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In The News: Indian Child Welfare, Black Hills, ++much more

 

The Cherokee Nation’s Indian Child Welfare office, seen Sept. 17, is located on South Muskogee Avenue in Tahlequah. To contact ICW, call 918-458-6900 or visit icw.cherokee.org. Photo by Chad Hunter /Cherokee Phoenix

Cherokee Nation Indian Child Welfare representative investigating program

Sally Wilson, a supervisor for Indian Child Welfare with the Cherokee Nation, cites disagreeable examples of Cherokee or Native overrepresentation and underrepresentation in federal and state programs.

• Cherokee Phoenix | Jan 12, 2025| Sean Rowley
  

TAHLEQUAH – Sally Wilson, a supervisor for Indian Child Welfare with the Cherokee Nation, can cite disagreeable examples of Cherokee or Native overrepresentation and underrepresentation in federal and state programs.

She can point to overrepresentation in the foster system.

“Cherokee Nation is involved in child welfare cases all over the United States,” Wilson said. “However, most of our cases are in Oklahoma where the disproportionality rates are astonishing. There are reported to be around 6,000 children in foster care across the state and according to our data, approximately 11% of those children are Cherokee. This amount has been consistent for the past 10 years – the amount of time I have been heading up recruitment of foster and adoptive families for our tribe.”

Then there is underrepresentation in some helpful personnel enhancement programs, such as Minority Professional Leadership Development, for which Wilson was chosen. It is administered from within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“They’re trying to get new leaders in the community to help with youth – minority leaders specifically,” she said. “The Children’s Bureau oversees it, and they help do the evaluations and they fund the project. It is intended to grow minority leaders throughout the country, but there is limited representation when it comes to Native people. I don’t know if it’s because they don’t know to apply or maybe they’re just not applying. I heard it through our director, and it was suggested that I apply for it. I did and I was fortunate to get it.”

Today, Wilson’s work includes the gathering of data and research through the Action Research Project.

“It can include a number of things,” she said. “Some people want to look at reunification of children to their families, or they want to look at what’s happening or what are we doing – maybe how can we change systems for children that are aging out. I’m looking at what can be done to help change systems that will positively impact our families that are overrepresented in the child welfare system.”

The MPLD program lasts 12 months and is intended specifically for emerging leaders within minority child welfare.  There is a selection process each year from candidates across the U.S., many of whom are African American or Hispanic.

“I believe this year they picked 23 out of all of the applications,” Wilson said. “You’re exposed to a lot of experts throughout the country, and you get mentorship opportunities, and then you start your work on some research. You develop what’s called an action research project. They really want you to focus on something that you see needing improvement in your agency, in your tribe, whatever that may be.”

With a higher chance of being placed in care away from home, Native children are also four times more likely than other children to be placed in a household with people of a different race.

“About 11 percent of the children that are placed in out-of-home care are Cherokee children alone,” Wilson said. “All these rates of disproportion are out there, and there is some implicit bias that plays into that. It isn’t something people would say is intentional, but it is definitely there. We’re still faced with many of the same battles they were facing when (the Indian Child Welfare Act) was first implemented in 1978.”

The MPLD is described as open to people from cultural, ethnic and racial groups with a historically disproportionate number of children in care. The program requires at least five years of experience working in U.S. child welfare, and the fellowship is further intended for emerging leaders. Candidates are expected to have an undergraduate degree.

Information about eligibility and application requirements is available at:

professionals.adoptuskids.org/how-to-apply-for-the-leadership-program/.

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How Tribal Nations Are Reclaiming Oklahoma | Still Waiting on Museums

NEW YORKER: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/how-tribal-nations-are-reclaiming-oklahoma

Published in the print edition of the August 12, 2024, issue, with the headline “Promised Land.”

**

Museums closed Native American exhibits 6 months ago. Tribes are still waiting to get items back

PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press

VIDEO: https://apnews.com/video/indigenous-people-american-museum-of-natural-history-ontario-government-regulations-new-york-city-9eb66fe1b9964355b14c7057c12dd904 

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NEW YORK (AP) — Tucked within the expansive Native American halls of the American Museum of Natural History is a diminutive wooden doll that holds a sacred place among the tribes whose territories once included Manhattan.

For more than six months now, the ceremonial Ohtas, or Doll Being, has been hidden from view after the museum and others nationally took dramatic steps to board up or paper over exhibits in response to new federal rules requiring institutions to return sacred or culturally significant items to tribes — or at least to obtain consent to display or study them.

Museum officials are reviewing more than 1,800 items as they work to comply with the requirements while also eyeing a broader overhaul of the more than half-century-old exhibits.

But some tribal leaders remain skeptical, saying museums have not acted swiftly enough. The new rules, after all, were prompted by years of complaints from tribes that hundreds of thousands of items that should have been returned under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 still remain in museum custody.

“If things move slowly, then address that,” said Joe Baker, a Manhattan resident and member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, descendants of the Lenape peoples European traders encountered more than 400 years ago. “The collections, they’re part of our story, part of our family. We need them home. We need them close.”

The leader of the tribe in Oklahoma said he visited the Peabody this year after the university reached out about returning hair clippings collected in the early 1930s from hundreds of Indigenous children, including Cherokees, forced to assimilate in the notorious Indian boarding schools.

“The fact that we’re in a position to sit down with Harvard and have a really meaningful conversation, that’s progress for the country,” he said.

As for Baker, he wants the Ohtas returned to its tribe. He said the ceremonial doll should never have been on display, especially arranged as it was among wooden bowls, spoons and other everyday items.

“It has a spirit. It’s a living being,” Baker said. “So if you think about it being hung on a wall all these years in a static case, suffocating for lack of air, it’s just horrific, really.” 

This story was first published on Jul. 29, 2024. It was updated on Jul. 31, 2024, to correct the scope of repatriations to tribes undertaken by the Field Museum in Chicago.

 

HERE:  https://apnews.com/article/museums-not-returning-native-american-artifacts-0b7428c77341a9a80f022e0167ad4c8b

House members introduce ICWA enhancement measure

US REP TOM COLE

BY D. SEAN ROWLEY Senior Reporter  Jun 20, 2024  Save

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Recently, a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers announced their introduction of legislation intended to add some reinforcement to the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The “Strengthening Tribal Families Act of 2024” would require the Department of Health and Human Services to create a technical assistance plan using six metrics of data to assess the strengths and weaknesses of states’ implementation plans of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The measure was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, along with Reps. Judy Chu, D-California; Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma; Sharice Davids, D-Kansas; and Dan Kildee, D-Missouri. 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, will introduce the legislation in the U.S. Senate.

“The Indian Child Welfare Act protects vulnerable Native American children from being taken from their tribal communities and culture during custody or guardianship proceedings,” Cole said. “However, due to such a high rate of Indian children entering into our foster care system, ICWA is not enough. I am proud to have partnered with Congressman Bacon, Congresswoman Chu, Congresswoman Davids, Congressman Schweikert and Congressman Kildee to lead the Strengthening Tribal Families Act of 2024, which will strengthen ICWA protections and ensure Native American children remain in their own communities.”

Congress passed ICWA in 1978 to address the high rate of Native children being removed from their homes and separated from families. The ICWA established federal standards for the removal of Native American children from their homes while prioritizing placement in homes with their Indian culture. ICWA also sets federal requirements for state child abuse and adoption cases for Native children.

In June 2023, the ICWA received a boost when it was ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court with a 7-2 decision in Halaand v. Brackeen.

“Brackeen was a landmark decision and a major victory for Native tribes, children and the future of our culture and heritage,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “But more needs to be done to strengthen the Indian Child Welfare Act and protect the law from future attacks. I applaud Reps. Bacon, Chu, Cole, Davids and Kildee for introducing this important legislation, and Sen. Baldwin for carrying this effort in the Senate. Cherokee Nation supports this bill and will advocate for its passage.”

The implementation of ICWA continues to vary between states and Native tribal interests. Estimates have suggested Native American children are 2.5 times more likely to enter the foster care system than non-Native children. This bill is intended to allow HHS to be able to provide states with evidence-based assistance to improve their plans for implementation of ICWA. 

“The Strengthening Tribal Families Act of 2024 will help states improve their compliance with ICWA, which will help more Indian children remain within their tribal culture,” Bacon said. “With Indian children disproportionately represented in the foster care system, this bill will help us achieve better outcomes for Indian children. Research shows us kinship placement helps children develop a stronger attachment to their extended family and culture.”

Chu cited the “unfinished work” of helping Native children who enter the foster care be placed with homes that have a familiar culture.

“I’m leading the Strengthening Tribal Families Act of 2024 … so we can assist state child welfare agencies in implementing those critical ICWA federal protections for tribal children,” Chu said. “By strengthening the relationships between these agencies and the courts and comprehensively analyzing data supplied to HHS by states at regular intervals, the federal government can secure better outcomes for tribal children everywhere and support Indian Country.”

SOURCE:  https://www.cherokeephoenix.org/news/house-members-introduce-icwa-enhancement-measure/article_148198f4-2f0d-11ef-9a1e-f3dd35426164.html

Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl #BabyVeronica

 

Baby V (Cherokee)

Fletcher and Fort’s Rewritten Opinion in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl

January 8, 2021Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Fletcher and Fort posted “Intimate Choice and Autonomy: Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl,” forthcoming in CRITICAL RACE JUDGMENTS (Cambridge Univ. Press, eds. Bennett Capers, Devon Carbado, Robin A. Lenhart, and Angela Onwuachi-Willig) (forthcoming 2021).

As if there was any doubt, we have reached the opposite outcome as the Supreme Court did back in 2013. A few excerpts:

This case is about a little girl (Baby Girl) who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, like her father, grandparents, and a multitude of generations before her. American Indian tribal citizenship with a federally recognized tribe is a unique concept in American law. E.g., Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49, 55 (1978) (“[Indian tribes] have power to make their own substantive law in internal matters. . . .”). Tribal citizens are beneficiaries of the federal government’s trust relationship with Indian tribes, and the federal government has promised to tribal citizens for centuries to assist in the maintenance of tribal governments, cultures, and sovereignty. Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515, 556 (1831) (“[The Cherokee treaty], thus explicitly recognizing the national character of the Cherokees, and their right of self government; thus guarantying their lands; assuming the duty of protection, and of course pledging the faith of the United States for that protection; has been frequently renewed, and is now in full force.”).

And:

The ethically dubious acts of the Petitioners in this case extends to this Court’s amici. Several amici invoked the racist dog whistle of referring to the Petitioners as the “only family” Baby Girl has ever known. E.g., Brief for Guardian Ad Litem, as Representative of Respondent Baby Girl, Supporting Reversal at 56 (“Indeed, it is hard to imagine what liberty interest is more important to a 27-month old child than maintaining the only family bonds she has ever known, absent a strong showing of necessity.”) (emphasis added); Brief of Amica Curiae Birth Mother in Support of Petitioners at 3 (“The decision below effectively negated Birth Mother’s decision to place Baby Girl with Adoptive Couple, and ripped Baby Girl from the only family she has ever known, in derogation of both Birth Mother’s and Baby Girl’s rights and expectations under state law.”) (emphasis added); Brief of Amici Curiae Bonnie and Shannon Hofer; Roger, Loreal, and Sierra Lauderbaugh; and Craig and Esther Adams in Support of Petitioners at 38 (“[T]he lower court took non-Indian Petitioners’ adopted Indian daughter from them – destroying the only family she has ever known.”) (emphasis added); Brief of Amici Curiae National Council for Adoption in Support of Petitioners at 13-14 (“ICWA is implemented in some cases to traumatize children by forcing them into completely unknown environments, traumatizing them by removal from the only family they’d ever felt a connection with and imposing the developmental delays that come with the traumatic removal from a secure attachment.”) (emphasis added).[1] It appears that for some of our amici, the “only family” that matters is the non-Indian Petitioners’ family. For these amici, the Indian family and other biological relatives are strangers and foreigners. The only pain and shame of removal and separation that matters is that of the non-Indian family. It is apparent the “only family” dog whistle is designed to distract our attention from the ever-present bias against Indian parents and relatives in the child welfare and adoption system. This we will not accept. As noted above, this Court long has been complicit in dehumanizing Indian people. In Professor Harris’ words, “[C]ourts established whiteness as a prerequisite to the exercise of enforceable property rights.” Harris, supra, at 1724. No longer. We additionally suspect that this form of advocacy implicates American Bar Association Rules of Professional Conduct 3.4 (Fairness to Opposing Party and Counsel), 3.5 (Impartiality & Decorum of the Tribunal), 4.4 (Respect for Rights of Third Persons), and 8.4 (Misconduct).

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[1] One commentator even referred to the Cherokee family here, who descend from an Indigenous nation that has been present in this hemisphere since time immemorial, as “foreign.” Thomas Sowell, Indian Child Welfare Act does not protect kids, Denton Record-Chronicle, Feb. 1, 2018, at 6A (“This little girl is just the latest in a long line of Indian children who have been ripped out of the only family they have ever known and given to someone who is a stranger to them, often living on an Indian reservation that is foreign to them.”) (emphasis added).

**

Use the search word Baby Veronica to find our coverage and opinion on this blog...

Cherokee Tribe sues

Tribe sues Trump HHS for tampering with ICWA on data in foster care cases

• The Cherokee Nation is among a group that filed suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Administration for Children and Families Thursday, in a federal district court in California, regarding data collected on children in foster care.
  

“The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System is used by HHS to track foster children through foster care,” said Cherokee Nation Attorney General Sara Hill in the tribe’s Rules committee meeting on August 27, 2020. “For decades, HHS did not track any statistics that relate to the Indian Child Welfare Act with Indian children. So if children were placed in non-ICWA compliant placements in the state, the proportion of children in foster care in the United States – none of that data was being tracked by HHS.”

In 2016, HHS changed it rules to mandate reporting of how child welfare agencies track American Indian children and included data related to the ICWA. The rule also required reporting the voluntary disclosure of the sexual orientation of foster youth ages 14 and older, and of foster and adoptive parents and legal guardians.
The plaintiffs argue President Donald Trump’s administration and the ACF violated the Administrative Procedure Act by revoking the 2016 rule. The group believes the data would assist welfare agencies and organizations serving foster children, and avoid bad outcomes for children and youth.

• Source: Tribe sues Trump HHS for tampering with ICWA on data in foster care cases
  By Grant D. Crawford gcrawford@tahlequahdailypress.com

One kid murdered, one put up for #adoption. Mother in prison. All with no reason.

Released after 20 years in prison, Michelle Murphy trying to rebuild her life

released!

ArrestedMichelle Murphy: The teen mother of two was arrested in the death of her infant son.

 

What happened to Michelle Murphy's other child?

The family who adopted Murphy’s 2-year-old daughter had already been approved for adoption by the Cherokee tribe in September 1995 when they received the call.
“They called and said, ‘We have a little girl and we’d like to put her in foster care with you,’ ” said the woman who adopted the curly-haired toddler. The adoptive family asked to remain anonymous to protect their daughter’s privacy.
“I fell in love with her the minute I saw her,” she said.
When the girl was in her mid-teens, her parents gave her the newspaper clippings from her birth mother’s arrest and trial. She knew from an early age she had been adopted, but learning about her family’s violent past helped explain things like her persistent nightmares.
The adoptive mother said she decided to visit Murphy in jail as she awaited trial. She gave Michelle pictures of her daughter and the women swapped stories about the toddler, with Michelle boasting about how early her daughter began walking.
“She was in her orange jumpsuit and shackled to a chair. ... I thought, ‘You are just a girl.’ ”
The adoptive mother said her daughter is now 22 and expecting her first child.
“She’s happy and had a wonderful life.”

Monday, October 13, 2014 

 

By CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writer and ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Enterprise Editor | 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is the second in a two-part series examining the conviction and exoneration of Michelle Murphy.
 
Related: Discredited lab test was key to woman's wrongful conviction
Read Part 1: Records show mistakes, questionable evidence in woman’s overturned murder case

Twenty years to the day that Michelle Murphy found her son’s lifeless body on the kitchen floor, she heard Tulsa County District Judge William Kellough say the words she had been waiting for: “This court finds you, Miss Murphy, innocent.”
She cried in the courthouse hallway as her attorney, Sharisse O’Carroll, explained the date’s significance to reporters.
Though she’d been out of jail on bond for three months, it wasn’t until after Kellough’s declaration that Murphy was ready to do something she had never done: visit her son’s grave.
Murphy didn’t want to go to Travis’ grave until her name was cleared, O’Carroll said.
Murphy, 37, was released from prison on bond in May, when the judge vacated her life without parole sentence and murder conviction, based on newly uncovered DNA evidence.
And on Sept. 12, District Attorney Tim Harris decided to drop the murder charges and dismiss the case, saying he lacked the evidence to convict her again.
Murphy was 17 when she was imprisoned for the brutal slaying of her infant son. The same prosecutor who convicted Murphy also took away her 2-year-old daughter, placing the girl with another family.
Twenty years behind bars has given Murphy a lot of time to contemplate what happened to her.
“It meant the world to me to finally hear that it’s been acknowledged, something I’ve been trying to prove for 20 years,” Murphy told reporters after the charges were dismissed in September. “Something I’ve known in my heart.”

Murphy wrote letters to her daughter while she was in prison. She never got a response.
Her daughter, now 22, told the World she is not interested in getting to know her mother.
“They let me come to it on my own. ... There was never anybody who told me that she did it or she was a monster. For me, God put me in that position to really appreciate what I have today,” said the young woman, who wanted her name withheld.
Raised by her adoptive family, she said she enjoyed a happy childhood with plenty of love and support. She is expecting her first child, a girl.

Read the rest here: http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/released-after-years-in-prison-michelle-murphy-trying-to-rebuild/article_0dbc825d-734b-5322-8710-02254038268f.html

Cherokee Nation Changes Placement Preferences Under ICWA

Veronica Brown

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Kate Fort at TURTLE TALK

Article here.

The Cherokee tribal resolution, which passed unanimously, states: “In any adoptive placement of a Cherokee child under state law, a preference shall be given, in the absence of good cause to the contrary, to a placement with a biological parent or parents; a member of the child’s extended family; other members of the Cherokee Nation; or other Indian families.”

Speaker of the Council Tina Glory-Jordan, an attorney, praised the council’s work on the legislation.

“Because of recent cases, there is a need to include a fit parent or biological parent when it comes to placement of Cherokee children,” said Glory-Jordan.

“We’ve come to a day where so many courts don’t want to recognize ICWA. This law will make it easier, the next time our social workers go to court.”

It seems more tribes are going to be tightening and reinforcing the ICWA federal law in their own statutes. It's about time!   Trace 

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker responds to transfer of custody of Veronica Brown

Statement from Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker:

"There is no word for goodbye in the Cherokee language.  We say dodadagohv’I - we will see each other again.  It was with a heavy heart that we watched Veronica Brown leave her home, her family and the Cherokee Nation Monday night.  History is repeating itself, as a Native American child is being forcibly relocated to South Carolina against the will of her father and her tribe.

Once again, a Native American is being told where to live.  Once again, a Native family is being torn apart.  And once again, a young Indian girl will not awaken in the home of her elders.

Our prayers go out to Dusten and Robin Brown, Tommy and Alice Brown, Veronica’s sister Kelsey, and their extended family which includes 320,000 Cherokees. This brave man who served our country simply wanted to raise his child—a child who shares his genes and his heritage. A child who looks like him—and by all family accounts—acts like him too. Veronica may have left the Cherokee Nation, but she will always be a Cherokee citizen.  Perhaps one day she too will have her own children, and they will share her and Dusten’s DNA, and those children will be Cherokee as well.

Our Nation did everything possible to stop this family from being torn apart.  We used every legal avenue at our disposal to keep this family together. But the Cherokee Nation is also a nation with a longstanding history of obeying the rule of law, so that is what we did on Monday. We also have a long standing tradition of adoption within our culture and know that adoption is a good thing when it is ethical and moral.   We will continue to advocate for a greater understanding of and adherence to laws by the courts and adoption agencies to ensure that this tragedy is not repeated.

Dusten Brown packed his daughter’s suitcase, and told her he loved her before sending Veronica off to live with those who wish to adopt her.  This is something a father should never have to do, but for the sake of his daughter, Dusten handled himself with courage and dignity and grace, and we could not be more proud of the way he conducted himself.

And to Veronica— one day you will read about this tumultuous time in your life, and understand why we fought so hard alongside your father to keep your family whole. We hope at that time you understand how special and significant it is to be a Cherokee citizen. You will always be welcome in Tahlequah and in homes across the Cherokee Nation.  Whether we see you sooner or later, we know we will see you again.  In the meantime, we will carry you in our hearts."

Wado,

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker

Update in #BabyVeronica Case

TURTLE TALK by Matthew L.M. Fletcher

 

South Carolina Supreme Court Denies Rights to Baby Veronica; National Native Organizations to Advance Civil Rights Lawsuit

Washington, DC – The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled today to deny the appeal filed by Dusten Brown and the Cherokee Nation of the Court’s July 17 order to expedite the transfer of custody of Veronica Brown to the South Carolina-based adoptive couple. One year ago, the South Carolina Supreme Court found that denying the adoption and awarding custody to Dusten Brown was in Veronica’s best interests. Today, that same Court summarily reversed that decision based on a two-year-old record and without providing a hearing for Veronica. Jacqueline Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians issued the following statement in response to today’s ruling:

“The South Carolina Supreme Court has utterly failed to evaluate Veronica’s current best interests in this case and confirmed our worst fears – when it comes to Veronica Brown, standard adoption procedures do not apply. Apparently, the Court believes that there is no need to require the family court to hold a formal and thoughtful hearing to determine what is in Veronica Brown’s best interest. Like thousands of Native American children before her, Veronica now faces the prospect of being removed from her Cherokee family, without a formal consideration of her needs, her culture and her well-being. This is an alarming failure of the judicial system, and it represents a grave threat to all children in adoption proceedings, but most notably Native American children, who deserve all the legal protections, afforded any child in this nation.”

“The National Congress of American Indians refuses to stand by as the rights of this child are violated.  Together with the Native American Rights Fund and the National Indian Child Welfare Association we are preparing to file litigation in order to protect Veronica’s civil rights.  On behalf of all Native American children, we will pursue every legal option available to us to ensure that standard adoption procedures are upheld in this case.”

“Let me add that I believe the South Carolina Supreme Court has shown willful disregard for the facts when it claims Dusten Brown has not been involved in the life of his daughter. On the contrary, Dusten Brown has gone to extensive lengths to maintain his family and to care for Veronica. The Court’s willingness to ignore these facts and rush a resolution in this matter is deeply troubling. “

Read more background: www.splitfeathers.blogspot.com

Related articles

• Tribal advocates join custody fight (muskogeephoenix.com)
• Civil suit planned over ‘Baby Veronica’ (kjrh.com)
• Father of ‘Baby Veronica’ responds (kjrh.com)