One River, Two Canoes

Kristen Carpenter on ICWA in Cato Unbound

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is “One River, Two Canoes: Peace and Respect in Indian Child Welfare.”

Kristen’s first post in this series is here.

The Indian child is not a blank slate. She is never a fraction of anything. She is Navajo or Hopi, Odawa or Cherokee, born into a fabric of spiritual life, a lineage of cultural practice, a place of individual power and of collective responsibility to the whole. One or two or three generations later – even if her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were themselves relocated or adopted – today the Indian child is protected in her personal identity, family life, and tribal citizenship by ICWA.[5]