Governor’s ICWA Commission
May 25, 2004, Pierre, SD
Meeting Minutes
ICWA Commission members present: Jack Von Wald, Keith Bonenberger,
Representative Jim Bradford, Tami Bern, Kathleen Trandahl, Sara
Olson, D.J. Hanson, B.J. Jones, Bob Walters, Janine Kern, Ramona
O’Connor, Denise Murphy, Dave Valandra, Joni Cutler, Sister Mary
Curran, Deb Fischer-Clemens, Virgena Wieseler, Ann Holzhauser,
Cordelia White Elk, Renee Eggebraaten, Mike Schad, Tracey Manywounds,
Michael LaPointe, Robert Duxbury, Doug Herrmann, Bill Whitelance
ICWA Commission members absent: Charlene Bell-Kokesh, Rose McCauley,
Steve Emery
Others Present: Roger Campbell, Kim Paxton, Margaret Eagan, Jim
Ellenbecker, Dawn Marie Rubio, Molly Beuckens
1. Welcome – Bob Walters opened the
work of the Commission with a prayer.
2. Introduction of Commission Co-Chairs
– Roger Campbell, Executive Director, Tribal Government Relations
Director Campbell indicated that the Governor fully supports this
Commission and its charge and that his office will staff the
Commission.
a. The Honorable Judge Janine Kern
Kern stated that SD has the seventh highest number of children per
capita in foster care in the United States. The Commission has an
opportunity to work together to better the situation of South
Dakota’s most vulnerable children.
b. The Honorable Judge B.J. Jones
Jones stressed the importance of the work of the newly formed
Commission and the goal of enabling Tribes to increase their
capacity to provide their own child protection services.
3. Introduction of Commission Members
Each of the Commission members introduced themselves and expressed
their hopes and desires regarding the work of the Commission.
4. Review of Commission Binders and Materials
5. Overview of Senate Bill 211
Judge Jones walked the Commission through the materials in the
binders, including Senate Bill 211, which created the Commission and
defined its duties, the ICWA and the BIA guidelines. Judge Jones
also briefly described the Adoption and Safe Family Act enacted by
Congress in 1997. Senate Bill 211 in its original form was defeated.
Perhaps after the work of the Commission, a better bill can be
passed.
6. Introduction of
Independent Reviewers
7. Presentation by Dawn Marie Rubio and Brenda
Bellonger
National Center for State Courts - NCSC (Dawn Marie Rubio) and North
American Indian Legal Services, Inc – NAILS, INC. (Brenda Bellonger)
NCSC was founded in 1971 and is a non-profit corporation devoted to
the enhancement of justice and the courts. It has offices in
Williamsburg; Washington, DC; and Denver. It also provides research,
education, consulting, information services, technology, and
technical assistance.
NAILS, Inc was founded in 1998 and is also a non-profit corporation.
Its purposes are to provide legal representation of North American
Indian tribes and individuals, to protect tribal resources, to
promote effective and accountable practices in tribal government, to
improve tribal economic prosperity, and to safeguard and ensure
individual rights. The Governor’s office selected these two groups
on April 22, 2004, after a competitive bid process, to assess South
Dakota’s compliance with ICWA.
The Review Team described the steps it intended to take to obtain
data to assess compliance. The Team intends to take the following
steps:
1) Review a statistically significant number of DSS and the
corresponding UJS ICWA files from each circuit in the state;
2) Conduct focus groups on all nine reservations;
3) Conduct focus groups with state stakeholders; and
4) Disseminate a web-based survey to state and tribal stakeholders.
The Team described its timeline:
June 2004-Mid July 2004: Preparation and Development Activities
Mid July 2004-September 2004: Data Collection Activities
Mid August 2004 – October 2004: Data Analysis Activities
November 2004 – December 2004: Draft and Final Report Activities
June 2004 – December 2004: Project Management and Quality Assurance
Activities
The Review Team requested that the Tribal Councils for each Tribe
pass a resolution authorizing the examination of court files
involving placement with DSS and authorizing tribal personnel to
participate in focus groups. After the meeting adjourned Brenda
Bellonger from NAILS assisted the Co-Chairs in drafting a resolution
for consideration by the Tribes. The Governor’s Office of Tribal
Government Relations forwarded the Resolutions to the Tribes for
consideration.
8. Report from Virgena Wieseler – Child
Protection Services
Ms. Wieseler reported that currently South Dakota has approximately
1,250 children in foster care of which 750 are Native American. Half
of these children were placed in foster care by the State Courts and
half by the Tribal Courts. Only ten percent of all foster homes are
Native American. Upon inquiry by Mike Schad, Wieseler indicated that
South Dakota has no specific kinship requirements. Wieseler
discussed the status of the contracts DSS has with each of the
Indian tribes. DSS has had a full contract with the
Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribe since 1978. The Tribe provides a full
array of CPS services. DSS has IV-E and licensing agreements with
Standing Rock, Crow Creek and Flandreau. Agreements previously
existed with Yankton and Cheyenne River. Rosebud and Oglala are
working with DSS to develop contracts.
9. Timeline of Commission work over the next
seven months
Judge Jones discussed the potential ways which Commission members
could assist the Review Team, including facilitating the state and
tribal site visits, producing the state files for review and
obtaining the tribal resolutions.
The Commission scheduled its meeting dates and locations:
August 10, 2004 – Sioux Falls, SD
October 12, 2004 – Rapid City, SD
December 7, 2004 – Pierre, SD (Alternate date: December 14, 2004)
10. Listening Sessions on the Reservations
The Commission discussed the feasibility of holding listening
sessions on each reservation to give members of the public an
opportunity to express their views about the State’s compliance with
ICWA and offer potential solutions. Representative Bradford
suggested that either Judge Jones or Kern be at each session along
with as many Commission members as possible. The Commission
discussed potential dates for the listening sessions and the
logistics for these meetings. The Commission agreed that the
sessions would be an important part of their work.
The meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m.
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