ITCC || Inter Tribal Council of California

Mental Health Directory: Tip Sheet
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California Mental Health & Services Directory and the Inter Tribal Council of California provide you with a resource directory for services, facilities, and programs for Mental Health & Wellness in the State of California.

(Submit information to the Resource Directory)

ITCC and the State of California Health and Human Services has compiled a list of Native American Communities, Tribal Governments, and Native American Populations in the state of California. This comprises not only California Indians, but also out-of-state Native Americans who currently live in the State of California.

The tip sheets will follow the introduction of pages in the MHSA information portal of the website. This will look like the heading for the listing of organizations in each page. The directory is to be divided into sections, Indian Tribes or government structures, Indian organizations at the state and local levels, Indian education programs and centers, and Indian health clinics and programs.

            The first tip sheet will be regarding the Indian Tribes as the first page on the menu will be the directory of Indian Tribes in California.
            The tip sheet will provide contact information for the Federally Recognized Tribes, and the non-Federally recognized /Tribes in the State. This directory will also list tribal agencies.

Tribal Government Tip Sheet

            Federally recognized Tribes are those tribes that have a government to government relationship with the U. S. Congress (Federal Recognition). In the U.S. Constitution, Congress is given authority to oversee commerce with tribes. This historical relationship has had many facets throughout the history of the U.S. California has had an even more convoluted history with the Tribes within the State.
            Important to consider when dealing with Tribes in California is the fact that California is a P.L. 280 State. This makes California 1 of 7 states operating with this jurisdictional factor. Put simply, Public Law 280 gives the state jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters. How this affects tribes in California is that there are no Indian Health Service Hospitals in California. Tribal colleges are not available to Indian students. There is one Indian High School in California that is operated by the BIA. Tribes do not operate their own social welfare systems, tribal police, courts, or other infrastructure.
            To put this in a framework for developmental purposes, the State is home to the largest population of American Indians (650,000). This population is composed of 65,000 tribal members from California’s 109 federally recognized Tribes; the vast majority remainder comes from every tribe in the U.S. Some counties in California have no California tribes, but have substantial populations of tribal members. This disparity comes into focus when considering available services for tribal people in California. When seeing a tribal health clinic in California, it is not operated by the Indian Health Service. The 42 Indian Health Clinics in California are all operated by private non-profit agencies. Many of these agencies are made up of consortiums of tribal governments. Although many of these health clinics receive federal funding, it is generally not enough to operate and provide full health services.
            Tribal governments have evolved more rapidly California, in the past 20 years. The lack of tribal jurisdiction has been a stumbling block for true partnership and collaboration as can be witnessed by the chronic health and socio-economic issues that remain in many of the isolated tribal communities in both urban and rural populations. This is a starting point for the continuing evolution of tribal governments. Keep in mind that for many rural communities, the tribal health clinics have successfully operated for 4 decades, providing ambulatory services to communities that might not otherwise have access to care. This is a result of tribal community’s ability to think outside the system. Tribal governments provide education, health, social services, while developing infrastructure to serve their community.
            Since the Hardwick decision, tribes have been able to establish their federal recognition. This Supreme Court decision reversed the practice of tribal elimination through the Indian Reorganization Act in California. This decision essentially said that the U.S. government did not live up to their responsibilities’ for many tribes in California. As a result many tribes were reorganized. There are currently 109 federally recognized tribes in California, 56 tribes are recognized by the state, of these state tribes, many are seeking federal recognition status.
            A large number of tribes in California operate with a Tribal council, or tribal business council. This council is the political head of the tribe. The tribal councils for many tribes, (not all) act on behalf of their tribes general council which is composed of tribal members. This arrangement is critically important to understand, for state level workers, the general council is the state electorate, or voters, with the tribal business council being the legislature and the tribal chair equal to the governor of the state. To county workers, the general council is like the electorate, with the tribal business council being equal to the board of supervisors, and the tribal chair equal to the chair of the board of supervisors.
            Protocols are very important in outreaching and engaging tribal communities. Unlike ethnic minorities, American Indians have to PROVE through blood degree their qualification to be a tribal member.
            The Indian Health Service has been chronically under funded for many years, the situation is exacerbated in California by the fact that minimal federal dollars are provided for tribal members from other states, the 585,000 non-California tribal members. Indian Health Service does provide small amounts of Federal dollars to sustain urban Indian Health Clinics. These tribal communities are not unique, many urban centers have relatively high populations of American Indians, and however, due to the lack of an IHS hospital, many urban and rural tribal communities cannot access that level of care until it is an emergency. This example is used to illustrate just how difficult it is to operate programs and services when faced with the need of specific resources.

Tribal governments are based on their status as either Federal or State recognition

Tribal governments are the political equivalent of Federal, State and County governments

Tribal governments operate their own systems of care. Health, education, infrastructure, and welfare systems.

Tribal governments maintain protocols similar to Federal, State, and local governments.

Tribal systems operate with similar departments, with a tribal administrator acting as the lead. This position looks like a County Administrator, not a department head.

Tribal governments have electoral bodies, elected bodies, committees, administrative bodies, programs and services. Much like other government entities.

Not all tribes operate the same systems. Don’t expect all tribes to operate independent ICWA, health, education and other community support systems.

This tip sheet is only represented as a generalization. Tribes operate at different levels in terms of services and programs offered their constituency.

Utilizing tribal community resources begins with the identification and location of tribal communities. The next step is to identify those local resources that are effective. As with other local resources, it is imperative to identify resources that can help you effectively navigate the intended target. In tribal communities this means you would identify

Tribal Education Tip Sheet

            Tribal communities in both rural and urban settings continue to be challenged across the spectrum of education opportunities in California. This is confirmed by the high school and college attendance and graduation rates. The prime factor in success in high school and college attendance and graduation in tribal communities seem to be the same as in larger communities, family and community support. With tribal youth, especially in rural communities, successful participation in sports and school activities plays a large role in successful student outcomes.
            The State funds 33 education centers in California. These centers’s offers a wide array of education support activities. In addition to these supports, the tribal education centers are a good resource for community engagement and outreach for Mental Health. These programs support but do not supplant existing American Indian education programs at the local level. The tribal programs are utilized by individuals associated with their tribes. These programs are funded by Federal Indian education funding sources. Many tribes operate these programs independently of other tribes; in general, they have parent advisory committees or PACs. These PACs can be seen as a resource by the local institutions as a way to engage and outreach tribal communities. The California Indian Education Association is a statewide organization that provides a lead to many of the Indian education programs throughout the state. The CIEA continues to advocate for Indian Education at the local, state, regional and national levels.

Tribes often operate their own education programs.

The State of California provides funding for 33 Indian Education Centers.

Many of these programs have Parent Advisory Committees.

Funding for these programs is inadequate for the needs of tribal communities to support student success.

Funding for tribal education programs continue to lag at both Federal and State levels.

Tribal education programs often (not always) operate with little or no local agency collaboration or support.

Success rates for tribal students continue to lag their peers.

Alternative programs are often over represented with tribal students.

Health Care for American Indians

            Health care for American Indians in California has been an important area of concern for tribal communities. Health care was a catalyst for change in both rural and urban tribal communities. This historical concern was based on the fact that in California during the late 50’s and early 60’s, American Indian families suffered from one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. Although there were pockets of local effort, access to health care for pregnant Indian women and their infants was extremely limited. This situation was exacerbated by the extremely isolated rural and urban populations. The Inter-Tribal Council of CA, Inc. (ITCC) was formed in 1968 to provide jobs training and other needed services and programs. The following year, member tribes of ITCC formed the California Rural Indian Health Board, Inc. (CRIHB). The CRIHB was initially funded to provide pregnant Indian women and infants with critical services. The initial funding was used to open 9 Indian health offices throughout rural California. This humble beginning has evolved to 42 clinics offering ambulatory clinical services.
            Health care continues to evolve for American Indian communities in both rural and urban tribal communities. Chronic disease, substance abuse, and inadequate prevention activities are faced by tribal communities in urban and rural settings. These health issues are rooted in Western development. It is in the tribal health care setting that integration of mental health and substance abuse programs occurred in a systems environment. These were developed with guidance and support from the Indian Health Service (IHS). This kind of development is a hallmark of health systems serving tribal communities in California. The reason is that in both rural and urban tribal communities, funding shortage year after year provided the opportunity to integrate mental health and alcohol and other drug services into single departments often called behavioral health.
            This kind of cutting edge thinking has created a system of care that provides services to rural and urban communities including non-tribal poor and working families. With this background in mind, it is critical for state systems of care to outreach and engage tribal health care systems.

The State of California is home to 42 Indian health care clinics.

The State is home to 7 Urban Indian health clinics.

Many clinics offer some level of behavioral health programs and services.

Indian Health Clinics in California rely on grant funding for provision of basic health care for tribal communities.

Third party funding has become a major source of funding for tribal health clinics.

California has less than a thousand beds for inpatient substance abuse treatment for Indians in California.

There are no inpatient treatment beds for Indian women with children in California.

Tribal Youth have no beds available in California.

The youth regional treatment center has yet to materialize after at least 15 years of tribal consultation.

Chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes continue to impact the tribal communities in both rural and urban settings.

Intergenerational Trauma, Multi-Generational Trauma, Genocide Affliction Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome are some of the labels used in tribal communities to identify a pervasive socio-economic and cultural debilitating mental health condition.

Depression is common in urban and rural tribal communities

Personal and community isolation is a common condition in tribal communities.

Lack of adequate mental health services continues to plague urban and rural tribal communities.

Indian Youth suffer one of the highest rates of suicide.

Indian Youth and men are highly overrepresented in prison and probation populations.

4 out of 5 Indian women are sexually, physically abused in their life, 3 out 5 Indian men suffer from abuse as well.

There are no beds for survivors of domestic violence for Indian women in California.

What is an effective and efficient tribal cultural specialist in contemporary times will look like in Tribal Communities.

Will be a subject matter expert from a tribal perspective.

Subject matter specialists often have expertise in a specific area. Tribal cultural specialists have specific expertise and has additional expertise in how that area is affecting tribal communities. This expertise is unique in systems. This looks like an individual who understands the unique qualities of the tribal communities in which they live and work. These specialists also understand systems of care, are active in their community.

Will be an enrolled member of a Federally Recognized Tribe.

This is an important point to consider. There are many people who claim to be American Indian or Alaska Native, yet they are not enrolled members of Federally Recognized Tribes. These people have been growing in number due to the expansion of gaming in the State, employment opportunities in tribal governments and communities and other funding opportunities. This includes the use of non tribal employees being seen as representative of tribal communities in the development of programs and services. It is important to remember that in tribal communities, engaging the community must reach beyond staff. This is why many systems of care fail in creating programs and services that impact tribal communities. In California the unrecognized tribes and tribes recognized by the State must be considered, how they are represented and engaged by systems of care.

Will have systems of care work experience.

It is important to remember technical experience and systems expertise when considering tribal cultural specialists. This is not to say that only cultural specialists with systems experience are valid, this is to give validity to tribal members who have worked in systems with success. These systems of care can be tribal systems of care.

Will be recognized by tribal communities as an effective leader.

Leadership is not always elected. In tribal communities leadership is often seen from systems as the elected tribal officials. The elected officials of many tribes are often not available for systems development input. And protocol tells us that elected officials are not always subject matter specialists.