A Denver organization works to reunite Native youth with their tribal families

DENVER — Lucille Echohawk  has worn many hats. A common one seems to be that of a guardian. 

After 41 years of working in child welfare — 23 of them at Denver Indian Family Resource Center — Echohawk (Pawnee) decided to adopt a Native American child as a single parent. 

She met her future daughter at the child crisis center at Children’s Hospital.

“When she looked up at me, she still had bright eyes for all the bad things that had happened to her. She was optimistic! I thought, ‘I can help this child. She can help me.’ And we did,” Echohawk reminisced with a smile.

Echohawk helped establish the  Denver Indian Family Resource Center (DIFRC) in 2000. A collaboration of organizations established DIFRC to address an ongoing pattern of American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) families losing their children to the public welfare system, combined with a lack of advocacy for said children to reunify with their families once it was safe to do so. 

During this time, Echohawk was working for a private foundation with a focus on child welfare called Casey Family Programs. After hearing about the mission, the foundation agreed to fully fund the launch of DIFRC, alongside Denver Family Research Center.

“I really felt like Cinderella,” Echohawk mused. 

Echohawk poses at her desk.

Echohawk says that in its “heyday,” the organization had a reunification rate in the 80-90 percentile. 

“Our definition of family reunification is with those Native cultures. It’s not necessarily just for reunification with [the] birth family, but with extended family — because that’s how families are most successful,” she explained.

In order to propel these efforts, the organization uses a holistic approach. DIFRC addresses the immediate needs of the children they serve, as well as the root cause: a history of harmful policies targeting tribal communities.

Policies leading to child displacement

The pattern of AI/AN children being displaced from their tribes was the result of various policies directly impacting their communities since colonization began. 

One of these was the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. The U.S government decreased subsidies for Native Americans living on reservations, and offered incentives for them to move into cities instead. 

Despite the promise of opportunity,  many Native Americans who moved faced racism, a lack of resources and disconnection from their culture.  According to the Intercultural Leadership Institute, “Part of the Indian termination policy of that era, which terminated the tribal status of numerous groups, it played a significant role in increasing the population of urban Indians in succeeding decades.”

Boarding schools also contributed to the displacement — and in many cases, the death — of Native American children. 

Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, missionaries from various religions and the Department of Indian Affairs systematically removed AI/AN children from their homes in an effort to “assimilate” them.

“Policy tries to make us disappear,” said Echohawk, “But despite it all, we haven’t.”

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in order to address these displacements.

The ICWA was intended to minimize the amount of children taken from Native American families, prioritizing placement in homes that align with the child’s culture. 

According to the U.S Department of Indian Affairs, ICWA also “provides guidance to States regarding the handling of child abuse and neglect and adoption cases involving Native children and sets minimum standards for the handling of these cases.”

Echohawk, however, said the ICWA has many flaws to this day. 

“The act doesn’t have any, what we call, ‘teeth,’” she said.  “If states don’t comply, they don’t lose any money, nothing like that.”

Echohawk said this is why holding the state accountable for adhering to the protections put in place for AI/AN youth is essential. 

A challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act motivates the DIFRC

This summer, the Indian Child Welfare Act, one of the few protections afforded to Native American children, was challenged in the nation’s highest court. 

In the U.S Supreme Court case Haaland vs. Brackeen, three child custody cases from Republican-led states were consolidated into a lawsuit in which non-Native families argued for the right to adopt AI/AN children. 

The Brackeens, a white couple from Texas, were supported by the state in suing federal authorities.

The couple had been fostering a Native American child. When the child was sent to be adopted by members of his tribe, the couple claimed ICWA was unconstitutional and discriminated against non-Native families.

The Supreme Court voted to uphold ICWA with a 7-2 vote., “After months under threat by this legal challenge, the Indian Child Welfare Act will continue to shelter Native children from unjust separation from their families and protect tribes from the devastation of losing connection to the next generation,” Minnesota Sen. Mary Kunesh said after the decision 

Based on prior outcomes for AI/AN families when decisions were left in the government’s hands, there was a sense of surprise and relief for Native communities. 

According to Echohawk, this breath of fresh air helped fuel the next chapter of DIFRC, one that includes even more direct support for AI/AN youth in the foster care system.

Youth Programming

Recently, the Colorado Health Foundation awarded the DIFRC $100,000 to put toward the direct support programs. 

Youth program leader Jeyavani Phelps (Oglala Lakota) has a clear passion for the mission.

Phelps was raised as a “military brat.”. Her mother, a full-blood member of the Oglala Lakota Nation and her father, who is African American, met in the military.

Phelps was raised on and off the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, a place where she feels a strong spiritual connection. When her dad passed while fighting in Iraq in 2005, Phelps and her family moved to the reservation full-time. Phelps was in high school at the time.

Jeyavani Phelps is the youth program manager for DIFRC. She says she can relate to the youth she serves. 

“Moving back, one thing I wasn’t prepared for in high school,” Phelps said, “was the high suicide rate among youth.”

Phelps joined a suicide prevention program on the reservation, and has been working in youth mental health ever since.

She and her children moved to Colorado in 2022. Phelps said  it was difficult being away from home. 

“When I was hired here, it almost solved all of the homesickness I was having,” she said. “I think I’m finding youth that I can relate to; they’re curious about their culture. They’re confused with two different lifestyles that they know.”

Phelps said that reconnecting to culture, traditions and ceremonies helped her cope with the loss of her father. She saw how that reconnection also became healing for her mother. 

“Culture, for me, is everything,” said Phelps.

Phelps wasted no time in implementing the youth programs DIFRC planned. 

The youth groups meet every Wednesday. Group members begin by greeting everyone in their Tribal language. The group continues with heartfelt conversations and education about culturally-relevant historic events that many hadn’t been taught in school.

Recently, Phelps took a group of girls to the National Unity Conference in Washington, D.C., where around 2,500 Native youth and advisors from around the country gathered to connect, learn and celebrate their various cultures. 

According to Phelps, one of the girls’ favorite parts was the fashion show, where everyone displayed their culture through dress. Seeing so many youth walking around D.C in their ribbon skirts, Phelps said, was powerful.  

The conference was so successful, the group has already begun to fundraise for next year’s trip. 

In the meantime, the youth will be producing a movie that covers important topics like mindful parenting, safe sex and other forms of mental and physical health. 

On July 29th, 2023, DIFRC youth program held an event open to the Native community where they filled roles like producer, screenwriters and actors. 

“She Still Teaches”

Echohawk and Phelps are two vital pieces of the DIFRC team, but there are many dedicated people involved in each element of the work — from housing connections to IT and more. 

Walking through the office, it’s clear there are bright hopes for the future of the organization, and a commitment to see things through. 

A sign in the DIFRC office. 

Echohawk said she thanks her daughter for her deepened dedication to the mission of the organization. 

“I credit her for helping me learn so much,” explained Echohawk, “and for being that much more dedicated to this work.”

Echohawk’s daughter passed away at age 19. Echohawk’s family established an endowment for DIFRC in her name to remind them of the importance of the work they do. 

“She still teaches,” Phelps said.

Elle Naef is a multimedia producer at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at ellenaef@rmpbs.org.