Disproportionate Minority Contact of American Indians/Alaska Natives in the Child Welfare System of Michigan: Understanding the Law and Respecting Cultural Differences
by Margaret Olesnavage, Maribeth D. Preston, Angel D. Sorrells, and Stacey M. Tadgerson
Ms. Sorrells is a true leader on increasing compliance and awareness of the Indian Child Welfare Act in Michigan, and Ms. Tadgerson is the director of Native American Affairs in the Michigan DHS.
Turtle Talk 
After some 30 plus years in the DHS and about 5 working for the Tribes in Michigan and 20 years of retirement it looks to me as if nothing in the approach by either the courts or DHS has changed.
The same issues are being tossed around and nothing has been done to put some “teeth” into the process to make both the courts and DHS accountable for their actions. Judges ignore the law with impunity and DHS employees do likewise. In the case of some large counties the bias of both is still is so prevalent the Michigan Indian Child Welfare Agency is powerless to effect any change.
Until such time as judges are held publically accountable and sanctions applied to require their compliance fiscally or by their peers nothing will change in the court system.
As for the DHS its about time the feds apply finacial penalties to make DHS adhere to their own policies. There are avenues available to them to follow up on such issues, e.g.,computer coding that reflects a child’s race triggering follow up audits to determine compliance with the law and their own policies. If in non-compliance, additional fiscal penalities normally applied via error rate should be added.
Congress could easily amend the ICWA to eliminmate confusion and require stricter compliance. In doing so it should give greatest weight to the recommendations of the Tribes. They are, after all, the ones affected by court and DHS decisions.