In other words, Gambling Addicts are allowed to lose money that casinos don't have to return.
Good advertising campaign!

Maybe some day states will have the sense to ban them.

La. casinos seize $800,000 for owed child support

Angel Pellegrin plays a video poker machine Friday at Jack's in Houma.
Benjamin Oliver Hicks/Staff

By Chance Ryan
Staff Writer

Published: Friday, March 8, 2013 at 6:35 p.m.

The state's casino interception program captured more than $806,000 in casino winnings in 2012 from non-custodial parents owing child support payments.
 

Amelia Belle Casino in Morgan City seized nearly $50,000 for the program. State law allows casinos to collect child support from people who win more than $1,200.

 

Hollywood Casino in Baton Rouge seized the most — $106,771 — of the state's 18 non-Indian casinos.

 

Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services officials said the program has been a successful tool in collecting overdue support.

 

“In our work to assist families who rely on court-ordered child support to provide for their children, DCFS uses every avenue available, like casino intercepts, to collect the more than $1.2 billion owed by non-custodial parents statewide,” said DCFS Secretary Suzy Sonnier in a statement.

 

Former Sen. Nick Gautreaux introduced the legislation in 2010, and Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the bill that year. Casinos run the gambler's name through a child support database to see if any money is owed.

 

Other states with similar laws include Mississippi, Indiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Colorado and West Virginia.

 

Reece Middleton, executive director of the Louisiana Association on Compulsive Gambling, said he sees the benefits of the program, but it might also be an administrative burden on casinos.

 

“Who would stand up and be against this and say, ‘Well, we want people to use welfare money in our casinos that's intended for the DCFS'? You just don't say that.”

 

Middleton said he wonders if the program is intended more to punish casinos than to benefit child welfare services.

 

“It just seems like a lot to ask from a casino,” he said. “I don't see how they keep up with it.”

“Is it beneficial for us? No,” said Wade Duty, executive director of the Louisiana Casino Association. “But it is beneficial for children who have parents who are not paying their child support.”

 

Duty said the law is just another requirement the casino industry has to comply with.

 

“I wouldn't say that it's too much,” he said. “Casinos are used to being a highly regulated industry, and if it's a requirement then that's what we're going to do.”

 

Duty said the program doesn't involve too much of a financial constraint on casinos because it's not necessarily their money that's being lost.

 

“These are winnings that would normally be paid to a player,” he said. “But because that player has an obligation that supersedes his interests, then it's going to be routed to DCFS for distribution to the dependent child.”

 

The only money coming out of the casinos' pockets, Duty said, is the labor costs and time it takes to make sure the money is remitted to the state.

 

“We are in the customer service business, and if you have to suspend everyone's jackpot while you hunt through a 120,000-name database then it gets very cumbersome,” he said. “But DCFS did a really good job about listening to our concerns, and they produced a product that is easily searchable.”

 

Casino interceptions is just one of many avenues the state can use to enforce these payments.

 

Failure to pay court-ordered child support can result in liens against a non-payer's property; seizure of assets; suspension of driver's, hunting or fishing licenses; interception of state and federal tax refunds; passport denial; and contempt of court charges, among other enforcement actions.

 

Any parent or person responsible for a child can receive services from the state's Child Support Enforcement program. For information or to apply for services, visit www.dcfs.la.gov/CSE.

You can also search the database for Louisiana delinquent child support payers at www.dcfs.la.gov/delinquent.

 

 

http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20130308/ARTICLES/130309666/1320?Title=La-casinos-seize-800-000-for-owed-child-support

Promoting Casinos as Public Service???

Pretending Casinos are serving a public good by seizing the WINNINGS of deadbeat parents ignores their losses that keep casinos in business.

How much of their losses have casinos kept?

Casinos collect $800,000 in child support
Posted: Jan 29, 2013
Michael Oliver

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Three Baton Rouge casinos have helped the Department of Children and Family Services collect more than $170,000 from deadbeat parents.

Since the beginning of the program in 2011, the Belle of Baton Rouge collected has $46,397.61, Hollywood Casino has collected $106,771.93, and L'Auberge Baton Rouge has collected $20,454.57.

18 Louisiana casinos participate in the program to collect child support from casino winnings of more than $1,200. Statewide, more than $800,000 has been collected.

"In our work to assist families who rely on court ordered child support to provide for their children, DCFS uses every avenue available, like casino intercepts, to collect the more than $1.2 billion owed by non-custodial parents statewide," said DCFS Secretary Suzy Sonnier.

Six other states have similar programs.

http://www.wafb.com/story/20778404/casinos-collect-800000-in-child-support

States heading off deadbeats at casinos

States heading off deadbeats at casinos
By Bill Ruthhart
Chicago Tribune

Slot machines are one of the gaming options at the new Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Illinois, as seen June 9, 2011. A growing number of states have passed laws forcing casinos to intercept the winnings of deadbeat parents who owe child support, but not Illinois. (Keri Wiginton/Chicago Tribune/MCT)

Map of the U.S. showing states that intercept child support from casino winnings; includes charts showing top 10 states for uncollected child support payments. Chicago Tribune 2011


CHICAGO – Hundreds of gamblers have stood outside the casino cage, adrenaline still pumping from their big win, only to be told the thousands of dollars they are there to collect have been confiscated – for their kids.

A growing number of states have passed laws forcing casinos to intercept the winnings of deadbeat parents who owe child support, but not Illinois.

Efforts to start a similar system here have been stopped cold – not only by the powerful casino lobby, but by the state agency that collects child support, which has voiced concerns over how such a program would be implemented.

In four states that already have chosen to withhold winnings from parents who owe child support, the Chicago Tribune found the systems have proven effective, collecting nearly $3 million while creating few hassles for casinos.

Some parents have repeatedly had their jackpots taken, including one in Colorado whose winnings have been seized 11 times, officials say.

“These people are taking their kids’ money and they are throwing it in a slot machine,” said Joel Judd, a former Colorado legislator who authored the country’s first casino child support law. “They are putting a lot of money into these machines and games over a long period of time, and it’s not their money.

“I’m glad we found a way to collect it.”

It wasn’t easy.

For five years, Colorado’s casinos fought off the legislation until Judd pushed it through in 2007.

He got the idea while working as a Denver attorney. One of his clients was awarded restitution in a court case, and the woman who owed the money won $5,000 at a casino. Judd said when he tried to collect for his client, the woman already had spent the money.

Realizing there was an even more widespread problem with deadbeat parents, he started pressing for casinos to check for child support debts when a gambler cashes out.

Since the law took effect in July 2008, Colorado has seized winnings 810 times for a total of $1.25 million, according to state child support figures.

The law requires casinos to check gamblers who win $1,200 at a slot machine – the same threshold where a winner has to fill out a federal tax form. Table game winners only fill out forms if they win with a hand at extreme odds – at least 300-to-1 – and collect more than $600.

If a gambler meets those criteria, a casino employee types the winner’s social security number into a state computer system to see if there is a match. If the winner owes, the system tells the casino how much to confiscate.

Colorado made its first collection the day the law was implemented. In 2008, it reeled in more than $500,000 while it has averaged $336,000 each of the last two years.

The state’s largest intercept to date was for more than $35,000, and one gambler had his winnings confiscated by casinos six times for a total of $44,100, said Paula Brown, a child support official who administers the program.

One Colorado man has had 11 different casino jackpots totaling more than $15,000 sent to his children.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels called for a similar program in 2010, and in its first year the state has collected winnings 382 times for $736,000.

One parent had $18,500 confiscated, and 40 gamblers have had jackpots garnisheed multiple times.

“It’s happened over and over with some people, where they hit big and whatever they win is minus the child support,” said Ann Houseworth, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Child Services. “Sometimes they get some money, sometimes it’s pennies, sometimes it’s nothing, but they keep coming back.

“It just shows you what their priorities are.”

Many states – including Illinois – already check lottery winners to ensure they do not owe child support.

That’s what led Gary Peterlin to push for a similar check at casinos in 2005. Then a member of the Illinois Gaming Board, he approached state Rep. Patricia Bellock, R-Hinsdale, about introducing a bill.

Peterlin, a LaSalle County attorney, and Bellock met with casino representatives and state child support officials, but the concept failed.

“I ran into a lot of resistance,” Bellock said. “The riverboat companies were all over it. All I seemed to get was opposition.”

And not just from the casinos.

Child support officials opposed the concept, citing concerns about red tape and making a computer database available to the casinos, Bellock and Peterlin said.

“The child support folks’ issues weren’t presented in a way that suggested it would be a big problem,” Peterlin said. “I was shocked they weren’t gung ho about it.”

The same opposition developed again this March when Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, proposed a bill that would have required horse tracks and casinos to check winners for owed child support.

It died in a committee hearing, where not only track and casino owners lined up to oppose it, but also two officials from the state agency charged with collecting child support.

Representatives of that agency, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, did not detail their concerns at the time.

When asked recently why the state opposed collecting child support at casinos, spokesman Mike Claffey said that the agency supports “the concept.”

“We just have concerns about specifics,” he said. “The issues aren’t insurmountable.”

Why the state opposed the legislation instead of remaining neutral on the bill or working to improve it remains unclear.

Claffey said last week that the agency was concerned that a casino child support system could be “too labor intensive” and that the bill did not specify whether checks would be done online or whether state workers would have to field phone calls from casinos.

Illinois already uses similar computer systems to deny lottery winnings, fishing and hunting licenses and driver’s licenses to people who owe child support, or in some cases, other financial debts.

Claffey, however, said those systems could not be used. For example, the database checked by clerks at retail locations before issuing fishing and hunting licenses can identify other problems in addition to child support debt. Lottery winners, however, are searched on a secure system located in state offices.

The state also was worried about a provision in the bill requiring casinos to hold confiscated winnings for 10 days, Claffey said, pointing to federal rules requiring child support money to be distributed within 48 hours.

“We want to work on this,” he said. “We want the bill to have specifics we are able to support and carry out.”

Illinois casinos have their own set of concerns.

Tom Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association, said other industries are not expected to carry out duties the state normally handles.

Some lawmakers agree.

“I do not like putting a burden on private industry to regulate them to do something like this,” state Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Mount Sterling, said this spring before voting against the bill.

Swoik said if the casinos are expected to collect child support, they need to have a real-time, electronic data on what parents owe, so money isn’t collected at the casino after a debt has been settled.

Setting up such a system has proven difficult in two states.

West Virginia and Mississippi have the power to intercept casino winnings from deadbeat parents, but have yet to develop a system.

Colorado spent $300,000 for programming to launch its system, which has worked so smoothly the state has expanded its checks to other areas – court-ordered restitution, income taxes, defaulted student loans, even parking tickets on state property.

In the last year, Iowa has collected $820,000 in child support at casinos, but also has roped in money owed on student loans and debts owed to county clerks, said Carol Eaton, chief of the Iowa Bureau of Collections.

In Indiana, casinos fought child support collections, but the process has run smoothly, said Mike Smith, director of the Casino Association of Indiana.

Still, he said, casinos have had to make more than 200,000 checks to score the 382 hits of parents who owed money, a computer process he called time consuming. Smith said the casinos are working with the state to develop a faster system where workers would only have to swipe a winner’s driver’s license on a computer to determine if they owe child support.

Lois Rice, executive director of the Colorado Gaming Association, said the child support checks have not turned out to be nearly as troublesome as her casino group feared when it opposed the law.

“We have customer service issues once in a while, where people are held up at the cage,” Rice said. “But overall, it’s been pretty smooth.”

This month, Louisiana became at least the fifth state to collect child support at casinos, adding to a growing movement nationwide – momentum Illinois’ casinos can’t ignore, some officials say.

“This is one of those motherhood and apple pie deals,” said Swoik, who represents the state’s 10 casinos. “As more and more states are doing it, we can see at some point it would occur here.”

The issue is likely to come up again in next year’s legislative session, and Bellock said, “it’s time to bring it forward again.”

Peterlin, who first pitched the idea in Illinois, said he hopes Illinois casinos start collecting soon.

“If people who should be paying child support are out gambling, it’s ridiculous that their winnings wouldn’t be applied to the debts they owe their children,” he said. “To me, it’s a no-brainer.”

Gambling Addicts Pay Child Support With Winnings

While Indiana legislators pat themselves on the back for their brilliance in securing child support payments through slot machines winnings, they created the problem of child neglect through Gambling Addiction.

Maybe it's time for a little introspection.

Instead of seizing winnings, these scofflaws should be banned rather than continuing to feed cash sucking machines.


Gamblers lose jackpots over child-support debts
CNHI News Service

The Effingham Daily News

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana casinos are becoming big collectors for the state’s child support program.

More than $650,000 in winnings from slot machines have been intercepted from 376 men and women who were behind in child support payments. That money has been distributed to about 550 children.

The program, which was approved by state lawmakers, was launched late last fall.

Consider also that:

• Jackpots have been withheld from 19 people who had never made even one of their court-ordered child support payments.

• Thirty-five individuals have had all or part of their jackpot intercepted more than once. One individual has lost four jackpots to the program.

• The highest single jackpot withheld and turned over to DCS was $18,000.

State and casino officials estimate the program might eventually result in $1 million or more annually in intercepted payments.

---

Indiana: Law ends days of gambling on child support

Furthermore …
Law ends days of gambling on child support

A new state law regarding casino jackpots already has some big winners: Children whose parents were delinquent on child support payments.

Since October, Indiana casinos have been required to block jackpot payouts for Indiana gamblers with outstanding child support obligations. Already more than $650,000 has been collected from 376 men and women, according to Franklin Online, the Franklin College Statehouse bureau.

“This is one of the coolest things we’ve ever done,” said the legislation’s sponsor, Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond. “I think many of these folks are going to be happy to get this burden off their backs. It was a phenomenal thing to do.”

The jackpots seized include 19 from people who had never made even one of their court-ordered payments. There are 35 winners – or, more accurately, losers – who have had all or parts of their jackpot winnings seized more than once. One gambler had an $18,000 jackpot turned over.

Under the law, casinos must check the names of gamblers winning $1,200 or more against the list of delinquent child support payers and withhold money from those who owe. The Department of Child Services retains the money for 10 days for a possible appeal, then sends it to families.

State GOP ties to high roller under scrutiny

Timothy Durham, the Indianapolis businessman facing felony charges of bilking Fair Finance investors of $200 million, falls under scrutiny by Bloomberg BusinessWeek in a recent article describing him as “the Madoff of the Midwest.”

The article describes Durham’s taste for excess, including his lavish parties in Los Angeles, Miami and on his yacht in the Caribbean. It also notes a party at his 30,000-square-foot home near Geist Reservoir, attended by members of the Indianapolis Colts, in which Durham showed up dressed as Hugh Hefner and blew out candles on a cake sporting his image in the center of a million-dollar bill.

BusinessWeek also notes Durham’s role as a major donor to state Republicans. Indeed, a July 22 filing by the Fair Finance bankruptcy trustee identifies assets targeted by the estate, described as “fraudulent transfers” in the form of campaign contributions to candidates and political action committees. The largest contribution is to Gov. Mitch Daniels, for $285,000. Others include the Indiana Republican State Committee, $228,925; former Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, $193,882; Attorney General Greg Zoeller, $22,000; and the governor’s Aiming Higher PAC, $10,000.

Native American tribes shield parents from child support

Native American tribes shield parents from child support
Kelley Weiss, California Watch

Some Native American tribes have gone out of their way to protect parents who won't pay child support, asserting their right as a sovereign nation.

Mothers around the state are finding it almost impossible to collect child support from some Native American fathers because tribal governments and businesses are shielding them from court-ordered payments, records and interviews show.

The number of tribes or tribal companies that do not honor state child support orders – by garnisheeing the income or bank accounts of delinquent parents – is murky. The California Department of Child Support Services does not systematically track which businesses, tribal or otherwise, honor support orders.

But Richard Blake, chief judge of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, acknowledged that the majority of tribal governments in the state do not have formal programs for child support enforcement. Blake said only about 20 of 103 federally recognized California tribes have official child support enforcement systems in place.

“Traditionally, Native people are taught that we take care of our children and our elders. Taking care of our children means child support,” Blake said. “These children deserve better than what we’re giving them at this point.”

Blake, who also is the chief judge for the Smith River Rancheria and Redding Rancheria tribal courts, said that while tribes should honor such orders, it is their right as sovereign nations to ignore California’s courts. He said of the 2,500 Hoopa Valley tribal members, up to 40 percent likely will have a child support case in his court.

Collecting child support from a delinquent parent is a difficult task no matter who owes the money. On average each year, the state does not collect about $1 billion in child support payments owed to parents around the state.

For some mothers, collecting child support from a tribal member or father who works for a Native American-owned casino can turn into a years-long losing battle. Although the number of women in this situation is a small percentage of those owed child support in California, interviews and court records reveal a persistent and rarely reported problem among Native American tribes.

Christina Brown of Wildomar, a small town between Los Angeles and San Diego, has had little luck getting child support from her ex-husband, Sonnie Brown. Brown, the father of three of her five children, is a member of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which runs a large and profitable casino near San Diego.

Brown lives with her mom in a small house. Outside in the garage, she points to boxes of court records, the paper trail of her battle to get child support. A high school dropout, she has represented herself in court. With a cigarette dangling from her mouth, she squints at dozens of files.

“These are all just things of me just fighting to get what I’m owed; you know, I’ve gone so long without support, and if I didn’t do all of this, I would never see a dollar,” Brown said.

Since 2008, Brown has been in and out of the Riverside County Superior Court to try to get child support for her children, ages 7, 15 and 17, all Viejas tribal members. A large tattoo on her chest shows off her own Native American heritage.

According to family court documents, Sonnie Brown in 2009 stopped consistently paying his $2,987 monthly child support, which was raised to $4,659 in April. He earns $13,250 a month for his share of gaming profits distributed to members of the tribe, records show.

“He goes to the reservation, picks up his check, goes to the casino and cashes it,” Christina Brown said.

After leaving Sonnie Brown in 2007, the family lost their house in Temecula, and Christina Brown has been on and off welfare. Two cars have been repossessed.

In February, Sonnie Brown served five days in the Riverside County jail for probation violations, including failing to pay child support. At that time, he paid $30,000 to Christina Brown in back payments. But she said he now owes another $30,000 for this year.

She said she has appealed directly to the Viejas Tribal Council, but it has refused to make him pay child support. She said she offered to take a debit card instead so the council could track the money, but it refused to do that either.

Christina Brown keeps boxes of records of her efforts to receive back child support. “These are all just things of me just fighting to get what I’m owed; you know, I’ve gone so long without support, and if I didn’t do all of this, I would never see a dollar,” she says.

“It’s a moral thing when you have children and you sit there and see your children suffer, and you have got to figure out ways to get food … or get school clothes,” Christina Brown said. “It’s a very painful thing to watch your children need.”

Court records show that in March, Sonnie Brown tested positive for drugs and later the court suspended his visitation rights to see the children.

Sonnie Brown declined to comment. His attorney, Joseph Katz, said he has advised Brown that paying the monthly support set by the state court is the most cost-effective route. But Katz acknowledged that laws governing sovereign tribes have complicated the case, which he described as particularly bitter and protracted.

A spokesman for the Viejas Tribal Council, Robert Scheid, said the tribe in June agreed to consider the garnisheeing of gaming stipends from tribal members or wages from delinquent tribal members working at the Viejas Casino. Scheid said the council will do this on a case-by-case basis and could still refuse to honor state support orders.

“It creates an opportunity for a remedy but still preserves the tribal council’s discretion,” Scheid said of the tribe’s June resolution. He declined to comment about the Brown case.

The unusual legal situation has angered Cheryl Schmit, a vocal critic of Indian gaming. Schmit, who runs the watchdog group Stand Up for California, says taxpayers have to pick up the tab for these “deadbeat dads” when the mothers are forced to get assistance from state welfare programs.

“We’re subsidizing tribal families when tribal governments should be doing that,” Schmit said. “It would appear in some of these instances that tribal governments themselves are complicit in protecting these funds from being distributed to mothers and children.”

Struggle to address families’ needs

In 2010, the state managed about $2.46 billion in child support owed to parents, but the Department of Child Support Services and local agencies did not collect about $1 billion in payments. About 60 percent of child support payments are collected by withholding money from employees’ paychecks, similar to income taxes.

Tribal gaming lawyer Colin Hampson, with the firm Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry in San Diego, has represented the Viejas tribe in the past. He said that 20 years ago, California tribes were destitute. Even after Indian gaming took off in 2000, Hampson said, many tribal governments still do not have their own court systems or law enforcement.

“Some of the tribes have more resources now, and how they allocate those resources to address some of the numerous economic, social and infrastructure needs is a tremendous task,” Hampson said. “So tribes need some time to address all of those needs, including child support.”

That’s hard to explain to Lynda Beck of Santa Rosa, who said she never consistently received child support for her disabled son, who is now 25 years old. The father owes the state about $13,000 to reimburse taxpayers for welfare payments that Beck received, and he owes Beck about $6,000 in back child support.

The father of her son is a member of the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians. Beck said she has asked the tribal council and father to honor the state child support order. But she said the Lytton tribe maintains that it does not have to do so. Representatives from the tribe did not return calls for comment.

“State laws can’t be enforced and they hide behind the sovereignty, and there has to be something in place that holds them to the same laws that everyone else has,” Beck said.

She has records detailing what tribal members have made from San Pablo Lytton Casino revenues. In April 2008, members received a $40,000 payment from the tribe as part of their share of casino proceeds, the documents show.

But because the father was listed by the state as unemployed, he was required to pay her $50 a month in child support. According to state records, in November of that year, the father paid Beck $23.97 in support. Beck said she has asked the state to reflect his casino stipend as part of his income, in order to boost his support payment, but she has been unsuccessful.

Like Christina Brown, Beck has had to rely on the state government to give her welfare and food stamps throughout her son’s life.

Schmit, with Stand Up for California, said there is a lack of political will in the Capitol to take on tribal sovereignty and child support. According to the California Gambling Control Commission, since 2006, gaming tribes have contributed more than $761 million to the state budget, and state records show tribal governments are some of the biggest campaign contributors.

“It’s very frustrating,” Schmit said. “So there needs to be a solution to this.”

­Answers in gaming compacts

One enforcement answer could come through state gaming compacts that would cover more than half of the tribes in the state. Since 1999, Govs. Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger negotiated agreements with 67 tribes to expand Indian gambling.

Native American tribes in California employ about 53,000 people, mainly at the Pechanga, Cache Creek, San Manuel and Thunder Valley resorts and casinos scattered throughout the state.

Only six tribes have included honoring child support in their gaming compacts, and the provisions apply only to their casino employees.

Those are some of the largest in California – four are in Southern California: the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians in Riverside County and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego County. The other two are in Northern California – the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians in El Dorado County and the Yurok Tribe in Del Norte County.

Child support problems surface with non-gaming tribes as well. Sheila Pinto has three children with a member of the Jamul Indian Village near San Diego. Pinto said her ex-husband receives monthly payments from his tribe, but owes her about $30,000 in back payments and isn’t paying his current support of nearly $1,500 per month.

“Sometimes, even birthdays would go by and we’d have nothing, and we knew he had the money,” Sheila Pinto said.

She said her relationship with some tribal council members is so strained that she has not formally appealed her case to them, although she has spoken with some members about it. The tribe does not have a written policy on appealing such cases.

Julia Lotta, the Jamul Indian Village secretary and treasurer, said the tribe has just 34 adult members and the tribal council has never been formally contacted to help settle a child support dispute. She said the council would consider enforcing a state child support order but couldn’t predict the outcome.

“The tribe cannot tell an individual what to do with his money,” Lotta said. “It’s not their responsibility to tell him how to spend it.”

For the state government, respecting tribal sovereignty while also trying to enforce child support orders is tricky. Bill Otterbeck, a deputy director for the Department of Child Support Services, said the state has no idea how much money is owed by delinquent Native American parents or others who work for tribes. He said the state respects tribal sovereignty and its goal is to build partnerships with tribes.

“It takes some time for that to happen, considering that we have over a hundred tribes, I think that it’s a long-term effort,” Otterbeck said.

Tribal court judge Blake agrees this won’t happen immediately but said there is some hope. The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement recently approved a $500,000 grant for the Yurok Tribe - California's largest, with 5,000 members - to set up and operate a child support program. Although 50 other tribes in the U.S. have received grants from this program, the Yurok Tribe is the first from California.

“They’re going to look at that like it’s a tribal program that’s not state-operated, or federally operated, that’s not the Big Brother telling them what to do,” Blake said.

He said the next step is to bring tribes together, with the help of federal grant money, to operate two tribal child support enforcement offices in Northern and Southern California.

But Christina Brown wonders how much longer it will take for this to happen. She said it’s hard to believe that any Native American tribal council would deny support for children.

“It’s just sad because I believe that the Indians have the right to be their own government; they need to do it themselves,” she said. “And I think Indians should care about other Indians.”