Participants in a Montana Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Community of Practice meeting in June focused on two priorities they had previously selected: strengthening cultural connections for Native children placed outside their communities, and expanding tribal community outreach and education.

The community-of-practice facilitator opened the session by restating the group's purpose: “this community of practice is meant to foster meaningful, culturally humble collaboration among people involved in and affected by ICWA to preserve and empower Indian families and their connection to their culture.” That framing guided a session built around storytelling and discussion of how “dynamic power” — power over, power to, power with and power within — shapes efforts to keep children connected to their culture.

Why it matters: Participants said cultural connection is more than compliance with ICWA; they described it as central to children’s spiritual and communal well-being. In rural eastern Montana, placement outside a child’s home community is common, and participants described local efforts to keep children linked to their tribes through language classes, kin-finding and ongoing outreach.

Several speakers described concrete efforts. Eric, regional administrator for the Eastern Region of Child and Family Services, described work in Miles City: “the Miles City community… foster families… have been working with Northern Cheyenne” to make language classes available for children placed off reservation. Raelynn, a child-protective-services worker, described how knowledge of ancestral stories shaped her sense of resilience and motivated her to connect children with language and culture: “the culture and the understanding your ancestors and the history is something that I've grown up with since I was very young.”

Kathy Deserly, American Indian Child and Family Program Officer for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, described a past California model that mixed recruitment of Native foster families with an organization that acted as a bridge among county agencies, tribes and non-Native foster families. She said, “the first thing we would do was try to find out what tribe the child was and then make connections with the tribe,” and described cases where distant relatives were located and reconnected with children in care.

Participants also emphasized caregiver education and sustained outreach. A foster-parent participant and others described how virtual language classes strengthened bonds between children and foster caregivers and in one case supported a planned legal guardianship. Valerie, a participant who shared a family story, used the example of a resourceful relative who protected others to illustrate resilience and protector roles that can be modeled in practice: “she took a shovel to him,” she said, describing an ancestor who intervened to stop domestic abuse.

Discussion distinguished short-term actions from ongoing responsibilities. Speakers repeatedly stressed that cultural connections are not a “one-and-done” checklist: building and maintaining kinship links, language exposure and tribal relationships requires repeated outreach and relationship building. Several speakers said listening and relationship-building—often through stories—are critical tools for staff who must reflect on their own biases and develop cultural competence.

Next steps and deliverables: The group plans two more Community of Practice meetings, in August and October. The facilitator said the COP will produce “a list of imperatives” from the community to share with partner organizations and state offices after the October meeting. Participants were told meeting materials and recordings will be posted on the CIP website and that Julie Burke is the point of contact for logistics.

The session was a discussion and planning meeting; no motions or formal agency actions were recorded during the meeting.