A National Advisory Council, comprised of more than twenty tribal child welfare professionals, tribal leaders, and community stakeholders from around the country will continue to review plans and activities of the NRC4Tribes and the larger T/TA Network, provide recommendations regarding the Networks approach to serving Title IV-B funded tribal child welfare systems and improving practices with American Indians and Alaska Native children and families.
Abby Abinanti
Chief Judge for the Yurok Tribal Court
Location: San Francisco, California
Abby Abinanti (Yurok) is a graduate of Humboldt State College and the University of New Mexico School of Law. When Abby was admitted to the California State Bar in 1974, she was the first California Native admitted to the California State Bar. Abby is one of a very limited number of attorneys who have been practicing tribal child welfare law since prior to the 1978 enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Abby has served as a California Superior Court Commissioner for the City and County of San Francisco assigned to the Unified Family Court for the past 18 years, but retired in September 2011. Judge Abinanti has also served as Chief Judge for the Yurok Tribal Court since her appointment in March 2007. Her additional tribal court experience has included serving as Chief Magistrate, Court of Indian Offenses, for the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation from 1983-1986 and as a Judge by special appointment for many other tribal courts including Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Court (1985), Hopi Tribal Court (1986), and Colorado River Indian Tribe (1994). Judge Abinanti has served as the President of the Board of Directors of the Tribal Law and Policy Institute www.tlpi.org since TLPI’s establishment in 1996. She also currently serves as a member of National Child Welfare Resource Center on Tribes (NRC4Tribes) National Advisory Council, a board member of the San Francisco Friendship House Association of American Indians, Inc., and previously served as a board member for the National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association and its Tribal Court CASA Advisory Council. Abby is also the author of various training resources including two Instructor Guides for TLPI’s Tribal Legal Studies textbook series.
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Denise Alvater
Tribal Council Member Passamaquoddy, Maine
Location: Passamaquoddy, Maine
Denise Alvater (Passamaquoddy), Tribal Council, Passamaquoddy, Maine. Under Denise Altvater’s leadership, the A.F.S.C.'s Wabanaki Program has grown to become a vital hub of activity for the rights of all indigenous people as she works across vast geographic distances to ensure that her people are cared for and listened to. Altvater and other Wabanaki adults who had been placed in foster homes as children helped train more than 500 Maine Department of Human Services workers in how to comply with a 1978 federal law designed to reduce the high number of native children being sent to live with non-native families. Altvater is one of the lead organizers of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission which will investigate the State’s policy of taking Wabanaki Children from their homes and communities and provide opportunities for Wabanaki People to heal. She trains community groups on issues of racism, suicide prevention and homophobia. She has provided anti-racism and cultural training for jail guards and currently chairs the Sipayik Criminal Justice Commission which exposes and addresses issues of racism and abuse in the Maine State Prisons and the County Jails. In 2007 she was appointed to the Board of the Maine State Prison by Governor Baldacci.
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Ella Anagick
General Practitioner Private Practice
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Ella Anagick (Inupiaq), General Practitioner, criminal defense, child custody and divorce, worked with Alaska Supreme Court on ICWA cases, Alaska. Ella has been in private practice since September, 1999. Her primary practice has been criminal defense; child custody and divorce; Child In Need of Aid (CINA) cases with ICWA issues; personal injury; and corporate and federal Indian law. She is now focusing on criminal defense with my contract for indigent criminal defense with the Municipality of Anchorage. She stresses treatment with the 12 step program for those clients who are severely addicted to alcohol or drugs. Ella has raised three daughters; and has been divorced since 1991.
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Elsie Boudreau
Victim Advocate Anchorage, Alaska
Elsie Boudreau (Yup’ik), a Licensed Master Social Worker, is a proud Yup’ik Eskimo from the village of St. Mary’s, Alaska. She helped establish and currently operates an Alaska Native Unit within Alaska CARES, a Child Advocacy Center. In that role, she provides advocacy services and therapy for Alaska Native and American Indian families whose children have been severely physically or sexually abused and conducts forensic interviews of children. As a prior Children’s Justice Act Project Coordinator for the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, she helped develop an educational video project highlighting child sexual abuse in Alaska, grasping the wisdom of elders and identifying ways of healing to apply to such traumatic experiences. She has also worked with law firms Manly and Stewart and Cooke Roosa Law Group as a Victims Advocate providing support to approximately three hundred victims of clergy child sexual abuse. Elsi is married and has three children. She enjoys working with and for her people and strongly believes that all children have the right to grow up in a safe and loving environment. “Children are to be SEEN, HEARD and BELIEVED.”
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Daryle Conquering Bear
Location: Oglala, South Dakota
Daryle Conquering Bear Hi my name is Daryle Conquering Bear, 23 years old, and I'm from Colorado, but hometown is Oglala South Dakota and a proud member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe! I currently transferred from Oregon State University to Haskell Indian Nations University to follow my passion of basketball as a student assistant coach for the women’s basketball program while obtaining his physical education degree. In my spare time I like to read bio's on basketball coaches and currently writing a book/guide for native children/youth in foster care! How not to lose the rich culture we have! Daryle experienced the colorado foster care system and was presented with ICWA law to move with relatives but chose to stay in colorado foster care system, where he fought for his brothers and sisters to stay together as a family, 10 years later he finally is home and has a loving caring adopted family. Daryle also experienced culture identity loss as he thinks himself as a spectator at pow-wows and his community. He currently is relearning his native ways and giving back to his community. Daryle also is a proud northern traditional dancer and hopes to continue to hand down the ways of his culture to his own family and brothers and sisters.
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Lucille Echohawk
Denver Indian Family Resource Center
Location: Denver, Colorado
Lucille Echohawk (Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma) has worked on behalf of First Nations families, communities, and tribes at the local, state, and national levels, including being a founder of Native Americans in Philanthropy. She earned a B.A. at Brigham Young University and a Med at Loyola University of Chicago. Lucille served for many years (prior to her December 2010 retirement) as a Senior Specialist, Indian Child Welfare, Casey Family Programs, working in the Great Plains Region as well as nationally. She currently serves as a member of National Child Welfare Resource Center on Tribes (NRC4Tribes) National Advisory Council, a member of the American Humane Association Board of Directors and its Children’s Advisory Committee, and as a member of the Child Welfare League of America’s Executive Committee.
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Anita Fineday
Tribal Court Judge White Earth Band of Ojibwe
Location: Seattle, Washington
Anita Fineday Tribal Court Judge, White Earth Band of Ojibwe. has served as the Chief Judge for the White Earth Tribal Nation since 1997 and as Associate Judge for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe from 1999 to 2008. She is a member of the White Earth Tribal Nation, formally an attorney for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. She received a J.D. degree from the University of Colorado in 1988 and an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 1997 when she was a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow. She was the first Native American woman to argue in the Minnesota Supreme Court. Under the guidance of Judge Fineday, the White Earth Tribal Court became the first tribal IV-D child support agency in Minnesota and has received federal funding for FASD screening of every child who goes through the tribal court system. The White Earth Tribal Court has greatly expanded its jurisdiction under Ms. Fineday’s supervision and hears a full panoply of criminal and civil cases. Ms. Fineday serves on a variety of boards including serving as the chair of the board of directors for the Regional Native Public Defense Corporation and the secretary for the board of Anishinabe Legal Services. She has been active for many years as a mentor of young Indian women in northern Minnesota. Ms. Fineday is a marathon runner and founding member of Native Thunder Distance Runners, an Indian running organization.
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Carrie Garrow
Director Syracuse University Center on Indigenous Law, Governance & Citizenship
Location: Syracuse, New York
Carrie Garrow (St. Regis Mohawk Tribe) Director, Syracuse University Center on Indigenous Law, Governance & Citizenship. Ms. Garrow is a member of the St.Regis Mohawk Tribe, raised at the Akwesasne Territory in New York; earned A.B. from Dartmouth College, J.D. from Stanford Law School; Master's in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; former deputy district attorney; Chief Judge of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Courts, and the co-author of the forthcoming Tribal Criminal Law and Procedure;consultant for Tribal Law and Policy Institute, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, and the Native Nations Institute.
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Barbara Jones
Program Manager Family Support Services of the Eastern Cherokee Band
Location: Cherokee, North Carolina
Barbara Jones Barbara is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. For the past 21 years, she has worked in various aspects of the Eastern Band’s Public Assistance Programs. She is currently Program Manager for the Family Support Services of the Eastern Cherokee band, a position she has held for 10 years. Family Support Services includes the administration and case management services for all of the Band’s public welfare programs including the Indian Child Welfare Program, 638 Services, Federal Title IVB. She and her staff act as liaisons to county and state programs including TANF, IVE and other human services programs. Barbara currently serves as the Eastern Band of Cherokee representative to the North Carolina Court Improvement Advisory Council and has been a nominee to the NCAI Welfare Reform Task Force. For a number of years, Barbara represented The Eastern Band of Cherokee at the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc (USET) a non-profit, inter-tribal organization of which the Eastern Band of Cherokee was a founding member. Throughout her career, Barbara has participated in numerous local, state and national committees and task forces all with the focus of improving services to Indian Children and Families. Barbara received her bachelor’s degree form Western Carolina University, Culhowee, NC.
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Tracy King
President Ft. Belknap Indian Community Council
Location: Fort Belknap, Montana
Tracy King Mr. King is President of the Ft. Belknap Indian Community Council; has served on the Tribal Council for ten years as Chairman, Vice-Chairman and “At Large Assiniboine Representative. He also serves as a board member of ICFRC; has worked tirelessly on behalf of Native American children, youth and families; passionate about improving the lives of American Indian children and their families. He and his wife have been foster parents and understand the issues facing many Indian youth. As a husband, father, and grandfather, Tracy believes strongly in the power of the family and the important role that women play in the lives of all families. Domestic violence is a concern that he speaks out against and wants to bring attention to in order to preserve the stability of Native families.
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Art Martinez
Clinical Pyschologist
Location: Sacramento, California
Dr. Art Martinez Art Martinez, Ph.D., Psychologist; experienced clinician, administrator, and educator; Licensed Clinical Psychologist and a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress, Forensic Traumatology, and Sexual Abuse Treatment; has a special interest and expertise in the myriad of issues related to the delivery of social services to Native American families; founding member of several organizations, including the Toiyabe Native American Mental Health Project, Washoe Family Trauma Healing Center, Prescribing Psychologist's Register, and eminent university initiatives to provide education programs to Native American communities in community psychological approaches.; active in professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association's Society of Indian Psychologists, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, California Psychological Association.
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Renee Mayer
Director Fort Berthold Child Welfare Department in North Dakota
Location: New Town, ND
Renee Mayer (Three Affiliated Tribes) is the Director of the Fort Berthold Child Welfare Department in North Dakota. She is also the president of the board of directors of the Native American Training Institute (NATI) in Bismarck, North Dakota. NATI is an inter-tribal child welfare training organization created and governed by the four North Dakota Tribal Child Welfare agencies serving the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Spirit Lake Tribe and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is also a member of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Tribes (NRC4Tribes) National Advisory Council.
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Mary McNevins
Consultant
Location: Madras, Oregon
Mary McNevins (Muskogee Creek), is the Indian Child Welfare Manager for the Oregon Department of Human Services. She was the former Director of Community Development at the National Indian Child Welfare Association and previous Child Welfare Director for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. She has been a tribal liaison and Indian child welfare advocate throughout her career. She brings more than 30 years of experience specializing in Indian Child Welfare, Title IV-E agreements, Family Group Conferencing, multi-disciplinary child protection teams, the development and assessments of comprehensive Indian child welfare programs. From 1993–2001 Mary was appointed by the Governor of Oregon to serve on the Oregon Children’s Trust Fund as a board trustee and recently re-appointed in 2004 to present. Mary was elected to the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators (NAPCWA) Executive Committee in 2004. She co-chairs the ICWA Managers nationwide monthly meetings sponsored through CWLA and Casey Family Programs. She is a founding board member (2004) of the Indian Child and Family Resource Center, and is a member of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Tribes (NRC4Tribes) National Advisory Council.
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Rose-Margaret Orrantia
Tribal STAR Team Member Academy for Professional Excellence
Location: San Diego, California
Rose-Margaret Orrantia (Yaqui) completed her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees at San Diego State University. She worked at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. for 18 years. Returning to San Diego, she served as the Executive Director of Indian Child and Family Services (ICFS), a State Licensed Foster Family and Adoption Agency serving the American Indian population in San Diego and Riverside Counties. After leaving ICFS she served as a consultant and grant writer to Indian Tribes and non-profit agencies for eight years and as the Director of Foster Family and Adoption Agencies in the non-Indian world. Currently she works at the Academy for Professional Excellence, a program of the SDSU School of Social Work, as a member of the Tribal STAR team. She is also a member of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Tribes (NRC4Tribes) National Advisory Council. When not at work Margaret travels, reads science fiction and grows orchids.
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Cora M. Phillips
Executive Staff Assistant Navajo Nation First Lady
Location: Window Rock, Arizona
Cora M. Phillips (Navajo) holds an Associate of Arts Degree from Dine College in Political Science, a Bachelor’s Degree from Northern Arizona University in Public Administration and Social Planning, and a Master’s Degree from Arizona State University in Clinical Social Work. Ms. Phillips serves as a National Child Welfare Resource Center for Tribes (NRC4Tribes) National Advisory Council Member. She previously served as the Director of the Navajo Nation Social Services Department. Ms. Phillips currently serves as the Executive Staff Assistant to the Navajo Nation First Lady. She also serves as President of the Tuba City Chapter Land Use Planning Committee. For the past 25 years, she has worked in the field of Social Human Services, Executive Administration, Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Housing, Education and Health. Ms. Phillips was the first Native American to serve on the National Democratic Platform Committee, allowing her to attend the National Democratic Party Convention in 2000. She was appointed to the Arizona Juvenile Justice Commission and the Minority Youth Issues Committee by Governor Jane Hull. She was selected by former Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., to serve on the Arizona Indian Affairs Commission and the Navajo to which she was initially appointed to by Governor Janet Napolitano in 2003. President Shirley also appointed her to serve on the Navajo Nation Government Development Commission. She has also served on the Executive and State Committee of the Arizona State Democratic Party as well as other Committees, Task Forces and Boards at the local Navajo and grassroots level.
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Ed Reina
Director Public Safety,Tohono O’Odham Nation
Location: Florida
Ed Reina (Tohono O’Odham) Mr. Reina is the Director of Public Safety for the Tohono O’Odham Nation and chair of the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Indian Country Law Enforcement section. Mr. Reina’s experience in law enforcement dates back to the 1970s and includes serving as chief of police for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Fort McDowell Yavapai- Apache Indian Community. His involvement in professional associations is extensive and includes serving two terms as general chair of the Indian Country Law Enforcement section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Mr. Reina has received award for public service from Arizona’s U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice and a commendation from the Attorney General of the Untied States. He chaired the efforts for and coauthored the Crime in Indian Country Report and provided technical assistance to the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island to develop a tribal police department.
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Louise Reyes
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rocky Mountain Regional Office
Location: Billings, MT
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Pat Riggs
Director Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo Dept. of Economic Development
Location: El Paso, TX
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Sue Settles
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Division of Human Services
Location: Washington, DC
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Evelyn Stevenson
Location: Pablo, MT
Evelyn Stevenson (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe), Former President, Native American Rights Fund. Evelyn has been deeply involved in legal issues as an attorney for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes since 1978, and was one of the first Native American women to pass the Montana bar. Evelyn along with Kathleen Fleury who were the first Indian women to pass the Montana Bar....they studied together and took the exam together. For over 35 years Evelyn has worked on the enactment and implementation of the ICWA. She has served on numerous boards and committees involved related to tribal development and Native rights, including the Native American Rights Fund and the Montana Human Rights Commission. Evelyn has extensive experience with the Indian Child Welfare Act, including participating in the original drafting of language for the legislation.
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William A Thorne, Jr.
Retired Judge Third Judicial Court, Utah
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
William A Thorne, Jr. (Pomo/Coast Miwok) is a Pomo/Coast Miwok Indian from northern California and is enrolled at the Confederated Tribes of the Graton Rancheria. He received his B.A. from the University of Santa Clara in 1974 where he played and coached soccer. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1977. Admitted to the Utah Bar, he practiced law with Larry Echo Hawk for several years at Echo Hawk & Thorne where the firm represented the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes as well as individuals and businesses with an emphasis on Federal Indian Law. In 1979, Thorne began his service as a tribal court judge with an appointment as a pro tem judge at the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Court. Since that time he has served as a tribal judge in Utah, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Montana, Wisconsin, Washington, Michigan, and California for numerous tribes. In 1986 Thorne was appointed by the governor as a trial judge for the State of Utah. After 14 years as a state trial judge, he was appointed in 2000 as a judge of the Utah Court of Appeals where he continues to serve.
Judge Thorne has served as a board member of the Native American Rights Fund [Boulder, Co], National Court Appointed Special Advocates [National CASA - Seattle, WA], North American Council on Adoptable Children [NACAC – St. Paul, MN], the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute [New York, NY], the National American Indian Court Judges Association [NAICJA], United Way of Greater Salt Lake [Salt Lake City, UT]. Thorne has served as a commission member for the PEW Commission on Children in Foster Care, served as a member and then as chair of the Utah Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness, served as a member and then vice-chair of the Youth Corrections Board for the State of Utah, served as a member of the Salt Lake Domestic Violence Council, served as a member of the Utah Judicial Council, served as a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Advisory Committee for the State of Utah, and served as chair of the Utah Juvenile Justice Task Force.
Judge Thorne currently serves as vice-president of the National Indian Justice Center [after 20 years as a founding member and president], vice-chair of Child Trends, Inc. [the only non-profit, non-partisan research center in the USA that focuses exclusively on improving the lives of children], board member for WestED, Inc. [a non-profit research and technical assistance provider focusing on excellence and equity in education], a member of multiple committees for the National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges, a member of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Tribes (NRC4Tribes) National Advisory Council and as a member of the U.S. Children’s Bureau Centennial Blue Ribbon Committee. Judge Thorne is a former member of the Board of Directors for the National Indian Court Judges Association (the national tribal judges group), a former member of the Utah Judicial Council (Utah’s governing organization for the state judiciary), is a former Chair of the Racial and Ethnic Fairness Commission for the State of Utah, former Cochair of the Judicial Councils Committee on Improving Jury Service, and former Chair of the Utah Judicial Council’s Technology Committee. Judge Thorne was also a member of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. Judge Throne is the 2010 Native Inductee into the Minority Alumni Hall of Fame.
In July 2011, Judge William A. Thorne was elected to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) Board of Trustees as the first ever tribal voice on the NCJFCJ board. Judge Thorne continues to speak and teach around the country, chiefly on issues related to children including child welfare reform efforts, disproportionality affecting minority children, and the Indian Child Welfare Act.
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Virginia Thomas
Director National Johnson O’Malley Association
Location: Okmulgee, Oklahoma
Virginia Thomas (Muskogee Creek) is the Director of the National Johnson O’Malley Association and is the Manager of the Muscogee Creek Nation Johnson O’Malley Program. Virginia has spent nearly 30 years in the field of Indian Education, working many years in Anchorage, Alaska and now based in Okmulgee, OK. She has worked as an ICWA caseworker in Southern California soon after the passage of ICWA. Virginia serves as a National Child Welfare Resource Center for Tribes (NRC4Tribes) National Advisory Council Member.
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Jill Tompkins
President National American Indian Court Judges Association
Location: Denver, Colorado
Jill Tompkins Appointed December 1, 2001, Jill Tompkins brings a wealth of experience to the position of Director of the American Indian Law Program and Clinical Professor of the American Indian Law Clinic. A graduate of the University of Maine Law School, she is admitted to practice in the States of Maine, Connecticut, and Colorado, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court and three tribal courts. She has more than twenty years of experience with federal Indian and tribal law garnered through her legal practice, service as a Chief Judge with the Mashantucket Pequot and Passamaquoddy Tribal Courts, and as Appellate Justice with the Mashantucket Pequot, Passamaquoddy, and Pokagon Band of Potawatomi courts of appeal. Professor Tompkins taught at the National Judicial College, and for several years successfully organized and taught in the annual National Tribal Judicial Conference sponsored by the National American Indian Court Judges Association. She was the first female President of the National American Indian Court Judges Association. She is widely recognized for her expertise in the application of the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act. Professor Tompkins comes to the Colorado Law School from the National Tribal Justice Resource Center, where she was the founding Executive Director. Jill is the is the new NAICJA President in 2012.
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