Under a law passed last year, parents of children taken into foster care will have between 12 and 24 months to prove to government officials they can reassume their parental duties.

The children are placed in long-term facilities or put up for adoption if parents can't satisfy the concerns of social workers.

Native health officials say with the one-year anniversary of the law approaching, parents are worried about losing control of their children.

"We are not asking for them to stop all placements, but they have to stop long-term placements until we have the necessary resources in our communities," said Guylaine Gill, who heads the First Nations health and social services commission for Quebec and Labrador.

Gill said native parents will have more difficulty meeting the guidelines set out in the law because aboriginal communities can't offer the same level of services as non-aboriginal communities.

Other native leaders called for more federal funds to improve the social services offered to parents.

"We can get there, but unfortunately we lack the means," said Sebastien Kurtness, vice-chief of the Mashteuiatsh community, north of Quebec City. "Unfortunately the financing just isn't there."

Ghislain Picard, chief of the Quebec and Labrador Assembly of First Nations, indicated he made a formal request for the province's human rights commission to look into the "unequal" treatment the law accords native children.

In the past five years alone, more than 1,400 native children have been placed in foster care in Quebec.