Field Reports

The Way Forward: Report of the Commission on Native Children

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Congress created the independent Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children in 2016 to conduct a comprehensive study of the programs, grants, and supports available to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians from birth through age 24 and with making recommendations about how this overall system could be strengthened, improved, and where needed, transformed to better help Native children and youth thrive. The Commission’s research addressed issues of child welfare; juvenile justice; education from early childhood through post-secondary and vocational training; physical, mental, and behavioral health; and research and data. It presents the multiple ways in which these different areas intersect to challenge life circumstances for Native children and youth. The Way Forward provides both broad principles and actionable steps to be taken to achieve the Commission’s goals to improve outcomes for Native children and youth and set them on the path to thriving.

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Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children. The Way Forward: Report of the Commission on Native Children. February, 2024. Retrieved from: https://commissiononnativechildren.org/news/the-way-forward-report-of-the-commission-on-native-children/

The Role of Tribes and Tribal Relations in Creating a More Vibrant Arizona (Chapter in The 113th Arizona Town Hall's "Creating Vibrant Communities")

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Arizona’s rich history begins with its Native inhabitants. Since time immemorial, Native Peoples built their own vibrant communities in the region’s river valleys, high deserts, mountains, and forests. Western archeologists affirm this long occupancy; they document ancestral Puebloan, Sinagua, Hohokam, Mogollon, and Patayan peoples living in the southwest more than 13,000 years ago. By contrast, Arizona achieved statehood only in 1912. The impact of American Indians’ long-time presence in Arizona is both considerable and enduring. Numerous county, city, and town names derive from Indigenous words. Phoenix’s earliest irrigation canals depended on Native peoples’ engineering prowess. Many of the state’s most-beloved tourist attractions are located on Indian lands. And through economic progress achieved over the last 20 years, tribes have become major regional employers and key contributors to the well-being of many predominantly non-Native communities.

European settlement has largely had the opposite effect on Arizona’s Native communities: entire tribal populations have been relocated; Native peoples’ access to their lands, waters, and resources has been severely constrained; Native children have been removed from their tribal homes; and state and federal government policies have created systems of discrimination that have made the mere survival of American Indian people and their communities a challenge. Today, the 22 federally recognized Native nations that share a geography with Arizona are integral to the future of the state and to the vibrancy of Arizona communities – but the vitality of Arizona’s Native people also depends on state, local, and organization leaders making decisions that support and sustain tribes. While this chapter explores these issues in a standalone fashion, interconnections matter: Arizona thrives when its tribal communities thrive.

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Citation

Figueroa, Holly, Miriam Jorgensen, and Joan Timeche. The Role of Tribes and Tribal Relations in Creating a More Vibrant Arizona.The 113th Arizona Town Hall's "Creating Vibrant Communities" (pp. 13-27). Arizona Town Hall. 2020.

Evaluating the Impact of Federal Welfare Reform Legislation in Indian Country: A Policy for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

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This report should serve as a policy guide to help clarify the complexities of the Personal Responsibility Act for tribal government officials, particularly those in Standing Rock. The guide seeks to: 1) describe and evaluate the Personal Responsibility Act and the provisions that impact Indian people, 2) describe and evaluate North and South Dakota’s proposed TANF plans, 3) present the pros and the cons of the options available to Standing Rock, and 4) recommend how the Standing Rock Tribal Government can respond under the different options.

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Citation

Lam, James. "Evaluating the Impact of Federal Welfare Reform Legislation in Indian Country: A Policy Guide for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe." Policy Analysis Exercise prepared for: Jesse J. Taken Alive, Chairman, The Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council. The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. May 1997. Report.