ST. PAUL -- Minnesota's tribal leaders signed an agreement with the state Thursday that they said forces a stronger bond between American Indian children and their heritage.
The agreement describes a "tribes know best" philosophy bolstering a 1999 pact that Indians be involved in decisions about Indian children caught up in state bureaucracy, said Bois Forte Band Chairman Kevin Leecy.
"Tribal identity is the most critical factor in the health and identity of our children," he said during a ceremony in the State Capitol rotunda.
Those children remain at the heart of Thursday's agreement, which requires state and county social workers to keep tribal representatives involved at every step when American Indian children become involved in the state's welfare system.
"They are all that lies between us and our culture leaving this Earth," Prairie Island President Audrey Bennett said.
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The result, tribal leaders said, should help keep children from falling away from their cultural roots.
"So they can retain whatever the Creator gives them," Bennett said after the ceremony.
The agreement was signed by the state's 11 tribal leaders and state Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman.
The new accord rejects what Leecy called an unlawful practice. Some social workers and judges ignore the federal definition of an Indian, he said, and assign them through the system according to other criteria.
Those criteria, according to an attorney representing the Shakopee tribe, include whether the child attends powwows, whether the child speaks the tribal language and how often the child visits his or her reservation.
By the time those kids leave the state system, Leecy said, their native heritage can be stripped.
Tribal leaders said the agreement puts control of children back in their hands.
The best way to crush American Indian culture "is to take away our children," said White Earth Chairwoman Erma Vizenor.
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"That is no longer going to happen," she said.
Leech Lake Chairman George Goggleye Jr. thanked state officials for collaborating on the agreement, and asked that they remain committed.
"I hope that the state will honor their end of this agreement and continue to honor the tribes," he said. "By doing this, by making this agreement, we're making great strides."
The agreement, Grand Portage Chairman Norman Deschampe said, "allows us to hold each other accountable."
Red Lake Chairman Floyd "Buck" Jourdain Jr. said he looks forward to the effects of the agreement -- that more American Indian children will retain cultural roots. He thanked leaders "for doing good things for protection of the Indian children."
Mike Longaecker works for Forum Communications Co., which owns the Bemidji Pioneer.
