Neoshia Roemer has published “Kill the Nation, Save the Child” in the Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy.

Here is the abstract:

At the opening of the Carlisle Indian School in 1879, Richard Henry Pratt remarked that Indian boarding schools were necessary to “kill the Indian…and save the man.” In the 150 years since, removing American Indian children from their tribal communities has become a staple in the settler colonial project through the boarding school project, Indian adoptions, and the state-run family regulation system. In 1978, Congress attempted a course correct by enacting the Indian Child Welfare Act (“ICWA”) which extended protections to parents of Indian children and vested Indian Tribes with a legal interest in their member children. Aimed at protecting the best interests of the Indian child, ICWA has been under attack in recent years. As ICWA is applied in state courts around the country daily, American Indian children continue to be removed from their families at disproportionately high rates. This Article contextualizes the ongoing need for ICWA and argues that Indian child removal is a matter of Tribal public health. Removing Indian children has long negatively impacted tribal public health and continues to do so today. By removing the Indian child from their community to “save” them, settler colonialism’s goal was to eradicate the Tribal Nation. As such, this Article argues that Indian child welfare must be treated as a Tribal public health concern and resourced as such—with Tribes leading the way to provide the services their children and families need.