A Baby Adopted, and ICWA failed

 

A video leaks of a wealthy politician describing how he adopted a Native child, leading to outrage from the child’s biological family and members of her tribe. 

LISTEN:  https://revealnews.org/podcast/native-adoption-utah-politician-northern-cheyenne/

ICWA 2050 Launched by NICWA To Honor Anniversary | UTAH ICWA | NORTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR Nomination to DOI

 November 13, 2024 - PRESS RELEASE

PORTLAND, OR – Recently, the National Indian Child Welfare Association’s (NICWA) Protect ICWA Campaign released ICWA 2050, a 25-year strategy to strengthen the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and tribal child welfare.  Honoring the 46th anniversary of ICWA, ICWA 2050 casts a vision that recognizes and upholds the critical role that tribal nations play in protecting Native children, helping families in tribal child welfare systems and assisting states as they implement ICWA.

ICWA 2050 outlines a uniting vision spanning decades and sectors. It represents a holistic vision and approach to changing the interrelated systems that protect Native kids for generations to come. Achieving that vision will require work across and within many sectors, from the courtroom to the newsroom. Each goal has a powerful impact on the cultural fabric we are weaving back together to create nurturing networks for Native children, including:

• Increasing tribal child welfare capacity to ensure the best care for Native children within their communities.
• Improving outcomes in state child welfare systems by strengthening relationships between tribal and state governments and improving tribal advocacy.
• Enhancing tribal-federal partnerships to ensure federal policy supports tribal sovereignty and the well-being of Native children.
• Improving communication about ICWA as the gold standard of child welfare policy and emphasize the importance of honoring tribal sovereignty.

“ICWA 2050 is a collective effort guided by Indian Country, including tribal leadership across all regions of the United States and the technical expertise of tribal child welfare directors,” said Sarah Kastelic, National Indian Child Welfare Association Executive Director. “We are inspired by the collaboration and shared vision that shaped this effort. ICWA 2050 represents a commitment to one generation of work that can change the trajectory of many generations of Native children.”

“ICWA 2050 not only fortifies protections for Native children today, but also builds a path for generations to come, ensuring that our children remain grounded in their cultures and communities,” said Larry Wright, Jr., National Congress of American Indians Executive Director. “This forward-looking strategy reflects the strength of tribal sovereignty and collaboration across Indian Country, empowering tribal nations to lead in defining the future of child welfare for Native families. The National Congress of American Indians and its members are proud to support and join this vision, rooted in the resilience and self-determination of our communities.”

“ICWA 2050 offers a powerful vision to strengthen and protect ICWA, ensuring that Native children remain deeply connected to their cultures and Nations,” said Kim Mettler, Association on American Indian Affairs Next Generations Director. “By supporting ICWA 2050, we help affirm and protect the fundamental human rights of every Native child – to family, cultural identity, freedom from forced assimilation, and the right to self-determination. ICWA 2050 is an investment in our shared future.”

👇

READ:  https://www.kuer.org/politics-government/2024-11-14/utahs-version-of-the-indian-child-welfare-act-could-make-a-2025-comeback
 

👉Donald Trump to nominate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for Secretary of Interior

Known as an independent-minded Republican for much of his tenure as governor, Burgum has since embraced Trump's hardline rhetoric and MAGA Republicanism. Trump included Burgum on his final short list as vice president before picking JD Vance.

Burgum's second term as governor ends next month when Gov.-elect Kelly Armstrong, a GOP congressman, is sworn in.

Born and raised in the tiny farm town of Arthur, North Dakota, with a population of 328, Burgum in 1983 mortgaged farmland he inherited from his family to invest in Fargo-based Great Plains Software. He became the company's president the next year, and by 2001 sold the company to Microsoft for $1.1 billion. At Microsoft, Burgum worked as senior vice president through 2007.

Today, Burgum has a net worth of more than $100 million, according to Forbes magazine. Burgum is the founder of Kilbourne Group, a Fargo-based real estate firm, and is co-founder of Arthur Ventures, a software venture capital firm based in Minneapolis. He is also board chairman of Atlassian and SuccessFactors.

As governor, Burgum took steps to improve relations with the state's native tribes. That includes signing legislation codifying the federal Indian Child Welfare Act to give preference to Native American families in the adoption of native children.

SOURCE:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/14/trump-cabinet-doug-burgum-interior-secretary/76203334007/

 

 

Corruption and Bribery? A Baby Adopted, A Family Divided

 

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST

A Baby Adopted, A Family Divided 

Reveal illustration; Charles Deluvio/Unsplash; Dukas/Universal/Getty

In 2017, David Leavitt drove to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana to adopt a baby girl. A few years later, during an interview with a documentary filmmaker, Leavitt, a wealthy Utah politician, told a startling story about how he went about getting physical custody of that child. He describes going to the tribe’s president and offering to use his connections to broker an international sale of the tribe’s buffalo. At the same time, he was asking the president for his blessing to adopt the child. That video eventually leaked to a local TV station, and the adoption became the subject of a federal investigation into bribery. To others, the adoption story seemed to run afoul of a federal law meant to protect Native children from being removed from their tribes’ care in favor of non-Native families. This week on Reveal, reporters Andrew Becker and Bernice Yeung dig into the story of this complicated and controversial adoption, how it circumvented the mission of the Indian Child Welfare Act, and why some of the baby’s Native family and tribe were left feeling that a child was taken from them.

Listen to the episode

🎧 Other places to listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Transcript

 

Dig Deeper

Read: ‘People Say, You Sold Your Baby’ (The Cut) 

Read: Forever Home (Mother Jones)

Listen: Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (Radiolab)

Listen: This Land podcast

 

Adoptee Assistance: Navajoland

Navajo Nation expedites membership verification for Indian Child Welfare Act

KNAU News Talk - Arizona Public Radio | By KNAU STAFF

Published October 31, 2023

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed a memorandum of agreement to streamline the process of determining whether a Native child is actually Navajo on Oct. 30, 2023. Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch, and Debbie Nez-Manuel, director of the Navajo Division of Human Resources, also signed.

The Navajo Nation has developed a streamlined process to determine whether a Native child who may be adopted is actually Navajo.

The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 to establish basic requirements to protect Native American children from removal from their homes and communities.

If a child is determined to be a tribal member, the ICWA then triggers legal protections and the right of the Navajo Nation to intervene.

However, the process to verify tribal membership can take several months.

Tribal officials say this new agreement will significantly shorten the time to determine membership by improving coordination and the sharing of records between Navajo Nation divisions and the offices that work with children in custody, adoption or foster cases.

Caseworkers will then be able to determine if ICWA applies in a matter of weeks, which will allow the Navajo government to intervene sooner.

President Buu Nygren signed off on the memorandum of agreement October 30, 2023.

READ

https://blog.americanindianadoptees.com/2023/09/how-to-enroll-if-you-are-navajo.html

What do we need to do?

 

By Trace L Hentz (blog editor and adoptee)

Yesterday I was talking to my husband about an adoptee who is in another country and needs help to find her family and tribe.  Her (amended) (fake) birth certificate is from Utah.

Utah is a closed record state.  BAD NEWS. But Utah has an adoption registry: and she can register online,  which is new.  https://adoptionregistry.utah.gov/ - Their website says: The Utah Adoption Registry is a voluntary, mutual consent registry that helps adult adoptees born in Utah and their birth parents and blood related siblings reunite with one another.

There is a form to fill out: Register Now

Of course there is a fee:  Check or Money Order made out to 'Vital Records'. New registration: $25. Update to Match Search information: $10.

She was adopted in Utah but could be born somewhere else.  She sent me a copy of her fake OBC (the original birth certificate, amended after adoption) and it lists her adoptive parents as her birth parents.

She told me in an email her adoption was private, which means lawyers were involved, I guess. Why? Paperwork.

I emailed back: Are your adoptive parents still alive? I ask this because they have your adoption papers (from the adoption hearing) that probably lists your birth mother. (mine did)  There had to be a hearing in order to produce your fake birth certificate with the adopters names.  This adoptee was born in 1981 but the birth certificate was issued in 2006. (Weird -- 25 years later?)  Even if it was a private adoption, lawyers and a judge had to create paperwork to make the (fake) birth record.

 

Nothing on her birth certificate tells us where she was actually born, what hospital, what time, her weight and length, etc.

 

I had already sent her a list of tribes in Utah: Utes, Goshutes, Paiutes, Shoshone, and Navajo.  There are eight federally recognized tribes.

 

What are her choices now? I suggested she use a search angel. https://www.searchangels.org/gettings-started

THEIR FORM: https://www.searchangels.org/contact

 

I also suggested that she do a DNA test to find a relative.

 

But the problem with DNA tests- some Native people DO NOT WANT to have their DNA and blood is some database. We know why.  History is a horror show.  The government created this barbaric practice of closed adoptions and fake papers.  And they created the INDIAN ADOPTION PROJECTS: we do not know how many children were trafficked and given new fake identities to make them "white" and "American."  

Canada claims about 20,000 were part of the 60s Scoop (their adoption trafficking project) but others say it was triple that number. The US has never released any numbers of children for all their Indian Adoption Projects or ARENA or an apology.  It was thousands and thousands.

 

Until we reunite with our relatives, which many of us have done, Closed Adoption accomplished our erasure as sovereign citizens in our tribal nations.

 

I do think about what we need to do.  Do we need a website for Native moms to list their children's date of birth and their names, to help her find them. That might not work since adoptees have little to no information.  How can the adoptee know their real date of birth or where they were born? Adoptees are the most lied to, and denied the truth, and denied their paperwork. I can barely stomach this ongoing atrocity.

 

How can we match missing children to their parents and their tribes?

Do you see the mess this is?  Do you realize this was created by a government to make it nearly impossible to find your tribe?

 

The clock is ticking.  Parents age and pass. How long must we wait to see a change in the US?

 

ntsáhákees | nahat’á | iiná | sih hasin | Diné Action Plan

Nygren asks state child welfare experts to adopt traditional Navajo teachings

Who Are the Navajo People? - WorldAtlas  worldatlas.com

By Navajo Times | Sep 21, 2023 | News |

WINDOW ROCK – Child welfare services provided to by Arizona, New Mexico and Utah may soon be improved through the adoption of traditional Navajo teachings and knowledge if incorporated into their programs.

Officials with these states’ child welfare agencies were in Window Rock recently to discuss ways to expand the capacity of their existing partnership with the Navajo Nation.

The meeting sought ways to strengthen agreements between the Navajo Nation Division of Social Services and states to enhance services for Navajo children and families.

“My administration wants to encourage collaboration between child welfare agencies and to use the Diné Action Plan to help combat the challenges our Diné families and children face,” President Buu Nygren told state officials.

The Diné Action Plan is considered a living document that expresses Diné teachings. It was adopted by the 24th Navajo Nation Council in 2021. The plan was introduced in April 2018 as a blueprint to improve the quality of life throughout the Navajo Nation.

“Unfortunately, we are seeing inter-generational cycles that occur when a child is removed from his or her home,” said Thomas Cody, executive director of the Navajo Division of Social Services. “The increase of substance use, decrease of healthy parenting, and a decrease in teachings at home causes a decrease in spiritual connection.”

According to Cody, some Navajo services aid and provide services that focus on alleviating those generational challenges and traumas.

“Unfortunately, more is needed to combat these issues. This is why these collaborative partnerships are so important,” Cody said.

Although the Nation has the resources to treat those in need, it needed a plan to reflect Navajo values and principles of ntsáhákees (thinking), nahat’á, (planning), iiná (action) and sih hasin (reflection) that Navajos are familiar with through their traditional teaching.

The DAP was the result. It was designed to address public safety, violence, substance use disorder, suicide and missing and murdered Diné relatives on the Navajo Nation, said Cody.

According to the DAP, which references traditional Navajo teachings, in contemporary society Navajos face the “monsters” of the modern world.

“These include substance abuse, suicide and the various forms of violence that has come onto our people. With substance abuse, our people are attacked by the monster of addiction and lose their lives to chemicals that draw them into a trap of irresistible cravings where they are poisoned and die.

“With suicide, our Diné face the evil of hopelessness which results in the taking of one’s own life,” Cody said. “With violence, there are monsters of frustration and pain causing them to lash out on others. Finally, there are monsters outside Navajoland and within (which) take our people away from our families.”

The DAP states that the teachings of the Navajo deities, known to Navajos as the Holy People, “are embedded in our culture and traditions and the teachings provide us with the tools we need to defeat our modern monsters. The teachings have been given to us by our Diyin Dine’é (the Holy People).”

According to Navajo teachings, the seven monsters that have preyed upon the Navajo people from time immemorial are laziness, sleepiness, jealousy, hunger, poverty, lice and old age.

The DAP was established to maintain spiritual connection as the foundational component to self-identify and to our culture, said the president.

Nygren said the Diné Action Plan should be part of each state’s mental health programs because most Navajos would be familiar and comfortable with its concepts, and that would lead to better outcomes.

He said there is a need for a state-tribal cooperative approach because so many Navajos live off the Navajo Nation and use mental health care provided through neighboring state services.

“Mental health and wellness are so important, especially for our young people and elders,” he said. “By working together with our state partners, we can help ensure Navajos have access to culturally appropriate services no matter where they live.”

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted longstanding mental health challenges on the Navajo Nation. These include high rates of depression, substance abuse and suicide.
Isolation during lockdowns exacerbated these issues for many Navajos.

The agreements will aim to address barriers of lack of transportation, shortage of Navajo-speaking providers, and the high cost of care.

Specific programs being discussed include the development of a mobile crisis unit, school-based telehealth services and funding for traditional healing.

Video raises ethical questions about Leavitt's adoption of Native American child #ChildTrafficking #ICWA

BREAKING - I can confirm this video of Utah County Attorney David Leavitt, discussing his "strategy" to adopt a Native American infant, was submitted into evidence in 2020 as part of a Homeland Security human trafficking investigation.

My full investigation airs tonight. @FOX13 pic.twitter.com/wOhzO2HoVr

— Adam Herbets (@AdamHerbets) June 28, 2022

According to the video, David Leavitt says his "strategy" included boarding a plane to Montana to meet with the Northern Cheyenne Tribal President (unannounced) to discuss buffalo exports to Ukraine + eventually adoption.

"At that point, he was all ears." pic.twitter.com/0XQfjJKFYM

— Adam Herbets (@AdamHerbets) June 28, 2022

After the child's adoption, Tribal President Jace Killsback served time in prison for an unrelated case.

I spoke with him briefly on the phone. So far, he has chosen not to comment on the claims made by Leavitt. pic.twitter.com/SWnerCkwhT

— Adam Herbets (@AdamHerbets) June 28, 2022

The Indian Child Welfare Act, passed in 1978, was designed to protect Native American children from being removed from their families.

The child is Leavitt's foster-step-great niece. There is no blood relation, but ultimately it's up to the tribe to decide who is "family." pic.twitter.com/UREFw15fGm

— Adam Herbets (@AdamHerbets) June 28, 2022

 

FOX 13 Investigates dropped another bombshell involving a Homeland Security Investigation against Leavitt. Noel Engels, a former analyst with Homeland Security Investigations, told FOX 13 Investigates that his team had been investigating sexual allegations against Leavitt for several years. Engels said his team had received the video about Leavvit and added it to the case file investigation on Leavitt on suspicion of human trafficking. VIA

In 1992, the task force issued their report, Report of Utah State Task Force on Ritual Abuse, concluding that ritual abuse was occurring in Utah. The Jeffrey Epstein saga, as well as my work on The Finders cult, show that these types of organized sexual rings do exist. Whether or not there is an occult or ritualistic element is often harder to prove, and, perhaps, even a distraction from the very real abuse of children that is happening. - Author Derrick Broze

UTAH: The bill “combats the excessive removal of Native American children from their homes"

Utah: Bill takes on ‘excessive removal of Native American children from their homes’

SB28 protects Native children in the state welfare system.

 Men, women and children from Native American tribes throughout the West show their regalia during the Grand Entry at the 41st Annual Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah Restoration Gathering, Aug. 13, 2021 in Cedar City, Utah. (Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune)

By Alastair Lee Bitsóí

  | Feb. 3, 2022

Utah continues to neglect Indigenous children and families, tribal community leaders and experts told members of the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions on Monday, February 1, 2022.

Indigenous leaders hope the bill SB28 would fix some of the inequities which have plagued Indigenous residents of Utah for the last 126 years. The bill creates an Office of American Indian-Alaska Native Health and Family Services under the Utah Department of Health and Human Services to make sure that Indigenous children and families get protection when they enter the state’s child welfare system.

SB28 also moves the Indian Child Welfare Act Liaison and the American Indian-Alaskan Native Health Liaison from two different state agencies and brings both roles into the merging Utah Department of Health and Human Services. The merger is expected to take effect in July.

Supporters of the bill say the proposed merger streamlines how the government responds to Indigenous children and families when these children are taken by welfare agencies and also ensures that the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 is enforced. Also known as ICWA, the federal law governs the removal and placement of Native children to combat the high number of Indigenous children removed from their homes.

According to Utah Foster Care, there are about 100 American Indian/Alaska Native children in Utah’s foster care system at any time. There are fewer than 15 licensed American Indian/Alaska Native foster homes in the state for Indigenous children and families, says the nonprofit.

The bill “combats the excessive removal of Native American children from their homes and acknowledges the alarmingly high percentage of Indian families which are broken up by the removal of children,” Sen. Jani Iwamoto, D-Holliday, told The Tribune.

Paul Tsosie, legal counsel to the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, said that SB28 also allows Utah to meet the burden of higher protections for Native families in the state, a burden he says is spelled out through the U.S. Constitution and the treaties between tribes and the federal government.

“The [Indian Child Welfare Act] specialist is crucial to help all parties correctly apply ICWA in the Utah State Court system,” Tsosie said.

The goal is to make sure that cultural sensitivity and Indigenous values are being taught to children who go to any home in the state, Tsosie added.

Rupert Steele, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, and Moroni Benally, a lobbyist for the Navajo Nation, and other tribes requested the Legislature pass the bill to protect the well-being, safety and health of the approximately 41,644 Indigenous children and families living in the state.

SOURCE

 

Survivors see a link between Indigenous boarding schools’ harsh discipline and later domestic violence

 Utah had boarding schools in Aneth, Intermountain, Ouray, Uintah and Panguitch.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Yolanda Francisco-Nez, Executive Director, Restoring Ancestral Winds, speaks about "Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in Utah" during a workshop at the Salt Lake City Library Auditorium, Monday, July 22, 2019.

By Alastair Lee Bitsóí    | Oct. 25, 2021

Since the discovery of Indigenous children at boarding schools in Canada and then the unverified findings of Paiute bodies at the Panguitch Boarding School, the nonprofit Restoring Ancestral Winds (RAW) began research on the association between Indigenous boarding schools and domestic violence across Utah’s Indigenous communities.

On a panel called “Utah Native American Boarding Schools and other Assimilation Projects on Native Children and Families” hosted by RAW, Indigenous organizers said the Indian Civilization Act of 1819 is a precursor to some of the domestic violence among Native Americans in Utah.

The Indian Civilization Act, or Civilization Fund Act of 1819, is a federal policy that encouraged the assimilation of Indigenous children via boarding schools. From that policy came the formation of Utah boarding schools in Aneth, Intermountain, Ouray, Uintah and Panguitch.

“We have known that there’s a connection between missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit with domestic violence,” said Yolanda Francisco, executive director for RAW. Two-spirit people identify as being both feminine and masculine in spirit. “We have to mention that domestic violence plays a role; it’s a precursor to going missing or murdered.”

While the correlation between domestic violence and Indigenous boarding school has not been well studied, Francisco says she knows that the discipline experienced among Indigenous children influences how they eventually parent.

“There is definitely a role that punishment plays in the life of an individual who survives the boarding school experience, particularly those who were victims of that abuse that occurred,” she said.

Children were subjected to harsh punishments in the schools, ranging from the forced cutting of their hair, which is considered an important part of tribal identity, to eating soap for speaking their language, and other physical, emotional and sexual abuse. The living conditions were also poor and kids died from tuberculosis, whooping cough, measles, the flu and smallpox.

Thursday’s panel featured speakers Davina Smith, who is Navajo (Diné), Denae Shanidiin, who is Diné and Korean, and Kalama Ku’ikahi, who is Diné and Native Hawaiian, who all shared their experiences of boarding schools — either as survivors or through the experience of their parents and grandparents.

“When I think about boarding and foster care children, they’re also considered underneath this umbrella of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples,” Shanidiin said. She hoped the panel would bring more awareness of the Paiute children who attended the Panguitch Boarding School and other Indigenous children at other schools.

Ku’ikahi made connections between the Indian Civilization Act and the early boarding schools in Utah, noting that Christian churches and missionaries influenced the policy.

For example, the Uintah Boarding School, or Ute Indian Boarding School, was established in 1881 by the Episcopal Mission, as was the Ouray Boarding School in 1885. The Panguitch school was Presbyterian.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Indian Student Placement Program, which operated from 1947 to 2000, took approximately 50,000 Native children from reservations and placed them in Latter-day Saint homes, he said.

Smith said the connections between domestic violence and boarding schools run deep in her family.

Recently, Smith ran over 360 miles from Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to bring awareness to Indigenous issues like boarding schools and missing and murdered Indigenous people.

“I know for me I had to end that generational trauma for my kids because I did not want them to go through that,” Smith said. “And it was also about me talking and opening up my traumas with my kids. Just recently, I was able to open up to my mother and talk about it.”

Utah reconciling history with Indian Residential Schools

 

A single building stands on the grounds that once contained an Indigenous boarding school, Aug. 26, 2021, in Panguitch, Utah. There are six known boarding schools within Utah, with the largest one located near Brigham City. The school in Panguitch primarily housed Utah Paiutes and Kaibab Paiutes Native Americans and this school operated from 1904 to 1909. (Chris Caldwell/The Spectrum via AP)

(excerpt)

The Indian Student Placement Program was sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was run from 1947 to 2000. This program started in 1947 but didn’t get sponsored by the church until 1954, according to the church. The program had missionaries approach Native American families and offer to have their children move in with an LDS foster family during the school year and return for the summer.

A 1976 document from the church identifies the objective of the Indian Student Placement Program as “to provide Lamanite children with educational, spiritual, social, and cultural opportunities that would contribute to their leadership development.”

Lamanite is a term from the Book of Mormon which refers to a group of people that settled in the Americas from Israel but turned their back on the Gospel and were cursed with dark skin. The church believed it had a mandate to help the Lamanites and convert them.

The president of the LDS Church at the time that document was released was Spencer W. Kimball, a staunch advocate for LDS outreach to Native Americans who described this program as an “inspiration from the Lord.”

In total, the Indian Student Placement Program placed 50,000 Native American children in homes that were in good standing within the LDS church, as reported by the Atlantic. These kids had to be baptized before entering the program with some instances of the children having wet hair from their baptism when they were introduced to their host family.

In 2018, the LDS church settled a lawsuit with members of the Navajo Nation that alleged they were sexually abused while in this program. The terms of the settlement were confidential and included no admission of wrongdoing by the church.

This was just one of many Native American assimilation efforts that were taken in the 20th century. In total there were over 489 residential schools in the U.S. and Canada, with the last residential school on the continent being shut down in 1996, according to the Union of Ontario Indians.

Assimilation programs in the 20th century didn’t just target Native American children. Another main policy was called “termination” which was a policy meant to terminate federal recognition and supervision of Native American Tribes and take more of their land.

The U.S. enacted termination policies in 1953, removing Indigenous people from their land. The land was sold and the people were relocated into urban areas and were promised good jobs. However, when Native Americans were relocated to cities the work was often less than rewarding, many felt out of place, and the housing offered was often sub-par.

Termination policy was led by Utah Sen. Arthur Watkins, who sold this policy was a way to stop Native Americans from being “wards of the government.” In a 1957 article written by Watkins, he argued that termination policies should be enacted by the government “as rapidly as possible.”

In total, termination policies enacted across the country took somewhere between 1.3 million to 2.5 million acres of land from Native Americans and more than 12,000 people lost tribal affiliation.

This termination policy worked poorly, with around 50% of relocated Native Americans deciding to return to reservations. These policies were phased out during the ’60s and during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Indian Civil Rights Act which called for the end of termination and instead allows tribes to self-determine their futures.

KEEP READING

Navajo Leaders Boost ICWA with Utah

The Navajo Nation and Utah Governor signed an inter-governmental agreement Monday, Feb. 4, 2019, to strengthen and further protect the Indian Child Welfare Act for the benefit of Navajo children in the State of Utah. Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer met with Governor Gary Herbert to make it official at the Utah State Capitol during the annual American Indian Caucus Day.

Source: Navajo Leaders Boost ICWA with Utah | News for Page Lake Powell Arizona

Navajo Nation lauds Utah for pledge to keep native families intact

By Amy Joi O'Donoghue, KSL | Feb 4th, 2019 

SALT LAKE CITY — Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez praised Utah leaders Monday for standing behind a federal law that urges keeping Native American children with their own tribal members should they need adoption or foster care placement.
"This is a model for not only the Navajo Nation but throughout Indian country," Nez said in reaction to the three-way endorsement of an interl-local agreement among the Navajo Nation, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.
The signing event an interlocal agreement took place in the auditorium of the State Office Building during American Indian Caucus Day and comes even in the midst of legal challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act, asserting it is unconstitutional because it elevates a child's race over their best interest.
A federal judge last October struck down the decades-old law after the state of Texas argued racial bias in the case of a non-native couple who sued for the right to adopt a Native American toddler they had fostered for more than a year.
The Texas state court denied their adoption petition based on the federal law that gives preference to Native American families in such circumstances.
The Utah Attorney General's Office filed a friend of the court brief in support of the federal law.
Tough negotiations over the last couple years resulted in Utah's Department of Human Services pledging to continue to keep Navajo children with tribal members as much as possible when it comes to state custody cases.
The daylong caucus event was a chance for leaders and representatives of the eight sovereign tribes in Utah to discuss specific wish lists or complaints regarding their relationship with the state in general and Herbert's office in particular.
Among issues brought up by various tribes:

• Shoshone Nation Chairman Darren Parry said the tribe is hoping Utah lawmakers give $1 million to help pay for an interpretive center at the Bear River Massacre site in southeast Idaho.
• Rupert Steele of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Nation wants more state assistance to deal with "years and years and years" of persistent problems that include fixing a road that is dangerous to travel for Goshute students.
• Navajo Nation representatives noted the state's financial efforts to boost teacher retention and training in San Juan County, but said more needs to happen. In addition, the state could do more to financially participate in issues related to economic development, improvement in roads and other infrastructure needs.

Tribal representatives did note the first phase of funding had been secured for the extension of broadband into Bluff and areas like Montezuma Creek.
Charlaine Tso, the newly elected council delegate for the Bears Ears region of the Navajo Nation, told Herbert the state should support preservation of sacred lands through the Bears Ears National Monument designation, which was reversed in December of 2017, and to help address the ongoing racial challenges playing out in San Juan County politics.
Two members of the Navajo nation were elected to positions on the San Juan County Commission, but there have been unsuccessful legal challenges raised over allegations related to one member's out-of-state residency.
On Tuesday night, the San Juan County Commission is scheduled to take a vote on a number of resolutions, including one urging restoration of the Bears Ears National Monument and rescission of any resolutions by the previous commission that supported its dismantlement.
The commission is also set to vote on the reversal and withdrawal of any position or legal documents that supported the monument reduction.

Utah adoptees need court order to get adoption records

Go here:
http://www.utdcfsad opt.org/search_ reunion.shtml
The Utah Mutual-Consent Voluntary Adoption Registry
http://health. utah.gov/ vitalrecords/ pictures/ forms/adopt. pdf> 

Utah law permits adult adoptees the right to obtain non-identifying,
detailed genetic and social history with regard to their biological family.
Adoptive parents should receive the state forms entitled "Birth Father's
(and/or) Birth Mothers Non-identifying Information for Adoption Registry" at
the time of finalization. Copies of the completed forms may be obtained for
a nominal fee from the Office of Vital Statistics. In 1987 the state of Utah
established a "Mutual Consent Voluntary Adoption Registry." This registry is
administered by the Bureau of Vital Records and Statistics and is available
to adult adoptees (21 years or older who were born in Utah), their
biological brothers and sisters, and their birth parents. If both the adult
adoptee and an adult member of the biological family register, then
identifying information will be released to both parties. See links below.

A Few Tips:

* Request non-identifying information from the agency that handled the
adoption. Contact the Department of Vital Statistic for the state you were
born in and they should be able to direct you to the agency.
* Review the laws and what is available for the state where you were
adopted.
* Sign up with the state registry. Contact the Department of Vital
Statistics for the state where the adoptee was born and where the adoption
was finalized.
* Sign up with the International Soundex Reunion Registry.
* Speak with your adoptive parents. Many adoptive parents have
additional information that they were waiting for the "right time" to share
with their children.
* Join a support group.

Utah Dept. of Vital Statistics
288 N. 1460 W.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Telephone: (801) 538-3916

Overview of Utah Adoption Information

In Utah, records are sealed and may be opened only by court order upon a showing of good cause. Requests to open sealed adoption records are initiated by formal petition in the court in the county where the adoption took place. Where a petitioner is seeking medical information to aid in the preservation of his or her health, petitioner must contact the bureau of vital statistics and the agency involved in the adoption to request non-identifying information, accompanied by a letter from a physician stating the need, and whether the information requested is necessary for the preservation of the health of petitioner. Where petitioner is seeking something other than medical information from the adoption records, he or she must register with the Voluntary Adoption Registry. Identifying information will be released when a registration is received by a court or licensed child placing agency from an adult adoptee (age 21) and a birth parent. Information will not be released if the adult adoptee has a biological sibling who was raised in the same family and who has not yet reached age 21. Adult biological siblings of adoptees may also register. If a registration has been received from both the adult adoptee and his or her biological sibling, such information may be released.

Utah Code Ann. 78-30-15; 78-30-18.

For registry information, contact:
Adoption Reunion Registry
Department of Health
Vital Statistics
288 N. 1460 W.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Telephone: (801) 538-3916

Only 8 states have opened adoption records. Utah, who has a very high percentage of Native adoptees, needs to open them immediately... Trace

Supreme Court won't hear case

archival photo

Supreme Court rejects adoption case involving Cherokee Nation

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (May 21) declined to hear an unusual adoption case from Utah involving the Cherokee Nation and the question of when a person becomes an Indian.

Without comment, the high court let stand a decision by the 10^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a child's natural mother could not regain her parental rights by claiming that the child she gave up for adoption was an Indian who was subject to the federal Indian Child Welfare Act.
The mother of the child terminated her parental rights in court the day after the child was born in 2007. However, a month after the adoption was finalized in 2008, the mother filed a federal court petition seeking to nullify her voluntary termination of parental rights because the Indian Child Welfare Act required a 10-day waiting period in cases involving American Indian children.
The Cherokee Nation intervened for the mother, arguing that because the child's ancestors could be traced to the original tribal rolls, the child was automatically given temporary tribal citizenship at birth and that the Indian Child Welfare Act prohibited the mother from terminating her parental rights within 10 days.
A federal judge agreed. But the 10^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the question wasn't the Cherokee Nation's citizenship laws, but the federal law. The court said the law applied only to children eligible for tribal membership because their parent was a member and the child's mother was not a Cherokee citizen.
Utah attorney James B. Hanks, who represented the couple that adopted the child, said in an email response on Monday that the Supreme Court decision on Monday ended the case.
The Cherokee Nation declined comment on Monday.

Read more: http://newsok.com/washington-briefs-supreme-court-rejects-adoption-case-involving-cherokee-nation-majority-of-oklahoma-congressional-delegation-speaks-at-level-above-congressional-average/article/3677448#ixzz1wdyz6700

It's sad these news stories never mention the child as sacred or worthy of protection. It becomes the colonial mindset of who is Indian enough to be protected by federal law - which speaks volumes about court cases involving Indian children.... Trace

How insane are we? Let’s look at UTAH!

By Trace L Hentz (blog editor)

It is rare I am this pissed off! (Watch out anyone in my vicinity)
Utah apparently is (or was) coaching pregnant moms to NOT notify the father of the child so the adoption agency (predators) could complete the sale-transaction of the soon-to-be-born-infant.
Why am I fuming at this? My own birthmother didn't want to meet me or god forbid, have anyone find out about me BUT when I found my dad, he asked “how soon can you get here?” I got to meet him three weeks later in Illinois and EARL was indeed my DAD!! (Sometimes men have more compassion than women - and in my own experience, my dad truly loved me, even though he didn’t raise me.)
There always seems to be a long waiting lists of adopters, right? Has anyone considered how or why we are becoming so infertile?
When did we descend into this madness of selling babies?
Don’t you get it? This is commodification of human life. This is the low point for humanity.
The Utah Supreme Court had ruled earlier that deception was part of the adoption process in Utah. Utah has the most conservative adoption laws in the U.S. that favor the birth mother and apparently prefer it that way – much less hassle getting the baby-daddy involved, right?
How insane are we? Why do I say insane? MONEY! I am yelling in CAPS because I see how insane we are as humans and how blind we are as to what is happening to babies. BABIES!!
Number ONE: Babies do not choose to be adopted. (I didn't)
Number TWO: No one would ever choose to be abandoned or orphaned! (I didn't)
The fact is: babies are so incredibly confused, demoralized and terrified when their mom disappears (within 45 minutes), it affects us for the rest of our lives. OUR ENTIRE LIFE!
I know this from experience and my memoir is about this... and some people in UTAH are completely insane...

"After a Colorado father went through four years of legal battles to get custody of his daughter - who was put up for adoption without his consent - 9NEWS uncovered evidence of a system in Utah where agencies are coaching mothers to deceive fathers out of their parental rights.
Utah adoption lawyer Wes Hutchins says he has audio recordings as proof. The way some adoption agencies handle birth mothers Hutchins claims "is an invitation for birth mothers to lie, cheat and defraud birth fathers into thinking they don't have anything to worry about."
"The idea that the birth mother can travel from any state to Utah and be in Utah for two or three days and then give birth to a child and then leave the state with the sole purpose of cutting off the rights of the biological father has to stop," Hutchins said.

http://www.9news.com/moms/article/267332/499/Recordings-of-adoption-agencies-coaching-moms


Resignation Letter From the President of The Utah Adoption Council
http://www.adoptivefamiliescircle.com/groups/topic/Resignation_Letter_From_the_President_of_The_Utah_Adoption_Council/#reply-18189

When I am this pissed, I usually tear apart a room in my house and clean... Looks to me like the living room needs work...

(click on comments [in blue below this post] and please let me know what you think)

Utah officials on Native children foster care statistics

American Indian children too often in foster care

Utah Officials try to keep children in their homes, out of system.

By Brooke Adams | The Salt Lake Tribune, Mar 24 2012   

More than 33 years after Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, American Indian children in Utah are still being removed from their homes and placed in foster care far too often — a troubling statistic that is the focus of the state’s tribes and government officials.

True, there has been a vast improvement in out-of-home placements over those decades. In 1976, two years before passage of the act, American Indian children in Utah were 1,500 times more likely to be in foster care than other children in the state, said Utah Appeals Court Judge William Thorne, who spoke March 16 at the first Indian Child Welfare Conference to be held in Salt Lake City.

Read story here:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53755655-78/indian-foster-american-care.html.csp?page=1

Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978

Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act to prevent breakup of American Indian families after a 1976 report showed “an alarmingly high percentage” of children were in “non-Indian” foster and adoptive homes or institutions. It governs what is supposed to happen if an American Indian child is placed in state custody, giving tribal courts jurisdiction for children who are members or eligible for membership in a recognized tribe.