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

... we all prayed for this a very long time...Trace

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Kate Fort/Turtle Talk

 

READ 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.

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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.

ICWA SUMMIT 2013