If you’re a kinship caregiver for a child or youth who is connected to a Tribe, you need to help them maintain their culture and their familial and ancestral ties.

Tribal connections

You must help the child or youth build connection with their Tribe and Tribal communities. Cultural connection supports the child or youth’s mental health. A strong sense of cultural identity and belonging promotes resilience and emotional well-being into adulthood.

Help the child or youth to:

• Attend and participate in cultural and spiritual ceremonies, events, and activities.
• Learn stories, songs, traditions, and traditional language.
• Use traditional practices in their everyday lives. These include burning sage, keeping sweet grass, and hanging cedar at home.
• Connect to other people in their Tribe and their Tribal communities.

Talk to the caseworker or family to learn about traditions. Visit the Tribe's website to learn about traditions, stories, traditional language, and songs.

Use the monthly foster care payments to cover the costs of attending tribal ceremonies and other cultural activities (for example, buying regalia and ceremonial objects). If there are Tribal funds available, you can ask the Tribal worker for permission to use them as the Tribe allows.

Working with the caseworker

The child or youth may have a Tribal caseworker, a DCYF caseworker, or both. If the child or youth has both, we recommend creating a text or email group with both caseworkers, so you can reach both of them when you have questions or concerns.

The caseworker is here to support you. Work with them to:

• Support the child or youth’s connections to their Tribe, Tribal families, extended families, and communities.
• Contact the Tribe about repairing, replacing, or getting culturally significant items.
• Develop a case plan that includes instructions for, but not limited to:
  • Following recommendations from the local Indian child welfare advisory committee.
  • Managing payments from a Tribe. These payments include per capita, general welfare, and settlement funds.
  • Supporting and helping the child or youth attend cultural events and activities.
  • Other actions listed on this page.

Health, medicine, and food

Health

Work with the caseworker to make sure the child or youth’s medical care is culturally appropriate.

Indian Health Services (IHS) clinics offer access to Indian doctors, mental health services, and other resources. These services are more culturally responsive and have connections to other Tribal services and programs. Find an IHS clinic location.

Medicine

Work with the caseworker to create a case plan that includes having and using Native American traditional medicines.

These medicines include, but are not limited to:

• Sage
• Cedar
• Sweet grass

Traditional medicine also includes ceremonies, community, and other Tribal ways of healing.

Food

Work with the caseworker to include providing plant-based or lactose-free alternatives to cow's milk in the case plan.

Sleep spaces

Provide safe sleeping spaces. Examples of safe sleeping spaces include:

• Baby boards
• Moss bags
• A bassinet, crib, or a pack and play for a baby
• A bed, a bunk bed, a sofa bed, or a futon for a child or youth older than 12 months

Each child or youth has to have their own sleeping space, but they do not have to sleep in it if they do not want to. If the child or youth wants to bed share, get approval from the caseworker.

Discipline

Do not interfere with the child or youth’s cultural needs when you discipline them.

For example, do not cut their hair, take a religious or cultural item or event away from them, or force them to stop speaking their traditional language.

Travel

If the child or youth is in the care and custody of a Tribal court, you’ll need to get permission before they can travel out of the state or country.

If the child or youth is living or traveling on Tribal land, get permission from the Tribe that has jurisdiction over the land. Otherwise, get permission from the child or youth’s Tribe.

Work with the caseworker to include this in their case plan.

Changing the child or youth’s appearance

Get permission from the DCYF caseworker, and Tribal caseworker (or their Tribe) before you make changes to their appearance. You must do this even if the child or youth’s parents approve.

Changes that you need the caseworker’s permission for include:

• Haircuts
• Hair dyeing
• Piercings
• Tattoos

Education

If the child or youth is currently enrolled in school, they must keep going to that school to help with stability. The only way they can change schools is to ask the caseworker for a "best interest determination" meeting. Learn more about education for kinship children and youth.

Tribal schools provide culturally appropriate education, which strengthens children and youth’s connection to their heritage and language. If the child or youth’s Tribe does not have a Tribal school, or the child or youth cannot attend, you and the caseworker should complete this short form. This form provides grant funds to local educational agencies to support meeting the needs of Indian students.