Indigenous Early Intervention Alliance (IEIA)
Honoring. Respecting. Indigenous Tribal Children and Culture.
Where Our Sacred Past Meets Our Future.
Indigenous Early Intervention Alliance
Shawnee, OK
ph: 918-851-9449
mdniles
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Introduction to the Indigenous Early Intervention Alliance
Despite the unique and wonderful differences between Indigenous tribes across the world, all Indigenous children entering an early childhood intervention have one common feature. Each day, they enjoy the rising sun in the East.
Like early childhood intervention programs, the East is the place of beginnings. And, although everything that has happened before this day is in the past, these young children begin building new ideas and developing the courage to be "ready to learn."
The locally, nationally, and internationally known research resources and Indigenous communities that comprise the Indigenous Early Intervention Alliance (IEIA) welcomes this day as an opportunity to help all Indigenous children shine like the sun.
What We Do
The goal of the Alliance is to help sustain tribal sovereignty and strengths using an interdisciplinary, but collaborative perspective of early childhood program development.
The Alliance, through its well-established relationships with tribes and empirically-validated “best practices” research projects from around the world (most need to be translated for Indigenous communities) hopes to support a new generation of quality early childhood intervention programs for Indigenous children and to address the gap in the understanding of the mechanisms through which early intervention achieves its effects for Indigenous children.
By respectfully working with Indigenous communities, the specific aims of the IEIA are to:
Identify and acquire external funding and to partner with Indigenous communities in implementing culturally-based early childhood interventions;
Describe patterns of school performance and social competence of Indigenous children throughout the early school-age years, including school achievement and attitudes, academic progress, and social and emotional development;
Evaluate the effects of tribally-based early childhood interventions on child and youth development;
Explore the educational and social and emotional pathways through which the effects of early childhood experiences for Indigenous children and their families are manifested, and more generally, through which scholastic and behavioral development proceeds; and
Investigate the contributions of personal, family, school, community, and cultural factors to children’s educational and social development, with an emphasis on those factors that can be altered by program or policy interventions to promote learning and positive outcomes and reduce behavioral difficulties in Indigenous tribal contexts.
Supporting Indigenous children through culturally-based early childhood intervention
Purpose & Vision
The purpose of IEIA is to increase the capacity of Indigenous communities in developing early childhood intervention programs that fit their unique culture and ideals.
The vision of the Alliance is to contribute to the development of culturally appropriate empirically-validated interventions that reduce the adverse consequences of poverty and improve the life chances of Indigenous children.
Spirit of the IEIA "Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi engari he toa takitini" Native Māori Language for: "I come not with my own strengths but bring with me the gifts, talents, and strengths of my family, tribe and ancestors." Credited to: Lesley Rameka, Hamilton, New Zealand 
The Guardian
"And I will stand guard here, over our great state, over our majestic land, over our values. My lance pierces my legging and is planted in the ground. I will not be moved from my duty, from my love of Oklahoma and all of its people."
- Enoch Kelly Haney
Indigenous Early Intervention Alliance
Shawnee, OK
ph: 918-851-9449
mdniles
