Senator Coburn’s Chief of Staff, Mike Schwartz was incredibly welcoming. He remembered us from our visit in 2007 and was still just as supportive. Mr. Schwartz urged us to visit Senator Landrieu’s office as well. He said that not only is she a co-chair for the CCA, she is a wonderful person and a good friend of his. I stopped by her office and picked up contact information for a couple of her aides. One of our Mom’s flew in Wednesday night with her son. Debra had lost a 2-year old to ICWA a few years ago. So we started Thursdaywith a meeting with her Senator, Maria Cantwell…
Rebuttal to NPR’s ICWA Series; from the Mother of Enrolled Children
November 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Learn More about How ICWA is Hurting Children!
August 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment
“We need help! This child will be dead in this woman’s hands…April 7, 2011— “I have no were else to turn. My girls and i are in desperate need of help. If there is anyway you can help us please contact me as soon possible day or night…” May 18, 2011—”our kids were taken yesterday. The pain is difficult to bear. We love these kids so much. This will be there third family placement since coming into foster care almost 2 years ago.”
WE NEED HELP!
June 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
We could really use your help – prayer wise as well as hands on. I am the administrator of CAICW – but only a volunteer in a one man office – and have to work as an RN to support my family. So I am doing the best I can, but it ends up being slow – much too slow. It breaks my heart that I can’t move any faster than I am!
Washington DC, January 2011
April 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
This was by far the best visit to DC that we’d had yet. Our group, including parents from New Mexico, Wisconsin, Virginia, and S. Dakota, began Monday, January 24th with a meeting with Dr. William Allen, Emeritus Professor, Political Science, MSU, who broached the question as to whether the ICWA was intended for the best interest of the child or the best interest of the tribe. How is it being interpreted and enforced? He reminded us that tribal governments are accountable to Congress, which has plenary power over them. He then asked, “Has Congress, in passing the ICWA, taken the position of Pontius Pilate” – and essentially washed its hands of these children?
We can’t allow Congress to do that. We, as families, have been helpless before this
Please HELP us to help Tyler
January 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Unfortunately in December, 2008 the tribal court (which if you don’t know consists of a judge appointed by the Tribal Chairman who does not need any legal background or even any schooling beyond a high school diploma to be a judge) ruled in favor of the relative and said that our Tyler should be reunited with his 8 day clean mother.
Two days after Christmas, they came on Saturday morning and took him away. He had just celebrated his second birthday and his second Christmas with our family in Colorado.
The screams as they took him away will not go away. I hear them everyday and I try to put them out of my head but still each day I hear him scream “No, Mama, No!” I couldn’t protect him.
Federal Indian Policy Says THIS is BEST for children?
May 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment
. Many Families of American Indian Heritage do NOT want their children raised on or near Reservations. Ours is one of them. Here are the facts. – Federal statistics have shown that for years that children that live on or near reservations die at about twice the national rate. Quoted in a Dec. 7th edition of the Oregonian, [...]
Case Law for Existing Indian Family Doctrine
May 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment
.Holyfield – the first case in which the federal high court has construed ICWA, Mississippi Choctaw Indian Band v. Holyfield, 490 US 30 (1989) Docket No. 87-980, Argued January 11, 1989, Decided April 3, 1989, CITATION: 490 U.S. 30, 109 S.Ct. 1597, 104 L.Ed.2d 29 (1989), DISCUSSION: I A The Indian Child Welfare Act of [...]
Jewish relative keeps custody of Indian kids
May 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment
.But it’s not always a slam-dunk… SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCERhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/80121_grandmom26.shtml Jewish relative keeps custody of Indian kidsFriday, July 26, 2002By PAUL SHUKOVSKY The state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a Jewish grandmother will be allowed to continue raising her Native American grandchildren in her Tacoma home despite assertions from the mother that the children should be with [...]
Does the ICWA Serve Children’s or Government’s Welfare?
May 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment
The following is excerpted from a letter written five years ago to Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell and other members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs by a foster mother. Senator Campbell never responded. This letter, and lack of response, mirror the frustrations and despair of parents, foster parents, extended family, and adoptive parents all [...]
