BLACKFEET RESERVATION — Christmas music blared from a speaker as Jade-Heather Ackerman’s six children wrestled and squealed in their three-bedroom, two-bathroom trailer home on the Blackfeet Reservation in north-central Montana.

The children’s faces flushed pink from the heat of the wood stove and kitchen oven, set to 425 degrees with its door angled open.

Dylon-Wade, 9, sat on the couch with a workbook on his lap as his sisters practiced TikTok dances and his younger siblings gave each other piggyback rides. Soon, he quit his multiplication tables and doodled a tornado instead.

“OK, let’s get ready for bed,” Ackerman told the children at 9 o’clock, ushering them to change into pajamas and brush their teeth.

As in many homes in tribal communities, each of Ackerman’s children shares a

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