Harnessing the Strengths of Native Communities

Headlines from our Nation's Tribal communities can often be discouraging. As in many rural areas in the United States, opportunities for economic advancement on and near Tribal lands are harder to come by than in urban and suburban centers. Resulting poverty and joblessness can fuel a host of other problems, including poor health, substance abuse, and high rates of violence and incarceration.

While some strides have been made in recent years, J.R. Cook, executive director of United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY), Inc., says the effects of such social ills on Tribal youth is too often "negative peer pressure and wasted talent." With more than a third of the Native American community currently under the age of 18, that's no idle concern.

That's why UNITY and a number of Tribal and non-Tribal organizations across the Nation are working with the U.S. Administration for Children and Families (ACF), and its Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), in a collaborative effort to build upon the strengths of Native youth and their families.

As a result of their efforts, a number of innovative initiatives are being born throughout Tribal communities addressing the persistent problems that have hampered the positive development of Tribal youth. Some of the most promising are based on several key components:

Tribal problems are best addressed with Tribal solutions.

With 562 Federally recognized Tribes in the United States, each with a different cultural and historical background, trying to create one-size-fits-all solutions, or introducing non-Tribal programs to Tribal audiences, is often not as effective as tailoring programs to meet specific Tribal needs. FYSB's Family Violence Prevention and Services Program, for example, has found that family violence shelters that are run on Tribal lands by Native American staff are better able to respond to the needs of the women and children from the local community (see article on page 10) than shelters in non-Tribal areas.

Cultural pride and identity should be respected and promoted.

While not all Native Americans feel strong ties to their cultures, many of the most promising Tribal initiatives have allowed youth to explore aspects of their heritage that emphasize strength and pride.

• The Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho, for example, developed the Young Horsemen Program in an effort to teach youth, ages 14 to 21, about the art of good horsemanship, horse management practices, and working with horses as a career, while at the same time reviving and passing along a traditional strength of the Nez Perce Nation.
• In Washington State, the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe started teaching its young people how to dig out and man the ocean-going canoes that participate in a ritual known as the Tribal Journey. During the trip, canoes from more than 20 traditionally seafaring Tribes travel down Washington's Olympic coast, a voyage that revives and reaffirms their canoe cultures.

Young people should be given opportunities for Positive Youth Development in a culturally and spiritually appropriate setting.

Research continues to show that young people who have access to opportunities that allow them to build skills and demonstrate leadership are better able to make the transition to a healthy and productive adulthood. UNITY, for example, has a roster of more than 200 Tribal youth councils across 34 States that serve as the local organizers and leaders of two major initiatives:

• Celebrate Native Health is the justlaunched second stage of a program to encourage healthy lifestyles in Tribal communities. During the first stage, Celebrate Fitness, Tribal youth councils across the country undertook such projects as building walking paths, organizing health fairs, and convincing Tribe members to relinquish their TV remote controls. Celebrate Native Health will focus on proper nutrition.
• Funded by the Administration for Native Americans within ACF, Preparing Native Youth for Life's Journey is a series of training sessions aimed at providing life skills and leadership training to UNITY youth so that they can return to their communities with concrete tools to help them undertake development projects. So far, several hundred youth have attended the training sessions in four States. A written training guide is also being developed, a draft of which can be downloaded from www.unityinc.org.

Strong adult role models should be mobilized in each community.

In order to reverse the low expectations that can hamper progress in Tribal communities, successful programs often turn to Tribal and other local leaders to usher in change. Grantees from FYSB’s Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program, in particular, rely on local adult role models, including business professionals, police and fire department staff, and Tribal leaders to provide the stability and direction that can often be missing from the lives of these young people (see article on page 6).

With these strategies, Native American groups are working to harness the positive energy of their communities, especially their young people.

“People often say that the youth are the future, or that they are our leaders of tomorrow,” Cook says. “We think thatyouth are leaders now, and we feel that it is very important for Tribes to get them more involved in leadership positions, where they can start working to solve the problems that affect their communities.”

Host Homes for Native American Youth: Finding a Future in Tribal Traditions

Six months after running away from home, Jon had become an accomplished couch surfer. He knew what friends to call and when he had overstayed his welcome. But moving from apartment to apartment had taken a toll on his education and his health. At 17 and a senior in high school, Jon was ready to find something more safe and stable, something more like home. He wound up on the doorstep of Rose, an old family friend with an extra room. She would love to help him, she said, but she just couldn't afford the extra housing expense.

Feeling like he had nowhere left to turn, Jon went to a nearby youth shelter. Finally, he got some good news. They could help. After meeting with Rose and Jon, the agency agreed, through a formal contract, to pay Jon's room rent directly to Rose. With this living agreement, Jon has links to health care and life-skills training through the agency, has a safe and supportive place to live, and feels independent. Because he and Rose have similar cultural backgrounds, Jon feels at ease in his new home.

The living arrangement described in Jon's hypothetical scenario is called the host home model. If it sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because the model is a variation of kinship care-an informal system that many communities and societies, Native American Tribes for one, have used for years. In kinship care, extended family members take in young people who need shelter and help them in their transition to adulthood. In the host home model, the youth may or may not know his or her host home family, but the goals are the same.

For years, the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) has been supporting grantees who use the host home model to help youth in their runaway and homeless youth programs. FYSB grantees, especially those in rural areas, consider host homes a practical alternative to both short-term shelters (Basic Centers) and longerterm transitional housing (Transitional Living Programs).

"Host homes provide housing and stability," says Kreig Pinkham, director of the Vermont Coalition of Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs, where 10 out of 12 agencies use the host home model. "Here in rural Vermont, we've found the host home model to be effective because it's flexible."

Experts say that its very flexibility, especially in getting services to lowincome, resource-poor rural areas, makes the host home model a promising method of bringing shelter and stability to the lives of homeless Native American youth.

If you are considering host homes for Native American youth, below are some tips to make the living arrangement as comfortable, stable, and healthy for them as possible.

Talk with the client. When Native American youth contact an agency looking for a place to stay, Crystal Nicholson of the National Resource Center on Youth Services (NRCYS) says to "do what you would do when any kid contacts your organization: talk with them, ask them questions, ask them straight-forwardly, 'what can we do to make this transition useful to you?'"

Then, determine where they fall on the acculturation continuum. In other words, what does the youth determine his or her cultural identity to be? As Nicholson puts it, "some Native American youth are so acculturated to the mainstream that they're not interested in reconnecting with their Native American culture. It's important to respect this decision. Just be sure they know that you're willing to help them reconnect at any time."

Contact local Native American organizations. If your organization often helps youth who identify themselves as Native American, it is imperative to have a working relationship with local Native American organizations and tribal alliances. These organizations can make connecting youth with their culture and Tribe a much smoother process than going at it alone.

Forge a relationship with the young person's Tribe. Your agency should consider it its duty to facilitate an ongoing conversation with the youth and the Tribe. Yvonne Barrett, director of Ain Dah Yung youth services, recommends that agencies talk with the youth's tribal community and its leaders about the host home option.

"Find out if they support the idea of a host home arrangement for this particular youth," Barrett said. "Listen to their recommendations for how to best house the youth, reconnect them with the Tribe, and ease their way into adulthood."

Recruit and train host home families. If at all possible, recruit Native American host homes. "If kids don't understand the culture of their host, their new living arrangements can be uncomfortable and scary," explains Linda Garding, a training and technical assistance provider in North Dakota.

If it proves impossible to recruit Native American host homes in your community, hire Native American staff or contract a Native American trainer or "cultural guide" who is still connected with a Tribe to teach agency staff and host home families cultural proficiency skills.

Your agency may have a lot of clients like Jon-youth who need or already have access to a place that feels like home. Maybe your agency has a few clients who need housing, but not enough at one time to justify building a shelter. Perhaps you serve Native American youth who need additional cultural support.

For more information on host homes, please refer to the sources below or contact NCFY or the Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Centers.

Native Pathway to Adulthood: Training for Tribal and Non-Tribal Child Welfare Workers. Author: National Resource Center for Youth Services, University of Oklahoma. 2004. Available at www.nrcys.ou.edu.

The Path Before Me: Questions to Guide American Indian Youth Toward Responsible Living. Author: Kroner, M. 1997. Available from the National Resource Center for Youth Services, University of Oklahoma, www.nrcys.ou.edu.

Tribal Approaches to Transition. Author: Munsell, G. 2004. Available from the National Resource Center for Youth Services, University of Oklahoma,www.nrcys.ou.edu.

 

Tribal Mentors Pass Wisdom, Self-esteem to Children of Prisoners

Fishing. Trapping. Hunting. Dog racing.

Native young people in the mentoring program at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Fairbanks area in Alaska are learning that their elders have a lot more to offer than an hour of companionship a couple times a week.

They can teach pride and selfsufficiency with a healthy dose of fun.

"We have 16- and 17-year-old boys signing up to be Little Brothers," said Cindi Nation, rural expansion director at the Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter. "At that age, we're usually signing them up to be Big Brothers."

And it's not just the boys who are having all the fun. One mentor recently taught her Little Sister how to trap and skin a beaver in order to turn the pelt into a traditional pair of gloves and a hat.

Mentoring can be a powerful youth development tool in Native communities, where so much of the Tribe's history and identity is passed down through the knowledge and skills of the elders. The self-esteem and confidence that can come through a meaningful connection with older Tribe members can help children and young people grow into successful, productive members of the society. That's why the Family and Youth Services Bureau's Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP) Program supports Tribal mentoring programs for the children of incarcerated parents.

Research has shown that children who suffer the long-term absence of a parent or parents are most at risk of experiencing the emotional, behavioral, and educational problems that could jeopardize their future success. Adding to the burden, Native youth also frequently face issues around poverty, illness, and alcohol and substance abuse. And while homelessness is not usually an issue on Tribal lands, overcrowding is.

"When there are an average of about 10 to 15 people living in a small twobedroom house, it's hard to have quiet time. It's difficult to have time for reflective action at all," said Milt Lee of the Maza Tiopa mentoring program on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Porcupine, South Dakota. "The idea of mentoring, to take these children out for an hour or two with nothing more in mind than building a relationship with an adult, is really powerful."

Indeed, mentoring programs have been proven to improve the futures of young people. Studies show they reduce first-time drug use by almost 50 percent and first-time alcohol use by 33 percent.

Mentoring also helps children to improve their relationships with their caregivers and peers. And mentored youth are more confident about their schoolwork and often improve their academic performance.

In Alaska, the outcome is far more fundamental.

"We have a way too high youth suicide rate in the State," said Taber Rehbaum, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Fairbanks Area. "We're not just helping them feel better about school; we are talking about life and death here."

The five Tribal MCP programs-the first of their kind-were funded by FYSB in 2004, and while Big Brothers Big Sisters is building on its ongoing activities, some other programs are still experiencing the start-up pains that are common to mentoring efforts.

One of the biggest challenges so far, grantees say, has been navigating the issues around recruitment. For Francis Onstad, director of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana, word of mouth has been their primary source for recruiting.

"Kids know other kids who have parents that are incarcerated," says Onstad, "We also work with the courts and the schools."

The challenge becomes, Onstad says, convincing them to stay. Cultural sensitivity plays a large role not only in keeping the youth interested, but also maintaining discipline for up to 20 youth.

"The mentors are all elder Natives," says Onstad. She says the elder Natives don't have problems disciplining the youth, because their tradition teaches youth to respect their elders. "With the elders they just look at the kids and they behave," she says.

Teaming the youth immediately with elders as mentors helps them to feel grounded and lets them know there is someone interested in them, says Liz Sherman, director of the youth mentoring program for Blackfeet. Sherman says the elders greet the youth in Blackfeet language and teach them a word each day. The youth learn traditional and Tribal songs and dances and visit historical sites on the reservation.

Maza Tiopa staff in South Dakota are having a harder time finding mentors for their program. Some adults are cautious about volunteering because as mentors they are unclear about what would be expected of them.

"We really emphasize that the relationship is the intervention," Lee said. "These children need to have good relationships with adults who are going to offer mental, emotional, and spiritual support even though you might go 6 months with these children before they'll let their guards down."

In Alaska, Nation has found that her sales pitch works best when she explains the program in terms of Native custom. Most of the villages she enters, she says, already have a word for mentoring in their own languages and a tradition of intergenerational support.

"When the parents came to sign up the kids, they would say 'Oh, I can do this' and signed themselves up too," she said.

Recruitment was enough of a challenge in the 16 Boys and Girls Clubs-hosted MCP programs run through a Navajo Nation grant that staff developed and conducted a series of trainings to help the programs find and convince potential mentors and mentees to sign up, according to Spencer Willie, program manager for the Expansion Office with the Office of the President and Vice President of the Navajo Nation. With the help of mentoring experts, they eventually developed an introductory video that the programs can show when they visit potential recruitments sites, such as fire stations or professional associations.

Recruitment may be easier for the Navajo programs, Willie said, since mentors and mentees always meet in the structured environment of the Boys and Girls Clubs, where activities are often planned and help is readily available.

"When the mentees bring up things about their own lives that the mentors don't feel trained to handle, we can immediately bring in club staff to help with individual issues," Willie said. The Boys and Girls Clubs also organize group activities and offsite trips to the movies to give mentors and mentees contact with and support from others in the program.

So far, many of the planned activities between mentors and mentees in the other programs have been around attending community events and dinners, as well as sports and homework. But over time, the new grantees plan to build in excursions that bring the participants closer to their cultures, like the Blackfeet program in Browning has begun to do. Sherman says they are in the planning stages of taking youth to the annual Gathering of Nations Powwow where they can dance with Native tribes from all over the country.

At Maza Tiopa, one of the pillars of the program will be reconnecting both youth and their mentors with the seven sacred sites of the Lakota, and the rites that accompany them. On the summer solstice, for example, Lakota go to Devil's Tower, a sacred rock formation in Wyoming, for a Sun Dance. But since it's 150 miles from Pine Ridge, most people don't have the resources to get there anymore. Lee says that Maza Tiopa will be organizing trips to take them there.

"Everything that we are doing here is a stepping stone toward building a child into somebody who is developmentally sound and a strong adult," Lee said.

Grantees also hope that mentoring programs will affect how Native American mentors parent their own children. Nation said that in one Alaska Native community she serves, a mentor had his Little Brother come over every Saturday morning so they could cook breakfast together.

"His stepson got mad and said it wasn't fair, that he wanted his own time," Nation said. "So now he's got Friday evenings."

Given the success of the more established Alaska Big Brothers Big Sisters program, Native Mentoring Children of Prisoners grantees have much to look forward to.

In one Alaskan village school, half the children now have mentors.

"The thing that excites us about that is that it is enough to make a difference in how the whole community interacts with youth," Rehbaum said, "and especially how they build Positive Youth Development into the community."

For copies of the Navajo Nation's mentoring manual or recruitment video, please contact Spencer Willie at spencer_willie@yahoo.com or at (928) 871-6352.

 

Cultural Proficiency

Does your youth-serving agency actively promote cultural proficiency?

Assess your organization's cultural proficiency, and brainstorm ways to enhance it by answering the following questions.

1. Agency's overall goals
   Assess: What wording in your mission statement addresses the goal of embracing clients from different cultural backgrounds? 
   Enhance: How could your organization further address the goals of diversity and inclusion?


2. Staff, board members, and volunteers
   Assess: How is your personnel diverse in race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion/ spirituality, gender, native language, sexuality, and age? 
   Enhance: In what ways could your staff, board, and volunteers be more reflective of the clients you serve?


3. Policies
   Assess: What actions are your staff expected to take if clients or others involved with your agency behave in culturally inappropriate ways (e.g., making racist comments)? 
   Enhance: How could this policy best be communicated so that clients know exactly what happens if culturally inappropriate behavior occurs?


4. Training
   Assess: What cultural proficiency training (one-time and ongoing) do you provide for your staff? 
   Enhance: What cultural proficiency training could you add in the next year?


5. Environment
   Assess: What about your facility (the decorations, artwork, space distribution) makes it appear safe and inviting to your clients? 
   Enhance: What can you do to further ensure that your facility's atmosphere reflects the cultural backgrounds of your clients?


6. Outreach
   Assess: How does your agency conduct outreach to youth of different cultural backgrounds? 
   Enhance: How could you conduct outreach to include a group that is underserved in your community?


7. Activities for clients
   Assess: What culturally relevant activities have you provided for your clients recently? 
   Enhance: What culturally relevant activities can your agency plan for clients in the next year?

A Place to Call Their Own: Domestic Violence Shelters on Native American Land

Not too long ago, protecting the women of the Pine Ridge Reservation from domestic violence wasn't such an easy task. With a domestic violence center, but no residential facilities, program staff were often forced to drive nearly a hundred miles to transport women seeking safe housing to the nearest shelter in Rapid City, SD.

And the problems didn't stop there. Take one morning, for example, when the staff shuttled four women to the faraway shelter.

"Three of those four women made their way back to the reservation before the staff did," said Karen Artichoker, director of Sacred Circle, the National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women. "They just didn't want to stay."

According to Artichoker, Native American women and children often felt uncomfortable when they were sent to off-reservation, non-Tribal shelters. They disliked the foreign atmosphere. And the staff and other clients seemed less than welcoming.

Today, though, things have changed. With the support of FYSB's Family Violence Prevention and Services Program, many Native American Tribes are finally able to run their own shelters on their own land, developing programs that, they say, serve their clients better.

Artichoker explains that many Native women feel that non-Native shelters have evolved into a more professional, medical model, which feels too strict. These shelters "have daily schedules, which bring us back to the days we were shipped to boarding schools," she says, referring to an era when Native children were removed from their families and sent far away to school.

Native women and their children at the Pine Ridge shelter who have escaped from family violence do not need regimented schedules but "a place to be safe and think and have tea," Artichoker said. "Women can relax here."

Native women also feel uncomfortable in non-Native shelters when they perceive racism from other clients or non- Native shelter staff. "Native women often feel that all non-Native people group them as 'Indians' and don't see the cultural differences between the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and the Chickasaws," says Pauline Musgrove, director of the Oklahoma Native American Domestic Violence Coalition. Native American women sometimes feel stereotyped, sensing that other clients and staff assume that they are alcoholic or uneducated, Musgrove said.

Native women also may not feel that their culture is understood by non- Native shelter staff. For example, Musgrove says that although many Native Americans live in Oklahoma, others in the State "don't understand the ways and traditions of Native American people." Native peoples have different parenting styles, different communication styles, different cuisine, and different family systems from mainstream European American culture, she says.

For women who "have never stepped out of their community," Artichoker says, "going to a shelter outside the reservation can be a real culture shock." Native women are much more likely to go to a shelter on their reservation where they recognize the food, the environment, and the people, she says.

One of the major cultural barriers that Native women find at non-Native shelters is a lack of knowledge or access to Native American spirituality and rituals. A domestic violence shelter run by Native Americans can offer connections to traditional spirituality.

One of the main goals of the Oklahoma Native American Domestic Violence Coalition is to "restore our cultural and traditional values to those who feel that need," Musgrove says.

"These women have come here to heal," she says. "For them, the healing process often involves reinstilling those cultural ways and traditions and spirituality to them."

When Native American women run their own shelters, it gives them a "sense of power over their own space.."

The shelter on the Pine Ridge Reservation connects women and their children to traditional spirituality by providing contact with a medicine man, for example. And in some cases, the shelter provides child care for women while they participate in longer Native American ceremonies, such as powwows, which can last up to a week.

With their emphasis on communal healing and traditional practices, Tribal shelters instill a sense of empowerment among its clients and Tribes. Artichoker compares the Native-run model to the traditional women's shelter model-that is, that domestic violence shelters work best if they are run by women, for women so that clients gain a sense of protection, safety, and empowerment. In the same way, she says, when Native American women have sovereignty over their shelters, it gives them a "sense of power over their own space and a feeling of being as competent as white people."

With Native shelters up and running, programs are now starting to build their wish lists for the future. Musgrove would like to see more shelters offer long-term help. "Some women need and want more than just 30 days," she says. "They've lived with a controlling domestic perpetrator for years and years, and now they need to learn to live lives of their own." She hopes to see shelters teaching them basic living and social skills, like how to write checks and go grocery shopping- "things they've never done by themselves before."

"We'd like to see domestic violence services help more than their immediate need in crisis," she said. "We'd like to see our services as a place where people and families can heal."

For more information on FYSB-supported domestic violence resources, go to:

National Resource Center on Domestic Violence 

http://www.nrcdv.org 

800-537-2238

Sacred Circle, National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women 

http://www.sacred-circle.com 

877-733-7623

Indian Health Service Violence Against Native Women Clinical Tools 

http://www.ihs.gov/MedicalPrograms/MCH/W/DV00.cfm