The new specialty court doesn’t have the resources to handle all of the county’s ICWA cases, so cases for members of other tribes will still be seen in regular district court proceedings.

In Yellowstone County last year, 43 percent of the 550 civil child abuse and neglect cases filed involved children who are tribal members or eligible for membership. Native Americans make up about 6.5 percent of the state population. The vast majority of these child welfare cases are neglect cases where parents are using meth.

Each week, state and tribal officials who have worked for more than a year to start the court convene for hearings. Those involved say poor communication and lack of relationships in the past stymied progress on the cases, but all that is changing.

Other ICWA courts are in Los Angeles, Denver, the north Denver metro area and Duluth, Minnesota.

Under ICWA, which Congress passed in 1978, officials who remove Native American kids from their homes must work to keep the kids as close to family as possible. The first preference for placement goes to the child’s family members. If none are able, officials then try other members of the child’s tribe, and next members of different tribes. After all of those options are exhausted, social workers then place the kid in a non-Native foster home.