Good News for Indian Country in the Stimulus Package!

Thursday, January 29, 2009 Amnesty International Press Release – Good News for Indian Country in the Stimulus Package! Amnesty International Welcomes House Stimulus Funding for Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service; Urges Senate to Follow Suit —- Funds ‘Critical for Improving the Failing Systems,’ Organization Says, Emphasizing Support for Survivors of Sexual Violence Contact: Wende Gozan at 212-633-4247 or Renata Rendón at 202-544-0200 x251 (Washington DC) – Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today applauded a landmark portion of the House economic stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which funds critical functions of both the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Indian Health Service (IHS). The human rights organization called these funds a crucial building block that could eventually help address alarmingly high levels of violent crime in Indian Country including the widespread sexual violence against Native American and Alaska Native women. The Senate Appropriations Committee also reported out its version of the legislation yesterday, with funding in the amount of $545 million for IHS and $572 million for BIA. The organization applauded the addition of this critical funding and urged the full Senate to support current funding levels in the final legislation. “Over the past year Congress has made an unprecedented effort to address violent crime affecting tribal communities across the United States,” said Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA. “These funds are critical for improving the failing systems that facilitate high levels of rape of Native women. Chronic underfunding of law enforcement agencies and health service providers has had a significant impact on the ability of the BIA and IHS to respond to crimes of sexual violence. The House must be applauded for taking this long-overdue step.” The House economic stimulus package includes a substantial $550 million of federal funding to the IHS. These funds are to modernize aging hospitals and health clinics, purchase equipment and related services and make technology upgrades to improve healthcare for underserved rural populations. Currently the average per capita health expenditure for Native Americans is less than half that for non-Natives in the United States. Since the launch of its 2007 report, Maze of Injustice: the failure to protect Indigenous women from sexual violence in the USA, AIUSA has advocated extensively for funds to improve health care and law enforcement in Indian Country, and will continue to do so in 2009. Funding for the BIA has been set at $500 million, which would address repair and replacement of detention centers, schools, roads, dams, bridges and employee housing. While upgrading detention centers would have an obvious impact for law enforcement officials, repairing roads could also improve officers’ access to rural communities. “The BIA and IHS should work with tribal communities to ensure that part of this funding is used to train law enforcement officers to respond quickly and appropriately to victims of sexual violence,” said Renata Rendón, government relations director for AIUSA. “In addition, Indian Health Service facilities need trained sexual assault nurse examiners to administer rape kits and secure evidence needed for prosecution. This is the only way to end the brutal cycle of impunity that allows crimes of sexual violence to flourish.” Amnesty International found Native American and Alaska Native women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the United States in general and more than one in three Native women will be raped in their lifetimes, yet the United States government has created a complex maze of tribal, state and federal jurisdictions that often allows perpetrators to rape with impunity — and in some cases effectively creates jurisdictional vacuums that encourage assaults. Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries who campaign for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied. # # # For more information, please visit www.amnestyusa.org.

Report Cyberbullying and Online Sexual Predators

Smart moves

Following are tips from the National Assn. of School Psychologists on protecting your kids online, even if your own online skills lag behind theirs.

* Keep computers in easily viewable places, such as the family room or kitchen.

* Talk regularly with your children about the online activities in which they are involved and Internet etiquette in general. Children should know the rule that many adults have learned from painful experience: Do not say online what you would not say in person.

* Encourage children to be self-protective. Remind them that anything they say on the Internet or in phone text messages can be shared with others and misused. Ask them to consider if they want what they are saying and doing broadly disseminated. If not, they probably should not say or post it.

* Be specific about the risks of cyber-bullying and their need to tell you if something that bothers them occurs.

* Respect for adolescents’ privacy is important. But tell children that you may review their online communications if you have reason for concern.

* Set clear expectations for responsible online behavior and phone use and consequences for violating those expectations.

* Consider establishing a parent-child Internet use contract.

* Consider installing parental-control filtering software or tracking programs but do not rely solely on these tools.

* Be aware of warning signs that might indicate your son or daughter is being bullied, such as reluctance to use the computer, a change in the child’s behavior and mood, or reluctance to go to school.

* Document the bullying.

* Be equally alert to the possibility that your child could be bullying others online, even if unintentionally.

* Understand current local laws and your school policies. Work with your school to develop policies if they don’t exist.

* If you have concerns, contact your child’s school to enlist the help of the school psychologist, school counselor, principal or resource officer.

* File a complaint with the website, Internet service provider or cellphone company if you learn of problematic behavior.

* Contact police if the cyber-bullying includes threats.

The Congressionally mandated CyberTipline is a reporting mechanism for cases of child sexual exploitation including child pornography, online enticement of children for sex acts, molestation of children outside the family, sex tourism of children, child victims of prostitution, and unsolicited obscene material sent to a child. Reports may be made 24-hours per day, 7 days per week online at www.cybertipline.com or by calling 1-800-843-5678.

Response to SEXUAL OFFENDER RAPE!

I HAVE LINKED UNDER THE BLOGROLL A DC CRISIS LINE IF YOU CLICK ON ANY LINK under THE BLOGROLL YOU WILL FIND HELP FOR A CRISIS LINE OR CALL US AT 1-800-236-7660.

Boarding Schools

Assimilation policies also took the form of mandatory boarding schools, with devastating consequences that continue to reverberate today through out Indian Country. It is believed that the prevalence of Indian-on-Indian domestic and sexual violence in Native communities is rooted in the forced removal of Indian children from their homes and from their families and Tribes into religious and government-operated boarding schools.  I must add that some of the boarding schools were run by the military, for instance the Fort Totten Boarding School in North Dakota. This boarding school had grey nuns from Canada that were established on site and housed children from the age of five, forcibly taken from their families. The school it self is still standing today. Under the school is dirt sellers with bars where children were placed in solitary confinement.  Twenty inch paths from dorm to classrooms were patrolled by military on horseback carrying crops to keep children on the beaten path. Apache women had their garments adapted  (skirts) made wide and large, to attempt to hide their children from agents.

From 1879 through the 1950s,  more that 300 boarding schools across the county taught lessons of self hate, domestic and sexual abuse, gender stereotypes and patriarchal norms to Native children forced or coerced into attending the schools.

Children attending the boarding schools were not permitted to see their families, speak their own language, or follow their cultural practices or traditional religion, the children were expected to  stay for a minimum of four years.

It is believed thst the prevalence of Indian-on-Indian domestic and sexual assault in Native communities is rooted in the forced removal of Indian from their homes and from their families and tribes and into religious snd government-operated boarding schools. -Felix S. Cohen

Felix Solomon Cohen (July 3, 1907 – October 19, 1953) was a lawyer and scholar who made a lasting mark on legal philosophy and fundamentally shaped federal Indian law and policy.

Cohen was the drafter of the centerpiece legislation of this era, the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. In 1939 he became Chief of the Indian Law Survey, an effort to compile the federal laws and treaties regarding American Indians. The resulting book, published in 1941 as The Handbook of Federal Indian Law.

The trauma suffered from boarding school survivors is expressed today in substance abuse,  suicide, domestic violence,  pedophelia, sexual assault, and being passed on to further generations.

ALLEGED INCIDENTS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING REPORTED IN THE U.S. WASHINGTON

PEOPLE …PLEASE DON’T ALLOW YOUR SILENCE COMMIT THESE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

ADVANCE FOR RELEASE AT 9:00 A.M. EST Bureau of Justice Statistics THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2009 Sheila Jerusalem 202-616-3227 www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs After hours: 202-598-3570 MORE THAN 1,200 ALLEGED INCIDENTS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING REPORTED IN THE U.S. WASHINGTON – In the first 21 months of operation, the Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS) recorded information on more than 1,200 alleged incidents of human trafficking, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The HTRS contains data collected by 38 federally funded human trafficking task forces on alleged incidents of human trafficking that occurred between January 1, 2007, and September 30, 2008. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), and its reauthorizations in 2003, 2005, and 2008 define a human trafficking victim as a person induced to perform labor or a commercial sex act through force, fraud, or coercion. Any person under age 18 who performs a commercial sex act is considered a victim of human trafficking, regardless of whether force, fraud, or coercion was present. Most (83 percent) of the reported human trafficking incidents involved allegations of sex trafficking. Labor trafficking accounted for 12 percent of incidents, and other or unknown forms of human trafficking made up the remaining five percent. About a third (32 percent) of the 1,229 alleged human trafficking incidents involved sex trafficking of children. More than a quarter of alleged sex trafficking incidents contained multiple victims, and nearly half of labor trafficking incidents had more than one victim. Labor trafficking incidents were more likely to involve more than one suspect (47 percent), compared to sex trafficking incidents (37 percent). As of September 30, 2008, less than 10 percent of the 1,229 alleged incidents had been confirmed as human trafficking. To be confirmed in the HTRS, the case must have led to an arrest and been subsequently confirmed by law enforcement, or the victims must have received a special non-immigrant Visa classification, as provided under the 2000 TVPA. Over 90 percent of victims in both alleged and confirmed human trafficking incidents were female. Nearly 40 percent of victims in alleged and confirmed labor trafficking incidents were male, while almost all (99%) victims in alleged and confirmed sex trafficking incidents were female. Hispanic victims comprised the largest share (37 percent) of alleged sex trafficking victims and more than half (56 percent) of alleged labor trafficking victims. Asians made up 10 percent of alleged sex trafficking victims, compared to 31 percent of labor trafficking victims. Approximately two-thirds of victims in alleged human trafficking incidents were age 17 or younger (27 percent) or age 18 to 24 (38 percent). Sex trafficking victims tended to be younger (71 percent were under age 25) and labor trafficking victims tended to be older (almost 70 percent were age 25 or older). Slightly more than half of all victims in alleged human trafficking incidents were U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens accounted for 63 percent of sex trafficking victims, compared to four percent of labor trafficking victims. Nearly eight in 10 human trafficking suspects were male. A fifth of sex trafficking suspects were female, compared to about a third of labor trafficking suspects. Nearly two-thirds of sex trafficking suspects were under age 35, while nearly two-thirds of labor trafficking suspects were age 35 or older. U.S. citizens accounted for 66 percent of suspects in alleged incidents. Nearly three-quarters of sex trafficking suspects and a third of labor trafficking suspects were U.S. citizens. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-164) requires the submission of biennial reports on human trafficking using available data from state and local authorities. In response to this requirement, the Department of Justice (DOJ) funded the creation of the HTRS, which was designed by the Institute of Race and Justice at Northeastern University (NEU) and the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute (UI). The HTRS is updated monthly. The data in this report represent the status of each case as of September 30, 2008. The report, Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2007-08 (NCJ 224526), was written by BJS statisticians Tracey Kyckelhahn, Allen J. Beck, and Thomas H. Cohen. Following publication, the report can be found at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cshti08.htm. For additional information about the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ statistical reports and programs, please visit the BJS Web site at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs. The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), headed by Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey L. Sedgwick, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist victims. OJP has five component bureaus: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the Office for Victims of Crime. In addition, OJP has two program offices: the Community Capacity Development Office, which incorporates the Weed and Seed strategy, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). More information can be found at http://www.ojp.gov.

To: I want to die help me do it….and my son died I want to die.

First of all, your life is sacred. You are created by God and you have a purpose in this circle of life. LOVE YOURSELF…WRAP YOUR ARMS AROUND YOUR SELF!

The whole world relates the color red or crimson to love. In you is your blood that the creator has colored love.

When you awaken in the morning the creator colors the dawn with crimson his message is today ” I LOVE YOU!”

Native American people believe that during one days time referred to as a red day, is a life time. Each moment is precious and every breath is a gift. The night is called a blue day every dream a gift.

Your children are not your own, you do not own them, they are a gift. I lost a son at three years old his name was Parris Lee Laverdure. His Indian name is Giimiiwaan (rain). He is connected to me through umbilical, his spirit is always beside me. His gift to me is this uderstanding and the time he graced me with his presense will live in me as precious and I am grateful to the creator for this gift. Your son is there with you your greif he feels. You must continue to be a strong mother to him so that he can be happy to enjoy his relatives in that place that is veiled by human eyes. Believe that you will see him again and today do what you would have done for him for another son not of your own.

The Creator God in the dusk of the upcoming blue day will remind you that you are loved in the crimson that graces us as human beings.

Letter to Change Government

Dear Mr. President and V.C. Mr. Biden:

My real name in English is Standing in the Moonlight my English name is Julienne Xene Laverdure Cross.
I am a human being. I have suffered a great deal in my life. I was at Mission School and went to Boarding Schools. It is because of poverty that my sons all joined the Army so they could attend College. The U.S. Government has left us with a mortgage in Federal Student Loans to attend college. I am an enrolled tribal member as half Indian my son’s as a fourth. I must ask you to see that the Native American census and blood quantum police at the Department of Interior correct that injustice and quantify exactly what blood degree I am, correct the genocide. My grandfather, Whapishtikwaan, arranged marriages to keep our blood pure. Research of our family tree I am actually seven eighth’s Anishnaabe, (Ojibwe-Chippewa), is not historically original but interpreted translated by non-Indian priest and conquistadors. I am of the Algonquin Family. My band the Turtle Mountain Plains Pembina Band in Belcourt, North Dakota had enrolled Metis and Cree in the mid 1900’s for the purpose of Health, Education and Welfare. Now we are 33.000 strong and we live on a 12 x 7 reservation. You cannot have anymore of our land. I will be first to stand up in front of your guns if you try, this is my word and I honor my words. Indian people have a hard time trusting and if you know your history, it is understandable only action can justify all the many wrongs done to us. The trust responsibility to tribes has been negligent in many ways including, Health, Education and Welfare

I traveled across the United States recently. I saw immigrants of all races owning their own homes and businesses. Indian people cannot go to banks for home loans and business loans. We have frequently gone to banks to obtain 184 loans under the Bureau of Indian Affairs; the microscope of credit is abundant and overwhelming. I could have all my taxes paid to the federal government and state, medical bills paid, not defaulted on my student loans and an issue exemption is always presented by bank loan providers. HUD keeps us oppressed and is not culturally conducive to our way of life. NAHASDA must jump through the hoops of The Department of Interior where I as a human being am under the category of a natural resource .The recent scandal at the Department of Interior needs to be seriously scrutinized and restructured. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on a bathroom can build a National Native American Healing Center with Culture and Art. Misuse of monies allocated to Tribes needs scrutiny, justice served to the Native American people by ousting the old, and amending the out dated laws that deny us our rights to self-governance and determination. No Committee’s please they are impudent. There are people that can talk the talk but walking the talk and applying action are two different things. We as Indian people do not get the federal monies allocated to us by the U.S. Government because of misuse at a United Sates Federal Government Level as in monies laundered on behalf of Native Americans that never reach Indian County because of bathrooms of the Department of Interior. They themselves have neglected their responsibility to our roads and our people are dying from their neglect.

Crimes and our authority to apply tribal law needs to be applicable on our level. We can no longer subject our people to the States. Many of our people suffer from historical trauma. Many of our people are sitting in prisons with mental health issues that need healing through identity empowerment in a traditional manor. Assimilation has perpetrated a reflection in the mirror that is disfigured, ostracized and unworthy of life, an interior paradigm of self.  Because of poverty, substance abuse and mental health father’s and mother’s are in prison for their inability to support their children. Boarding schools, mission schools, relocation, Catholicism, ignorance, discrimination, bias, perpetrated by Church and State is penetrating a beautiful way of life struggling to re cooperate. When kill the Indian in the child is applied, the result is broken families and communities. Our struggle every day is working to put in place our traditional beliefs; where equality of gender balances, children, elders, women, men, community, and extends to all tribes and the earth is all of our priority. Every day I work with domestic violence, sexual assault, substance abuse and pain. I am an artist who cannot paint but see the beauty everyday and a Nation that has no history because we wrote our history in the earth and in our language. North American history prior 1942 destroyed by the cities, and assimilation. Our elders are dying our language is the history of North America. We have been major contributors to the world and we have one day of recognition I ask for a month. Our discrimination perpetrated by the history taught in schools that begin with Columbus the message is savages, red beasts, pagans; this is where I read who I am, at mission school. Ignorance, the reason that in the twentieth century, I can read on a blog site and I quote from a New York blogger recently, “I thought reservations were like zoos”. I cried when I witnessed my son at a Christmas program portrayed Native American contribution historically to Wisconsin. I am, first of all, a Native American it is the foundation from which I live. I have a site I developed to help Victims of Crime at http://xene.wordpress.com.

Whether or not we agree or disagree the importance of listening and hearing our voices on a National Level continue to make the world aware of the injustices we as Turtle Island’s inherent speaker’s and owner’s of her well being. The United States Government is fraudulent. The United States Constitution does not apply the codes or rule of law to Sovereign Nations, the principles are not applied. No treaty honored to the Indigenous of Turtle Island. What happens will enlighten a world profoundly ignorant of the injustices that Governments have subjected us to as human beings and continue to deny their roles in the continued oppression and genocide.
In my many years of life I have not met one Native American born inhuman and without great heart and passion for life as well as great compassion for all creatures gracious of the wonderment of the natural world. I believe INDIAN PEOPLE ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE ON EARTH….IT’S AT OUR CORE.

From the first day conquistadors set foot on our Island we have harbored and protected them; the result is diseases that inflict us today such as substance abuse, violence, sexual abuse, childhood diseases, diabetes, suicide, a result of historical trauma and chemicals unnatural to us before 1942. Chemicals, deviant foreign cultural behaviors unnatural to our existence prior invasion and our inability to conceive or evolve to handle them physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually continue to cycle spun by poverty, ostracism, discrimination, denial not of our own, ignorance, bias, hatred and prejudice. Governments do not want the world to know they used sacred entities like the Catholic Papal Bull and Constitutions to lawfully commit crimes against Native Americans like murder, germ warfare, torture, on a people and children pure in heart to fulfill their greed and invoke manifest destiny. Who has given you the divine right to subject human beings to concentration camps or bury them dismembered in mass graves in Canada at Mission Schools, “live children born from children fathered by priest thrown in graves”? Why are there still Indian boarding schools in the United States when we can have our own schools? Why must most of our people live on a poverty diet that kills us early? Why are you still killing our brothers and sisters the wolf, the buffalo, the Eagle, the winged animals and the water animals? Why can I not cross the border of Canada to participate in ceremonies inherent to us without border patrol going through my sacred instruments? Why do I need a passport when I cannot afford one? Is not a tribal enrollment I.D. number, social security number, and the tattoo between my eyes a testament to survival of boarding school enough to testify that I love my mother the earth and mean no human being any harm. I am not a pagan I believe in God. The spirit of my creator is in all living life, from the stars to the grain of sand. We are all servants of each other and our importance is equal. A generation apart Native People lived to be way over one hundred years old today many die before their forty-five.

Wis. mayor charged with plotting tryst with child

DINESH RAMDE , Star Tribune

RACINE, Wis. – Prosecutors charged Racine Mayor Gary Becker with six felonies Thursday, alleging that the 51-year-old tried to arrange a sexual encounter with a minor. At least one city official has called on Becker to resign. The charges include attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child under 16 and possession of child pornography. Becker waived his preliminary hearing in Racine County Circuit Court on Thursday afternoon. Racine County Circuit Judge Stephen Simanek set his arraignment for Feb. 10. The mayor, who is married and has two children, also was charged with child enticement, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, attempt exposing a child to harmful material and misconduct in office. He was arrested Tuesday at a Milwaukee-area mall following a two-week investigation by the state Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation. City workers who helped Becker fix a problem with his personal computer found pornography files on it and alerted Racine police before Christmas, a criminal complaint said. Police passed the case on to state investigators to avoid a conflict of interest. District Attorney Michael Nieskes said during a news conference after the court hearing that investigators also found records of 1,800 sexually explicit chats on Becker’s computer. Becker was elected mayor in 2003 and ran unopposed for re-election in 2007. The Democrat had previously served two terms as a city alderman. A female who answered the phone at Becker’s home Thursday declined to comment. Common Council President David Maack, who has been serving as acting mayor, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Becker should step down. “I think it would be in the best interest of the city and himself to resign his position,” Maack said. “He has some very serious charges he needs to devote his time and energy to, and the city of Racine doesn’t need this cloud hanging over its head.”
The Common Council can remove Becker from office before he is convicted with votes from 12 of the city’s 15 aldermen, city attorney Rob Weber said. Becker was released from jail Wednesday after a relative posted his $165,000 cash bond. Simanek reduced his bond to $10,000 Thursday. Racine is Wisconsin’s fifth largest city, with about 80,000 residents. It sits on Lake Michigan about 30 miles south of Milwaukee. ___ Associated Press writer Gretchen Ehlke contributed to this report from Milwaukee.

NEW CATAGORIES!

I have added two new categories. This is your forum to enlighten readers to your experiences with being a victim or being victimized. It may be how you feel being bullied. You may have a problem with how you are being treated by civil servants who are supposed to be protecting you. You may feel like you need to express yourself when your pain is overwhelming. You may have words of encouragement. You may be all alone and desire a forum…here it is.

It is up to you if you are eighteen and older to leave your name. If you are not eighteen and have a story please get consent from your parents or caregiver. If it is a poem you choose to write please do…..

Remember your not alone.

Thank-You

Julienne

Drawing the Wisdom from the Past

The FCC Process
TOP
Abstract
The Project
The FCC Intervention
The FCC Process
Progress to Date
References

Although the family meeting represents the most visible component of the FCC, the intervention involves other stages that often are more important than the actual meeting. The FCC has six stages: referral, screening, engaging the family, logistical preparation, family meeting, and follow-up.

Referral
Referrals come from a variety of sources, including the Elder Protection program, Community Health Representative program, Housing Authority program, Domestic Violence program, Tribal court, Child Protection program, community members, and concerned family members. The majority of referrals are made because of concerns about exploitation, neglect, self-neglect, and child neglect. Many times referrals are related to the addiction of a family member who lives in the elder’s home, exploits the elder’s monthly income, or leaves young children in the care of a frail elder. Although some referrals are related to physical abuse, these are limited. In part this pattern may reflect the screening procedures, through which some referrals are deemed inappropriate.

Timeliness of response to referrals is an important concern. To address this concern, facilitators, along with the research team, developed guidelines that include making initial contact with family members within 3 to 5 days of referral receipt. Depending on the family’s schedule, but within 5 working days, the facilitator determines a tentative date for the family meeting. The facilitator, although cautious to maintain confidentiality, also notifies the referring person or agency that she has begun to work with the family. This helps maintain the credibility of the FCC project in the community.

Screening
Some referrals are inappropriate for the FCC intervention. These involve families who have a high potential for violence. These situations are referred to the Elder Protection program for further evaluation and action. Over the course of this project, facilitators have developed a strong working relationship with the Elder Protection program.

Engaging the Family
The pre-meeting preparation stage is crucial to the success of the FCC. At the beginning of this stage, it is important to have the family identify a primary contact. This person, who may or may not be related by blood, is someone trusted by the family and the elder. The primary contact is familiar with the family’s dynamics, and knows how to work within these dynamics. During this stage, the facilitator contacts family members and family-nominated service providers and invites them to participate in the FCC. Although they are careful to honor the wishes of the family when inviting participants, the facilitators at times sensitively inquire about family members whom they have not invited. In some instances, this provides the opportunity for the family to reconsider its decision.

The facilitator gives a verbal explanation and provides a descriptive brochure about the FCC to each nominated person. The facilitator emphasizes that the meeting will be a safe place for family members to gather to discuss their concerns. During the engagement stage, the facilitator helps to focus each family member’s attention on the concern at hand: the elder’s well-being and safety. This stage is complex, requiring communication skills that are nonjudgmental and sometimes therapeutic, including engaging, listening, encouraging, and giving information. Often a family member must address a multitude of feelings (such as stress, resentment, grief, shame, and anger) before he or she is able to commit to attending the FCC.

Many of the reservations in the Northwest are in rural areas, which can make contacting people difficult. Geographical distances necessitate traveling over back country roads, and severe weather may cause meetings to be rescheduled. Additionally, not all families have telephones; in such instances, the facilitator requests that another invited family member ask for that person to contact her.

Given the sensitive nature of the topic, face-to-face meetings between the family members and facilitator are preferred. This method of meeting allows for the development of trust and rapport and the expression of gentle caring. Yet it is important to consider geographically distant family members. When geographical distance precludes a family member’s attendance at the meeting, the facilitator brings his or her concerns to the meeting. Some distant family members choose to participate via a conference phone call.

Additional strategies ensure privacy during this stage. When facilitators attempt to make contact by phone, they are cognizant about not leaving messages that might violate confidentiality. Similarly, when meeting an individual family member face-to-face, facilitators find it is sometimes important to meet outside of the house, where other family members or visitors cannot hear what is being said.

Because of the small size of the communities, it is important to pay attention to relationships between the facilitator and some of the families who have been referred. To date, the project has addressed this by having more than one facilitator who can work with a family in which there are no close relatives or alliances. Community norms and status differentials and their effect on the facilitator–family-member relationships are important additional considerations. For example, a community norm is for younger people to show respect to elders. Although facilitators are middle-aged and older women who are accustomed to working with people in a helping relationship, there have been situations in which expectations related to the elder–younger role have been intimidating to facilitators who were slated to work with Tribal members older than themselves. In other cases, facilitators have been reluctant to intervene in families with prominent community members. In such situations, the monthly facilitator group meetings are helpful for discussing sensitive strategies for approaching these families.

Logistical Preparation
Once the facilitator has contacted all nominated family members, service providers, and other community members (as requested by the family), she determines a mutually agreeable meeting time. The facilitator sends each prospective participant a letter summarizing the purpose of the meeting and identifying the date, time, and meeting place. On the day prior to the meeting, the facilitator calls those family members who can be reached by telephone to remind them of the meeting and to check that they are still able to attend.

Sensitivity to the venue for the family meeting is also important. Some families prefer to have the meeting in their homes; others prefer to have it at a neutral, but private, place (often in a conference room at one of the agency offices). Because gracious hospitality is a strong community norm, the meetings usually involve the sharing of food. The facilitator prepares a few trays of healthy snacks ahead of time in accordance with any dietary restrictions family members may have. In keeping with the norm of sharing, family participants take home any remaining food.

Creation of a safe, inviting, and private space is important. In situations in which not all participants share proficiency in both the Native and English languages, it is necessary to have an interpreter. In these circumstances family members choose a person whom they feel is unbiased and whom they trust. Confidentiality remains crucial, particularly in a small community. It is important to think about maintaining privacy by drawing conference room window shades for meetings held in the late evening. Participants must take into consideration solutions to barriers to participation (such as making arrangements for child care or transportation, joining via conference calls, or sending letters) prior to the meeting. Because the length of the meeting may range from 2 to 5 hr, it is important to plan for breaks so people can move about, stretch, and use the facilities.

Family Meeting
The family meeting has the following components: beginning, information sharing, development of a plan, and closing.

Beginning
As people arrive, the facilitator acknowledges and greets everyone, often with a warm handshake or a hug. The agenda for the family meeting begins with a formal welcome, during which the facilitator thanks the family for coming together and for allowing the facilitator to be a part of its meeting. This recognizes the emotional vulnerability that some family members may experience in coming together to discuss sensitive aspects of their family. The meeting opens with a prayer offered by a chosen family member (such as an elder or the oldest participant) or a spiritual leader (if the family has invited one to attend the meeting). If needed, introductions are made and each participant explains his or her relationship to the elder. The facilitator then reviews the FCC format, briefly identifying the purpose of the meeting and describing her own role. At this time, the facilitator reminds people that the sharing of their stories will be held sacred. The group spends some time establishing group norms (e.g., one person speaks at a time; show respect for all; conflict without hostility can be good; no question is wrong; no side conversations; be considerate of confidentiality; and recognize the “spirit of intent,” i.e., the positive intentions of others). The facilitator writes these on a flipchart and posts them in the room. The facilitator orients people to the room and the facility and invites them to partake of the food.

Information Sharing
During this portion of the meeting, the people present identify their concerns. The facilitator reads letters from family members who, although unable to attend the meeting, would like to participate. The facilitator records all concerns on the flipchart and posts the pages in a prominent place in the room. Throughout this stage, the facilitator is careful to point out family strengths she has learned about through the process of engaging the family members. Because facilitators are from the communities, they are aware of the norm against self-promotion and recognize that family members may be hesitant to identify their strengths.

Development of a Plan
The family has the option of asking the facilitator and all other people who are not members of the family to leave the room so it may develop a plan in private. Prior to leaving the room, the facilitator reminds the family to choose a recorder from among the people present. If the facilitator leaves the room, she should not leave the facility in case the family has questions or would like to make use of her mediation skills. In this case, the facilitator should make periodic checks on the family members to see if they have any questions or needs. In our experience, families rarely request this private time, possibly because they developed a trusting rapport with the facilitator during the engagement phase.

When the family has developed its plan, the facilitator and service providers return to the room to help the family with the logistics related to implementing the plan. For example, this may include identifying resources that are available to family members, developing a timeline for the various parts of the plan, and identifying which family member will be responsible for each part of the plan. The facilitator makes a record of the plan that she will include in a letter to each family member in the week following the FCC. If the family has indicated they would like a follow-up meeting, the facilitator notes the date and time of this meeting in the letter.

Closing
At the end of each meeting, the facilitator asks for an evaluation of the entire FCC intervention. Using the format of “likes and wishes,” the facilitator asks what it was that people liked about the process and what they wish could have been done differently. The facilitator makes it known that wishes are as readily appreciated as likes. The facilitator records both on the flipchart. We had originally developed a written survey for FCC participants to complete immediately following the meeting; however, asking the more open-ended likes-and-wishes question elicits a wider variety of (and more descriptive) responses. Additionally, doing the likes and wishes as a group provides time for a shared family debriefing.

Follow-Up
The follow-up portion of the FCC is dependent on family needs and desires. Follow-up is not case management; however, at times the facilitator agrees to implement a part of the family’s plan, such as contacting a social service provider to arrange for a needed service. The facilitator carries through on this agreement and then makes certain the service is meeting the needs of the family. Follow-up meetings may be arranged when members of the family wish to meet together with a service provider (e.g., families might meet with people from housing to arrange a plan for complying with housing rules that will protect the elder while also finding suitable shelter for an addicted family member). Families may also schedule a date to get together to discuss how the plan is working and to modify it if necessary. Additionally, when family situations change, some families may reopen cases that have been closed, by requesting a second family meeting. Follow-up can provide the opportunity for positive encouragement. It is important to highlight the incremental progress that the family has made. Although family members may not have met their goals in their entirety, often they have taken steps toward their achievement. Or it may be that the family implemented an action that did not work. That, too, is progress with regard to both intent of good will and knowledge that something else must be tried.