The 2025 Native Nations: Honoring Culture and Shaping Futures for Native Children and Families Conference, hosted by the University of Nebraska’s Buffett Early Childhood Institute, last month produced a 39-page report examining early childhood development among Native Americans.
The report, A National Agenda for Tribal Early Childhood Development and Practice: Prioritizing Tribal Leadership in Early Childhood Systems, reveals that more than one in four Native children lives in poverty. The problem extends beyond reservations into urban and metropolitan areas, where access to culturally grounded early childhood services often remains invisible or unavailable.
More than 50 tribal leaders representing 41 tribal nations and eight sectors of tribal early childhood systems gathered at the conference in June 2025.
According to the report, Native children and families across the United States continue to face deep inequities rooted in generations of colonization, displacement, and chronic underinvestment.
The report outlines a sweeping national agenda centered on tribal sovereignty, cultural revitalization, and long-term investments in Native children from prenatal care through age 8.
Leaders involved in the effort said federal and state systems have historically failed Native communities through fragmented programs, inadequate data collection, and policies that overlook or undermine tribal sovereignty.
The newly released agenda calls for a major shift in how governments approach Native early childhood services. Rather than viewing early childhood solely as education or childcare, the report defines it as a holistic, intergenerational system that includes prenatal health, family support programs, home visiting, early learning, Head Start, early intervention services, language revitalization, and community wellness initiatives.
According to the report, these systems are essential not only for children’s development, but also for healing historical trauma, restoring Indigenous languages and traditions, and strengthening tribal identity and governance.
The agenda is organized around shared values that include sovereignty, cultural preservation, workforce well-being, economic development, research sovereignty, and infrastructure development. It also identifies three key partners in building stronger systems for Native children: Tribal governments, states, and the federal government.
The report emphasizes that tribal nations must lead in defining quality standards, directing investments, and designing culturally grounded systems of care. States, meanwhile, are urged to become true partners by investing in Native early childhood systems both on and off Tribal lands while respecting Tribal authority.
Congress and federal agencies are also called upon to uphold their trust responsibilities through equitable funding, meaningful consultation with Tribal Nations, improved interagency coordination, and direct support for tribal workforce development, mental health services, and data systems.
Ultimately, the report argues that investing in tribal early childhood is an investment in the resilience, self-determination, and future strength of Native nations for generations to come.
