Tribal Partnerships

[No Audio:  Carmin Tecumseh-Williams, DHS Tribal Liaison]

CARMIN:  I’ve been doing social work – child welfare – for 24 years now. I served as a director 
also for – in child welfare for Indian Child Services with my own tribe, Muscogee-Creek Nation. 
As the tribal liaison, I have the opportunity to communicate between the tribes and OKDHS. 

That’s, of course, what my role is: to build that communication or that relationship. On a daily 
basis, it just depends on which department that I’m in meetings with; whether it be child 
welfare, child support, child care, APS (which is adult protection), whatever department it is; it 
really just depends on what’s going on; what are the issues. I want to be able to be as 
knowledgeable as I can in order to serve both sides; the tribes and OKDHS. 

Historically, tribes have some mistrust for the State. And it’s really important at this point to 
begin to build a relationship; to invest and to commit to relationships with tribes in order to 
heal that relationship or to have a positive influence in that relationship. Director Lake is 
actually the first director that has ever met face-to-face with the tribes. Tribes were extremely 
empowered. Tribes felt like that was a huge, huge effort and acknowledgement of respect to 
tribes. They feel their voice is finally being heard.  

Child welfare is the predominant discussion. There’s just so much going on because it deals 
directly with our children: it deals directly with children being placed outside the home, it deals 
with the breakup of Indian families or the non-breakup of Indian families, the preservation of 
culture, traditions.  So those are direct…those are direct relationships; those are direct 
generations that are being affected.  

First of all, it would be “what can we do to prevent that removal? What can we put in place to 
prevent that removal or breakup of that Indian family to ensure that child is safe? What are we 
doing to do that?” It’s really important for children to be placed within their tribe. As a 
placement preference, that would be the optimal.

[No Audio:  Dr. Deb Shropshire, DHS Deputy Director of Child Welfare Community Partnerships]

DEB:  Children who are either members of tribes or eligible for membership in tribes, fall under 
a specific federal law and corresponding state law called the Indian Child Welfare Act. This law 
was passed in 1978 to provide some added protections to children who are Indian because 
there were a variety of federal and state policies at that time that were causing Indian children 
to be removed from tribal families at an extraordinary rate. 

So the Act was put in place to recognize the sovereignty of tribes – and that we should consider 
how we’re going to work government-to-government for the best interests of these children 
and families. One thing that is supposed to happen up-front in a case is notification of the tribe; 
letting that tribal government know, ‘hey, we’re running into this family.’ If a child does need to 
move into foster care, the Act allows tribes to have some say in their preferences for where 
children should be placed. The Indian Child Welfare Act gives tribes a right to intervene in the 
court process. 

CARMIN: The tribe has a right to their children. And tribes are notified in order for them to be a 
part of that decision-making in order to have best outcomes for that Native family. I’m very 
passionate about our children. 

We do have an obligation because our children are the most important asset; they’re the most 
important resource that tribes have. They are the ones that will carry on the fire. They are the 
ones that will keep our traditions and our language and continue to help tribes remain “tribes.” 
And when our children are not placed back into our care amongst our people – when they’re 
not placed there, we lose them. And they lose us. And, therefore, they lose a part of who they 
are. 

DEB: Child welfare has a role – a statutory, defined role in the safety, protection, wellbeing of 
children. But we are not the only part of our society that has that. We’ve gotta figure out how 
to be a good partner to the other segments of society that want to play a role and have a right 
to play a role in that as well; tribes are one of those. 

We’ve got some payback to do for what’s been done years ago. It’s such a critical part of the 
culture of our state; for us – “the State” - to work with its tribes – and, government-to-
government, to try to figure out how to do its job taking care of these kids and families. But we 
can make a difference today in how we create opportunities for children to know where they 
came from. A partnership is ‘let’s get together and really problem-solve around what this family 
needs or what this child needs.’ And so we’re doing a lot of work on training for our staff on 
how to really, truly partner – as opposed to how to just ‘inform’ someone else. And I think 
that’s actually given our tribes the sense that we’re moving forward.

CARMIN: It’s still a work in progress. And I feel like that at this point – we have made some 
really good strides in the last ten years; we have seen some really good changes. We’ve had 
some setbacks. I feel like that – with change – we’re gonna see some really good, positive 
things. We’ve come a long way from where we were before.

[No Audio:  Federally-recognized tribes in Oklahoma: Absentee Shawnee, Alabama-Quassarte, 
Apache, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne-Arapaho, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Comanche, Delaware, 
Eastern Shawnee, Fort Sill Apache, Iowa, Kaw, Kialegee, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Miami, Modoc, 
Muscogee-Creek, Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Ottawa, Pawnee, Peoria, Pona, Potawatomi, Quapaw, 
Sac and Fox, Seminole, Seneca-Cayuga, Shawnee, Thlopthlocoo (Creek), Tonkowa, United 
Keetoowah, Wichita, Wyandotte.]

[No Audio: Oklahoma Department of Human Services logo.  Produced by Office of 
Communications and Community Relations, Oklahoma Department of Human Services 2017.]