youth, and families. The Center for Tribes works closely with the Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative to provide an array of services including coaching, peer networking, distance learning, consultation, dissemination, product development, and capacity-building assistance.

For Families and Service Providers
National Indian Child Welfare Association
Provides resources to families and professionals seeking information on how to provide support and care to Native children. 

National Indian Child Welfare Association
Addresses child abuse and neglect in Tribal communities and works collaboratively with Tribal and urban Indian child welfare programs to implement culturally competent, community-based programs.

Strengthening Families
Tribal Information Exchange of the Capacity Building Center for Tribes
Focuses on preparing child welfare professionals to more effectively engage Tribal families by providing tools for Tribal families within their community. 

Trauma-Informed Practice With American Indian/Alaska Native Populations (PDF - 330 KB)
National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (2020)
Describes how to develop a trauma-informed lens for working with American Indian/Alaska Native individuals, families, and communities using the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Concept of Trauma.

Tribal Child Welfare Information Exchange of the Capacity Building Center for Tribes
Assists federally funded Tribal child welfare agencies to deliver tools and resources, such as information on organizational systems and staff capacity. With this support, Tribal communities' unique needs can be met.  

Tribal Courts and Child Welfare Podcast Series
Child Welfare Information Gateway (2019)

  • Episode 31: Tribal Courts and Child Welfare: Adapting to Child Welfare Cases 
  • Episode 33: Tribal Courts and Child Welfare: Revising Your Children's Code
  • Episode 34: Tribal Courts and Child Welfare: Partnering With Tribal Social Services  
  • Episode 37: Tribal Courts and Child Welfare: Building Relationships With State Counterparts
  • Episode 38: Tribal Courts and Child Welfare: Overcoming Challenges to Working With States

Tribal Nations and the United States: An Introduction (PDF - 28,035 KB)
National Congress of American Indians (2019)
Includes an overview of the history and underlying principles of Tribal governance to help decision-makers and members of the public understand and engage effectively with contemporary Indian Nations.

Truth and Reconciliation
Wabanaki REACH
Works to build the relationship between the Wabanaki Tribes and Maine child welfare by listening to the stories of the Wabanaki people and providing suggestions for how to reach reconciliation or understanding. The website presents information on the commission's history and background, media materials, links to resources, and more.

Wabanaki REACH
Works to build the relationship between the Wabanaki Tribes and Maine child welfare by listening to the stories of the Wabanaki people and providing suggestions for how to reach reconciliation or understanding. The website presents information on the Commission's history and background, media materials, links to resources, and more.

(Back to Top)

Spotlight On

Episode 69: Engaging Indigenous Families and Communities [Podcast]

Child Welfare Information Gateway (2021)

Center for Native Child and Family Resilience

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau

Considerations and Strategies for Engaging Tribes and Tribal Families

Capacity Building Center for States and Capacity Building Center for Tribes
Children's Bureau Express (2019)

Fostering Extended Family Ties Between Resource Families and Birth Families in Tribal Child Welfare Practice (PDF - 397 KB)

AdoptUSKids (2021)

How Tribal Values and Traditions Can Guide Recruitment, Development, and Support of Resource Families (PDF - 420 KB)

AdoptUSKids (2021)

Related Content

Family Support Services

Working With LGBTQ+ Youth and Families

Trauma-Informed Practice in Child Welfare

Disproportionality

Cultural Responsiveness in Services

Working With American Indian Children and Families in Adoption

Children's Bureau - An office of the Administration for Children and Families

Child Welfare Information Gateway is a service of the

  • Children’s Bureau
  • Administration for Children and Families
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
↑ Back to top
  • HOME
  • TOPICS
    • Family-Centered Practice
    • Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Responding to Child Abuse & Neglect
    • Supporting & Preserving Families
    • Out-of-Home Care
    • Achieving & Maintaining Permanency
    • Adoption
    • Management & Supervision
    • Systemwide
  • National Initiatives
    • National Adoption Month
    • National Child Abuse Prevention Month
    • National Foster Care Month
  • Publications
    • Publications Series
    • Browse by Title
    • Browse by Topic
    • Índice de Títulos en Español
  • Library
    • Search the Library
  • State Resources
    • State Statutes
    • National Foster Care & Adoption Directory
    • State Guides & Manuals
    • State Related Organizations Lists
    • Adoption Assistance by State
  • More Tools & Resources
    • Related Organizations
    • Learning Center
    • Children's Bureau Resources
    • Information Gateway Podcast
    • Multimedia
    • Family Engagement Inventory
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • New on Information Gateway
    • New From the Children's Bureau
    • Event Calendar
  • ABOUT US
    • How to Report Child Abuse or Neglect
    • Find Help With a Personal Situation
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Glossary
    • Search A to Z
  • Contact Us
    • 1-800-394-3366
    • info@childwelfare.gov
    • Subscribe to Free Updates
    • Chat With Us
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
  • POLICIES & HELPFUL LINKS
    • Disclaimer and Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Accessibility
    • FOIA requests
    • No FEAR Act data
    • Office of the Inspector General
    • Performance reports
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Policy
    • USA.gov
    • Download Acrobat Reader
  • ↑ Back to top