CHILD WELFARE, LEGAL PRACTICE, & ALASKA NATIVE IDENTITY

这项研究考察了立法和相关法规对阿拉斯加内陆村庄儿童保护服务的影响。在过去的二十年里，国会颁布了一系列法律，以积极应对历史性的大规模驱逐和从社区收养土著儿童的影响，同时试图保护那些可能处于危险之中的儿童。然而，这一制度的有效性受到国家和部落之间的管辖权冲突以及长期存在的有案可查的问题的挑战，这些问题困扰着国家履行立法任务的努力。虽然各机构承认土著儿童福利程序中存在问题，但到目前为止，拟议的补救措施仅侧重于促进程序，而不是解决这些法律核心的文化和政治问题。该项目将对部落如何处理儿童福利案件进行民族志研究，确保适当提供社会服务，以满足当地儿童在村级和州法院的干预下的情感和身体需求。这项研究将借鉴相关的社会科学理论和比较观点，探讨如何在州法院和阿萨巴斯坎部落法院之间的谈判中确定土著儿童的“最佳利益”，评估部落法院和州法院分开的社会服务提供系统的效力。

This research examines the impact of legislation and related regulations on child protective services in the Alaska native villages of Interior Alaska. Over the past two decades, Congress has enacted a series of laws to positively address the effects of an historic mass removal and out- adoption of native children from their communities while attempt to protect those children who may be at risk. However, the efficacy of this system is challenged by jurisdictional conflicts between the state and tribes, as well as chronic, documented problems that plague the state's efforts to meet the mandates of the legislation. While agencies have acknowledged the existence of problems in native child welfare proceedings, proposed remedies thus far have focused only on facilitating procedures more than addressing the cultural and political issues at the heart of these laws. This project will develop an ethnographic study of how tribes handle child welfare cases, ensuring appropriate delivery of social services to meet the emotional and physical needs of native children, both on the village level and though intervention in state courts. This research will draw on relevant social scientific theoretical and comparative perspectives to explore how the "best interests" of native children are worked out in the negotiations between state courts and Athabascan tribal courts, evaluating the efficacy of a social service delivery system split between tribal and state courts.