NARF

Letter From National Native Groups to DOJ to Investigate Child Welfare Issues

Kate Fort

Here, from NICWA, NCAI, NARF, and AAIA:

The undersigned American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) organizations request that the Civil
Rights Division of the Department of Justice commences a prompt investigation into the unlawful treatment of
AI/AN children in the private adoption and public child welfare systems throughout the United States.

***

Yet, despite all the protections provided by ICWA, each year thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties,
uncles, and child advocates reach out to the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) desperate for
help. Their rights under ICWA and the Constitution continue to be violated by state child welfare and private
adoption systems. NICWA frequently hears stories of adoption agencies ignoring the tribal membership of
children, of state attorneys failing to provide notice to a tribe when a child is taken into custody, of child
welfare workers sometimes knowingly placing children outside ICWA’s placement preferences, and of judges
denying tribal representatives a presence in the court room. NICWA also often hears stories of Guardians ad
Litem scoffing at the importance of Native culture, state workers demeaning AI/AN parents and traditional
ways of parenting, and attorneys using professional networks to encourage other attorneys to purposefully
circumvent the “ridiculous” or “unnecessary” adoption requirements of ICWA.

The First Thirteen/Personal Reflections of the Argument–Event at UNM

Kate Fort

Very interesting event at UNM & lots more information about it over at NARF:

Symposium:
The First Thirteen / Personal Reflections of the Argument
Friday,  March 16, 2012 – 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
University of New Mexico School of Law
Albuquerque, NM

The First Thirteen Native attorneys who argued before the U.S. Supreme Court will be coming together to discuss their experiences in this history-making symposium.  Dale White will interview them about their preparations, the day itself, and the impact on their careers and on Federal Indian Law. This is a rare opportunity that may never be repeated, so you don’t want to miss it! Proceeds will go to fund the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaska Natives (PLSI).

Registration form available online at www.ailc-inc.org.
or Email:  begay@law.unm.edu

Sponsored by American Indian Law Center, Inc., New Mexico Indian Bar Association, Indian Legal Program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, and the Law & Indigenous Peoples Program at the University of New Mexico School of Law.

NARF: Pamunkey Indian Tribes Files for Federal Acknowledgment

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

From the NARF Press Release:

Boulder, CO – After years of preparing the necessary historical, legal, genealogical and anthropological evidence to fully document its petition for federal acknowledgment, the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, located on the Pamunkey Indian Reservation, Virginia, filed its petition with the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on October 14, 2010. It is the only Indian Tribe located in the Commonwealth of Virginia to have filed a fully documented petition. Established no later than 1646, the Pamunkey Indian Reservation is located next to the Pamunkey River, and adjacent to King William County, Virginia. The Reservation comprises approximately 1,200 acres and is the oldest inhabited Indian reservation in America.

The history of the Pamunkey people is rich and well documented. In the course of collecting evidence for the federal acknowledgment petition, researchers compiled more than a thousand documents recording their existence from the period of first European contact through the present. These documents comprise official censuses, correspondence between the Pamunkeys and officials of the Commonwealth and U.S. governments, numerous newspaper stories, church and school records, books by prominent scholars, popular authors, and federal officials, memoirs and much more. Because of these rich resources, continuous, detailed genealogies have been created for the Pamunkey Tribal members, which trace their lineage back over two hundred years.

Notably, documents have been preserved both in the United States and England that show the continual existence of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe as an independent sovereign since the first visit of Capt. John Smith in 1607, when the English settled Jamestown. At this time, Powhatan, father of Pocahontas, ruled a vast empire which included the great and powerful Pamunkey Indians who were at the core of his empire. A Treaty relationship between the Pamunkeys and Great Britain in 1646, followed by the Treaty of Middle Plantation in 1677, is still honored between the Pamunkeys and the Commonwealth of Virginia. One expression of this continuing relationship is the annual tribute ceremony at Richmond, Virginia where deer and other wild game are presented to the Virginia Governor by the Pamunkey Chief and members of Tribal Council.

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NARF Looking to Hire Development Director

Kate Fort

More about the position here and here.

MSU Law Student Accepted to NARF Summer Clerkship Program

Kate Fort

Jaimie Park, a MSU Law student 2L and NALSA member, was accepted to NARF’s summer clerkship program for the summer of 2009.  She’ll be working in the Anchorage office.

Congratulations to Jaimie!

The “Guide” to the Indian Child Welfare Act

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Native American Rights Fund. Check it out. You can access the Guide here as well.