CHILD WELFARE, LEGAL PRACTICE, &ALASKA NATIVE IDENTITY

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This research examines the impact of legislation and related regulations on child protective services in the Alaska native villages of Interior Alaska. Over the past two decades, Congress has enacted a series of laws to positively address the effects of an historic mass removal and out- adoption of native children from their communities while attempt to protect those children who may be at risk. However, the efficacy of this system is challenged by jurisdictional conflicts between the state and tribes, as well as chronic, documented problems that plague the state's efforts to meet the mandates of the legislation. While agencies have acknowledged the existence of problems in native child welfare proceedings, proposed remedies thus far have focused only on facilitating procedures more than addressing the cultural and political issues at the heart of these laws. This project will develop an ethnographic study of how tribes handle child welfare cases, ensuring appropriate delivery of social services to meet the emotional and physical needs of native children, both on the village level and though intervention in state courts. This research will draw on relevant social scientific theoretical and comparative perspectives to explore how the "best interests" of native children are worked out in the negotiations between state courts and Athabascan tribal courts, evaluating the efficacy of a social service delivery system split between tribal and state courts.