Ayazuta.com

1. An Introduction To: Ayazuta.com Automated ICWA Compliance 28th Annual "Protecting Our Children" National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect From Opportunity to Reality: Honoring Our Dream

2. Content • The Dream • Practical Problems - Notice • Honoring the Dream • Introducing Ayazuta.com • ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup • Automated ICWA Noticing • Honoring the Dream • Current Status • Ayazuta Future

3. The Dream • Indian Tribes, People, and Traditions are fundamentally respected • Tribes have a right to exist • Tribes have a right to their history and traditions • Indian People have a right to pass those traditions forward to their children • Indian Tribes have a right to intervene when their children are being removed from their parents, separate from any parental rights • When coming into contact with care agencies, the child has a right to: • Professional, diligent, involved, and documented investigation of their Indian heritage • To have requirements for Notice, Active Efforts and Placement Preferences systematically respected • Involvement of experts to ensure cultural appropriateness of actions • Proportionality and fairness

4. Notice Practical Problems • Claims are mostly of historical Tribe membership rather than of Federally recognized tribal government, and many Tribes are not Federally recognized. • There is poor Federal mapping of Historical to Federally recognized tribes. • States may require all possible Tribes receive notice of all hearings, and one historical tribe could have 20 Federally recognized tribal governments. • The Tribal ICWA contact address published in the Federal Register can be out of date. • FACT 1 - This generates the bureaucratic nightmare of Case and Social Worker time spent administering Notices rather than supporting children • FACT 2 - There is variable and in some cases poor compliance • FACT 3 – BIA receives 20,000 notices per year, Los Angeles County reports it takes about 8 hours to notice a hearing, with 4-6 hearings per case per year plus countless hours and costs in appeals from failed noticing • Assertion 1 – The process and paperwork are at the center of the system – not the child • All of these issues work against the best interests of the Indian child

5. Honoring the Dream The notice process, as is: Difficult or impossible to comply • Heavily paper based • Poor audit trail • Largely manual • Few if any supportive systems at a State or County level • Time consuming, expensive, and fraught with the potential for error • 8 hours average to produce notices for 1 hearing Partial support from Federal Government • Variable Federal to Historical Tribe mapping • Aging of contact information • Not responsible for noticing Distrust between States, Counties and Tribes • Poor statistics, measurement, analysis • History The process needs to be: Compliant and Self Auditing • Meeting Court and Tribe reporting requirements Supportive of the Case and Social Worker • All available information in one place and easy to use • Fully Automated, with a target Notice production time of 8 minutes • Fast, accurate, repeatable, with little potential for error Nationally Available, up to date Data • Maintained Federal Tribes to Historical Tribes, keyword and State mapping • 6 Month review cycle Trust based on Verification • Statistics, Process measurement • Consistent verifiable compliance

6. Introducing Ayazuta • www.ayazuta.com • ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup • Live and being used • Links… • Illinois Administrative Office of the Courts • NICWA • Automated ICWA Noticing • Demo System

7. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup • Maps Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments • Name, keyword, and State mapping in a single database • Keeps Tribal contact data up to date • Maintains the address published in the Federal Register • Multiple contact points if appropriate, and ongoing validation of information A well defined verifiable process…

8. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup • Maps Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments • Name, keyword, and State mapping in a single database • Keeps Tribal contact data up to date • Maintains the address published in the Federal Register • Multiple contact points if appropriate, and ongoing validation of information Tribal confirmation by an authorized representative…

9. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup • Maps Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments • Name, keyword, and State mapping in a single database • Keeps Tribal contact data up to date • Maintains the address published in the Federal Register • Multiple contact points if appropriate, and ongoing validation of information Resolving issues with the Federal Register…

10. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup • Maps Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments • Name, keyword, and State mapping in a single database • Keeps Tribal contact data up to date • Maintains the address published in the Federal Register • Multiple contact points if appropriate, and ongoing validation of information Serving an increasing number of users….

11. Tribal ICWA Contacts Database

12. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup • Problem – Mapping Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments • Ayazuta Solution – Public and free mapping of Historical Tribes, Keywords, States to Federally Recognized Tribes, available on the internet 24/7

13. Introducing Ayazuta • www.ayazuta.com • ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup • Live and being used • Links… • Illinois Administrative Office of the Courts • NICWA • Automated ICWA Noticing

14. Automated ICWA Noticing • Allows storage of the relevant case information • Tribal Claims related to a child • Investigation information • Notice information • Tribal responses • Notice/Response audit trails and Court documents • Automates production of notices • Relating claims of historical tribal membership to appropriate Federally Recognized Tribes • Automated prompting and production of notices • Automated update of responses from Tribes • Nationwide Coverage • Up to date Judicial Council forms from all customer states • Updates of contact information from all entities • Audit Trail • All access and changes to records recorded

15. Automated ICWA Noticing

16. Compliance • Problem – Variable, and in some cases, poor compliance • Ayazuta Solution – Full audit trail of all activities, changes and Notices

17. Social Worker Time • Problem – Social Services time consumed in paperwork • Ayazuta Solution – Automated Notice, more time to concentrate on the Outcome

18. Relationship Between Tribes, States and Counties • Problem – Variable relationships • Ayazuta Solution – Focus on the Child – collaborative implementation of a structured solution increases trust • Federally Recognized Tribe • Receiving clearer communication from States and Counties • - Tribe has data to exercise jurisdiction • - Easy notice response Court - Receives compliant notice audit trail - Potential for Court notice - Fewer notice based Appeals Child - Benefits from more accurate Notice - Higher probability of being reconnected with the tribe - Higher probability of being dealt with in a culturally sensitive way - Retains ICWA Case Information - Maintains map of Federal to Historical Tribes - Maintains up to date ICWA related Forms - Prompts Notice and Hearings - Produces Declarations and Notices - Stores responses to Notices and Investigation - Produces an Audit Trail of Notices and all changes - Keeps Federal Tribal Information Current - Reduces costs at every stage of an ICWA enquiry - Reduces tribal workload Social / Case Worker - Enters Case Informaion - Investigates Heritage Claims - Enters Results of investigation - Retrieves/Updates hearing details • Bureau of Indian Affairs • Updates Tribal ICWA contacts • Facilitates ICWA notice oversight

19. System Structure - Business Context Diagram

20. Honoring the Dream • ICWA helped define the Dream • There are lots of “practical” and “real” reasons why the ICWA Dream was only ever partly realized; the conditions for compliance are not in place • Without technology, the Dream cannot be delivered (after 32 years we can conclude that the manual way does not consistently work) • Tribes are universally capable of adopting technology, and overwhelmingly and vocally support improvements in the administration of ICWA

21. Honoring the Dream • Cost Benefits • Reduced cost of maintaining accurate Tribal ICWA contact information • Fewer Case and Social Worker hours in Notice, Administration and Hearing Preparation. • Reduced hours preparing for Appeals • Reduced cost of Notice production, USPS confirmations • More effective tracking and responses from tribes • Social Benefits • Better relationships between Tribes and States • Better handling of the child’s welfare through more accurate notice • Children with Indian heritage are more likely to be identified and reconnected • More people, focused more of the time, on better outcomes

22. Current Status • Tribal database is built and usable now • Validation process continues, all Tribes contact information will be validated every 6 months. • Fee based service for State, County and Commercial organizations to download the database and get updates monthly • Community driven design • Ayazuta to be developed by the community of users through a collaborative process that builds positive relationships between courts, social services, tribes, and Indian supportive services. • Tribes and tribal support groups will have free access to system • Great reaction from all interested parties • Plan for system to be completed and rolled out to initial customer Q3/Q4, 2010

23. Ayazuta Future • Capabilities to support • Phase 1 – Tribal Contacts Database • Phase 2 – Automated Notice production • Demo produced to drive the design • Getting the system delivered • Tribal ICWA worker access • BIA access • Phase 3 – “Active Efforts” support • Phase 4 – Placement Preferences • Technology to support • Print production and distribution of notices • Digital confirmations and responses to digital notices • Closer integration with Bureau of Indian Affairs • Closer Integration with Tribes • Incrementally reduced cost of ICWA compliance

24. What Can You Do • If you're a connected to a Tribe • Check the contact details on the site • Tell your Social Services agencies about the site and ask them to use it • Give us a letter of support • Add a link to Ayazuta from your website • Sign up for the Ayazuta newsletter, Twitter • Apply pressure to your local BIA region, asking them to support an Ayazuta trial • If your connected to Social services • Use the contact details database, add its use to training materials • Add a link to County and State court and social services department websites to Ayazuta • Tell your State DSS and Courts, you want accurate, up to date Ayazuta data in their systems • Get the people who do noticing to look at the Ayazuta demo • Sign up for the Ayazuta newsletter, Twitter • Apply pressure to your local BIA region, asking them to support an Ayazuta trial

25. Questions & Answers Kevin Hughes Principal , H7 interactive LLC Creators of Ayazuta.com Kevin@h7i.com 1 (310) 403 5565 Heather Zenone Director of Indian Child Welfare Indian Dispute Resolution Services Hzenone@gmail.com 1 (916) 803 1919