Walker signs two bills into law

Gov. Bill Walker signed HB 200 on Tuesday morning at the offices of Bristol Bay Native Corporation in Anchorage.

Walker signs two bills into law

JUNEAU EMPIRE

Gov. Bill Walker has signed into law bills intended to help foster youths and ease adoption in Alaska.
Among other elements, House Bill 200 implements portions of the Indian Child Welfare Act that ease the adoption process for tribal members adopting a child of the same tribe. The bill also allows up to four legal proceedings involved in adoption cases to be combined under the purview of one judge.
House Bill 27, sponsored by Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, is a foster care reform bill that requires the state Office of Children’s Services to make greater efforts to work with tribal and Alaska Native organizations, and perform more in-depth searches to determine whether a relative may be able to care for a child.
Children may stay in the foster care system through age 21 (instead of 18) in order to avoid homelessness, according to one provision in the bill.
The bill calls for children to stay in their current schools (if possible), and it states that one of the duties of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is to recruit foster parents and adoptive parents.
Walker added both bills to the agenda of the first special session when they failed to pass the Legislature in regular session.
The signing of HB 200 took place at the Anchorage offices of Bristol Bay Native Corporation, while the signing of HB 27 took place at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

I'm not an incident

When did you learn you were adopted? What was your relationship like with your adoptive family when you were growing up?
READ HERE

August 23 RALLY #60sScoop

Check out the event on Facebook here and please share with anyone who might want to come.

Date: August 23
Time: 8:15 a.m.
Place: Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen St. W., Toronto (northeast corner of University Ave. and Queen St.)

Honoring Abourezk #ICWA

Tribal Organization Honors Abourezk For Work Done In Senate

By Lee Strubinger •  July 25, 2016

James Abourezk

A tribal organization is honoring a U.S. Senator from South Dakota for legislation he pushed through Congress forty years ago.   
The Tribal Interior Budget Council gathered in Rapid City earlier this month, and recognized Former Senator James Abourezk.
Officials say he was instrumental in passing key legislation that fostered tribal self-governance.

James Abourezk was a one term U.S. Senator.  But during his time in congress he was able to pass several laws boosting tribal sovereignty.
Abourezk authored much of the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Indian Self-Determination Act and the Indian Religious Freedom Act.
He says being honored by tribal members means a great deal to him. Abourezk says much of the inspiration for the laws he helped create came from his childhood.

“I was born and raised on the Rosebud reservation," Abourezk says. "And I ran around and played with Indian kids all the time. And there was a lot of racism, probably including me, back in those days against Indians. And I snapped out of it when I was in college. I understood now what I was doing was demeaning Indians and I should not have—I should never have done it but I’ve gotten over that now.”

Abourezk was also instrumental in increasing the amount of money associated with the Black Hills treaty land claim, which tribal nations still haven’t accepted.
Gay Kingman is the Executive Director of the Great Plains Tribal Chair Association. She says, decades after leaving office, Abourezk still calls her to comment on current legislation…
“He continued to advocate for Indian people, and he represented many of the tribes and the people. He still calls me now and then. He’ll call and, I know he’s in failing health now—he’s of an age—but he’s still very strong,” Kingman says.
Former Senator James Abourezk was unable to attend the Tribal Interior Budget Council ceremony held to honor his work due to health issues. His son Charlie read from a prepared statement in Rapid City.   Charlie then accepted a gift on behalf of his father.
“He’s still got it, I hope he doesn’t try to keep it,” James Abourezk says.
Abourezk was both a U.S. Representative and Senator for most of the 1970’s.

LISTEN HERE

After Alcatraz #ICWA

9 Laws and Programs Passed for Indians After the Occupation of Alcatraz

Dr. Dean Chavers

7/24/16

As of 1969, Congress had passed 5,000 laws for Indians. The effects of the laws had been to reduce the role of Indian tribal leaders and enhance the power of federal officials to regulate Indian people and their lives. The Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969 set the stage for the development of positive Indian programs. We were against the “ations”—relocation and termination.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/07/24/9-laws-and-programs-passed-indians-after-occupation-alcatraz-165218

Goldwater lawsuit is a fight for the soul of tribal nations

Navajo Nation President: Separating Navajo Children from Their Parents & Families is Devastating

Published December 12, 2015

ALBUQUERQUE—During the opening banquet for Navajo Division of Social Service and Casey Family Program’s Navajo Child Work Session in Albuquerque on Monday, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye called for the absolute protection of Navajo children in his support of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

“There is nothing more devastating than seeing a Navajo child being taken from their parents. The connection that exists between a child and their parent is strong. It’s a sacred bond. In our support of the ICWA, we are protecting the connection between children, their parents and siblings,” President Begaye said.

Last week, President Begaye delivered a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell asking for her to support ICWA in enforcing that state courts investigate and verify the enrollment of Native American children in cases regarding custody and foster care.
President Begaye talked about the boarding school era in the history of American Indians to emphasize the historical trauma caused by the separation of Indian children from their families, culture and language. Both President Begaye and his brothers attended boarding school as young men.

“Imagine your identity being erased. Imagine not being able to see your mother and father. Imagine knowing you have family but not being able to see them. The separation is too much,” he said. “Now imagine children who are separated from their families and cultures for the entirety of their lives."

On July 7th of this year, ICWA came under fire when the Goldwater Institute filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in federal district court in Arizona challenging the constitutionality of ICWA and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) guidelines that strengthen this legislation.
The Goldwater lawsuit has sparked a national discussion questioning the purpose of ICWA.  It is the position of the Navajo Nation that tribes, states and partners do everything they can to advocate for this legislation which protects tribe’s connection to Native American children.
President Begaye said the lawsuit portrays the lifeways of Native Americans as being insignificant while also portraying tribal communities as substandard.  For non-Natives, the lawsuit could be interpreted as compelling.

“It makes you think about the issue in the questions it raises,” he said. “Rather than go down that road, we, as Native Americans, need to know that we are just as good as anybody else.”

The Goldwater lawsuit is a fight for the soul of tribal nations, he said. It challenges the equality of tribal nations against non-tribal paradigms of societal standards not based in traditional culture or knowledge.

“Our traditional ways nurture our children and foster environments that are conducive to the success of our children. Navajo culture inherently protects the future generations as it does the elders.”
President Begaye expressed his gratitude to all departments in attendance, as well as the Health Education and Human Services Committee and Law & Order Committee delegates, for coming together to support and address the importance of ICWA in keeping Navajo children with Navajo families.  He called for the Nation’s continued support of ICWA and for tribes to stand against the Goldwater Institute’s lawsuit, which questions the constitutionality of the Act.

“Native Americans are just as good as any other society on earth. We love our families and will stand with them,” he said. “We need to make sure that every Navajo child in state custody or foster care doesn’t have to go through life wondering who they are or who their parents are.”

During the following morning’s agenda, Vice President Jonathan Nez presented a welcoming address to the work session that supported President Begaye’s position while also supporting positive, healthy families and homes on the Nation. The vice president also extended gratitude to the partners who organized the conference.

Regarding the Goldwater Institute’s lawsuit, Vice President Nez supports the need for all tribal nations to come forth with strong messages supporting ICWA.  He said there is a the need for the Nation to develop a strong strategy in combating the Goldwater Institute’s messaging and media campaign.

“What they are doing is chipping away at the sovereign rights of Native Americans which can eventually extend beyond ICWA,” Vice President Nez said. “What the Goldwater Institute is doing is wrong.”

Both President Begaye and Vice President Nez voiced support of ICWA and the protection of Indian children by keeping them with Native American families.

Cindy Blackstock, Canada's Warrior for Children

Globe and Mail Article on Cindy Blackstock

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Kate Fort

Here.

“What I saw were children being systemically removed from these communities. And I’d go to these communities, and there was no running water, and people would wonder why the kids weren’t clean, and I’d think maybe someone should do something about the water. We would see the multigenerational impacts of residential schools, and there are no mental-health services that are culturally appropriate. So there were all these layers of inequality and I started to realize it was the system, in many cases, that was creating conditions where families were not going to be successful in caring for their kids. And nobody was really holding the system to account.”

[use the search bar on this blog for more about Cindy and her work... Trace]

Saturday in Los Angeles Community Informational Meeting/Luncheon #ICWA #FosterFamilies

Community Informational Meeting/Luncheon

Saturday, July 16: This FREE event is to provide Native Foster Homes for Native children in the foster care system in Los Angeles County. We have had some success and publicity on this through local media for Lisa Smith, a local Cherokee Nation Citizen who has ​​​​opened her home to foster children.

 

See Article:

https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/news-2/l-a-s-one-native-american-foster-mom/18823

You are invited to attend

Community Informational Meeting/Luncheon

this Saturday, July 16 from 11am to 1pm

at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

840 Echo Park Avenue Los Angeles, near Sunset Blvd and Echo Park Blvd.   

The purpose of this event is to supply information to Native American families who may be interested in providing safe and loving homes to Native American children.  

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is 1978 federal law which mandates placement preferences of Native American children:

• First – with Family members or non-related extended family
• Second - Members of their own tribe
• Third – Members of other tribes

The last resort is placement with non-native foster families.

WE NEED NATIVE HOMES

To ensure proper implementation of ICWA, we must provide Native homes to prevent our children from placement with non-Native families. When Native American children are placed in non-Native homes, they are at high risk of losing their identity, heritage, values, customs, culture and knowledge of their history.

Please join us. Bring your family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and all you know who are Native American and interested in helping to provide a safe and loving home to Native American children.

Lunch is provided – RSVP please call (626) 938-1822 to be included

 

CREDIT: Isabel Avila; Robert Rodriguez (left) and David White run DCFS’ ‘American Indian Unit.’

 

an earlier event

Toxic Stress, ACE STUDY, violence trauma

Violence is just one part of childhood trauma. So why are we focusing so much on childhood violence?

Three Types of Stress

Five years before the first of many papers from the ACE Study was published in 1998, Dr. Bruce McEwen at Rockefeller University, with Dr. Eliot Stellar, used the term “allostatic load” to describe how repeated chronic stress – “toxic stress” – produces stress hormones that create wear and tear on the brain and the body.
Over the last five years, the concept of the effects of toxic stress on children was amplified by Dr. Jack Shonkoff at the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child. He and his team describe three types of stress: Positive stress, which children need to help them grow and thrive. Tolerable stress, which is temporary, and where a caring adult helps a child to recover. And toxic stress — extreme, frequent or extended activation of the body’s stress response without the buffering presence of a supportive adult.
This toxic stress – the kind that comes from living with a physically and verbally abusive alcoholic parent, for example – damages the function and structure of a kid’s brain. Toxic stress floods the brain with stress hormones. When a kid’s in fight, flight or freeze mode, their thinking brain is offline and doesn’t develop as it should.
Kids experiencing trauma act out. They can’t focus. They can’t sit still. Or they withdraw. Fight, flight or freeze – that’s a normal and expected response to trauma. So they can’t learn. Their schools respond by suspending or expelling them, which further traumatizes them.

READ THIS ARTICLE 

A shorter version of this story appears in the July-August 2016 issue of Health Progress.

We have published on the ACE Study here on this blog. Use the search bar for more... Trace

Reporting on #ICWA Factsheet

see link below

By Trace Hentz (blog editor and adoptee)

We are at a crossroad again. We've had various recent attacks on the Indian Child Welfare Act, as if the history didn't exist as to why there is a federal law in place to protect Native children.

Do journalists not understand the history of the ICWA and the governments who attempted to destroy Indian culture by taking away future generations?

In 2016, trafficking in children is a $14 billion dollar industry. Children-in-the-system do produce an income for some people (lawyers, judges, social workers, foster parents.)

Indian children are protected from trafficking/adoption today with the federal law ICWA.

Why the attacks on ICWA?  Do they honestly think that the Native adoptee will settle in with their white parents and never question what actually happened?

Children are young a short period of time. We are not robots. We do think for ourselves.

I cannot think of one Native adoptee who has not done a search for their first family after a closed adoption.  Our identity may have been taken from us but we will go looking for it as adults.

Being placed in a non-Indian home will not prevent any adult adoptee from searching for their families and tribe.

Veronica Brown, Lexi and others have put ICWA back in the news. That is the good news with the bad news...

Here is what the Native American Journalists Assoc. did to help mainstream reporters write a better balanced story:

NORMAN, Okla. – Earlier this year, the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) was disheartened by mainstream reporting on several cases involving the welfare of Native American children.
In response to the arbitrary reporting on this issue, the NAJA Board of Directors has collaborated with the National Indian Child Welfare Association to release a media guide to aid reporters and editors when covering cases that fall under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
NAJA is hopeful this guide will be a useful resource for any media outlet covering ICWA and will help improve coverage of a complex and significant issue for American Indians / Alaskan Natives.
Ethical journalism should always inform coverage of intricate laws such as ICWA, which directly involve children and families in the Native American community.
According to the guide, some ICWA cases may be newsworthy, however, the way journalists report these stories can encourage anti-Indian sentiments and influence negative behavior toward tribes and tribal citizens.
There is no cost to access the resource guide, which is available for download on the NAJA website at: http://www.naja.com/resources/covering-icwa/.

What happened to #DustenBrown and #VeronicaBrown still lingers. This is why we need a stronger #ICWA. #ajstreamhttps://t.co/nyy1FFJSh2

— Cutcha Risling Baldy (@cutchabaldy) April 6, 2016

#Lexi will remain with her Utah Family #ICWA

Summer and Rusty Page listen to their attorney, Lori Alvino McGill, after an appeals court hearing in downtown Los Angeles in June. They've pledged to take their fight to the state Supreme Court. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

• ICWA: Lexi to Remain with Utah Family

  Indian Country Today Media Network

  On March 21, foster parents Summer and Russell Page ignited a worldwide firestorm of publicity when they initially refused to turn Lexi over to her ...
  More: Foster parents lose appeal fight - Daily Mail

  Foster Parents Lose Appeals Fight for American Indian Girl - ABC News

  Full Coverage 

  • 
    Appeals Court: 'Lexi' to Stay with Her Family Members

    SCVNEWS.com

    The foster child, who was found in 2011 to come under the Indian Child Welfare Act, was removed in March from the Saugus home of her unrelated ...

   
• 
  

  Los Angeles Times
  
  

First Nations Films: NANABOZHUNG, Vanishing Link

Film is important to us as storytellers... go to link and watch the previews... Trace

How can First Nations continue to survive in the urban environment? How can they survive at all after reserve and residential schools. First Nations are not the problem in our society. They may just be the solution to the problem.

NANABOZHUNG - We Are the Solution - documentary-  2016 - 80 min.
After being 'rounded up' into reserves, after the imposition of the Indian Act and their forced re-education in the residential schools, can these First Nations people continue to survive
in this urban environment? Can we afford to allow their culture to die when it puts the preservation of the environment above all else? From an emotional and Intellectual point of view we come to realize that 'First Nations are not the problem. They are the solution to the problem'. Directed by Lia Williams, Produced by Guy Hibbert (149.00)

VANISHING LINK - documentary -  retracing her roots! - 2007 - 60 min.

A very personal and emotionally moving program about one woman's "return" to her spiritual roots and native identity. As this exciting story unfolds through the woman's direct experiences the viewer follows her journey and so travels deeper into her "return". Woven together with riveting stories from Elders brought to life through stirring traditional art, dances, songs, and crafts. Vanishing Link explores native spirituality through the oral traditions of tribal elders while following a unique spiritual quest. A must-see for all audiences. 

LINK

First Nations Films: NANABOZHUNG, Vanishing Link

Film is important to us as storytellers... go to link and watch the previews... Trace

How can First Nations continue to survive in the urban environment? How can they survive at all after reserve and residential schools. First Nations are not the problem in our society. They may just be the solution to the problem.

NANABOZHUNG - We Are the Solution - documentary-  2016 - 80 min.
After being 'rounded up' into reserves, after the imposition of the Indian Act and their forced re-education in the residential schools, can these First Nations people continue to survive
in this urban environment? Can we afford to allow their culture to die when it puts the preservation of the environment above all else? From an emotional and Intellectual point of view we come to realize that 'First Nations are not the problem. They are the solution to the problem'. Directed by Lia Williams, Produced by Guy Hibbert (149.00)

VANISHING LINK - documentary -  retracing her roots! - 2007 - 60 min.

A very personal and emotionally moving program about one woman's "return" to her spiritual roots and native identity. As this exciting story unfolds through the woman's direct experiences the viewer follows her journey and so travels deeper into her "return". Woven together with riveting stories from Elders brought to life through stirring traditional art, dances, songs, and crafts. Vanishing Link explores native spirituality through the oral traditions of tribal elders while following a unique spiritual quest. A must-see for all audiences. 

LINK

Sisters Torn Apart Reunited Decades Later #60sScoop

RED POWER MEDIA

Sonya Murray, centre, made it her mission to track down her long-lost sisters Nakuset, left, and Rose Mary, right. (Submitted by Nakuset)

Women among thousands of First Nations children removed from their families under federal program

CBC News Posted: Jul 04, 2016 / Last Updated: Jul 05, 2016

Sonya Murray and her sister Nakuset hadn’t heard from their youngest sister Rose Mary since she was around five years old.
The two older sisters were taken from their family home in Thompson, Man., one night as part of a federal government program that’s now known as the Sixties Scoop.
Decades after being forced apart along with thousands of other First Nations children and placed in adoptive homes across Canada, the two sisters were reunited with Rose Mary Monday on CBC Montreal’s Daybreak.
Between the 1960s and 1985, the government estimates more than 11,000 Aboriginal children were removed from their families – often without the parents’ consent –  and adopted out under the program.

Nakuset said Rose Mary was ‘the missing piece’ and her sisters now have to make up for lost time. (Radio-Canada)

Others contend that as many as 50,000 children were adopted out under the program.
“One night, there was a knock on the door. Nakuset and I were alone in the house. I kind of opened door… and apparently some police came in and took us away,” Sonya said.
Nakuset and Sonya were kept in the same foster home for a brief period before they were separated.
‘She’s gone… that’s all I ever heard’
Sonya, who was around five years old at the time, was the eldest of the three girls.
“One morning I woke up and I looked in the bed over from me and it was all made up, and [Nakuset] was gone,” she said.
“I asked, ‘Where’s my sister?’ and they just said, ‘She’s gone.’ That’s all I ever heard.”
Nakuset was adopted by a family in Montreal, where she still lives, and Sonya was later returned to live with her mother and stepfather. She now lives near Kenora, Ont.
The emotions of that time are still raw for Nakuset, especially when she considers the loss Sonya felt and the effort she made to find her little sisters.
“Sonya made it her mission to try to find both of us, and she’s really the one that keeps us all together.”
That effort paid off last week, when she received a message from Rose Mary on Facebook last week.

Nakuset says she grew up yearning for her native roots. ‘I so desperately wanted to belong. ‘ (Submitted by Nakuset)

The youngest sister had moved to Vienna, Austria, with her European father when she was around three years old.
“There were no goodbyes,” Sonya said. “She was just gone one day.”
The sisters’ four brothers were also taken from their mother and placed in homes.
‘She was the last missing piece of the puzzle’
The message from Rose Mary, who now lives in Horn, Austria, came as a welcome shock to Sonya.
“I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t sure. My head was asking if this is real,” Sonya told CBC.
Since then, the three say they’ve been going “crazy” together, and they finally feel complete.
“In Austria, I used to feel lost and I never knew why,” Rose Mary said. “Now, my heart feels wide open and I’ve found new happiness.”
Rose Mary was “the missing piece,” Nakuset added, a feeling that was echoed by Sonya.
“You have a sense of emptiness, there’s always a feeling that you’re not full, you’re not complete,” she said.
“In meeting with my two sisters — now it’s ‘us’, not just me and you, like it was with Nakuset. It’s not just me and you against the world, it’s us against the world. We’re complete. She was the last missing piece of the puzzle.”
Nakuset said she can’t imagine the loneliness her youngest sister felt so far away.
“I think about how hard that must have been for her to be the only Cree in a country, you know, where there’s no one else who looks like her,” she said.
Nakuset said they’re now keen to get to Europe and teach their little little sister all about Cree culture and language. Rose Mary is already planning a visit to Canada next summer.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to make up for lost time,” Nakuset said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/60s-scoop-reunited-sisters-cbc-1.3663770?cmp=abfb

Nakuset is one of the writers in the new book STOLEN GENERATIONS... PAPERBACK HERE: https://www.createspace.com/5982643

Reunification celebrated in Michigan #ICWA

State of Michigan Celebrates Reunification Day

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Sarah M Donnelly

Link to news coverage here.

The Michigan Supreme Court ceremonially praised the efforts of family court participants, including Tribal leaders, for restoring children to their families on June 24, 2016, in Lansing.  Five judges from Michigan’s Tribal State Federal Judicial Forum were present.  According to the article, more than half of foster care children were returned to their families in 2015.
In 2015, more than half of the 8,000 plus children in foster care were reunited with their families. As several people noted throughout the event, reunification is always the goal of the judicial system, and deciding to terminate parental rights is a last resort. Friday’s event celebrated the major efforts courts and the state are making to put parents back on the path to caring for their own.