Indian children – Page 4 – Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare

Federal, State, and Tribal authorities have favored a child’s tribal heritage over that child’s Irish, Afro-American, Scottish, Latino, or Jewish heritage, or any other heritage the child has, no matter the percentages. Whether the child’s heritage is predominately Slavic or Mexican, the only question asked is whether the child is enrollable.
Some Tribal governments have interfered in custody battles between parents, overturned county decisions in favor of the tribally enrolled parent and ignored child abuse, neglect and drug abuse in those decisions.
Some Tribal governments have claimed jurisdiction over children that have little tribal heritage and are not enrollable according to their constitutions.
Contrary to state laws pertaining to the best interest of the child, some Tribal governments have ignored the interaction and relationships children have had with caregivers; the child’s adjustment to home, school, and community; the length of time the child has lived in a stable home, and the permanence of the existing or proposed custodial home.
Many county courts and social services have backed away when ICWA is involved because they do not understand ICWA or can not afford to fight back.
Several State Governments have given “Full Faith and Credit” to tribal courts and will not review or overturn tribal court custody decisions.
…Read their letters

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Deborah Maddox, acting Director of the BIA Office of Tribal Services in 1993, said, “the intent of Congress in passing the Indian Child Welfare Act was to protect Indian children from removal from their tribes and to assure that tribes are given the opportunity to raise Indian children in a manner which reflects the unique values of Indian culture.”

According to West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), “…intended to limit the … removing (of) Native American children from their tribe and family and placing them in a non-Indian family or institution. The act seeks to achieve these goals through…placing children…in a…home that reflects the unique values of Indian culture.”

(ICWA) “seeks to protect the rights of the Indian child as an Indian and the rights of the Indian Community and Tribe in retaining its children in its society.” – House Report on the Indian Child Welfare Act.

But most enrollable children are of mixed heritage. What about the rights of the child of Indian heritage as a Latino, Black, or Italian? And what gives the Tribe the right to claim children who are predominately of another heritage?

Advocates of ICWA point to the devastation suffered by children of tribal heritage when, years ago, they were forcefully removed from the homes they loved and forced to stay at boarding schools. The trauma those children and families expereinced was, indeed, devastating.

However, today, some tribal leaders have been doing the exact same thing when they have removed children from the homes and environments they love, forcing them to live with people they barely know in Indian Country.

There is no inborn difference between persons of tribal heritage and other persons. Any emotionally healthy child, no matter their heritage, will be devastated when they are taken from their familiar homes and forced to live with strangers.

Even children of 100% tribal heritage will be devasted if taken from the only home they know and love, even if it is non-tribal, and placed into a reservation home they know nothing about.

The Full Text of the INDIAN CHILD WELFARE ACT OF 1978 (ICWA):
THE ICWA LAW: PUBLIC LAW 95-608, 25 USC Chapter 21
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