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

DENVER — Lucille Echohawk, citizen of the Pawnee Nation, has worn many hats in her 41 years in service to the greater Denver Native community. One hat is that of a guardian to a child of the public foster care system as well as to Denver’s Native community.

After several years working in the Indian child welfare field, Lucille co-founded the  Denver Indian Family Resource Center in 2000. She also became a single parent legal guardian to a Native American child who had spent five years in the public child welfare system in Denver.

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

“When I first met her, she looked up and I could see that still had bright eyes for all the bad things that had happened to her. ‘I can help this child. She can help me.’ And we did,” Echohawk reminisced with a smile.

The Denver Indian Family Resource Center (DIFRC) was founded in 2000 to address an ongoing pattern of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) families losing their children to the public welfare system, combined with a lack of advocacy for these children to reunify with their families once it was safe to do so.

During this time, Echohawk was working for Casey Family Programs, a private foundation with a focus on child welfare.  The Foundation was a founding partner in the establishment of DIFRC, providing funding for several years.

“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 in keeping with tribal cultures. It’s not necessarily just for reunification with [the] birth family, but with extended family — because that's how Native 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 and families caught up in the public child welfare system or in danger of becoming so, 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 tribal communities. 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 cultures.  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.

“Numerous federal policies tried to make us disappear,” said Echohawk, “But despite it all, we’re still here and looking forward to a positive future.”

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in order to better protect Indian tribes and their children and their families.

The ICWA was intended to reduce the number of children taken from Native American families and adopted out to non-Native people, prioritizing placement in homes that align with the child’s culture.

ICWA also “provides guidance to States regarding the handling of child abuse and neglect cases involving Native children and sets standards for the handling of these cases.”

Echohawk, however, said the ICWA has flaws as well.

“The act doesn’t have any, what we call, ‘teeth,’” she said.  “If states don’t comply, they don’t lose funding or anything of that nature."

Echohawk said this is why states holding themselves accountable for adhering to the protections put in place for AI/AN children in their care is essential.

A challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act motivates the DIFRC

With the Indian Child Welfare Act, one of the few protections afforded to Native American children, being challenged in the nation’s highest court via the Haaland vs Brackeen case, there was great concern that ICWA would be declared unconstitutional.

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 will help fuel the next chapter of DIFRC, one that includes strong support for AI/AN youth in the foster care system through closer collaboration with states and counties. That will be especially the case as during the most recent legislative session, the ICWA is now codified into Colorado law, along with its 2016 federal regulations.

Youth Programming

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

DIFRC’s youth program manager, Jeyavani Phelps (Oglala Lakota) has a clear passion for DIFRC’s mission.

Phelps was raised in the military. 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 away 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 at DIFRC, 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. 

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 29, 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 of the DIFRC team, but there are other dedicated people involved in each element of the work needed to support DIFRC’s clients.

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 deep 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 us,” Echohawk said.

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