Alliance Webinar on Contemporary Native Realities

Following our examination in webinar three of policies that deliberately disrupted Indigenous families and how Native communities are rebuilding, this session turned to the present: how Native families navigate early childhood systems today—and how geography, funding structures, and data practices shape access to support.

The majority of Native people now live in urban areas, yet systems often continue to center reservation-based narratives. This webinar explored the legacy of federal relocation policies, the increase in the Urban Native population, the rise of Urban Indian Organizations, gaps in funding and service eligibility – particularly in early childhood – and the strengths of intertribal networks that sustain culture and kinship across cities. Presenters offered insights into building relationships with Urban Native service providers and shared some examples of successful partnerships.

We lifted up the urgent need for support of Native Hawaiian families and communities due to the flooding on O’ahu. Please see the resources section below for ways you can contribute if you’d like.

Key Takeaways

Janeen Comenote is Quinault and Oglala on her father’s side and Hesquiaht and Kwakiutl First Nations on her mother’s side. She is the founding executive director of the National Urban Indian Family Coalition (NUIFC), representing 56 human service urban Native nonprofits in 23 states and 47 cities, covering about 40 percent of the Native American population in the US. The NUIFC is dedicated to “Making the Invisible Visible” and providing a platform and voice for urban Native American families, communities, and the Native-run nonprofits that serve them.

Many non-Native audiences are unaware that 75% of Native Americans live off reservation lands, in cities and suburbs across the country, where they are deeply engaged in public systems.
- An estimated 92% of Native children attend public schools.
- Urban Native communities experience poverty at three times the rate of white families, at 25%, though this also means most urban Native families are not living in poverty.
- Native children remain disproportionately represented in the child welfare system, reflecting the effects of institutional racism.
For many Native people living away from Tribal lands, access to services offered through Tribes can be limited or unavailable.
In many cities, urban Native nonprofits serve as critical hubs for Native families, providing both direct services and cultural programming, including beading, dance, Indigenous food systems, and gardening.
These organizations bring deep expertise. Many have spent decades serving urban Native families, including third- and fourth-generation urban Native communities, and have a strong understanding of the people they support. Janeen noted that when services are grounded in culture, outcomes improve.
Policymakers often fail to fully understand urban Native communities. Urban Native people are part of an intertribal urban community while also remaining citizens of their own Tribal Nations. When official attention focuses only on Tribal governments and reservation communities, urban Native populations can be overlooked.
Urban Native nonprofits can serve as essential bridges by helping policymakers understand community needs, identifying service gaps, and bringing frontline knowledge that other systems may not have.
Early childhood programming remains a major gap in many urban Native communities. Aside from a limited number of Native Head Start programs, preschools, and child care centers, services are often insufficient. Gaps also remain in Native child welfare programming. Tribal home visiting programs can be highly effective, but current capacity does not meet demand. Some organizations are developing innovative whole-family approaches that combine parenting support with early childhood services.
Urban Native nonprofits are frequently under-resourced and often continue providing needed services even when funding does not fully support the work.
The National Urban Indian Family Coalition brings these organizations together in a network that supports peer learning and resource sharing. It also provides grants to support efforts ranging from broadband access and education to civic engagement through its Democracy is Indigenous initiative.
For those seeking to build relationships with urban Native service providers, Janeen encouraged people to first educate themselves and identify organizations in their area. She noted that Native leaders are often expected to explain basic background repeatedly, which can be exhausting. At the same time, respectful questions are welcome, and she encouraged direct outreach to ask how to become involved. She also noted that NUIFC can help connect people with coalition members in their cities.
Janeen highlighted several coalition successes:
- Helping the Administration for Children and Families understand, about 15 years ago, that Tribal Home Visiting needed to intentionally include urban Native families.
- Supporting Washington state’s recognition of sweats, a sacred and traditional ceremony, as a mental health intervention for Native Americans.
Janeen said she wants state agencies and advocates to better understand several core realities:
- Native people are present in communities across the country, whether visible or not, and many of their needs remain unmet.
- Sovereignty matters. If states do not understand that, city governments often will not either.
- Urban Native life and reservation life are not the same, and policy responses must reflect those differences.
With that understanding in place, she said more meaningful conversations can begin about how to better resource Native nonprofits and address the question of why Native populations in urban communities are so often ignored in city, county, and state programs.
Janeen closed by emphasizing four core Indigenous values:
- Relationship. Everything begins with relationship — with community, family, self, the earth, and the systems that sustain life.
- Responsibility. Once a relationship exists, there is a responsibility to care for it.
- Reciprocity. Relationships are mutual and require giving as well as receiving.
- Redistribution. There is a duty to share wealth, knowledge, and resources.

Cheryl Kary/Hunkuotawin (Standing Rock Sioux) established the Sacred Pipe Resource Center (SPRC), a non-profit organization serving the American Indian population in Bismarck-Mandan, North Dakota, in 2013 and currently serves as the Executive Director. She has worked in and with Tribal communities and populations for the majority of her career. We are grateful to her for serving as an Advisor to the We Are Still Here project.

Emma Bigheart (Osage) is Community and Tribal Relations Specialist for the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness (OPSR). She brings a Tribal lens to the organization’s work, making strategic partnerships and providing funding around programs like language revitalization in their early childhood programs, community events, and bringing in parent voices. She so far knows about 15 of the 39 Tribes in OK and has partnerships with some Native-run organizations in the state. We are grateful to her for serving as an Advisor to the We Are Still Here project.

Cheryl Kary and Emma Bigheart shared reflections from their lived and professional experience in urban Native communities. Key takeaways included:

Urban Native organizations help communities communicate their needs to city and state leaders and push for services that reflect those needs.
These organizations also help strengthen community voice by supporting families in advocacy, including in direct interactions with systems such as schools.
Urban Native families often face barriers when trying to access early childhood and family support services, including:
- Not being automatically enrolled in services because they are not living on Tribal lands.
- Administrative barriers, including paperwork, documentation of lineage, and limited internet access.
- Isolation, which can have serious effects on mental health.
Urban Native organizations often work in both directions: helping Native families navigate unfamiliar systems while also helping those systems better understand Indigenous family culture, context, and needs.
Cheryl and Emma emphasized several ways to build trust with families in urban Native communities:
- Listen.
- Create meaningful opportunities for families to share their voices.
- Feed people well.
- Build spaces where community members help shape programs, services, and resources.
- Learn the histories and present-day realities of the Tribal communities represented locally.
- Approach the work with genuine curiosity, patience, kindness, and respect.
Cheryl shared that Sacred Pipe hosts community councils where families come together around issues such as housing, youth, arts, health, civic engagement, and Native-owned businesses. These conversations help ensure that the community drives the organization’s priorities and programming.
Speakers said non-Native funders and partners should recognize that Native communities make significant contributions to the economy and that Tribal systems and services are often more robust and interconnected than outsiders assume.
They also encouraged non-Native partners to be intentional and self-aware, and not to enter spaces where they have not been invited.
Cheryl stressed that Native people are not confined to reservations. She noted that Native people hold dual citizenship and that Tribal governments predate both federal and state governments. She said governments today still carry responsibilities to Native families and communities because of the ways earlier policies disrupted them.
Emma and Cheryl both stressed that cultural humility makes a significant difference. They said meaningful partnerships begin when Native communities are approached as equal partners, not as recipients expected to accept whatever is offered.
They also shared several examples of meaningful partnership:
- OPSR partnered with Catalyst News, a Native-led news organization, to develop family care resources in collaboration with the Muscogee Creek Nation.
- A partnership with the Kiowa Tribe produced the Segi Says… campaign, which helps children learn and practice the Kiowa language.
- The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction created Tribal Curriculum Guides for each Tribe in the state, covering history through present-day issues.
- Cheryl’s book, Journey to Understanding, is used to help staff better understand Tribal issues and government-to-government relationships.
- Janeen also highlighted the Washington State Tribal Accord, which brings together all 29 Tribes and five urban Native organizations in a formal agreement requiring state departments to consult with Tribes.
- Many cities have American Indian Commissions that help elevate Native voices and advocate for community priorities.
- Indigenous Peoples’ Day was noted as a movement that began in urban Native communities.