The Changing Legal Environment and ICWA in Alaska: A Regional Study

By 1974, according to the Association of American Indian Affairs, approximately 25 to 35 percent of all Indian children were separated from their families and placed in foster homes, adoptive homes, or institutions.The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed in 1978 in response to this overwhelming evidence that Native children were being adopted out of tribes at alarming rates. ICWA mandates that tribes and Alaska Native villages have jurisdiction over their child welfare cases, and mandates certain rules when Native children's cases are heard in state courts, including permitting the tribe to intervene in the state case at any time, higher levels of proof, and special evidentiary requirements. This report describes the current implementation status of ICWA in Interior and Southcentral Alaska, with an analysis of the changing legal environment and its significance for Alaska Native villages. In Alaska, recent changes in state law and state court acceptance of the tribal role in ICWA proceedings has legally eliminated state resistance to tribes transferring cases from state court to their own forums, and may lead to a change in the numbers of cases heard in tribal courts in Alaska.Bureau of Indian AffairsAcknowledgements / Introduction / Historical Analysis of ICWA Implementation in Alaska / Ethnographic analysis of ICWA implementation in Alaska / Conclusion / Recommendations / Bibliography / Appendix: Eklutna Questionnair

Views and Experiences of New Zealand Women with Gestational Diabetes in Achieving Glycaemic Control Targets: The Views Study

Introduction. Optimal glycaemic control in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) reduces maternal and infant morbidity. Method. A survey was administered to women diagnosed with GDM to explore their views and experiences in achieving optimal glycaemic control. Results. Sixty women participated. Enablers included being taught to test capillary blood glucose in group settings where the health professional demonstrated this on themselves first (60, 100%); health professionals listening (41, 68%); being reminded to perform blood glucose testing (33, 55%); and being provided healthy meals by friends and family (28, 47%). Barriers included not having information in a woman’s first language (33, 55%); being offered unhealthy food (19, 31%); not being believed by health professionals (13, 21%); receiving inconsistent information by health professionals (10, 16%); never being seen twice by the same health professional (8, 13%); and long waiting hours at clinics (7, 11%). Two-thirds of women (37, 62%) reported that food costs were not a barrier, but that they were always or frequently hungry. Conclusion. Optimising experiences for women with GDM for achieving glycaemic control and overcoming barriers, regardless of glycaemic targets, requires further focus on providing meaningful health literacy and support from health professionals, family, friends, and work colleague

Fort Belknap Small Business Development Center : Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Harlem, Montana

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, established in May 1888 is the homeland of the Gros Ventre and the Assiniboine Tribes. Fort Belknap is one of seven Indian reservations in Montana. It is located in north central Montana, 40 miles from the Canadian order and four miles southeast of Harlem, Montana. It covers an area of approximately 30 miles wide and 45 miles long. approximately 3800 enrolled members live on or near the reservation. The Fort Belknap Community Council is the official governing body of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. Fort Belknap Indian Reservation consists of three communities. Fort Belknap Agency, located four miles southeast of Harlem, Montana, on U.S. Highway 2, is the site of the Tribal headquarters, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Services and Fort Belknap College, and has a population of approximately 2000 residents. Most people employed on Fort Belknap travel from other areas of the reservation to work at one of the mentioned service centers. A beautiful Senior Center, built in 1995, provides meals and a friendly meeting place for the seniors. Hays, located at the south end of the reservation, thirty-five miles from Fort Belknap Agency, is at the foothills of the beautiful Little Rocky Mountains, has a population of approximately 1300. Hays originated with the establishment of a Catholic mission, known as Saint Paul's Mission, in the late 1800's, when the Jesuit priests and the Ursaline nuns began a boarding school for the native American children. Today, Saint Paul's Mission is no longer a boarding school, however, it continues to serve the community of Hays, educating the youth, in grades K-6 and provides employment for approximately fifteen community members in positions of teacher aids, staff, bus drivers and maintenance. Hays has a public school for grades 7-12. This is a fairly new school, built in the early 1980's. This school employees approximately forty community members in positions of administrators, faculty, staffs maintenance and bus drivers. A beautiful Senior Center was built by Fort Belknap Housing in the 1980's as part of an elderly complex. The community of Lodge Pole, also located at the foothills of the Little Rocky Mountains, is twelve miles East of Hays. Lodge Pole has an estimated population of 500 people. It has a public school, K-6 and employees approximately fifteen community members in positions of Administrators, faculty, staff, bus, drivers and maintenance. Both Hays and Lodge Pole have Senior Centers and Community Centers, which provide phone and fax access to services offered at Fort Belknap Agency's central offices. These Centers are staffed by the Fort Belknap Community Council with clerical, cooks and maintenance. The economy of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation largely consists of transfer payments from the Tribal government, Indian health Service (IHS), Bureau of Indian Affairs, (BIA), Fort Belknap College, Aid To Families with Dependent Children, and General Assistance. Additional sources of income contributing to the economy include firefighting, dry land farming and ranching. Ninety-three percent of this inflow of income to these agencies on the reservation flows off the reservation and is spent in bordering communities along U.S. Highway 2, Harlem, five miles northwest, Chinook, twenty-five miles west, Havre, fifty miles west and Malta, thirty miles east Fort Belknap Indian Reservation lacks the basic economic needs for most families, the 3800 residents must travel from one-hundred miles to one-hundred and eighty miles, round trip, to fill their basic economic needs, for purchasing clothing, household items, appliances, auto sales and repairs, hardware, lumber and normal bank transactions. Other components of Fort Belknap's economic mix include natural resources, construction, and small businesses. Each community has two convenience type grocery stores, which sell gasoline and deli items. Fort Belknap Agency also has a Trading Post and a newly opened grocery store. Small entrepreneurial ventures are developing a long overlooked aspect of economic development on the reservation, the individual with home based businesses. These ventures include art-work, quilt-making, land-scaping services, logging and other services consistent with the cultural and environmental needs of the tribal community. (Author abstract)Brown, C. (1998). Fort Belknap Small Business Development Center: Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Harlem, Montana. Retrieved from http://academicarchive.snhu.eduMaster of Science (M.S.)School of Community Economic Developmen

The temporal binding deficit hypothesis of autism

Frith has argued that people with autism show “weak central coherence,” an unusual bias toward piecemeal rather than configurational processing and a reduction in the normal tendency to process information in context. However, the precise cognitive and neurological mechanisms underlying weak central coherence are still unknown. We propose the hypothesis that the features of autism associated with weak central coherence result from a reduction in the integration of specialized local neural networks in the brain caused by a deficit in temporal binding. The visuoperceptual anomalies associated with weak central coherence may be attributed to a reduction in synchronization of high-frequency gamma activity between local networks processing local features. The failure to utilize context in language processing in autism can be explained in similar terms. Temporal binding deficits could also contribute to executive dysfunction in autism and to some of the deficits in socialization and communication

Impact of the DRA Citizenship and Identity Documentation Requirement on Medi-Cal: Findings From Site Visits to Six Counties

Evaluates how the 2006 requirement for Medicaid beneficiaries to present proof of citizenship affected the workloads of California counties and enrollees' and applicants' access to Medi-Cal. Examines stakeholders' views of the requirement

When the Balance Isn't Easy: A Case Study Exploring the Complications with Work-Life Balance Initiatives in the Australian Construction Industry

Studies of work and life balance often concentrate on the ways in which employees may require and use flexible work practices to cope with the demands of their other ‘non-work’ activities and responsibilities. This paper adds to our knowledge in this arena through presenting a case study of work-life balance. This case study focuses on managerial and employee issues in implementing organisational work life balance initiatives within the construction industry in Australia. For this case study, the workplace was an ‘alliance’ project, of four collaborating companies undertaking a large infrastructure project. The project management group determined that work-life balance was an important issue within the industry and consequently implemented a five-day instead of the industry standard six-day working week as a balance initiative for the workforce. A range of factors contributed to this five-day week initiative reverting to the original work schedule of a six-day working week. This paper explores these issues and analyses the competing priorities and demands of management in endeavouring to develop alternate strategies to maintain a positive work and life balance for employees. The analysis of this case suggests that management and employees were dedicated to improving work-life balance; however, a range of externalities resulted in not all initiatives being successful. Nevertheless, within the constrained choices, the management group instigated alternate initiatives