Fairly long read here.
Hanna is representing two South Dakota tribes in a class action lawsuit filed against state officials for systematically violating the act. Last week, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issues updated ICWA guidelines for state courts for the first time since 1979, specifically citing the lawsuit.
In December, US attorney general Eric Holder announced a new initiative to “actively identify state-court cases where the US can file briefs opposing the unnecessary and illegal removal of Indian children from their families and their tribal communities.” Holder promised to strengthen the act by ensuring compliance with the federal law with the caveat that “barriers erected over centuries of discrimination will not be surmounted overnight.”
Many native families and advocates say the commitment is long overdue. After decades of assimilation-oriented policies, ICWA was passed in 1978. By then, one in four Native American children were removed from their families and placed in boarding schools, adoption or foster care placements.
Despite the law’s intentions, the removal rate of all American Indian children increased to 35% over the following decade, 85% of whom were placed in non-Indian homes. Thirty-five years later, these children remain staggeringly overrepresented in state foster care placements across the country.
Thanks to MM for the heads up.
Turtle Talk 