Part 5: What if We Lost ICWA | Our Sovereignty

The plaintiffs, Brackeens, assert ICWA is an unconstitutional law

PART 5:  Haaland v. Brackeen

By Trace L Hentz, blog editor and adoptee

Am I worried about the ICWA case? Yes. Very.

I am worried that the "Supreme" Court has shown no respect for our inherent sovereign rights.  Just look at history.  This case could rescind the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.  I worry the impact on adoptees now and future Native adoptees.  (ICWA allows adoptees to open their adoption records.)  We are called The Stolen Generation and Sixties Scoop for good reason.

We lost our sovereignty when we were adopted out to white families.  We lost everything - language, culture, land, family, ceremonies and our tribal stories.  (Some of us lost our sanity too!)  Swimming pools, college degrees, and white families in fancy houses, cannot replace this.

Sadly, I do not think these Justices actually know what our loss means!

Many years ago in Wisconsin, two tribal chiefs gave talks to new congresspeople on Sovereignty 101- I interviewed them about it and then wrote an article in News from Indian Country.  They explained it used to be feds (the federal government) that dealt with tribes and the feds were keenly aware of sovereign tribal rights and history.  Both chiefs said state lawmakers were not as understanding.  There was also high turn-over in states and many new congressmen don't know state or federal history, even how tribes signed numerous treaties.

The Department of WAR (who authorized killing Indians) morphed eventually into the Department of the Interior.

I looked back at my blog posts: Sovereignty and how it applies to Haaland vs. Brackeen.

As Rebecca Nagle explained: "A host of federal statutes—including on land rights, water rights,
health care, gaming, criminal and civil jurisdiction, and tribal
self-governance—treat Native Americans differently based on this
political classification.  In this light, I fear that the Brackeen lawsuit is the first in a row of dominoes—if the Court strikes down ICWA, everything else could soon go with it."

"Under federal law, tribes and tribal citizens are
not a racial group, but a political one.  Accordingly, ICWA applies only
to Native children who either are enrolled in a federally recognized
tribe or are eligible based on a given tribe’s citizenship requirements," Nagle said. 

And this:

This cultural difference — that a
family’s fitness is determined by its wealth, and that those concerns
should outweigh a child’s connection to their family and heritage — is
essentially why the Indian Child Welfare Act was created in 1978.  The
law recognizes the history of federal policy aimed at breaking up Native
families and mandates that, whenever possible, Native families should
remain together.



Sarah Kastelic, the executive director
of the National Indian Child Welfare Association, said that ICWA
acknowledges important familial and tribal bonds that have long been
disregarded, and that Native ways — such as extended families living
under the same roof — have often been used to show unfitness in child
welfare proceedings. “No matter the picket fences and swimming pools and
things, most of the time, kids want to be with their families,” she
said.



READ: The Native adoption case that could dismantle the Indian Child Welfare Act, explained - Vox

THE INTERIOR AND INDIAN AFFAIRS:

👇This is a bit technical but it is the argument the Justices are deliberating:

"What's Missing in the Brackeen Argument: An Indian Affairs Clause"

OPINION BY Eugene Volokh


|
11.23.2022

I was chatting with Prof. Lorianne Updike Toler
(Northern Illinois), and she mentioned some thoughts of hers on this
subject, based on her recent University of Chicago Law Review article, The Missing Indian Affairs Clause. I encouraged her to write up a blog post, and she kindly passed along the following:

In the November 9th oral argument for Haaland v. Brackeen,
which challenges the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act,
Justice Amy Coney Barret's question about the impact of overruling
Congress' plenary power over tribes underscores a centuries-old
confusion about federal Indian Affairs.

It's not just the Court that is confused.  Former Volokh Conspiracy posts on point
reveal the deep academic fissures over the historical context of the
Indian Commerce Clause.  Unknown to the Court and most of academe is the
root cause of all the confusion: that the Constitutional Convention
initially forgot (and then later intentionally excluded) the Articles of
Confederation's Indian Affairs Clause in the Constitution.

As I detail in this University of Chicago Law Review article,
Pennsylvanian comparative constitutionalist James Wilson, tasked by the
five-member Committee of Detail to draft the Constitution, initially
checked off "Indian Affairs" to include as a Congressional power, but
then failed to get the power into his final draft.  He was not the only
one to forget.  Although the Convention had commissioned the Committee to
include all the Congressional powers in the Articles of
Confederation (where Indian Affairs featured), Edmund Randolph also
forgot to include the power in his initial sketch of the Constitution.  Odd, considering a Cherokee chief had met with him that summer in
Philadelphia and he was then directly concerned with settler-tribe
disputes on Virginia's frontier as the state's governor.  It was John
Rutledge, the South Carolinian chair of the committee, who remembered,
scrawling the power in the margin of Randolph's sketch. Yet he later
forgot this power in combing through Wilson's final draft, and it was
reported out of the Committee sans (without mentioning) Indian Affairs.

But James Madison remembered.  It was he who suggested Indian Affairs
be inserted back into the Constitution.  This time, the Committee of
Detail intentionally excluded the Clause, instead inserting "Tribes"
into the Commerce Clause.  No one objected.  This despite that at least
three Convention members had just spent their ten-day break (for the
Committee of Detail to meet) fulfilling their congressional duties in
New York.  There, impending tribal wars in Virginia and Georgia's Creek
disputes were discussed.  Presumably, the Convention thought Congress'
previous powers under the Article's Indian Affairs were addressed by the
Indian Commerce Clause and other provisions of the Constitution—such as
the power to declare war and peace and the president's shared Treaty
Power.

What does this mean for the Constitution? Put simply, Congress has no
Indian Affairs power, and therefore no plenary power. Early assertion
of this power was justified under the tripartite powers of Indian
Commerce, War and Treaty Powers. But Congress halted tribal
treaty-making long ago.  If it wants to re-assert power over tribes
beyond the Commerce Clause, the President needs to begin treating with
tribes again.

And what of any residual power? As I propose in my article linked
above, the residue reverts to the sovereign tribes. Tribal sovereignty
is to tribes what federalism is to the states. Powers not reserved by
the Constitution to Congress and the President revert to the tribes.

This would mean that Congress lacked constitutional power to pass
ICWA, however well-intentioned.  ICWA was adopted in an attempt to
prevent Native American erasure by allowing the community to intervene
in adoption and foster cases to ensure tribal children are raised in
Native American families.  ICWA grants the child's tribe exclusive
jurisdiction over custody proceedings and other intervention privileges.  Further, it establishes placement preferences first in favor of any
family members, then the tribe, and then any Native American families
regardless of tribal membership.

Unless related to its Indian Commerce power (and heaven forbid if we
have arrived at treating adoption of babies and children as commerce),
Congress has no power over Native American adoptions. On this basis,
ICWA might be unconstitutional wholesale.  However, to the extent ICWA
respects tribal sovereignty and refers cases to the child's tribe, it
may be constitutional under a structural reading of the Constitution:  The combined intratextual references to tribes as the constitutional
unit of recognition— "tribes" under the Commerce Clause and the
presumption that Indians are not taxed under Art I. sec. 2 of the
Constitution—together with the parallel analog of federalism vis-à-vis
states may permit Congress to proactively proscribe federal and state
deference to tribal power.  But as Congress has no plenary power over
tribes and Native Americans as a people, it cannot specify adoption
placement or other preferences.  The Court should so rule in Brackeen.

👇👇👇This gives me hope:

 

read:

Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute, “Expert Q&A:
Professor EagleWoman Explains Important ICWA Case Heading to Supreme
Court,” March 10, 2022, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, n.d., https://mitchellhamline.edu/native-american-law-and-sovereignty/2022/03/10/expert-qa-professor-eaglewoman-explains-important-icwa-case-heading-to-supreme-court/. 

(to be continued)

LOOTED GRAVES

ANGEL MOUNDS in INDIANA were looted and destroyed

By Trace L Hentz, blog editor

Looting - that is just one of the topics I research beyond adoption.  It's a pattern really: Looting, Mass Murder, Theft, Mining, Profits, Taking Land, Taking Kids... all of it.  It combines into colonization and all the other terms they use to describe the "making of America" and Canada.

It is very interesting that we are finding out through press
releases what was actually looted.  I am still disturbed it took so long.

What did we lose? Pretty much everything: tribes were herded onto reservations, kids taken by gunpoint to residential schools, lands were seized, graves robbed, burial mounds looted and destroyed, and on and on.

2023: Remains of 100K+ Native Americans Held in US Institutions, Research Finds

What can we do about it?

WHAT IS NAGPRA? NAGPRA is the Native America Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. 

Since 1990, Federal law has provided
for the repatriation and disposition of certain Native American human
remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural
patrimony. By enacting NAGPRA, Congress recognized that human remains of
any ancestry "must at all times be treated with dignity and respect."
Congress also acknowledged that human remains and other cultural items
removed from Federal or tribal lands belong, in the first
instance, to lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian
organizations. With this law, Congress sought to encourage a continuing
dialogue between museums and Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian
organizations and to promote a greater understanding between the groups
while at the same time recognizing the important function museums serve
in society by preserving the past. (US Senate Report 101-473).

A museum can fail to comply with the requirements of NAGPRA and may be
assessed a civil penalty by the Department of the Interior.

But there are problems, of course, explained on Native American Calling, when a Lakota elder said their tribal members cannot touch the remains - and the TVA needs to rebury them.  Listen

WHAT HAPPENED:

More than three decades ago, Congress passed a law calling for
museums and other groups to return the human remains of Native Americans
in their possession.  For years, two major East Tennessee institutions
reflected the failure of that law, according to a joint investigation published in March by ProPublica and NBC News.

The investigation found that institutions were failing on a massive
scale to return remains to tribes — and that half of the
still-unreturned remains are held by a small minority of these
institutions. This list is populated in part by prestigious universities like Berkeley and Harvard. But Tennessee
was the only state for which multiple institutions — the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley Authority — ranked among
the top 10.

(READ MORE: Muscogee Nation, Georgia officials will cooperate on restoring the sacred to tribe)

Both have, however, made recent progress, well after the law in question was passed.

After years in which it returned only a small fraction of the Native
American remains in its possession, University of Tennessee (UT) has, like many other
institutions, lately returned remains at a far faster pace.

TVA cultural resources

In 2019, for example, it made nearly 2,000 Native American remains
taken from what is now South Dakota available to tribal descendants,
according to data maintained by the National Park Service.

Still, these and other remains the university has made available to
tribes account for just 34% of the 6,000-plus Native American human
remains the university reported to be in its possession, according to
the database.

The university is committed to fulfilling its obligations under the
law, spokeswoman Kerry Gardner said by email, adding that it
cannot file a notice with the government listing a set of remains as
available to be returned until a tribe files claims for them.

Gardner said the school is working on the claims of several tribes.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, for its part, once reported
having the remains of more than 12,800 Native Americans — generally
found in modern day Alabama and Tennessee — in its possession.

This remained the case until recently, when TVA, like UT, made a
significant portion of these available for return: 72% in its case.

The utility said it will soon relinquish these possessions entirely.  Agency spokesman Scott Fiedler said by email that TVA recently
determined that all Native American remains still in its possession
should be made available — and that they will be, whenever the Federal
Register publishes TVA’s public notice of this.

RESEARCH AND INFRASTRUCTURE

UT’s and TVA’s holdings of unrepatriated Native American
remains are uncommonly large.  But they are just two among about 600
institutions that have reported possessing what still amount to well
over 100,000 unreturned Native American human remains.

(READ MORE: TVA seeks public help combating looters of cultural resources such as Native American artifacts)

In some cases, the excavated remains and other artifacts arrived via a
kind of sanctioned looting by researchers probing old burial sites.  For
example, around the 1900s, archaeologists excavated burial mounds on a
widespread basis in the Southeast.  As the ProPublica/NBC News
investigation noted, several of the institutions with the most
unrepatriated Native American remains in their possession — the
Universities of Alabama and Kentucky also made the top 10 list — are
based in the region.

Similar research took place in other parts of the nation as well.

“We never ceded or relinquished our dead,” one Arizona State
University professor, a member of the Pawnee Nation, told ProPublica/NBC
News reporters. “They were stolen.”

Other Native American remains, such as those generally in the
possession of TVA, were dug up amid massive infrastructure projects.

“When we constructed reservoirs in the ’30s and ’40s, a tremendous
amount of human remains and funerary objects were removed,” TVA has
quoted its archaeologist and tribal liaison, Marianne Shuler, as saying
on its website.

More than 20 federally recognized Indian tribes attach religious and cultural significance to land TVA manages, Fiedler said.

As a result of the 19th century Indian Removal Act, many — though not
all — of these tribes are now based far away.  Efforts to reach
repatriation specialists at the Cherokee Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, the Muscogee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians by press time were unsuccessful.

CULTURAL CONNECTION

Tribal activism paved the way for the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act passed by Congress in 1990. The law
sought to make universities, museums and other institutions inventory
their artifacts and human remains and consult with Native American
groups.

The basic premise was that institutions had to publicly report their
holdings and coordinate with tribes to determine to whom the remains
should be returned. If a connection was established between the remains
and the tribe, the institution would publish a notice on the Federal
Register, making the claims available to be repatriated.

Ultimately, few of the institutions with Native American remains in
their possession relinquished their holdings in the years following the
law’s passage.

Some people resisted the law, sometimes arguing that the remains
should stay in museums and universities or that specific modern tribes
lack proof that they are the rightful stewards.  UT was among those that
avoided the law in the 1990s by categorizing everything in its
collection as “culturally unidentifiable,” according to the
ProPublica/NBC News investigation.

Asked about this, Gardner, the university spokeswoman, focused on the
more recent past, in which the school hired anthropologist Ellen Lofaro
in part to spearhead its efforts, and the university’s repatriations
increased from 4% to 34% of its holdings.

“Over the last six years, the university has continued to build a
program that underscores our commitment,” Gardner said. “We are actively
building relationships with and consulting with tribal communities.
This work is important, and we are dedicated to continuing to make
progress.”

The Tennessee Valley Authority, for its part, began actively consulting
with tribes in the 2000s, Fiedler said.  He said tribes prioritized the
repatriation of ancestral remains — and that the TVA hired its first
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation specialist in 2009 to
focus on the matter.

Since then, the federally-owned utility has made remains available to 11 tribes.

There are thousands of remains left to be passed along. But
everything the utility has made available thus far, tribes have taken,
Fiedler said.

***

March 31, 2023

 

I was searching for a great great grandmother Sarah A Sparks
(on the Cherokee Baker Roll) and up pops Tennessee Valley Authority –
which got me very confused – why would they have her name?? – then I
googled TVA. I am SO ANGRY. I cannot find where she is buried.  Maybe TVA dug her up?

She was married to CHRISTOPHER H HARLOW, a great-great granddad.  TLH

HAPPENING EVERY WHERE!👇

Sacred items in Barre library's museum to be returned to Sioux

(United States of America)

Mark Pratt
(2022).
Sacred items in Barre library's museum to be returned to Sioux.
Telegram & Gazette.
11 October.

Mass. museum returns sacred Native American items from its collection

(United States of America)

Ryan Mancini
(2022).
Mass. museum returns sacred Native American items from its collection.
Masslive.
11 October.

UC Berkeley to repatriate thousands of ancestral remains to Indigenous tribes: 'Restorative justice'

(United States of America)

Jisha Joseph
(2022).
UC Berkeley to repatriate thousands of ancestral remains to Indigenous tribes: 'Restorative justice'.
Upworthy.
24 October.

University of California, Berkeley repatriates cultural artifacts to Indigenous tribe

(United States of America)

Jeffery Brown, Lena I. Jackson
(2022).
University of California, Berkeley repatriates cultural artifacts to Indigenous tribe.
PBS.
10 October.

Why
a small British museum went out of its way to repatriate Haida Nation
artifacts

(Canada; United Kingdom)

Mouhamad Rachini
(2022).
Why a small British museum went out of its way to repatriate Haida
Nation artifacts Social Sharing Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit
LinkedIn.
CBC.
30 September.

Going home: Big Medicine will be returned to CSKT tribes from historical society

(United States of America)

Darrell Ehrlick
(2022).
Going home: Big Medicine will be returned to CSKT tribes from historical society.
Daily Montanan.
23 October.

VATICAN?

LISTEN | First Nations curator wants to know what's inside the Vatican's collection of Indigenous artifacts (80,000 objects in collection)

First Nations curator wants to know what's inside the Vatican’s collection of Indigenous artifacts

2:458:55

Saulteaux RCMP officer helps connect #60sScoop survivors with biological families

Using DNA tests, Dean Lerat has created a massive family tree for the Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan...

By day, Dean Lerat is an RCMP staff sergeant in Fort Qu'Appelle,
Sask.  But in his free time, the member of Cowessess First Nation is a
DNA detective.

Lerat, who is Saulteaux, is using DNA testing and
archival records to help Indigenous people learn about their biological
families and fill in gaps in their family histories.  With that data,
he's creating genetic maps and extensive family trees of the Treaty 4
area in Saskatchewan.

"The Sixties Scoop adoptees [and]
descendants of residential school survivors, I think I've helped over 15
of them now find their way back," he told Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild. 

Lerat said people he doesn't know contact him through social media channels, asking him to help them find where they come from. 

"I'll
spend a couple hours in the morning, Saturday morning, having a cup of
coffee … trying to figure out who their aunts and uncles are. And then
I'll send them back a tree if I can. Whether it's partial, whether it's
full," he said. 

"I'm curious. I like to solve mysteries." 

Creating a 'genetic road map'

Along with DNA testing, Lerat
also uses obituaries, band lists, censuses and old documents from the
Northwest Mounted Police (the precursor to the RCMP) to inform his work.  He also uses online databases offered by companies such as Ancestry, 23
and Me, My Heritage and Family Tree DNA. 

All of this work helps Lerat piece together what he calls a "genetic road map."

READ/LISTEN

Twitter News? Yup

 

In a major win in the fight to #ProtectICWA, Wyoming becomes the 11th state to codify the Indian Child Welfare Act. Utah and Montana are considering similar legislation, which is vital for Native children, Native families and Tribal sovereignty. https://t.co/oa8f63d8nA

— IllumiNative (@IllumiNative) April 10, 2023

After decades of failing to comply with federal law, the single-largest holder of Native American human remains is taking steps to complete the repatriation of more than 14,000 Native American ancestors, reports @YahooNews. https://t.co/xQSwcB6Z3O

— IllumiNative (@IllumiNative) April 11, 2023

 

With limited records, the abuse, neglect and cultural oppression of #IndianBoardingSchools has been largely erased by the US government. Now, a group is finally compiling a first-of-its-kind list of Catholic-run boarding schools. https://t.co/yY3VmQuQLX

— IllumiNative (@IllumiNative) April 7, 2023

Minnesota's Gov. approves a bill that codifies (ICWA) into state law.

“What this bill does is continue to protect Indigenous children, so they continue to have a lifeline to their culture,” Minn. @RepKeeler tells @MNReformer. #ProtectICWA https://t.co/nLaQJQujTX

— IllumiNative (@IllumiNative) April 6, 2023

New settlement $23 billion for First Nations foster kids

 

$23-billion settlement for First Nations children announced by AFN and Caring Society

The
new deal secured $3 billion more than what was proposed by the federal
government in 2021 for First Nations children discriminated by the child
welfare system.

By Alessia Passafiume |  April 3, 2023

The
Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring
Society  (FNCFS) said they have announced a revised final settlement agreement
in a landmark child-welfare case.

The
new proposal increases the federal government’s settlement spend to $23
billion — up from $20 billion — to compensate First Nations children
and families who have experienced discrimination in the child welfare
system.

“This compensation recognizes
the serious harms First Nations, children, youth, and families suffered
including unnecessary family separations and the denial of life saving
and life wellness services,” said Cindy Blackstock, the executive
director of FNCFS, in a release Monday.

The AFN, which represents more than 600 First Nations across Canada, has been working to negotiate a deal after the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
in 2016 found that Canada discriminated against First Nations children
by paying less for child welfare services on-reserve compared to those
offered off-reserve.

READ

 

Vermont #TRC starting from scratch

Ed. Note: Maine has its own TRC - more states to follow, we hope. Trace

Vermont now has a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 'It’s a huge task.'

Vermont Public |
By
Lexi Krupp | March 31, 2023 

Elodie Reed /Vermont Public

 

Vermont’s
Truth and Reconciliation Commission has officially started its work
with the announcement of its first three staff: Mia Schultz, Melody
Walker Mackin and Patrick Standen.

A state-funded effort has begun to document how Vermont state laws and policies have discriminated against marginalized communities,
including people with disabilities, Black people, Indigenous people,
other people of color and people of French Canadian heritage.

It came out of legislation passed last year that created a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to seek ways to repair harm caused by the state of Vermont.

In
a press conference, a selection panel announced the
commissioners who will lead the effort over the next three years as
full-time state employees:

• Mia Schultz, president of the Rutland-Area NAACP
• Melody
  Walker Mackin, an artist, educator, member of the Vermont Commission on
  Native American Affairs and citizen of the state-recognized Elnu tribe
• Patrick Standen, professor at St. Michael’s College and leader in Vermont’s disability community

The
new commissioners stressed their roles include making policy
recommendations, as well as hearing experiences of communities who
suffered injustices.

“We know this is not about what has just
happened in the past,” Schultz said. “This is about how that past
continues and is perpetuated in our present, and how we’ll learn from
it, and eradicate it in our future.”

They’ll have an annual budget of almost $750,000, and will hire an executive director and other researchers.

“First,
we're tasked with starting an office — there’s nothing like this that’s
been done before,” Schultz said. “We are starting from scratch.”

"It's a huge task," Melody Walker Mackin said.

A commission with more limited scope was created in Maine
to document the state's child welfare practice with Wabanaki people,
and Burlington City Council created a Reparations Task Force in 2020,
but the new commissioners said they're not familiar with any mandate
that's so broad in scope.

"While it may look overwhelming, it's
essential that all voices by heard," Standen said. "The resources that
are provided by the state at this point seem to be ample and welcomed."

Mapping the #60sScoop

 

But at the age of 28, sitting in a
university classroom, Colleen Cardinal learned her experience was shared by
many. It even had a name — the ’60s Scoop. From about 1951 until 1984,
Canadian child welfare authorities took more than 20,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children from their homes and placed them with white families.

“I
wanted to find all these adoptees, I wanted to know where they are, I
wanted to hear what they went through,” Cardinal said.  But then,
Cardinal said, that information wasn’t available.

Cardinal first
decided to create a map after visiting a conference for grassroots human
rights organizations in 2014.   There, Cardinal said she came across a
world map drawn on a large, white bedsheet on which visitors could map
their stories out with colourful yarn.

In 2019, Cardinal launched the online mapping tool.  Now, it includes the stories of more than 100 survivors who were
displaced from across Canada to places as far as the U.K. and Botswana.  The map illustrates where people were born and where they were moved.  It
logs birthdates, when people moved and if survivors met their
biological families, the date that happened.  Each entry includes space
for people to share words and videos telling their own stories and
contact information for survivors to connect with others.

Genetic
Detective, a genetic genealogy service near Ottawa, has offered to
subsidize DNA test kits for some survivors, create a database of
survivors' genetic information and connect survivors to their biological
families.

A small group of survivors gathered in Ottawa last
week.  They filmed themselves telling their stories in their own words,
to create videos that will be posted on the map’s website.  By sharing
their stories, Cardinal said she hopes to normalize their experiences
and create a community for survivors.

“I know as an adoptee how
lonely it is and how isolating it can be.  I needed (to find others).  So
if I needed it, others need it,” Cardinal said. “And if we want it done
our way, we need to do it ourselves — by survivors, for survivors.”

 READ AND WATCH

Boarding School Abuse: “To Heal We Must Know the Truth”

"They always go for our babies." -Emily Edenshaw, President & CEO at Alaska Native Heritage Center

Chief
Bill Erasmus, Emily Edenshaw, at the Alaska Native Heritage Center,
Gunn-Britt Retter at the Saami Council and Benjamin Jacuk at the Alaska
Native Heritage Center. (Photo: Trine Jonassen)

 

Anchorage Alaska (High North News): 

He admitted that this was genocide. -Chief Bill Erasmus

 

Most Arctic nations have been affected by
assimilating and oppressive boarding school policies. Now indigenous
community leaders are looking for healing as they brace for the dark
truth of a government-led genocide.

Ground zero

The boarding school practice started in Alaska in 1879,
12 years after the USA purchased the Arctic state from Russia without
consulting the indigenous population.

Maybe that is also where the healing has to start.

"Alaska may be ground zero for all of this.  But ground zero can also
be the place of healing for indigenous peoples from all over the world,"
Jacuk concludes.

In 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada concluded what happened was "cultural genocide". It identified
more than 3,000 children who died from disease due to overcrowding,
malnutrition, and poor sanitation or died after being abused or trying
to run away.

Most schools had their own cemeteries, and sometimes when children died, their parents were never informed.

 

READ

Sixties Scoop adoptees wrap up 5-day gathering | APTN News

#60sScoop Interactive project raises awareness, creates connections and reunites long-lost relatives

From Île-à-la-Crosse to Brighton, England: '60s Scoop survivors map journey of reconnection

By Brett Forester · CBC News ·  Mar 24, 2023

Daniel Frost is Métis and Cree. Born in northern Saskatchewan, he was adopted by British parents in 1968 at just two years old. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

Thinking
about meeting his sister Patsy for the first time seven years ago is
still tough for Sixties Scoop survivor Daniel Frost.

"All I could
do was look at her hands," he recalled, still overwhelmed with emotion
as he remembered how much those hands looked like his.

"I couldn't look at her eyes."

Frost
is Métis and Cree, one of about 22,000 Indigenous kids who were torn
from their homes and placed in foster care or adopted into
non-Indigenous families between 1951 and 1991, a system known today as
the Sixties Scoop.

He came to Ottawa this week to share his story with the interactive mapping project, In Our Own Words.

The In Our Own Words map tracks where Indigenous kids were taken after being torn from their families. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

Born
in Île-à-la-Crosse in northern Saskatchewan, two-year-old Frost was
adopted by British parents in 1968, taken to White Rock, B.C., and then
finally to Brighton, England. He now lives in Spain.

He spoke with
CBC News at downtown Ottawa's Novotel Hotel, where Sixties Scoop
survivors gathered this week from far-flung places all over the world to
share stories and connect.

Frost explained how a federally funded
Saskatchewan-based organization, Adopt Indian Métis (AIM) scooped seven
youngsters from his 13-sibling family. The organization is known for
placing ads in newspapers and aggressive public relations campaigns.

Frost began learning his history by reading legal documents,
including the court files that tell how his mother ran out of the
courtroom when she learned her children were being taken.

"What
they were saying in the 1960s and '70s was, 'We're not going to help
you. We're just going to take your children,'" Frost said.

"I don't know if I'll heal from it, but I think being able to work my way through it is something which is necessary."

He
visited Île-à-la-Crosse in 2016 and met his family, which he said
changed him from a scared outsider to a man deeply proud of his
Indigenous identity, and this trip to Ottawa includes a hop across the
river to Gatineau, Que., to pick up a copy of his first Indian status
card.

KEEP READING

What Happens Now? What about the victims of the Doctrine of Discovery?

Tamara Baldhead Pearl is cautiously optimistic the Vatican's repudiation of The Doctrine of Discovery can lead to change in what she refers to as "white supremacy in Canadian case law."

"The
greater the consensus that the Doctrine of Discovery is fundamentally
racist and immoral, the harder it is for Canadian courts to continue to
decide cases based on this fundamental doctrine," said Pearl, who is
from One Arrow First Nation, in an interview with Day 6.

(left) Tamara
Baldhead Pearl, an assistant professor of law at the University of
Alberta, is cautiously optimistic after the Vatican's repudiation of The
Doctrine of Discovery. (University of Alberta)

Pearl,
who's also an assistant law professor at the University of Alberta,
says she hopes there will be increased pressure to "try to rethink how
Canadian law can be brought into conformity with the contemporary
understanding of Indigenous rights and equality among peoples."

The
Doctrine of Discovery is a set of colonial-era theories, backed by
15th-century papal bulls, which was used to legitimize the seizure of
Indigenous lands by colonial powers. Legal decisions in both the U.S.
and Canada invoked the doctrine in some form.

The Vatican says in
its statement the doctrine was not a Catholic teaching and had been
manipulated for political purposes by colonial powers.

"The Church's magisterium upholds the respect due to every human being," the statement reaffirmed.

There
have been calls to repudiate the doctrine for decades, but they gained
more visibility in Canada during Pope Francis' visit last summer. Two
women held a banner reading "Rescind the Doctrine"
at the altar of the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré on July
29, 2022. They were escorted from the basilica without incident, but
draped the banner outside as part of a protest.

Sarain
Fox, right, and Chelsea Brunelle of the Batchewana First Nation
demonstrate outside the mass presided over by Pope Francis at the
National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupre, Thursday, July 28, 2022, in
Saint Anne de Beaupre, Quebec. (John Locher/The Associated Press)

During
the visit, Pope Francis apologized to Indigenous people for the
residential school system that forcibly removed Indigenous children from
their homes. However, he was criticized by some for not taking the opportunity to repudiate the doctrine.

KEEP READING 

• Indigenous experts, leaders say Vatican's Doctrine of Discovery rejection marks step forward 

• Vatican's disavowal of Doctrine of Discovery a good step but 'fundamental change' still needed: Manitoba elder 
•  Indigenous leaders hope Vatican's repudiation of oppressive colonial concepts leads to real change
  

A Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court Could Surge the Psychiatric Labelling and Drugging of Native American Foster Youth

Archive photo

If the Brackeen v. Halland case
currently challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978
before the U.S. Supreme Court is successful, Native children are more
likely to be placed with non-Native foster parents, and from there, face
a surge in psychiatric labeling and drugging.

Tribes across the U.S. are outraged by the attempt to dismantle ICWA, and a “think tank” was recently formed
in California to respond to what seems a foundational threat to
community sovereignty, beginning with who controls Native child welfare
decisions.  It’s the latest in a battle as old as the United States:
White Christian evangelicals fighting for the right to take Native
children away from family, tribe, and culture, and re-educate them, no
matter the harms—and its outcome will determine whether more Native
youth are exposed to psychiatric drugs.

Chad Brackeen and his wife, Jennifer, lead plaintiffs, are White, and according to a 2019 interview with The New York Times,
also dedicated members of the fundamentalist Church of Christ, which
they attend twice a week, and through which they first became inspired
to adopt. They began as foster parents before successfully adopting a
young Dine (Navajo) boy, and then mounting efforts to adopt his sister.
They contend they are being racially discriminated against by ICWA’s
mandates favoring a great aunt of both of these children, who has
stepped forward from their tribal community seeking to adopt the sister.

...

But what about the contention that ICWA’s dismantling will also
create a surge in Native foster youth being psychiatrically labeled and
drugged?  It’s frankly impossible to find adequate information bearing on
this topic because the U.S. Indian Health Service (IHS), primary
purveyor of behavioral health services in Indian Country, has never been
accountable to publicly report prescription rates and the types of
psychiatric drugs it dispenses.

Yet as I detail in my new book, Coyote’s Swing,
IHS has for decades been very involved in psychiatric labeling and
drugging. In 2013, for example, the agency attributed 850,000 of its
outpatient visits and 5,000 of its inpatient stays to a “mental
disorder.” And 10 percent of the services IHS provided that same year to
children and young adults aged 5 to 24 years had “mental disorder”
listed as the “primary reason.”

...

The history of EuroAmerican culture in North America is rife with the
theft of Native children and their childhoods and is both the root
cause and effect behind today’s Native foster care system.

According to a recent joint report by Pro Publica and NBC News,
3.5 million homes are searched annually by state child welfare agencies
investigating child maltreatment.  Most searches happen without a
warrant because caregivers may not know their rights or are intimidated
by aggressive caseworkers pounding on their doors.  Once inside, these
workers may push their way into a caregiver’s kitchen, go through the
refrigerator, sift through trash, and inspect bedrooms and bathrooms
while trying to observe children present in the home.  Only five percent
of such coercive searches result in actual findings of child
maltreatment.

 KEEP READING 

ABOUT HIS BOOK:

Using a traditional Yakama tale as a motif, Coyote’s Swing
combines the author’s firsthand experiences as a consulting psychologist
with rare history and sociocultural critique, revealing how the U.S.
mental health system reframes Native American reactions to oppression
and marginalization into “mental disorders” and “mental illness,” and
how the Indian Health Service’s contemporary practices echo historical
injustices.

“In the IHS, dissension is often
suppressed as blasphemy and whistleblowers are rarely tolerated. Walker
is to be commended for his thorough research and timely recommendations
for reform of the agency’s delivery of mental health services in Indian
County…I join him in praying that this period of tribal history comes to
an end.”—Toobshudud Jack Fiander (Yakama), attorney

 

How early churches used schools to separate Alaska Native peoples from their land

 

April 11, 2023 | Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed 

The

Alaska Native Heritage Center says its study of church records that go back to the 1800s is not research for research’s sake, reports Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA.

Researcher
Benjamin Jacuk-Dolchok (Kenaitze) says he hopes to reconstruct the
story of how early churches used schools to separate Alaska Native
peoples from their land, their culture, and their spirituality.

He says the impacts are still felt today.

“You can’t understand what you need healing from, unless you pull back the band aid and understand the wound.”

Jacuk-Dolchok says most Alaskans don’t realize how closely churches coordinated their efforts.

“While these might be different denominations, the ideology was mostly the same. And that was forced assimilation.”

Jacuk-Dolchok
says some of the research looks at the role of boarding schools — and
how Americanization and Christianity intersected to break the close
connections Alaska Natives had with their land.

He says the forced use of English took away the “heart language” of the people, which sped up the process.

“The major takeaway from what we’re doing is understanding the truth to bring healing, so that younger generations can thrive.”

Jacuk-Dolchok
has studied Native boarding schools for more than a decade and credits
his grandfather, who attended boarding school, for inspiring his work.

The
Princeton Seminary graduate says his theology studies has helped him
with his research and given him access to important documents.

Jacuk-Dolchok will share some of his research at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage on Friday.

Native America Calling: Vatican rejects Doctrine of Discovery

 

The Vatican’s recent repudiation of the
Doctrine of Discovery has been described as a “major step” by some
Indigenous leaders, but for others, the Holy See has a long way to go
before it can heal the centuries of pain caused by the doctrine’s
colonization and control. Today on Native America Calling, we speak with
Steve Newcomb (Shawnee and Lenape), author of Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and cofounder and director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and Bruce McIvor (Métis), lawyer and partner at First Peoples Law.

Sandy White Hawk, in Conversation with Gabrielle Glaser

We are thrilled to have Sandy White Hawk in conversation with Gabrielle Glaser next week, each discussing their work, Sandy’s new memoir (a must read), and the impact and future of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Plus, Sandy and Gabrielle will discuss their recent work together on a documentary project about the history and legacy of the federal Indian residential school system in the United States. An Evening with Sandy White Hawk, in Conversation with Gabrielle Glaser April 11, 2023 • 3pm Pacific/5pm Central/6pm Eastern

Registration/Info

Don't miss a great virtual event that will discuss timely and incredibly important issues around adoption, adoptee rights, and the profound impact of forced removal of Native American children from their parents and communities. I hope to see you there. Be good, and keep up the hard work. Greg

Yes, the event will be recorded and available later to those who register. :)