Two district judges have ordered Beltrami County officials to identify every child in out-of-home placement connected to the Red Lake Nation reservation, a move that follows a federal takeover of the tribe's child-welfare agency last month. The order, issued on Oct. 22, directs social workers to confirm the current placement and status of all affected children. County Attorney David Hanson says fewer than 10 of the county's 80 children in out-of-home placement are actually living in Red Lake.
The order arrives roughly six weeks after the Bureau of Indian Affairs seized control of Ombimindwaa Gidinawemaaganiaadog, known as Ombi, the agency that has run child-welfare services for the Red Lake Nation. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, the federal agency cited inaction and a lack of cooperation with investigators in justifying the takeover. Beltrami County places children connected to Red Lake through foster homes licensed by Ombi, both on and off the reservation, and the Red Lake Nation reservation sits almost entirely within the county's borders.
Judges Matti R. Adam and Annie P. Claesson-Huseby, who serve the state's Ninth Judicial District in northwest Minnesota, will determine next steps on the placements once social workers complete their review. Beltrami County was asked to submit a list of the children, their locations and each social worker's most recent face-to-face contact by Friday, the same day the order set as its deadline. Hanson told the Star Tribune that federal agencies are handling the bulk of the matter and that he hopes they have the resources to see it through.
A Rare Federal Takeover
The Bureau of Indian Affairs' move against Ombi is known as an emergency reassumption — a rare step in which the federal government takes back a tribal program without the tribe's consent, as MPR News has reported. The reassumption took effect Sept. 10, and the same day, the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs executed a search warrant at Ombi's offices, according to KAXE. No arrests resulted from that operation, the station reported, and the FBI investigation is described as separate from the reassumption itself.
The Bemidji Pioneer reported that the federal notice of reassumption accused Red Lake's child-welfare agency of refusing to cooperate with federal authorities and of actively impeding investigations. Red Lake Nation has operated its own child-welfare program since 1997 under a self-governance compact with the federal government, and in 2021 it asserted full jurisdiction over its tribal child-welfare cases rather than continuing to partner with Beltrami County, according to a Minnesota Department of Human Services report to the Legislature. Red Lake Nation controls its own social services and judicial system and has jurisdiction over all cases except major crimes, which are handled by the FBI and federal courts.
Red Lake Nation is appealing the reassumption decision, and the Bemidji Pioneer reported that the Nation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have agreed to mediation. The Red Lake Tribal Council has said the federal agency raised serious concerns about child safety, government responsibilities and community trust, while also maintaining that Red Lake knows best how to keep children safe and connected with their families. Neither Ombi nor the Bureau of Indian Affairs responded to requests for comment, according to the Star Tribune's reporting.
What the Numbers Show
Ombi oversees Indian Child Welfare Act compliance for Red Lake Nation along with family welfare and behavioral-health services, per KAXE's reporting. State data included in the Department of Human Services report show the agency received 641 maltreatment reports in 2023, up from 468 in 2022 but still below the 713 reports logged in 2021. The agency screened out 69.1% of reports in 2023, down from 79.7% the year before, and neglect accounted for 74.6% of screened-in cases that year, up from 59.9% in 2022.
Of the 198 screened-in cases in 2023, Ombi substantiated 79 new child victims, the state report shows. Ombi's work extended beyond child protection to include family welfare and behavioral-health services. The disparity in Minnesota's foster-care system runs deep: in 2021, the rate of American Indian children in out-of-home care statewide was 80.3 per 1,000, compared with 5.0 per 1,000 for white children, according to the same state data.
Allegations Behind the Takeover
The Bureau of Indian Affairs has claimed that Ombi's emphasis on family reunification left children at risk of death, abuse and severe malnutrition, and the agency reported that one child was flown twice to a hospital with skull fractures and suspicious bruising, alleging that Ombi refused to place the child in another home. Federal officials reportedly grew concerned about Ombi as far back as 2021, and the agency has said children served by Ombi have died at least seven times since then. Ombi operates its own foster care licensing and has generally preferred placing children with relatives.
Hanson said Beltrami County will not disrupt existing placements if they are deemed safe and appropriate, and estimated that Ombi has roughly 200 children currently placed with relatives or in foster homes. With the mediation between Red Lake Nation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs still unresolved, the court-ordered accounting in Beltrami County marks the clearest local step yet toward determining how many children's lives sit at the intersection of tribal sovereignty and federal intervention.
