SUBSCRIBE

Get new posts by email:

How to Use this Blog

BOOZHOO! We've amassed tons of information and important history on this blog since 2010. If you have a keyword, use the search box below. Also check out the reference section above. If you have a question or need help searching, use the contact form at the bottom of the blog.



We want you to use BOOKSHOP! (the editor will earn a small amount of money or commission. (we thank you) (that is our disclaimer statement)

This is a blog. It is not a peer-reviewed journal, not a sponsored publication... WE DO NOT HAVE ADS or earn MONEY from this website. The ideas, news and thoughts posted are sourced… or written by the editor or contributors.

EMAIL ME: tracelara@pm.me (outlook email is gone) ALMOST THREE MILLION VISITORS!

SEARCH

Thursday, February 9, 2023

MN Lawmakers Working to Codify Language from Indian Child Welfare Act

Minnesota lawmakers hope to codify Indian Child Welfare Act language into state law

By: - February 7, 2023 

Kevin DuPuis, chairmain of the Fon du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, spoke to senators on Monday, Feb.7, at the Minnesota Senate Building. Sen. Mary Kunesh (right), a Democrat from New Brighton, is the chief author of SF667. Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer.

A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers are backing a bill aimed at keeping Native American children within the foster care system in Native American homes, as the U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to overturn identical federal rules.

The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) established federal minimum standards for the removal of Native American children from their homes. The law also prioritized placing children into homes of extended family members and other tribal homes — places that could reflect the values of Native American culture.

ICWA was enacted following a century-long campaign by the federal government of forcibly removing Native children from their homes and placing them in boarding schools and white adoptive families. The mission was to assimilate Native children into the white American mainstream — or “kill the Indian in him, save the man,” as the founder of the first boarding school infamously said.

The U.S. Supreme Court in November heard a case, Brakeen v. Haaland, which argues ICWA discriminates against non-Native families because of their race. ICWA proponents argue tribal citizenship is a political — not racial — category.

The conservative justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett — who are both adoptive parents — appeared skeptical of the law. 

Social workers and tribal nations have long lauded ICWA, and Minnesota lawmakers are proposing bipartisan legislation to adopt ICWA-like language to continue prioritizing placing Native children with extended family, tribal members or other Native households.

“The effects of trauma, separation from family and disconnection from important cultural teachings caused by the boarding school and adoption era carries on today as families and tribes struggle to rebuild extended family and community relationships,” said Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the bill’s chief author and whose mother is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “This proposal is the minimum necessary to ensure protection for our tribal children, families and tribes.”

The state already has the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act, which was adopted in 1985 as a supplement to ICWA. Kunesh’s bill (SF667) would add language, like definitions and required processes, to strengthen the state law so it would include ICWA language. 

If the Supreme Court does overturn ICWA, the status of the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act would be up to a state court if someone were to challenge it.

At the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday, multiple tribal leaders and ICWA case workers testified in support of the bill.

Kevin DuPuis, chairman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, told lawmakers that passing this bill would be a step toward preserving the future for Native Americans and said that taking away Native children and assimilating them into white culture is a form of genocide.

“It’s my job as a tribal leader, and it’s my job as an Anishinaabe man to protect our children, to protect our future, to ensure there is a future,” DuPuis said. “(This bill) ensures that we get to determine what’s right for our children. That we get to determine what’s right for our people.”

Prior to ICWA’s adoption in 1978, as many as 35% of Native American children were placed in non-Native homes by state courts and adoption agencies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Kunesh said they are working to quickly enact the bill, as the Supreme Court may release its decision any time in the first half of this year.

Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, one of the bill’s co-authors, said the Legislature also needs to take further steps to ensure the law is enforced. 

“I hope that … this year, next year, we can get to the heart of this and preserve these families to the best extent possible,” Abeler said. “I don’t live in this world, but I really care. For what part I can bring, I’m happy to be a part of the solution.”

The Supreme Court case, Brakeen v. Haaland, hinges on a Texas family, the Brakeens, who fostered a 10-month-old Navajo and Cherokee child. The couple was told from the beginning that they wouldn’t be able to adopt the child, but the Brakeens became attached and went to court. A judge ordered that the child be placed with a Navajo couple, but the tribe backed out, effectively giving the Brakeens custody. The Brakeens now want to adopt the child’s sibling.

The Supreme Court case includes three non-Native families who wanted to adopt Native American children — including one couple in Minnesota who went to court against the grandmother of a White Earth Nation child. The Minnesota couple, Danielle and Jason Clifford, argued in court that they could better provide for the child, but the White Earth Nation and the grandmother fought back and the grandmother won custody because of ICWA. 

The Brakeens and the other families who are challenging ICWA are bankrolled by multiple right-wing organizations, according to This Land, a podcast about Native American rights. 

Tribal advocates worry that if the Supreme Court overturns ICWA based on a racial discrimination argument, the decision could lead to a domino effect against other areas of tribal sovereignty, using the same legal rationale.

ICWA proponents argue tribal citizenship is a political — not racial — category and therefore shouldn’t be considered racial discrimination.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved the bill, which will now go to the Senate Judiciary Committee later this week.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please: Share your reaction, your thoughts, and your opinions. Be passionate, be unapologetic. Offensive remarks will not be published. We are getting more and more spam. Comments will be monitored.
Use the comment form at the bottom of this website which is private and sent direct to Trace.


Happy Visitors!

Blog Archive

Featured Post

Theft of Tribal Lands

This ascendancy and its accompanying tragedy were exposed in a report written in 1924 by Lakota activist Zitkala-Sa, a.k.a. Gertrude Simmon...


Wilfred Buck Tells The Story Of Mista Muskwa

WRITTEN BY HUMANS!

WRITTEN BY HUMANS!

Most READ Posts

Bookshop

You are not alone

You are not alone

To Veronica Brown

Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.

Diane Tells His Name


click photo

60s Scoop Survivors Legal Support

GO HERE: https://www.gluckstein.com/sixties-scoop-survivors

Lost Birds on Al Jazeera Fault Lines

Lost Birds on Al Jazeera Fault Lines
click to read and listen about Trace, Diane, Julie and Suzie

ADOPTION TRUTH

As the single largest unregulated industry in the United States, adoption is viewed as a benevolent action that results in the formation of “forever families.”
The truth is that it is a very lucrative business with a known sales pitch. With profits last estimated at over $1.44 billion dollars a year, mothers who consider adoption for their babies need to be very aware that all of this promotion clouds the facts and only though independent research can they get an accurate account of what life might be like for both them and their child after signing the adoption paperwork.


click THE COUNT 2024 for the ADOPTEE SURVEY

NEW MEMOIR

Original Birth Certificate Map in the USA

Google Followers


back up blog (click)