A bipartisan bill aimed at improving the lives of Native American children has passed Congress unanimously and now awaits President Obama’s signature.
S.246 establishes the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Commission on Native Children in the Office of Tribal Justice within the Justice Department. The commission is then mandated to conduct a comprehensive study of federal, state, local and tribal programs serving Native children.
S.246, the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act, was introduced by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND. The legislation honors Alaska Native elder Walter Soboleff and former chairwoman Alyce Spotted Bear of the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation in North Dakota.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a co-sponsor, said there is an urgent need for a broad range of stakeholders to come together and formulate plans to give every young Native a fighting chance at a productive life.
The study is to include the impact of concurrent jurisdiction on child welfare systems, barriers Indian tribes and Native Hawaiians face in using public and private grant resources, obstacles to nongovernmental financial support for programs benefitting Native children, and issues relating to the validity and statistical significance of data on Native children.
The commission will also look into barriers to development of sustainable, multidisciplinary programs designed to assist high-risk Native children and their families, cultural or socioeconomic challenges in communities of Native children, successful program models and use of best practices in programs serving Native children, barriers to interagency coordination, and use of various agreements to facilitate agency coordination.
Study results are to be used to develop plans for federal policy relating to Native children, recommendations on modifications and improvements to existing programs and recommendations for improvements to the collection of data regarding Native children and programs serving them.
