Native Children
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A child’s first words about possible harm call for safety and calm, not an amateur interview. Puyallup Tribal and federal guidance show how adults can preserve a child’s dignity while trained professionals handle detailed questions.

Federal child-forensic-interview guidance says trained interviewers should begin with open-ended questions, allow silence and consider a child’s age, development and culture; focused questions can produce errors when a child feels pressured. A disclosure is not itself a final finding. Family and community adults are not investigators: listen in the child’s words, avoid repeated questioning and make the appropriate safety report without promising secrecy where reporting duties apply.

As of September 12, the Puyallup Tribe’s Children of the River Child Advocacy Center page remains active. It describes child-friendly, non-leading interviews that a child may pause or end and is never forced to complete. This is a local Tribal program with stated referral and eligibility limits—not a national hotline or a model for every Nation. Immediate danger belongs with 911.

A March 2025 Native Child Advocacy Resource Center interview with Children of the River director Carmelita Smith describes practices used by this specific program: tell a child they may correct the adult, do not force eye contact, emphasize that they are not in trouble and learn the particular communities being served. These are one Puyallup program’s practices, not universal assumptions about Native children or Tribal Nations.

Listen first. Do not shame, interrogate or make a child carry the next step alone.