The Navajo Nation Division Of Social Services

The Navajo people believe that creation began in another world. Originally the Navajo began as insects on the first world. Due to continuous quarrelling the leaders of the realm force them

The Diné means “The People” and it is what the people that we know presently as the Navajo went by. The Red Nation article “Considering a Navajo Name Change: Self-Identification, Land, and Liberation” by Majerle Lister states that “‘Navajo’ is not a Diné word or concept, despite its use as our [the Diné] official name for more than a hundred and fifty years.” This is a clear example of how settler colonialism has impacted the Navajo Nation. Settler colonialism has had an impact in the Peoplehood matrix of the Navajo from language and sacred history to place/territory and ceremonial cycles, yet it has not stop efforts from the Navajo Community to mend the damage that settler colonialism has had on their culture over the years.

The boundary of the Yakama Nation Reservation is considered home to different culturally diverse populations. Parenting skills and teaching can vary dramatically from each of those unique households. The diverse populations come with varying levels of what is considered appropriate child rearing practices. “Child abuse intakes are increasing due to families from Mexico coming here to the US and the standards are different” (Ruiz, 2015). Pilar Ruiz is a Social Worker at Children’s Administration assigned to the Child Protective Services. Families migrate to the area and they carry different perspectives on parenting and may not understand the expectations of Washington State and Child Abuse Laws. It is not only migrant families that need additional support. Families that have been here for many years have traditional practices that may cross the line when it comes to child abuse and neglect. These families that are located in this area need the additional support of increasing family bonds, healthy parenting, life skills, bonding, and reducing violence and substance abuse.

The Navajo Indian is the largest tribe in North America, how did their culture develop over time and where are they today in regards to modern times?

Unfamiliar with extended family child-rearing practices and communal values, government social service workers attempted to ‘rescue’ children from their Aboriginal families and communities, devastating children’s lives and furthering the destitution of many families. Culture and ethnicity were not taken into consideration as it was assumed that the child, being pliable, would take on the heritage and culture of the foster/adoptive parents (Armitage, 1995). The forced removal of children and youth from their Native communities has been linked with social problems such as “high suicide rate, sexual exploitation, substance use and abuse, poverty, low educational achievement and chronic unemployment” (Lavell-Harvard and Lavell, 2006, p.144). Newly designated funds from the federal to the provincial governments were “the primary catalysts for state involvement in the well-being of Aboriginal children…as Ottawa guaranteed payment for each child apprehended” (Lavell-Harvard and Lavell, 2006, p.145). Exporting Aboriginal children to the United States was common practice. Private American adoption agencies paid Canadian child welfare services $5,000 to $10,000 per child (LavellHarvard and Lavell, 2006). These agencies rarely went beyond confirming the applicant’s ability to pay, resulting in minimal screening and monitoring of foster or adoptive parents (Fournier and

American culture is made up of many different people, and many of those people come from Indian tribes. The United States Governments Federal Register lists 566 tribes recognized as of August 2012. One of those tribes is the Navajo which can be found primarily in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Navajo culture is one that many people associate with by what is portrayed in movies. People view the culture as land raiding individuals that pillaged and wreaked havoc with anyone and anything they came in contact with.

The first area outlined in the intake form is the client’s demographic information that included the client’s date of birth, social, insurance information, etc. necessary to process claims for reimbursement and the client’s provider information, such as primary care, and case management, to ensure fluidity for establishment of coordination of care between providers. The intake form

Three variables—extended foster care policy, state administrative structure, and community context of child welfare agency responsible for delivering CFCILS—were included to test whether child welfare macro-level factors predict CFILS utilization. Since 2010, states have had the option of extending foster care up to age 21 (see Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, P.L. 110-351). The GAO (2014) specified that 19 states had extended foster care up to age 21 by the end 2011 when NYTD Services data were collected. Thus, a dichotomous variable indicating whether a state extended foster care (0 = no; 1 = yes) was included to test whether extending foster care results in differences in CFILS utilization before youth

To address the emotional and physical needs faced by children in foster care and their caretakers, the Amarillo Angels organization seeks to provide gifts and hope for foster families through its services.1 Hundreds of thousands of children are in foster care across the United States, and the average child in the foster care system spends over a year in foster care.2 The state of Texas faces a foster care crisis in which not enough family placements are available to meet the needs of an abundance of children in foster care.3 Locally, agencies in Amarillo must often send foster children needing placements to other counties or states.4 While foster parents receive some financial reimbursement to provide for the children placed in their

Imagine being a child removed from your home in the middle of the night. Waken out of your sleep handed to someone you do not know and being taken to place where all the people around you are strangers. The removal process can be painful, mentally, physically and emotionally to children. The number of losses experienced by a child when they are removed from their home can be countless. Although, there are more White children in the foster care than any other race, research suggests African America children remain in foster care placements for a longer period of time and the chances of reunification with their family is greatly diminished (Knott and Giwa, 2012). The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) report notes

Indigenous people of the United States have fought to have The Navajo Nation acknowledge as being sovereign which we have our own government, nation, culture, ability to tax, and etc. When the multicultural era happened instead of recognizing us as a sovereign nation we were looked upon as being beneath Western society. The Navajo Nation exerts their sovereignty by teaching and practicing our native language, using artifacts in our daily lives, and our stories. Native Americans need to make a change through indigenizing Universities to have our culture and beliefs respected, need to create a safe place that supports our Dine teachings, support others using institutions, develop and talk about relevant information. The current materials out

Choctaw Nation Health Services proudly welcomed Mary Smith, Principal Deputy Director of Indian Health Service; P. Benjamin Smith, Director, Office of Tribal Self- Governance, Indian Health Service; and RADM Kevin Meeks, Director of the Oklahoma City Area Indian Health Service to the Choctaw Nation McAlester Health Clinic and Choctaw Nation Health Care Center. Chief Batton along with Tribal dignitaries, and associates of health services, toured both facilities on October 20.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was supposed to be cleaning up. Instead, the government agency made a big mess -- unleashing an estimated 3 million gallons of mine waste into the Animas River. It's a yellow-orange, toxic mess that stretches 100 miles into the Navajo Nation.

Further, applicants for adoption should be accepted on the basis of an individual assessment of their capacity to understand and meet the needs of a particular available child at the point of adoption and in the future (Rosario, 2006, p.8). The United States is facing a critical shortage of adoptive and foster parents. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children in this country are without permanent homes. These children deteriorate for months, even years, within state foster care systems that lack qualified foster parents and are frequently faced with other problems.

One major aspect of the intake is going over confidentiality and release of records. Many of our clients are court ordered and are manadated to our agency. This means that the courts need to be able to access most of the clients reports. During the intake i have to make sure the client understands that