California lawmakers are considering a proposal to make it easier for Native American tribes to make their arguments in child custody cases.

Technically, the proposed legislation, AB 686, would let lawyers or other representatives of Native American tribes appear by phone or electronically in cases involving the possible removal of Native American children from their families and tribes.

Such hearings are held as part of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law enacted in 1978 to stem the systemic removal of tribal children from their families and cultures — a practice that at one time touched as many as one in three Native American children.

But the problem AB 686 aims to fix is as much about geography as culture. Often, the hearings that determine where Indian children are placed are held hundreds of miles from tribal lands, making it difficult for all sides to be well represented in court. And without tribal presence during those proceedings, judges are denied information that might make their decision more compliant with the federal law, according to a statement from the Juvenile Court Judges of California to the Judiciary Committee, which passed the bill April 2.

“When people talk about tribal communities and tribal children they just think that everyone has access to be able to jump on the internet or drive to a courtroom,” said Assemblyman James Ramos, who introduced the bill with Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, and Assemblywoman Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-Grand Terrace.

“Some areas in the state of California up in the Yurok areas in Eureka, it could take hours to even get to a payphone,” Ramos said. Making it easier for people living in such areas to testify in custody cases, Ramos added, “really starts to help Indian country in the state of California.”

A second bill by the three lawmakers, AB 685, would require the state bar to administer grants to nonprofit legal services organizations to provide Indian tribes with legal services in Indian Child Welfare Act-related cases.

Many tribes right now are represented by tribal social workers rather than legal counsel, and the tribe is often the only party in a case “not represented by an attorney,” said Delia Sharpe, executive director of the California Tribal Families Coalition, which sponsored the bills.

“We’re trying to level the playing field thereby creating the mechanism where tribes can have access to legal counsel,” Sharpe said.

The bill also aims to reduce the number of appeals in cases involving tribal children. California typically leads the nation in such appeals. Last year, state tribes appealed 125 cases, more than half of the 206 cases that were appealed nationally.

“We have light years more appeals here in California than any other state,” Sharpe said.

The bills are part of a larger effort to improve the state’s compliance with Indian Child Welfare Act. the federal law. Prior to enactment of the 41-year-old law, between 25 percent and 35 percent of all native children were removed from their homes — with 85 percent of those children placed outside of their families and communities, even when fit and willing relatives were available, according to according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

In California, which has the largest Native American population in the country, 90 percent of Native American children were placed in non-Indian homes.

The federal law set standards for state courts and social agencies to follow before placing Native American children in foster care or adoptive homes. It also enabled tribes and families to participate in the process.

While the state has made progress toward this effort, tribal leaders remained concerned about how the proceedings were occurring.

In 2015, leaders of tribes in the state formed the California ICWA Compliance Task Force. The goal was to examine compliance issues and provide recommendations on how to maintain compliance. Those recommendations have led to AB 685 and 686 and some signed legislation, including a bill from Waldron that incorporates the Bureau of Indian Affairs regulations into state law.

Both AB 685 and 686 passed the Judiciary Committee April 2. They will next be heard in the Appropriations Committee, although a date has yet to be set.