foster care

SD Tribes Discuss the Idea of Creating Tribal-Run Foster Care Systems

Victoria Sweet1 Comment

Following mounting anger over charges that the state has routinely and illegally placed Native American children with non-native foster parents, South Dakota tribes gathered Monday in Rapid City to discuss how they could form their own tribal-run foster care systems. . . .

Since a conference held by the tribes in Rapid City in May, attended by Kevin Washburn, the U.S. Interior Department’s assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, the Lakota have focused increasingly on steps to wrestle away federal funding from South Dakota and create native-run foster care systems.

Article here.

Native American Kids Still Disproportionately Represented in Foster Care

Kate Fort3 Comments

From the Seattle Post Intellegencer:

Excerpt:
Native American, black kids more likely to end up in foster care
Percentage of whites put in system among lowest
By JOHN IWASAKI
P-I REPORTER

Until he was 17, Charles Goodwin spent most of his teen years living with foster families and interacting with caseworkers who never fully understood him for a basic reason: None shared his Native American heritage.

The state removed him from his dysfunctional home and passed him through the child welfare system, where some foster parents referred to him as an “Injun” and disregarded his cultural interests, he said, while the state ignored his requests for a Native American caseworker.

“I do think that training and cultural awareness regarding the Native community would help,” said Goodwin, a 21-year-old Seattle resident who is part Blackfoot and Keetoowah and also goes by Miskomaengun, his Indian name. “It’s not everything, but it would be a big step.”

 

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Indian Children Overrepresented in Foster Care

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Indianz:

Report: Too many Native children in foster care
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

American Indian and Alaskan Native children are overrepresented in the foster care system, according to a report released on Monday.

“Time for Reform: A Matter of Justice for American Indian and Alaskan Native Children” is a joint report from the National Indian Child Welfare Association and the Kids Are Waiting campaign of The Pew Charitable Trusts. It examined child welfare data across the nation. According to the report, Native children are overrepresented in the foster care system at more than 1.6 times the expected level. Native children are more likely to be considered victims of neglect than any other racial or ethnic group. In Alaska, Native children are 51 percent of foster care cases but only 20 percent of the child population. In Montana, Native children are 33 percent of foster care cases but only 10 percent of the child population. The report calls on Congress to authorize tribes to receive funding under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, an entitlement program that reimburses states for a portion of foster care costs. States receive billions of dollars under the program.

Get the Story:
American Indians overrepresented (The Salt Lake Tribune 11/20)

Relevant Documents:
Report | Press Release

Relevant Links:
National Indian Child Welfare Association – http://www.nicwa.org