Editorial: Help South Dakota tribes with child welfare program

Foster care isn’t an easy issue, no matter what race the children are. More than half of the kids in foster care in South Dakota are Native. But there are waiting lists for all types of families to become foster families.

Tribes hope to directly access federal money being funneled through the state and want federal grants to develop their own programs. Four South Dakota tribes — Sisseton-Wahpeton, Oglala, Standing Rock and Flandreau — already are contracting with the state to help pay for foster care placement, training and some licensing.

The state and tribal officials should establish long-range goals and expand efforts to work together to start phasing in a tribally run system of foster care statewide.

There is no panacea for coming up with a system and solution for a problem that has existed for generations. But the efforts matter. Both the state and tribes must try on behalf of the children.