Building on our earlier foundational conversations about history and contemporary realities, webinar five of the We Are Still Here series turned to action. We examined how power operates within early childhood systems – and within ourselves. Meaningful partnership calls for examining bias, positionality, and the ways institutions continue to shape access, authority, and decision-making.
Speakers considered cultural humility as an ongoing practice rather than a checklist, outlining the difference between cultural competence and cultural humility, reflecting on implicit bias and institutional power, and discussing what shared leadership with Native Nations and communities requires.
Sheldon Spotted Elk (Northern Cheyenne), a lawyer and Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) expert, serves as Senior Director of Judicial National Engagement for Casey Family Programs, and as an Appellate Judge on the Ute Indian Tribe Court of Appeals (Uintah and Ouray Reservation). He works to promote best practices in child welfare, including family preservation and reunification strategies, and was an Obama Foundation USA Leader in 2024.
"Sheldon shared that the Northern Cheyenne word for justice means “you are in the middle of the circle and connected to everything around you.”
Some takeaways from Sheldon:
- Cultural humility is a key ingredient in becoming a true ally and change agent when working with Native communities.
- The term cultural humility, different from cultural competency, comes originally from the medical field and has a listening orientation. It’s about maintaining an interpersonal stance that is open to the aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the other person. We get to cultural humility through compassion.
- The cultural iceberg image points out that some aspects of culture are less visible than others, but they are all important.
- There has been an intentional attack on Native families and Tribes since the beginning of the US, including in the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Native Americans as “merciless Indian Savages.” We learned in other We Are Still Here sessions about boarding schools that aimed to “kill the Indian and save the man” and child welfare systems that removed Native children from their homes for being poor and Native.
- The losses continue today. Only 175 Native languages are spoken fluently today, down from 300. Native children are still disproportionately represented in the child welfare system.
- Racial trauma, and race-based stress, have caused harm, and we need this awareness if we work with Native families and communities.
- ICWA is the only law on the books that is reparative in nature – it aims to repair the wholesale removal of Native American children by keeping children safely with their families and, if removal is necessary, reunifying them as quickly as possible. If reunification is impossible, the law requires placement preferences to keep Native children connected to their identity and culture.
- Tips for our work with Native communities:
- Curiosity
- Compassion
- Preparation
- Self-forgiveness when we mess up, and persistence
- Awareness of bias
- Patience
Callie Parr (first-generation descendent of the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe of Montana) serves as Early Childhood Tribal Coordinator with Zero to Five Montana and is a member of the We Are Still Here Advisory Council.
Callie has built the Montana Early Childhood Tribal Coalition, centering the voices of the 12 Tribal Nations, seven reservations, and eight federally recognized Tribes in Montana. The Coalition aligns advocacy for indigenous children and families and early childhood professionals across the state. It is Tribal-led, with allied partners participating in a clear membership structure. The Coalition has successfully advocated for Native language legislation and recently held the Trailblazing Transition Summit – first of its kind and centered in indigenous knowledge – aimed at strengthening early childhood transitions for Native children and families.
Key takeaways from Callie about centering Tribal voices in early childhood systems:
- Ancestral trauma – from loss of land, language, culture, and recognition – is passed across generations, but so is ancestral resilience – cultural knowledge, traditions, survival skills, connection to community and identity – which has supported Native people, families, and communities to keep moving forward despite everything.
- Understanding ancestral trauma and resilience changes how we show up in our work. We must always remember that our work is about people, family, the future, not just about policies and programs
- Many Native people feel they are walking in two worlds at the same time. We must remember that not everyone is coming from the same way of knowing as we are.
- Real partnership isn’t just about inviting people into a space; it’s about building relationships over time, building trust, showing up consistently, listening, learning and supporting community knowledge that is already there, and not assuming we know best for other people.
- The medicine wheel helps us remember to show up as our whole selves: how we think, what we value, how we feel, and how we act. It also reminds us that authentic partnership isn’t linear, one-and-done, it’s relational.
- Authentic partnership matters
- Awareness of pitfalls can help you approach partnerships with care and respect. Things to avoid:
- Tokenism
- “We know best”
- Ignoring sovereignty
- Rushing trust
- Skipping cultural protocols
- To move towards genuine partnership, DO:
- Slow down. Time is for building relationships. Let go of urgency. Lean into discomfort, because that’s where we grow. Trust is not built on a timeline.
- Show up consistently.
- Engage elders and families
- Share power and decision-making
- Partnerships like this change what advocacy looks like – not speaking for communities but creating space for them to speak for themselves, to take action to create change. Sometimes partnership can mean carrying and amplifying those voices if someone doesn’t have access, but always in a respectful way, standing alongside communities.
Barb Fabre (White Earth Ojibwe Nation) is CEO of Indigenous Visioning LLC and President of All Nations Rise. She is dedicated to elevating Indigenous voices and lived experiences and is a member of the We Are Still Here Advisory Council. Barb talked with us about empowering parents through a cultural lens.
After experiencing the National Parent Leadership Initiative’s civics course that teaches about policy, law, systems, self-discovery, and leadership skills, Barb worked with Dr. Anton Treuer and White Earth elders to indigenize the model for Tribal communities. The Indigenous Parent Leadership Initiative, with an indigenous cultural lens, was piloted in the community of White Earth, MN, and several cohorts of parents have now been trained.
The IPLI is a free, 23-week, facilitated course that meets weekly and provides food and child care. It includes the Parent Leadership Training Institute curriculum (11 sessions on parent leadership and self-perception; 10 sessions on civic change, government and policy), and the Indigenous Foundations curriculum (23 sessions of cultural knowledge based on the four seasons). It is particularly powerful for parents who did not grow up with their family and Tribal traditions intact because of boarding schools and other traumas, and the multi-generational model has a ripple effect through families and communities. Facilitators are from the community, and most are alumni of the program. The program has an Advisory Council, and an active Alumni Program that offers professional development, networking, cultural teachings, and continued community building, with each cohort mentoring the next.
IPLI has an evidence-base, and it is evaluated by NYU. Program outcomes so far include:
- 83% of participants have taken steps to further their education
- 94% have made positive changes in their mental, emotional, and physical health
- 72% have increased their attendance at cultural gatherings
- 78% have increased their cultural knowledge and daily practice
- 94% have advocated for their, or others’, children
Marlena Hanson (first-generation descendent of the White Earth nation), serves as Outreach Project Manager at All Nations Rise and participated in the first cohort of IPLI. Marlena generously shared her journey of self-discovery and healing with us. The IPLI experience helped her make connections, discover who she truly was, and find that policy work and advocacy is her purpose and passion in life. Receiving her traditional name through the program helped begin her immersion into traditional knowledge, which was key to reclaiming her life. IPLI supported her on her path to sobriety, home ownership, higher education, self-sufficiency, being an IPLI facilitator, working full time for All Nations Rise, and representing her community on 15 different Advisory Councils in Minnesota. Marlena shared that because her community supported her, she can now give back to her community.
Next steps for IPLI include:
- Capacity building and networking with those in other states
- State of MN is bringing the program statewide, to four other Tribal sites and seven non-Tribal sites
- They are working to get the program into the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse so states can fund it with Family First Prevention Services Act dollars
Q&A Discussion
How can those of us who aren’t centered on Native American issues be good allies to help expand these programs?
- Start with connection.
- Enter as an active listener, not with an agenda or an ask.
- Slow down. Trust takes time.
- You may feel like you’re failing because things aren’t getting done quickly. But if you trust in relationship building, then things can start to happen.
Have you encountered barriers or direct opposition to your efforts? How have you overcome or negotiated these barriers?
- Change management skills are helpful – understanding technical change vs. adaptive change.
- We often get in our own way. A key to changing ourselves to be able to be supportive may be to get proximate with Native people, with people who have lived with addiction, with people furthest from opportunity.
- It is hard to be trying to build something while still on our own cultural journeys. We have to stick to it, live in the uncomfortable spaces, keep showing up, be true to our intentions.
- Be resilient, not fragile. It’s ok to be told “no” and still come back again after that. Walk with humility and show you want to learn.
- Consistency is important. Lots of great things are started, but when the funding ends, those things are gone, followed by years of nothing, and then something new comes around.
- Funding is always a barrier.
Resources:
Native Communities Learning Project: We Are Still Here, The Alliance for Early Success
Native Land Digital site, Native Land Digital
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS)
Data on Native Children in Foster Care, The National Center for Juvenile Justice
Sand Creek Massacre Foundation (Sheldon’s family and many Cheyenne families are descendants of the survivors of this ugly scar on US history.)
Indian Child Welfare Act, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (Sheldon’s primary work is about creating specialty courts that get the reparative ICWA law correct.)
Alliance Webinar on Indigenous Sovereignty and the Indian Child Welfare Act, Alliance for Early Success
How is Federal Recognition Status Conferred, US Department of the Interior, Indian Affairs
Zero to Five Montana Early Childhood Tribal Coalition, Early Childhood Tibal Coalition
Early Childhood Summit Trailblazing Transitions Summary Report, Zero to Five Montana , 2025
National Parent Leadership Institute, Parent Who Leads
The Impact of the Indigenous Parent Leadership Initiative, National Parent Leadership Institute
Indigenous Parent Leadership Initiative, All Nations Rise
Support Native organizations, Give Native
This webinar is the fifth session in our 8-part series offered through the Alliance’s Native Communities Learning Project: We Are Still Here.
You can also watch the recordings of previous webinars in the series:
Webinar #1: Honoring Sovereignty: Understanding the Roots of Relationship
Webinar #2: Native Early Childhood Frameworks: Traditional Child-Rearing Practices, Kinship Systems, and Community Care
Webinar #3: Deliberate Breakdown of Indigenous Families: Policies, Impacts, and Pathways to Repair
Webinar #4: Contemporary Native Realities – Urban Experiences, Program Gaps, and Community Strengths
And save the date for upcoming webinars in the series! (All webinars start at 3pm ET/12pm PT):
Wednesday, June 24: Moving from Ally to Accomplice: Supporting Native-led Priorities and Decolonizing Advocacy
Wednesday, July 22: Applying Learning to Practice: Reflection, Case Studies, and Action Planning