- [Joe Walker] As part of a Children's Bureau initiative
to raise awareness
of tribally engaged prevention and intervention efforts
the Center for Native Child and Family Resilience
partnered with five tribal organizations
including the Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center
to identify and enhance culturally-based programs
designed to strengthen community and family resilience
in American Indian and Alaska native communities.
The center is committed to building the evidence base
of Tribal child welfare knowledge and practice
through evaluation and sharing the knowledge gained
through these projects with the field.
- [Arlana] This is the story of the Zuya Yuha O'mani program
developed by the Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center
on the Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
The purpose of the program is to advocate for
and protect the rights of children
living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
An area of 3,468 square miles
with a population of close to 40,000.
Historical practices of assimilation and discrimination
have resulted in many children being taken
from their tiwahe
and tiospaye
to foster homes outside the community
causing long term grief and trauma among the Lakota people.
- [Lawrence] Other complications in recent decades
have compounded the trauma of children
through violence and social misconduct.
Others of our wakenyeja, or children
are trapped in homes where neglect and abuse
take the place of love and guidance
needing help to find a safe place to grow up
helping their spirits heal and soar.
- [Arlana] Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center
actually began in
it was incepted, the idea was incepted in 1997
by a group of people at home
who wanted to become a CASA program
a Court Appointed Special Advocates.
And so with that, that's how it all began.
It wasn't until later and that we did a transformation
to become Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center
which opens up child advocacy to a broader
a whole enhanced level of child advocacy.
We've seen the need to have advocacy
from the point of trauma throughout healing
instead of just at that adjudicatory level.
The mission and vision is really
to provide services, cultural services
at every level within our advocacy.
It's taking the lessons from our historical past
and combining them with now
and providing that advocacy for the children.
Again, I said from the point of trauma throughout healing.
So at every level when we greet the children, meet them
and all the way, of course through the cultural
the ceremonies.
But it's even in the advocacy
in how we greet them and how we act for them.
- In the past there were many different responsibilities
that people had.
Like a whip man, Kate'la societies, Tokala societies.
But there were also men and women who were storytellers
and culture bearers.
So our children, in the old days
would be oriented from the beginning of time
which would be our creation story.
And with the utilization of the creation story
it actually tells these boys and girls
who they are and where they come from.
So our creation story, our culture
our legends, our ceremonies
all have an integral part in the orientation of our children
especially as it pertains to them growing into adults.
So those are the things that
we want to impart back to our children.
So they at least have a concept or a thought
about how they're supposed to move forward in life.
- So implementation really garnered
collective advocacy on our homelands.
So with that, as we moved along and we began, when I began
I began in the program in June of 98
and doing that CASA advocacy
and training those volunteers
and guiding them to do the advocacy for the children.
Then we built up and built up and we seen that it needed
that collectiveness.
So we've added in our laws
which I worked on and was a co-facilitator for six years.
We worked on our child and family code,
which is Wakanyeja Na Tiwahe Ta Woope, means.
Child advocacy and laws.
And that was so gathering from all of the people there
all of the people, the spiritual leaders, the program people
the youth
the leadership there.
And so to actually work on that for six years
we knew that there needed to be implementation
of the culture.
That's our blueprint.
And that's really when that dynamic began.
And in our law is a few different things.
And one of them is the tribal child protection team.
We have federal prosecution based multidisciplinary team.
So we didn't wanna rename it as the same.
But that is the different disciplines, as I call them
of law enforcement, of child protection
of child advocacy, of victim services
of Indian Health Services, providing the medical.
So that really was an implementation aspect
of doing our work in that way
in coming together and networking
for the best interest of the child.
- [Lawrence] We receive children in our program because
they have been severely physically or sexually abused.
And we utilize the culture as a means to let them know
that they can be in control of their own destiny.
When they come to us, they're reserved
they're in a shell
and they don't want to talk
because of the trauma that they experienced.
And so with the use of the Inikagapi
or the sweat lodge
and when we take them in there, it's pitch black.
So there's nobody looking at them
like a psychologist taking notes, you know.
It's more intimidating than it is healing.
So when it's pitch black
there's nobody staring at them and expecting them to answer.
And we go in and we soothe the spirit
calm the spirit down from the trauma
by using songs and stories.
And the atmospheric effect of the sweat lodge
also helps to calm them down.
So we're using the number one ceremony
which is the sweat lodge, to calm the spirit initially.
Then we provide the orientation for them
and once they receive the orientation
they understand that
perhaps their mother and father
were not taught these things.
And so this is why they continue to do harmful things
to their children
like abandonment or abuse or neglect.
And so once they have that understanding
then they realize that
okay, well I can change that in my life.
I can release it in a way where I'm not holding onto it.
And that's the only thing I think about every day
from the moment I wake up to the time I go to bed.
So we put it in their hands to say
and in a cultural way
that you have a responsibility to create your own destiny.
And once they realize that they have their own control
over the issue
then they're able to
not let everything go as if it didn't happen
but to evaluate that and realize that
that trauma and what they experienced
doesn't make them who they are.
They can learn from it, they can grow from it
and then they can turn around and leave it in the past
and move forward into the future
by what comes out of their mouth
how they choose to think
and how they choose to feel.
So that's empowering for them to be able to do that.
In a lot of scenarios
a lot of the the abuse doesn't go reported.
And so they stuff it and they keep it inside
and they're the ones you see usually in the communities
who are creating more chaos
creating more disturbance
you know, continuing and perpetuating
the lateral violence that goes on
in reservation communities.
So we've had many successes
in terms of the amount of children that we've seen
versus the other forms of treatment
which continue to see them revolve through the door.
So we know that culture works
we know that the orientation process works
because it actually allows them the ability to heal
in a holistic manner
as opposed to seeing a psychologist for mental issues
or having to go to a priest for spiritual issues.
And then they have to tie that in somehow
with the holistic themselves.
So we provide a holistic understanding
through our orientation, through the creation story
and then through the ceremonies.
- With this program, Arlana and Larry's program
they teach you, they take you into ceremony
they teach you the creation story, they show you things
the cooking, the everything, the gender roles.
And that's not something that we're taught in school.
It's something that Native Americans were told
you can't do this.
You cannot do this. It's wrong.
And so even my mom growing up, she never prayed
she never spoke her language.
My grandma never spoke her language.
They were always afraid they were gonna get in trouble.
So for me
that cultural part of that program
was really, really important
cause I didn't know a lot about it.
- So the evaluation was a little bit daunting.
As I say, when we got to that.
However, having the team through
the Center for Native Child and Family Resiliency
and our own on the ground who I've, over the years
have been mentored by
I knew that we really looked at that world view
world relational view
that Lakota practice model of view.
So that's when it started coming into like a concept
like, oh this is what we do, this is how we do it.
We're gonna tell them what we need to look at.
- I wanted to do my practicum
with the Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center
cause not only do they advocate for the the children
but they work with the courthouse and the tribal
(clears throat)
other tribal programs in the tribe
to help strengthen our convictions for the offenders.
But not only that, they work with the families
who are non-offending
and they focus, their main focus is the children.
And that's always been something I wanted to do all my life
with something to help the children feel better.
And just watching Arlana and Larry work
you could see them lift some of these children up
and that's hard to do with some of what they've been through
cause kids don't talk about it.
- I think that it was really a blessing
that we were able to acknowledge someone who's right there
someone who's working in our local setting
with Oglala College.
And that they too can get that
that professional mentorship
mentorship from our leaders
and working with the children.
And I think that she, too, has validated
how useful that was.
Not only getting her education
but to be able to be there, hands on and work.
So very, very beneficial.
Very beneficial.
Not for us as a program, for her as an individual
but for the children and for the families.
Cause we did a lot of work
being able to really provide that mentorship
as I was mentored along the way all these years
being in the program for over 23 years
and then decades, over three decades
of working in a child welfare system
child protection system
how important that is.
Yeah.
- [Joe Walker] The program has benefited
from many valuable partnerships.
Mac Hall, developer of Project Venture
and founder and executive director
of National Indian Youth Leadership Project
is one of those valuable partners.
- Our goal is to collaborate and partner
with the Children's Justice Center.
We're working with a lot of kids in a lot of schools
and we know that those kids are having
have abuse in their background and need help.
A lot of times they're not getting that help.
And so we see this as an ideal partnership for our work
and also see the opportunity for talking
with other communities where we're doing Project Venture
about the work that the Justice Center's doing.
- And we became successful not because we had deficits
not because we had problems.
We became successful because we talked about
our strengths, our gifts
all the positive things, attributes that were present
within our community, within our families
and all about the positive things that we've seen
for our communities and families in the future.
And this is the context that we want to bring
into the community conversations.
A more positive and strength-based context
and an expansive one that requires a broader cross section
of people, our community and other stakeholders
that are really interested
and have a commitment to eradicating child sexual abuse.
- [Joe Walker] CNCFR and OLCJC have collaborated to
develop Zuya Yuha O'mani program manual
and supporting implementation guide.
These materials will help organizations or tribes
that would like to implement this program in their community
do so in ways that are congruent
with our culture, values, rituals, and communities.
To learn more
about the Oglala Lakota Children's Justice Center
and access program materials
visit the OLCJC website and the CNCFR website.
The Center for Native Child and Family Resilience
was funded by the Children's Bureau
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
under cooperative agreement number 9-0-C-A-1-8-5-3.
The contents of this product are solely the responsibility
of JBS International Incorporated
and do not necessarily reflect the official views
of the Children's Bureau.