The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) embodies four principles: partnership, meaningful consultation, remediation, and resilience. Consider that the Active Efforts Mindset is best practice in approaching teaming and engagement with Native American families and Tribal Nations to heal historical trauma, ensure ICWA compliance, and create the best possible outcomes for Native American youth.

• Partnership is the equitable ownership of the work and the outcomes. Child welfare and probation agencies have the legal responsibility to comply with ICWA. Tribal Nations often hold the family’s expertise, community, culture, history, and connections as the families’ first government. A partnership does not allow all of the responsibilities for the work to rest on one set of shoulders, and likewise, shares the reward for the best outcomes.

• Meaningful consultation means that in determining a course of action for the family and the child, Tribal expertise and recommendations must be sought and meaningful consideration given to them. It is not enough to merely ask for an opinion; but also includes making room for and taking to heart the expertise being offered. It is an active, solution-focused collaboration.

• Remediation. The purpose of ICWA is not only to ensure that the harms of the past do not reoccur but also to rebuild trust between Native American families and those agencies that can impact their families.

• Resilience. ICWA was born from resilience. It is an act of healing and love both for the generations before its enactment and after. ICWA reinforces the resiliency of Native families in its provisions and relies on that resilience to create protective factors for children when they remain connected to their culture, community, Tribe, and family.

Written by Kim Mettler
Tribal STAR Program Manager