A hope for change: Duluth Indian Child Welfare Court aims for better outcomes for Native American families [Inforum.com]

Gathered around four heavy tables pushed together in the middle of the room, Jackson and Elias — there for a hearing — were joined by Tarnowski, attorneys and social workers. There was good news to be finalized: Jackson was regaining full custody of her two children, and her child protection case was being closed.

"It's a really good day when we can return a child to his mother," Tarnowski told Jackson, 24, congratulating her on her efforts. Jackson, emotional, hugged a friend and Elias tightly as she left the courtroom.

Hers was one of 30 cases Tarnowski heard that day during a four-hour period in her Indian Child Welfare Court, begun in the spring of 2015 as a way to offer a better, more culturally sensitive experience to Native American families moving through the legal system. Minnesota has the biggest disparity in the country in the number of Native American kids placed in foster care in relation to its population of Native Americans. And in St. Louis County, the disparity is even greater.