wfn.org | In-Care helps Indian youth overcome problems, build pride

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 22, 2000  News media contact: Mike DuBose·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-34-71BP{423}

NOTE:  Photographs are available with this story.

By Mike DuBose*

BILLINGS, Mont. (UMNS) -- Every Indian child is unique and sacred.

That's the guiding principle of the In-Care Network, a nonprofit agency that
provides therapeutic foster care for Indian children with severe emotional
or medical problems.

The Billings-based program is partially supported by the Yellowstone Annual
(regional) Conference of the United Methodist Church.

"One of the things we have to deal with is almost all of these kids come to
us with very low self-esteem," said Barbara Karst, a United Methodist
laywoman who works with the program. "They oftentimes don't want to be in an
Indian home. A lot of these programs are focused on helping them be proud of
who they are."

In its 14-year history, In-Care (In-dividuals and In-dians who care) has
placed more than 500 children either with Indian families or non-Indians who
have been culturally trained.  The program began with one Native American
host family, and it now has 90 Indian families among 225 foster homes.

Although Indians make up only 6 percent of the state's population, 30
percent of the Montana children in foster care are Indians.
 
As In-Care has matured, it's captured the attention of state and local
agencies involved in helping children, said Bill Snell, program director.
"They look very heavily at In-Care now and say, 'What do you do? We want to
know more about you and what your approach is,' so we have gotten fairly
heavily involved with training."

To that end, In-Care brought together social service professionals from
around the United States in August for the "Two Worlds Cultural Immersion
Camp." The camp, a first for In-Care, sought to sensitize participants to
Native culture, Snell said. "We hope to instill in them part of our culture
- the way we accept others."

Campers worked together to raise the tipis they would sleep in for the week,
guided by Lawrence Flatlip, a Crow cultural historian, and Phillip Whiteman
Sr., a Northern Cheyenne. The Native elders combined how-to lessons with an
explanation of the cultural significance of each lodge pole as it was
placed.

Participants learned about Indian kinship and cultural values from tribal
members, and were treated to presentations on traditional food and herbal
medicines by noted herbalist Alma Snell, Bill's mother. 

"It was a wonderful team-building experience," said camper Elizabeth
Burnham, general counsel for a New Jersey foundation that provides
after-school programs for at-risk children. She hopes to bring some of the
youth to Montana for a similar program.

"It's away from everything," Burnham said. "It really gets you centered and
focused. "

"We hope they take back what they learn and apply it with those they serve,"
Snell said. "We hope they will no longer fear what they don't know."

Ever since Snell and former partner Corbin Shangreau, a Lakota Sioux, began
In-Care in their homes with $300 in cash, they have dealt with fears from
nearly everyone involved. 

Native Americans, with their traditional emphasis on extended families,
found the concept of foster care foreign at first. Indian foster children,
often leaving behind dysfunctional birth families, didn't always want to be
placed with Native families. And government officials were equally
skeptical.

"There were a multitude of barriers," Snell said. The communication process
is different, he said, adding, "Foster care is somewhat foreign to us as
Native people. We haven't forgotten about the government schools, the
Catholic schools, the boarding schools." Beginning in the late 1800s, many
Indian children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to boarding
schools, often in distant states. Traditional beliefs were devalued at the
schools in favor of a forced Christianity, Snell said.

"We have to remember there are different degrees of acculturation and
assimilation among our people," he said. "Some are very traditional. Some
are very Christian oriented. Some are urbanized. But we're all still Indian
people. And we're still special in the Creator's eyes. We can't categorize
each other. Our circle of life says all people are accepted."

Initially, state agencies weren't fully supportive. They didn't want to pay
In-Care the same rate for foster care as they paid others, Karst said. "The
Yellowstone Conference said they knew the trials that In-Care was having.
Our conference Board of Church and Society appropriated some money to help
out. And we did some legislative kibitzing to get In-Care to have the same
benefits. But it was almost like the state said, 'This is an Indian
organization, run by Indians, so it can't work.' "

Snell and Karst also helped answer skeptics by becoming foster parents
themselves.  Snell has cared for as many as 36 children and Karst another
five. "We had to do that because some of the first questions that were asked
were, 'Have you ever done foster parenting before?' and when we said, 'No,'
the Indian people generally would say, 'Well, then, I'm not going to do it
either,''' Snell said.

Snell also had to work to change the mindset of how best to help the
children. "A lot of emphasis was placed on professional people changing the
child. Therapists and psychologists - their interventions, their techniques
-- were the primary change agent for helping children," Snell said. "We felt
that the primary change agent was foster parents."

Maintaining cultural heritage in the midst of other problems has always been
a cornerstone of In-Care. At the recent Camp Little Feather, Indian children
ages 4-11 came together for a three-day program of cultural enrichment.
Children listened to Native storytellers, made craft projects and pitched
tipis under the stars.

Being around the children has impacted staffers in many ways, Snell said.
"Some of the children that have come in have been children that should have
died. But because of miracles, through intervention and prayer and support
and nurturing, they made it."

Snell pointed out a robust 9-year-old playing soccer at Camp Little Feather.
"She's kind of a star in my eyes," he said. "She came in unable to walk and
move. She had shaken-baby syndrome that resulted in a spinal cord injury and
wasn't expected to ever walk. She went through a number of things - physical
therapy, special training. A specialist in Great Falls took her and had to
... straighten her (leg) bones out, and cut the bones as well as the muscle
to turn her legs. She wasn't even expected to try to walk for a number of
months, and she was doing it within weeks. She never cried."

In-Care also recognizes the importance of extended family to the health and
development of children. It involves grandparents, aunts, uncles and others
as much as possible.

One of In-Care's programs, the Grandchild Journey, gives foster children an
opportunity to make a holistic journey through the "medicine wheel,'' an
approach central to many of the agency's programs. The journey through the
medicine wheel combines social, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual
aspects of personal growth, Snell said.

Today Snell is hopeful In-Care's traditions will last a long time. Since its
third year of operation, In-Care has been self-sustaining and does not
depend on grants.

"In-Care was a dream. You just have to have the vision and the support."
# # #
*DuBose is a photojournalist with United Methodist News Service.
 

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org