lakota oyate wakanyeja owicakiyapi developing a culturally based tribal child welfare agency lakota...

Lakota Oyate Wakanyeja Owicakiyapi

Developing A Culturally Based Tribal Child Welfare Agency

Lakota Child Welfare Case Management Model of Practice

January 25, 2011

Presenter: Emily Iron Cloud-Koenen


Creating a Lakota Values Based Vision for Children and Families

• Desired Outcome: To share the Oglala Lakota transformation

process experience in creating a vision for a community controlled child welfare agency as a means of exercising sovereignty over the lives of our Wakanyeja (children) and their Tiwahe (families)


Creating a Lakota Values Based Vision for Children and Families

• Community Organizing Efforts– Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) Multi-Disciplinary Team (1996)– Oglala Oyate Iwicakiyapi Okolakiciye (OOIO)

• Strategic Planning & Visioning (1998)• 7 Directions defined in 7 Committees• Grant from Justice Department (1999)• Casey Family Programs funds Circles of Care-

Transformation project (2000)• LOWO Charted by the Oglala Sioux Tribe (2003)


Casey Family

Programs

Department

Of Social Services

Bureau ofIndian Affairs

OglalaSioux Tribe

Lakota Oyate

Wakanyeja

Owicakiyapi

OOIOOglala OyateIwicakiyapiOkolakiciye

Collaborators


Lakota Values Based Vision

• Seven Spiritual/Natural Laws

“Woope Sakowin”

(Prayer, Generosity, Wisdom, Fortitude, Healthy Mind/Spirit, Compassion, Respect)

• Lakota Social Worker Code of Ethics• Philosophy-”Mitakuye Oyasin”

All My Relations• Cultural Teachings (Protocol, Star Knowledge, Decolonization)


Wakanyeja Ta Wowasake:“Traditional Children Rights”

1. Right to a mother2. Right to a Father3. Right to identity with traditional way of life4. Right to his or her language (Lakota)5. Right to a family6. Right to know the traditional laws, customs, and ceremonies of

the Lakota people7. Right to live according to and to practice the traditional laws,

customs that govern the people


Tiwahe na Tiospaye Ta Wowasake:“Traditional Family Rights”

Wicozani- to make choices and decisions to live a healthy and prosperous life according to traditional laws, customs, and ceremonies.

Igluhapi- to make choices and decisions to establish economic, political, educational and cultural self-sufficiency, and maintain privacy according to traditional laws, customs, and ceremonies

Woope Gluhapi- to live and function according to the traditional laws, customs, and ceremonies; and to protect and nurture such laws, customs, ceremonies

Woitancan-to select and designate leaders to serve the people and to promote the common good according to the traditional laws, customs, and ceremonies

Woilake-to select and designate such official officers and workers as the tiosapye deem necessary to serve the people and to promote the common good according o the traditional laws, customs, and ceremonies


Oglala Lakota Practice Model (OLPM) intends to integrate traditional Lakota assessment and treatment interventions into a hybrid clinical practice model that serves Lakota youth and families in a different, more culturally based approach. (see addendum for OLPM graphic)


Search for Relatives-Lakota PermanencyMedicine Wheel #1

© Pending

Richard Moves Camp &

Casey Family Programs


The Family Healing Circle Medicine Wheel #2

© Pending

Richard Moves Camp &

Casey Family Programs

Draft


The En’ghahan Wosecupi (temporary Choosing, Temporary Care)

PHASE 1: Receive Service Request • Intake

– Gather information on the family• Orientation to the OLMP Protocol and Services

– Orientation and option to receive services through differential approaches

• Otakuye Okilepi– Relatives are sought within the tiyospaye (extended family)– Tiyospaye Interpreters assist in locating relatives – Child maybe placed in another Tiyospaye or Band


Wokicunze Kaghapi (Making a Commitment;) (Belonging) (Kinship/Permanency), initiating a Case Service Plan utilizing strength-based and family centered approaches.

PHASE 2b: Evaluate Request • Family Group Decision Making

– Maori model parallels the Lakota culture & traditions• Initial Assessment & Service Plan

– Family develops a vision of their strengths and needs• Lakota Cultural Assessment

– Understanding the families level of cultural awareness• Spiritual Assessment

– Assistance from the spirits/ancestors to assess the families holistic well-being• Crisis Intervention & Support Plan

– Integration of cultural, spiritual and clinical assessments to coordinate services


Hunkapi (Making of Relatives; Relationship Building)

One of the seven ceremonies which honors the spirit of the individual and reinforcement of the kinship role

PHASE 3a & 4a: Provide Services/Re-evaluate

• Hunkapi Wicoghan – Making of relatives ceremony– Hunkapi Ceremony – Lakota Mental Health Diagnosis and Treatment – Indian Child Welfare Act/Family Preservation Services– Family Development, Training & Support


Tiwahe Eyecinka Egloiyapi Nahan Op Unpi Kte – (The Family Moving Forward) (Building Sovereignty for the Family)

PHASE 3b & 4b: Provide Services/Re-evaluate

• Inipi (Sweat Lodge)– Purification Ceremony

• Nagi Kicopi (Calling back the Spirit)– Lost connection with spirit due to trauma

• Wasigla Ekignakapi (Wiping of Tears)– Healing ceremony to assist families through grief/trauma

• Other Lakota Healing Ceremonies • Transition Services

– Independent Living Skills (youth transitioning)


Tiwahe Eyecinka Egloiyapi Nahan Op Unpi Kte – (The Family Moving Forward) (Building Sovereignty for the Family)

PHASE 5: Closure

Decision made by client or staff to discontinue services • After Care

– Development of plan to define further services• Closure

– Decision is made by the family or staff to end services – Continuance of services upon families request


Wakanyeja Na Tiwahe Ta Woope, OST Child and Family Codes

(May 2007)§401.3 PreambleIn the past, the United States government has attempted to extinguish

the council fires and fragment and dismantle our family and social structure. During the post-reservation era, paternalism on the part of the United States government eroded much of our nation's culture, language, and heritage. Nevertheless, the people never succumbed totally to the economic, educational, cultural, and political pressures wrought by the United States government. The people's tenacious desire to remain free enabled them to maintain their distinctive identity. Rather than becoming Americanized, they chose to reconstruct and reorganize their nation. This Code is drafted and enacted as a matter of deliberate choice in an effort to reconstruct and reorganize our institutions in the furtherance of our distinctive identity, culture, and values.


Tiospaye Interpreter: The person or persons designated by their tiospaye to act as an interpreter concerning provisions of this Code; to receive training and certification by LOWO as the official point(s) of contact; and to receive notices and information concerning a child and/or an adult where there is an allegation that such person(s) may be a Family in Need of Services or a Child in Need of Care.


Business Process Integration

In compliance and adherence to the Oglala Sioux Tribe Child and Family Code, Wakanyeja Na Tiwahe Ta Woope, the defined processes within represent a new beginning and new era of child protection and family preservation on the Oglala Lakota Reservation. A resultant endeavor that encompassed a considerable time and effort of progressive leadership for Oglala Sioux Tribal Agency Organizations, their staff, the Lakota Oyate Wakanyeja Owicakiyapi, Tiospaye Interpreters and external supporting agencies; this procedural manual has come to fruition through a consensual inter-agency dialog that embodies the spirit of Lakota child protection and family preservation.

Within the Business Process Integration are guiding principals and the application of the Lakota Oyate Wakanyeja Owicakiyapi Oglala Lakota Practice Model. The contemporaneous application of law and Lakota Traditions are joined in an unprecedented manner whereby a process and procedure for inter-agency cooperation is defined through state of the art process maps all while being referenced to the OST Child and Family Code. As a procedural guide, the processes within represent a best practice scenario and defines inter-agency partnerships for Lakota child protection and family preservation.


Business Process Integration Entails:

• Reference to Laws or Regulations • Develop Process Map (flow of the work) • Creation of Practice Standard

– Written description of service delivery • Inclusion of Cultural Concepts and Approaches in the

practice


Wopasi (Investigation) LOWO CPS has established well defined risk assessment guidelines for investigating wakanyeja abuse and neglect reports. The LOWO child protective services will conduct risk assessments to determine maltreatment, or if any wakanyeja in the home is at risk for maltreatment, to initiate protective services, and to make referrals as deemed appropriate.

Commentary LOWO CPS will conduct wopasi on wakanyeja abuse and neglect reports that are

“screened in” during intake process. Several decisions are made during this phase to determine if any maltreatment occurred, to identify the strengths and needs of the tiwahe, to explore the likelihood of future maltreatment risk to the wakanyeja, and to ascribe a disposition to the case.

Section 406.4 (b) requires all abuse and neglect reports to be jointly investigated by LOWO CPS and the Department of Public Safety. However, LOWO CPS is the lead agency for conducting wopasi on maltreatment reports in order to determine treatment and services needs, and to provide treatment and services to the wakanyeja and the tiwahe.


Tokatakiya – Going Forward• Culturally relevant family preservation model• Tribal Child Welfare Training Institute • Family Group Decision Making utilized as a

differential response


Challenges • Changing the “system of oppression”

– Working with internalized racial inferiority/lateral violence

• Funding• Regulations, bureaucratic compliance elements• Expanding the circle of traditional

healers/interpreters• Cultural Linguistics – spelling and interpretation

of Lakota Language


• Consultants – Child & Family Codes

• Tribal Law & Policy Institute • Attorney’s Brett Shelton & George Twiss• Cultural Advisors: Marie Randall, John Around Him, Elaine Quiver,

Richard Moves Camp, Dr. Elgin Bad Wound• Arlana Bettleyoun & Gloria Cournoyer

– Oglala Lakota Practice Model• Richard Moves Camp• Casey Family Programs

– Russ Conti, Carol Iron Rope Herrera, Emily Iron Cloud-Koenen, Tammy Red Owl

– LOWO Practice Standards• Native American Training Institute

– Business Process Integration & Mapping• Face 2 Face Technologies


Questions, Comments, Feedback


Contact Information


PO Box 604

Pine Ridge SD 57770

605-867-5752 office

605-867-5941 fax

[email protected] – email

mailto:[email protected]

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