LITTLE BOSTON — The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s Child Welfare Program has been named an Honoring Nations award winner by The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Honoring Nations recognizes “outstanding examples of Tribal self-governance.”

In 2012, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, population 1,000, became the first indigenous nation in the United States to earn Title IV-E status from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — that is, the right to manage its own adoption, foster care, and guardianship programs.

“For my Tribe, taking care of our children is priority No. 1,” Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Chairman Jeromy Sullivan said in a press release issued on   Jan. 14.

“Managing our own Child Welfare Program allows us to be proactively involved in making sure our families get the help they need and children are not removed from their culture and community. Whenever possible, the goal is to preserve family relationships even if a child doesn’t live with his or her parents.”

Previously, Tribes collaborated with states on adoption, foster care, and guardianship.

Being the first Tribe in the country to earn Title IV-E has been an important milestone for the Port Gamble S’Klallam, but it has also meant paving the way for others to follow — particularly in working with and educating federal agencies about Tribal life and families. According to Andrea Smith, the Tribe’s Child and Family Services attorney, this has been one of the biggest obstacles.

“It became clear pretty quickly that DHHS had a very narrow definition of family, especially when it came to whom a child could be placed with in a foster care situation,” Smith said. “In Tribal communities, family often means anyone who loves and can take care of a child. All the women in a child’s life are ‘aunties’ and elders are seen as grandparents whether or not there’s any blood relation.

“It’s been said it ‘takes a village’ to raise a child. This Tribal community is that village.”

The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe also recently became the first Tribe in the country to qualify for an IV-E waiver, which allows the program to be more flexible with the definition of “family” and more easily allocate funds toward intervention activities.

Since earning Title IV-E status, the Tribe’s Child Welfare Program has served as a model for other Tribes across the country. Smith and other program representatives have traveled around the country, donating their time and expertise to educate their counterparts on how to earn the designation, and how to work with federal agencies after the program is up and running.

Only one other indigenous nation, Navajo, has implemented a foster care, adoption, and guardianship assistance program, which launched this past October. The Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized Tribe in the United States.

In addition, Port Gamble S’Klallam’s program has attracted the attention of other countries; the Tribe has hosted visitors from the governments of Australia, Germany and Russia to share information and relate insights gained regarding child welfare issues.

Child and Family Services staff members — Behavioral Health Division director Jolene George, Community Services Division director Cheryl Miller, and Smith — presented the program to The Harvard Project during the National Congress of American Indians convention in October in Atlanta. Port Gamble S’Klallam was one of six finalists; three were chosen for “high honors.”

As a part of the recognition, the Tribe’s Child Welfare Program will earn a place among current and previous honorees in a display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.