Tribe used ICWA to serve its own purpose, at the expense of a mother
“I didn’t want ICWA involvement. I hadn’t lived on the reservation for almost four years at that time and I had told social services that I wanted my case to stay in Grand Forks. It was my home. It was my child’s domicile. I had the right to choose. …[ICWA] stripped me as a parent of my rights. …I worked my case. I did everything that Spirit Lake social services required me to do, but I did it on my own…. My tribe, that was supposed to help me, that was supposed to keep my family together; ICWA that was supposed to be – the goal is reunification…there was no reunification. My reunification wasn’t there, and my tribe took that from me. …Those rights I was given as a U.S. citizen, my rights under federal guidelines, my rights under state guidelines, all those rights I’m afforded as a citizen, I wasn’t given. …I had to watch my daughter – and all my kids – I have to watch them from the sidelines, and it breaks my heart.”
– Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice and Violence Panel, Great Plains & Midwest Regional Hearing, Bismarck, June 24, 2022
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