Tribes call out county over child welfare

Local tribes are calling on the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Welfare Services and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Division to do more to protect the county’s children.

The Yurok Tribe, Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria, the Wiyot Tribe and the Trinidad Rancheria voiced their support of the California Attorney General’s effort to pursue a court order requiring Humboldt County to fully comply with a 2018 judgment regarding the agencies’ mismanagement of child abuse and neglect case.

“Shame on the county for this,” said Yurok Tribal Vice Chairman Frankie Myers in an interview with the Times- Standard on Thursday. “There’s no excuse for this type of sentiment with the thought that somehow continuing oversight and watching over Native children is a waste of taxpayer money. That’s sickening and despicable and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

Responding to Xavier Becerra’s initial announcement on Dec. 23, Humboldt County DHHS called the extended monitoring period a “desire to waste taxpayer money.”

“It was jarring because those are the very same comments that were made in the 1800s and turn of the century in the boarding school era,” Myers said, referring to DHHS’ Dec. 23 statement. “Having seen firsthand the struggles our families go through and having read the comments made about not wanting to extend the oversight…it really kind of got right to my heart.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently appointed Myers to the state’s Truth and Healing Council. The council consists of tribal representatives, government officials and educators from across the state and seeks to “clarify the historical record of such relationship in the spirit of truth and healing,” according to the council’s website.

The Truth and Healing Council was formed to prevent history from repeating itself and to move toward building a better system, Myers said.

“The real easy, straightforward ask is for the county to give us the same consideration as other communities in this county,” Myers said. “To give native tribes, native people and our families the same respect, consideration and attention, they pay to other communities in our county.”