Lynn Armitage: Making sense of child support in Indian Country

Monday, January 21, 2013  

"I know first-hand that it’s difficult enough for parents to navigate their way through state-run child-support systems. But in Indian country, when you throw in issues of sovereignty, tribal courts, per capita payments and multiple jurisdictions . . . forget about it!

In 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which amended Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, allowing tribes to receive federal money to develop and operate child support programs. According to the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, there are 340 Native American tribes, more than 238 Alaska Native Village governments and organizations, and 245 Tribal Courts potentially eligible to apply for these direct funds.

A number of tribes have already jumped on board and have child support systems or a collection mechanism in place, including the Chickasaw and Osage Nations in Oklahoma, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina and the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin, which has passed laws to ensure that parents pay child support on incomes within the tribe’s jurisdiction.

But for too many other tribes, creating and/or enforcing child support actions continues to be a huge hurdle for a number of reasons. To try to make sense of this complex and delicate issue, I spoke with Samantha (Greendeer) Skenandore, Ho-Chunk/Oneida, Of-Counsel at Shanker & Kewenvoyouma, PLLC, a national firm headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, focused on the practice of federal Indian law."

Get the Story:
Lynn Armitage: Notes From A Single Parent: Collecting Child Support in Indian Country, Part 1 (Indian Country Today 1/19)