Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) & Us
Native Americans have had a brutal course of territorial expulsion and assimilative enactments in the United States. One cannot erase the history or agony a group, particularly Indigenous tribes, has endured. Such hardship lives on through intergenerational trauma and reiterated notions of past adversity. Government efforts to reverse such inequities are exemplified in the policies of the Indian Reorganization Act (1934), the Indian Civil Rights Act (1968), and the Indian Self-Determination Act (1975). The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was a policy implemented in 1978 in response to the disproportionate amount of Native children who faced removal from tribal groups and were placed into the care of non-Native families. The adoptive system did not support the extension of relatives or tribal affiliation in caring for orphaned Native children. More than this, studies reveal a dangerously high percentage of Indian kids were removed from reservations unwarranted, barring no cause for their placement into non-Indian family environments. The American social and legal system has failed to account for the importance of being raised in a culturally-like environment suited to tribal and ethnic practices. Just recently, the ICWA was challenged by Brackeen v. Haaland in which the constitutionality of the act was questioned in terms of imposing unjust racial classifications towards non-Native members adopting Native children. The court effectively upheld the intentions of the ICWA on June 15th and its role in Indian relations superseding non-Indian environments. This has been a dire win for the Native American community and has instilled unity and trust in a government that has so often let them down. However, the debate over whether the ICWA faces future reversal lingers over Native American citizens across the country today.
ICWA Analysis
The policy itself emphasizes the value in cultural inheritance and preserving Native practices on the premise of familial upholdment. In considering race and tribal identity in adoptive processes, such an act places a preference for Indian parentage well-above other BIPOC or white identities. Some argue this promotes room for anti-racist efforts and actually diminishes the amount of intercultural connectedness that the U.S. prides itself upon.
Why this matters
It is crucial to acknowledge that this act was created to dismantle the involuntary removal of Native children from already well-equipped Native homes. However, unjust removal remains a confounding issue across the nation. The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) found that Native children are overrepresented in adoptive care systems at a rate 2.7 times greater than their presence in the general population. In fact, Indian children make up less than 15% of the general youth in South Dakota, and over 50% of the foster care system’s representation. This has damaging ramifications for affected adolescents and their affiliated families and reservations. Children in the system are statistically more likely to deal with depression and anxiety, become gang-affiliated or homeless, and become addicted to harmful substances. A parallel has even been drawn by Suzanne Crow, a Native grandmother who fought to bring her grandchildren out of the foster system in 2011. Crow who was removed from her own home at the age of five. She recounts on NPR her own experience being shipped to boarding school and their punishments for speaking in the Native Lakota language and similar assimilative measures. As a result of generational patterns of poverty and inequity that resulted from whitening applications, there is a community of Native parents that are not equipped with the experiences or resources to raise their own children. This perpetuates future removal and the historical repetition of Native families being torn apart. Moreover, when the ICWA does not become enforced in adoptive systems - due to ignorance of racial identity or adoptive family adamance - growing youth will not have access to their heritage, language, and the Native culture becomes further dissolved within American society.
What does the future hold?
Although in June 2023 the Supreme Court successfully upheld the ICWA, the provisions of the act facing criticism likewise threaten Federal Indian Law within itself. That is, the legislative relationship that Indian Reservations have with the U.S. Congress. This underlines Native rights to tribal sovereignty in the separation of, but not to the exclusion of, American federal law. Questions pertaining to the implementation and constitutionality of the ICWA threaten the increasingly complex political relationship Native tribes and the U.S. hold, which could potentially harm territorial rights, federal protection, and equal citizenship - all that has been tirelessly fought for by a culture that came much before European settlers.
Upholding Native-Serving Legislation
The advancement of Indian common rights and equity in the United States is strengthened by eager and passionate individuals like ourselves. That said, becoming affiliated with cultural history assists immensely in spreading awareness and support of their future legal and social experiences. Listed below are organizations dedicated to allyship with Native Americans and self-education outlets.
National Indian Education Association - Founded in 1969 by Native educators, this organization hosts a forum each year to educate youth, teachers, policymakers, and curricula advisors, on Native history and encourage discussion on the culture.
Smithsonian Native Knowledge 360° Education Initiative - Holds resources for a wide range of ages with lesson plans, activities, videos, and articles, on a plethora of Native topics. Also includes digital photo collections and first-hand narratives.
The WoLakota Project - Extends advice and guidelines for culturally responsive education and embracing the Native culture as it lived in the past, lives in the present, and will be further celebrated in the future.
Teachings of Our Elders - A platform with collections of interviews, oral stories, spoken history, and essential understandings of the Native culture.
PBS Native American Video Series - Holds digital non-fiction works made by Native Americans and for others (all ages) to responsibly learn from.
Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Tribal Legacy Project - An interactive website that approaches the history of the Native populations through a thematic and geographical perspective. This tool draws strike comparisons between the American and Native perspectives.
But growth in cultural awareness does not stop here. Supporting foundations that actively fund and contribute to youth resettlement and futures, Native poverty, familial outlets and resources, as well as generational improvement can be incredibly life-changing. Action-oriented outlets keep BIPOC communities strengthened. See a list of foundations dedicated to bolstering the Native legacy and legislative servitude.
American Indian College Fund - This organization is dedicated to supporting Native youths’ futures and receiving equal opportunity to higher level education. To support, you can donate, give a legacy gift, or share articles and their stories around.
Association on American Indian Affairs - A group dedicated to drafting and upholding the previously discussed Native legislation, including the ICWA and recent challenges thereof.
Americans for Indian Opportunity - A program that aims to expand Native cultural practice and awareness - both within and out of the community.
National Native American Law Enforcement Association (NNALEA) - Focused on law enforcement training for Natives and their counterparts as well as promotion of Indian affairs with U.S. federal law and practice.
National Indian Child Care Association - Specifically tackling the disproportionate statistic of Native youth in the foster system; this space aims to provide cultural and financial services to tribes and families in upholdment of the ICWA.
I do hope this glimpse of current Native law and challenges thereof reinforce a justice-oriented narrative in your own mind. We all know what it feels like to go unseen and demeaned. Be the person - for yourself and for all around you - that brightens an outlook and influences perspective alteration.
