Montana ICWA community of practice narrows priorities to cultural connections and tribal outreach; plans desk book and training tools

Participants at a meeting of Montana’s Indian Child Welfare Act Community of Practice agreed to concentrate the group’s closing work on two priorities: strengthening cultural connections for children and improving tribal community outreach and education. Facilitators and attendees sketched initial actions including a desk book to guide consultation and an interactive training tool for practitioners.

Why it matters: Community members said better outreach, shared training, and clearer consultation practices could change day-to-day child-welfare decisions and improve the cultural continuity of placements for American Indian children.

Facilitator Ashley Chimi McNeil led the group through an exercise that asked members to identify “must do” and “must not do” practices for the two priorities. Attendees split into breakout groups and reported back. Jennifer (Miles City) summarized a recurring theme: relationships and sustained contact with tribal ICWA departments were crucial. “If you’ve got established relationships with people that you’re working with on a direct basis, then it impacts the practice and what you’re doing on a day to day basis,” she said.

Christina, director of the American Indian Governance and Policy Institute, said her team has produced a research report on effective ICWA implementation in Montana and is drafting a desk book to describe what meaningful tribal consultation looks like. She told the group the project will include templates and guidance and that she plans to present findings at the State Bar annual meeting; she also said a presentation is scheduled for Sept. 12 in Helena. “We came up with major themes...and we were starting to talk about maybe a handbook or a guidebook,” Christina said.

Participants also proposed a technology-based training option. Christina described an idea for an interactive web app with courtroom scenarios and decision prompts to help practitioners recognize common ICWA issues, such as when qualified expert witness testimony is needed. She said the app would present realistic scenarios and be accessible for short, just-in-time learning between hearings.

Attendees discussed whether the “Caring for Indigenous Montanans” training should be embedded in departmental onboarding. Stephanie Ironshooter said the training has been shared widely but cautioned about mandating cultural training, explaining she “walk[s] a very fine line” between encouraging uptake and forcing training. Some tribal programs have added the modules to internal onboarding; others recommended offering the training as voluntary prework for existing ICWA training forums.

Other clarifying points raised in the meeting: some Child and Family Services regions require 20 hours of annual training; participants recommended adding pre-work resources to MCAN/ICWA training sessions and coordinating regional trainers and program officers to reduce duplicative outreach.

Next steps and timeline: Christina said she expects to finalize the desk book within about a week and present to the state bar in September; the community will reconvene for a final meeting on Oct. 16 to finalize and publicize the community’s list of imperatives.