AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act

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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act

ACTION ALERT
Your Support Can Help Protect Native Children!

U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (Democratic/Nonpartisan League - North Dakota) introduced Senate Bill 1622, which would create the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act. This act would require the president and Congress to appoint individuals who have significant experience and expertise in Indian affairs to the commission. The commission would conduct a comprehensive study of federal, state, local and tribal programs that serve Native children. This would include an evaluation of many issues such as the impact of concurrent jurisdiction on child welfare systems; barriers that Indian tribes and Native Hawaiians face in applying, reporting on and using existing public and private grant resources; barriers to inter-agency coordination on programs benefiting Native children; and many more issues.

The commission would further be directed to use the results of the study and analyze existing federal data relating to Native children to develop plans and goals for federal policy; recommend improvements to programs that serve Native children; recommend improvements in data-collection regarding Native children; and identify models of successful federal, state and tribal programs in the areas studied.

This bill will ensure Native children’s safety by bringing attention to the issues, creating dialogue, and introducing solutions to the problems in the child welfare system. Sixteen co-sponsors have signed onto the bill since it was introduced in October 2013. This bill was assigned to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which will consider it before possibly sending it on to the House or Senate as a whole.

Take action! Please voice your support by calling or writing your U.S. senators today and ask them to support the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act. To find contact information for your senators, go to http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

To read the full text of the bill, track the bill or express support, go to https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s1622. Also, click on the “TRACK THIS BILL” button to sign up for updates about when this bill is scheduled for debate, has a major action such as a vote, or gets a new co-sponsor, when a committee meeting is scheduled, when bill text becomes available or when a bill summary is written.

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Indian Country is under attack. Native tribes and people are fighting hard for justice. There is need for legal assistance across Indian Country, and NARF is doing as much as we can. With your help, we have fought for 48 years and we continue to fight.

It is hard to understand the extent of the attacks on Indian Country. We are sending a short series of emails this month with a few examples of attacks that are happening across Indian Country and how we are standing firm for justice.

Today, we look at recent effort to undo laws put in place to protect Native American children and families. All children deserve to be raised by loving families and communities. In the 1970s, Congress realized that state agencies and courts were disproportionately removing American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families. Often these devastating removals were due to an inability or unwillingness to understand Native cultures, where family is defined broadly and raising children is a shared responsibility. To stop these destructive practices, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

After forty years, ICWA has proven to be largely successful and many states have passed their own ICWAs. This success, however, is now being challenged by large, well-financed opponents who are actively and aggressively seeking to undermine ICWA’s protections for Native children. We are seeing lawsuits across the United States that challenge ICWA’s protections. NARF is working with partners to defend the rights of Native children and families.

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Two Worlds anthology (Vol. 1)

“…sometimes shocking, often an emotional read…this book is for individuals interested in the culture and history of the Native American Indian, but also on the reading lists of universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched and obviously a subject close to the heart of the authors/compilers, I found the extent of what can only be described as ‘child-snatching’ from the Native Americans quite staggering. It’s not something I was aware of before…”

“The individual pieces are open and honest and give a good insight into the turmoil of dislocation from family and tribe… I think it does have value and a story to tell. I was affected by the stories I read, and amazed by the facts presented…. because it is saying something new, interesting and often astonishing.”

Review: 'Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption,' by Susan Devan Harness https://t.co/aF2s87Wn03
— TraceHentz (@StonePony33) December 19, 2018

Let that sink in. pic.twitter.com/Wku2L9hXPv
— Native Life (@_Native_Life) December 5, 2017

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which was passed to address America's ugly history with child removals from Native American families. #DefendICWA #UpholdICWA @ChronicleSC https://t.co/hp0GNdIUVN
— NICWA (@NativeChildren) November 8, 2018

MMIWG

Good words

Priscilla Sharp

I agree with you on the caring of “orphans” – true orphans, not “paper orphans” as Kathryn Joyce describes in her book, The Child Catchers. The most important thing to remember, however, is that the orphan’s original identity and family connection and heritage must remain intact and available to him or her forever. This business of adoption – and I do mean the multi-billion-dollar, unregulated business of adoption – of wiping out the child’s original identity, falsifying birth records with the adopters’ names, altering facts such as place of birth, severing familial kinship, must stop … Immediately. And the outrageous injustices foisted upon adoptees and their families for the past 100 years must be addressed and righted. We are faced today with six to seven million people who were basically legally kidnapped, sold to the highest bidder, their identities falsified, and placed in a lifelong, imposed witness protection program for which there is no legal recourse. Then told by church officials, agency and government functionaries that they have no right to know who they are, to do genealogy or learn about important family medical history, or know the identity of or associate with blood relatives. This is how the Judeo-Christian society has interpreted “caring for orphans”, for it’s own selfish interests and greed. Starting with Georgia Tann, the woman charged with kidnapping and selling 5,000 children, most of whom were given to the rich and powerful who then colluded with her to “seal” adoptions and cover their nefarious activities (see, for example, Gov. Herbert Lehman, NY, 1935).

Link: http://adoptionvoicesmagazine.com/adoptee-view/dear-christian-who-is-praying-for-an-infant-to-adopt/