ICWA - A victory for all of us!

A few days ago, I heard a story about one of our Native elders. He saw his nephew being prepared for adoption, with a plan to have the boy go to live with a non-Native family across the country. This elder knew of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a law passed in 1978 to reverse the removal of American Indian children from their communities and went into action to adopt his nephew, citing ICWA. He was successful, and the child was kept in his home Tribal community.

That made me think of my wife’s father, who was plucked from his mother on the Navajo Nation to be raised by a Mormon family in southern California. A group of government officials deemed his mother too told and not healthy enough to raise her son. To this day, some of his siblings refuse to acknowledge him as part of the family.

These stories took on another meaning yesterday, as the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to uphold ICWA,something that was far from a certainty given the current composition of the Court.

This is a big win for all of us, whether we are American Indian or not. 

This is a win for justice.

This is a win for Indigenous peoples and their sovereignty. 

It is a win for Indigenous cultures and languages. 

It is a win for all of us.

A bit more about ICWA

Removing children from their Tribal communities and placing them with non-Native families far away from home was a continuation of the centuries of U.S. policy toward the original inhabitants of the land. The goals included elimination of Indigenous people from this land (genocide) and the elimination of Indigenous culture/language (colonization).

“Before ICWA, as many as 35 percent of all Native children were being removed, usually forcibly, mostly from intact Native American families with extended family networks, and placed in predominantly non-Native homes, which had no relation to Native American cultures. In some cases, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) paid the states to remove Native children and to place them with non-Native families and religious groups.

ICWA gives tribal governments a strong voice concerning child custody proceedings that involve Native children, by allocating tribes exclusive jurisdiction over the case when the child resides on, or is domiciled on, the reservation, or when the child is a ward of the tribe; and concurrent, but presumptive, jurisdiction over non-reservation Native Americans' foster care placement proceedings.” (Wikipedia)

So, on this week that sits between PRIDE and Juneteenth, a week that reminds us that our country can stand for inclusion and an honest account of our history, we add ICWA to the party.

On a week where we celebrate fathers, we get a well-timed present in the form of a Supreme Court ruling that allows Indigenous kids to have dads and moms and uncles and aunties and grandparents who can teach them the stories and ceremonies of their cultures. 

For a U.S. government that has made efforts to destabilize the family structure in Indigenous and other communities of color since the inception of this country, ICWA being upheld is a small victory.