Native American Children and Families

Family Structure

In many contemporary Native American families, relational values and their behavioral manifestations have remained intact. Extended family networks still provide extensive psychological support despite the fact that families have been transformed over time, due to geographic movements and intertribal marriages. Native American families that live in urban areas tend to have nuclear households but often reconstitute a kinship system among Native American community members in the surrounding area. Families that live on the reservation can more readily participate in extended-family activities. Red Horse (1980) described a traditional Native American extended family as structurally open, with a village-like characteristic, including several households and relatives along both vertical and horizontal lines, in contrast to the European model of an extended family, which is defined as three generations within a single household.

A key feature of contemporary Native American family structure is the growing proportion of children who reside with only one parent. Women head 45% of Native American households. Poverty rates in the United States for Native American children are nearly 3 times higher than rates for the general population. Single parenthood, divorce, poverty, and alcohol abuse have undeniable deleterious effects on the development of many Native children.

Nevertheless, many Native American families still live the cultural traditions, providing a very close link between the family and the community and creating a sacred space for child development. Although there are exceptions, for the most part, Native American communities, both on and off the reservation, help to reinforce a protective sense of self-worth, identity, safety, and environmental mastery. Generally, everyone shares responsibility for meeting the needs of children. Thus, when parents cannot raise their own children, members of the extended family take them in and care for them. When there is only one parent in the family, there are often other adults in the household, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and live-in partners, who continue the informal practice of caregiving. Within this kinship system, individual standing in the community is related to the extent to which a person fulfills his or her responsibilities to relatives.

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