Oregon's new law signed | Minnesota opens records to ADOPTEES in 2024

 

👇👇👇IMPORTANT UPDATES:

https://adopteesunited.org/legislation/state/

Minnesota

SF1279/SF2995/HF1778.[ENACTED!] Unrestricted equal rights bill that dismantles Minnesota’s forty-five year history of inequality.
These bills are unrestricted equal rights bill that are generally
identical to bills filed in the prior two legislative sessions. Sen.
Erin Maye Quade, a DFL (Democratic) legislator, is the chief author of
the Senate bill, and Rep. Steve Elkins is the chief author of the House
bill. The bills constitute a necessary simplification of the law by
eliminating Minnesota’s incomprehensibly complicated and discriminatory
intermediary system, the first such system in the United States and one
that has been in place since 1977. Minnesota Coalition for Adoption Reform and Minnesota-based Adoptee Rights Law Center are working collaboratively on the bill. The House bill has been assigned to the Health Finance and Policy Committee.
The Senate bill was reported out of the Judiciary and Public Safety
Committee and heard in the Health and Human Services Committee. It is
now part of the Senate HHS omnibus appropriations bill (SF2995),
which passed the full Senate on April 18. After negotiations, the
adoptee birth record provisions in the Senate version of SF2995 were
included and approved as part of the the overall HHS omnibus bill. The
legislature passed the omnibus bill on May 22, the last day of the
regular session, and Governor Tim Walz signed the bill into law on May
24. Minnesota will now become the 15th state in the country to restore
equal rights to all adopted people born in the state. The law is fully
effective on July 1, 2024.

Oregon

SB573 [ENACTED!] Allows a biological parent who was omitted or listed incorrectly to be added to an original (pre-adoptive) birth certificate.  This bill has been in the Oregon legislature for about three sessions
now, doggedly pursued by an adult adoptee who wants the correct factual
information listed on her own original birth certificate. The bill,
carried by Senator Sara Gelser Blouin,
would allow addition or correction of a birthparent on the OBC if
approved through an administrative determination of paternity or
parentage.  DNA evidence is required, along with a $100 filing fee.  The
first hearing on the bill was January 23, 2023, before the Senate Committee on Human Services,
chaired by Senator Gelser Blouin.  The bill was then delayed for
consideration to work out issues arising out of the process to approve
corrections to the birth record.  It was reported out favorably on March 6
after the bill was simplified to avoid a court process.  It passed the
Senate on March 13, on a 28-1 vote and is now in the House, where it was
heard on April 24 in the Early Childhood and Human Services Committee
and subsequently recommended for passage by the House.  The House passed
the bill on May 23, 2023, and Governor Tina Kotek signed it into law on
June 6, 2023. It is effective on January 1, 2024.

 

#ICWA verdict looms

When it comes to championing the health of Indigenous children in the
United States, few pieces of legislation possess the profound
significance of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). It is not merely a
dry legal document, but a lifeline of cultural health for Indigenous
nations and countless children in the foster care system.

In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is expected to release its decision on Haaland vs Brackeen,
a case that challenges the constitutionality of the ICWA.  The
plaintiffs, a non-Indigenous Texan couple named Chad and Jennifer
Brackeen, claim that the ICWA's preference for placing Indigenous
children with foster parents from their tribal nations discriminates
against non-Indigenous individuals who wish to adopt Indigenous
children.

Proponents of the ICWA, which include 486 tribal nations,
assert the law’s preference for Indigenous families promotes cultural
well-being and is based on the political status of tribes, rather than
the social construct of race. According to the Native American Rights Fund (NARF),
“The ICWA does this by upholding family integrity and stability and by
keeping Indian children connected to their community and culture. The
ICWA also reaffirms the inherent rights of tribal nations to be involved
in child welfare matters involving their citizens.”

Samantha Maltais, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe,
ICWA advocate and a third-year student at Harvard Law School, shares
this perspective. 

“Tribes have been and always will be sovereign
nations. Their status as such pre-dates America’s founding and its
earliest formulations of what race is. To misunderstand this truth not
only threatens the welfare of Native children today, but could also
undermine the ways we write federal Indian laws and policies for future
generations to come,” she said.

READ HERE
 

What we’ve known a long time

 

REBLOG from January 2013

 

By Trace L Hentz, Blog Editor

First, do no harm. That is the doctor’s creed. Doctors are part of a larger group I call The Adoption Industry. Their group includes clergy, politicians, academics, psychology-types, social workers, lawyers and adoption agencies made up of similar people.  Apparently this group lacks historians.  If they had historians, they’d know adoption hurts the adoptee. Statistics don’t lie. Adoptees are among the highest
population in psychiatric care. If it hurts, it harms.

The mental health of Native babies and children who go through adoption with non-Indian parents has been documented in studies for decades. Suicides, arrests and addictions are common and adoptees have known this a long time. The Indian Child
Welfare Act of 1978 was supposed to end the harm to Indian children by placing
them with other family members. Sadly, that still isn’t happening.

 

My friend
Stephanie Woodard wrote in Indian Country Today, here
(Dec. 1, 2012) about South Dakota’s ICWA violations:

“The ICWA directors found that the latest information shows South Dakota is not only taking a disproportionate number of children into custody, it is also failing to ensure that they stay with their tribes, despite ICWA provisions requiring that tribes have a say in their children’s placement. As of July 2011, they said, Native American foster homes sat empty while nearly 9 out of 10 Indian children in state foster care were in non-Native homes.

“The ICWA directors also noted the state’s tendency to equate “poverty” with “neglect,” which in turn results in more seizures of Native American children: “South Dakota’s rate of identifying ‘neglect’ is 20 percent  higher than the national average,” they wrote.

“The group also found disturbing information on the fate of children once they left the (social care) system. Some youngsters are reunited with their families or adopted; or they may turn 18 and “age out.” But from 1999 to 2009, the “other” category—children who died, ran away or were transferred to correctional or mental-health facilities—grew from 6.9 percent to 32.8 percent….”

In two conversations, two different birthmothers in Minnesota confirmed what I was thinking about harm to the adoptee.  One mother found her son was harmed emotionally by his adoption and is in treatment for addictions.  Then an adoptee friend shared her brother, also an adoptee, is homeless and drug addicted.  Her family doesn’t know what to do, other than hope and pray he finally gets mental health counseling for adoption issues and not get prison-time.

This mental health crisis has been building for decades! I sought counseling twice in my life, and even though it wasn’t focused on adoption, it helped me recover my
self-esteem. Doing research for my book One Small Sacrifice changed me the most
and healed what I call “the wound.”

The truth that adoption harms and hurts Native children is something we’ve known a long time. But this truth never seems to reach our adoptive parents ears.  They were not told by Adoption Professionals they’d need to prepare for our adoptee issues and get us help early.  

Propaganda by the Adoption Industry would prefer we don’t speak the truth. Adoptees have known that a long time, too.

2023: I will be able to request my Original Birth Certificate (OBC) from Minnesota in July 2024. I have waited over 65 years for that piece of paper. - Trace

Here is an early post about my own recovery: https://laratracehentz.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/what-influences-you/

And if you adoptees need support, advice and an ear, I’m here: tracelara@pm.me (2023)

Our Stories Heal – Ginoojimomin Apii Dibaajimoyang [Recording]

The full recording can be found here.

 

In 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. This initiative, which
includes gathering records from the boarding school era, and compiling
an official list of boarding school sites, makes visible on a national
scale the intergenerational impact federal Indian board schools have had
on tribal communities. Currently, there are five schools in the state
of Michigan that were identified from the federal investigation process
(Holy Childhood Boarding School, Baraga Chippewa Boarding and Day School
(Holy Name), Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School, Mackinac
Mission School, and Catholic Otchippewa Boarding School). This is not
an extensive list of all the other entities, schools, and programs that
operated in Michigan through the Indian Civilization Act of 1819.

The Native Justice Coalition’s Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) was launched in July 2022. It seeks to expand its reach
to strengthen relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
people in an effort to seek the truth behind the Indian boarding school
policies and corresponding actions taken by the government and church.
Through this work, the NJC provides safe, supportive, and culturally
competent spaces that offer opportunities for healing and uniting our
Native communities on this journey. Our goals are to create an
Indigenous-led process that is grounded in mutual respect, culturally
sensitive, and focused on meeting clearly defined, jointly agreed upon
metrics. Our key four priorities are truth and reconciliation, healing
our people and our communities, strengthening ICWA and ensuring a
cultural identity for our children, and building a strong ecosystem
through investment in the Native Justice Coalition.

Without support from community partners such as the Indigenous
Law & Policy Center, Native American Institute, and American Indian
and Indigenous Studies at Michigan State University, this work would not
be possible. This one-day symposium honors that work on a local scale,
providing Michigan State University, and the greater Lansing community
an opportunity to learn about the intergenerational trauma caused by
federal Indian boarding school policies. Attendees will hear first-hand
accounts from boarding school survivors and others who can provide the
legal, social, and historical context of the Indian boarding schools. By
joining together in community to share stories and voices, the
symposium provides a space for knowledge and healing.

StrongHearts Raises Elder Abuse Awareness #WEAAD

(EAGAN, MN. June 1, 2023) –  Despite the horror of being physically hurt, and having their money or medication stolen, elders who are abused or neglected often endure the abuse without calling for help. As lifelong caregivers and protectors, many elders suffer in silence to maintain the well-being of their family and that may include their abuser.

June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) - a day to raise awareness and prevent elder abuse. It’s a day to reflect on what it’s like to become an Elder and the many challenges they are facing such as: losing strength, muscle, and bone mass. Mental clarity can deteriorate and lead to memory loss. These inevitable vulnerabilities leave our elders at risk of being abused.

According to the National Council on Aging, most abuse occurs in the home and at the hands of family members.

“It’s unacceptable when elders silently suffer abuse and neglect at the hands of those who should be protecting them,” said CEO Lori Jump, StrongHearts Native Helpline. “Many elders refuse to report their abusers because they are closely related and want to protect their family, but there are so many more reasons that most people can’t imagine.”

 

●     Love: Despite the abuse or neglect, victims continue to love their abusive partner or relative.

●     Fear: Elders may fear retaliation if they report the abuse.  

●     Embarrassment: Worrying about what others might think or do to make matters worse. 

●     Lack of Resources: Many elders live on fixed incomes and may depend on their abuser for shelter.

●     Accessibility: Elders may not be able to report if they do not have access to cell phones, internet and/or transportation.

●     Polyvictimization and Normalization: For generations, Native people have endured multiple types of abuse at the hands of non-Natives - so much so that abuse seems normal - an everyday part of life. 

Types of Abuse

Elder abuse is an intentional act or failure to act that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult. The abuser can be a family member, caretaker or another person that the elder trusts. Types of abuse can include:

●     Emotional abuse - causes mental pain, fear and/or distress

●     Physical abuse - the use of force to cause pain, injury, etc

●     Financial abuse - improper use of an elders money, property or assets

●     Caregiver neglect - a failure to meet basic needs (food, water, medical care)

●     Sexual abuse - forced or unwanted sexual interactions of any kind

●     Cultural and spiritual abuse

Learn The Signs Of Abuse

The signs of elder abuse may be difficult to spot as they could sometimes be the result of disease, side effects from medications or similar reasons. However, if you suspect that an Elder is being abused, be patient, talk and listen to them. Be aware that they may say that they are being “disrespected” rather than abused. Other signs of abuse may include:

●     Unexplained bruising or injury

●     Changes in behavior

●     Lack of interest in family or social events

●     Loss of weight

●     Not having necessary medical aids ( glasses, walkers, teeth, etc) or adequate food, water, shelter

How can you help?

Education is always the first step. Understand the warning signs of elder abuse and pay attention to the elders in your life. Ensuring that our elders are properly cared for can include:

●     Offering to help those in your family that might be feeling burdened with the care of a loved one.

●     Spending time with an elder and planning a rotating schedule if you have multiple caregivers.

●     Bringing them nutritional foods like baked goods or even better fry bread.

●     Talking and listening to their stories because elders have a lot of wisdom to share and appreciate.

●     Every state has an Adult Protective Services division for those wishing to report abuse at www.napsa-now.org/help-in-your-area.

 

StrongHearts can help. Advocates are available 24/7 to provide support and advocacy, make referrals to Native centered service providers and connect our relatives to regionally available resources. We are here 24/7/365.

SOURCE

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention  https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/elderabuse/fastfact.html

National Adult Protective Services Association https://www.napsa-now.org/help-in-your-area/

My Two Aunties

From left, Jeremy Braithwaite, Lizzie Lycett, Cori Biggs, Art Martinez,
Karan Thorne and Judge Bill Thorne during a training session with Indian
Health Council staff. Provided photo.

 Protecting Children and Healing Families, One Native Auntie at a Time

Twenty years ago, a group of Indigenous tribes in Southern California
had nearly 500 of their children in local foster care systems. Today,
according to Indian Health Council data, the number is closer to 30. 



A main driver in recent years is My Two Aunties, a program that draws on
family legacies and kinship traditions to wrap support and guidance
around vulnerable parents and children living in a consortium of nine
tribes.



Key to the approach is a pair of home-visiting workers, known as
aunties, who are as steeped in tribal customs as they are in mandated
reporting and making active efforts to reunify families after a foster
care separation. 



“Instead of ‘What’s wrong with you?’, they ask ‘What’s strong with
you?’”  said Karan Thorne, a member of the Rincon Band of Luiseño
Indians who developed the program. 

KEEP READING

Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools (2023)

 

KUED (now PBS Utah) takes a moving and insightful look into the dark chapter of American history, the federal Indian boarding school system. The goal was total assimilation into Anglo civilization at the cost of Native American culture, tradition, and language. The film story starts with pre-history and comes full circle to modern day. Much of the film is told in first person Native American voice by the people who continue to live it. 

Read More: www.pbsutah.org/unspoken

Osage Murders | Killers of the Flower Moon movie trailer

👇Based on David Grann’s broadly lauded best-selling book, Killers of the Flower Moon is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror.

Directed by Martin Scorsese and Screenplay by Eric Roth and Scorsese, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, and Jillian Dion.

Hailing from Apple Studios, Killers of the Flower Moon was produced alongside Imperative Entertainment, Sikelia Productions and Appian Way. Producers are Scorsese, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas and Daniel Lupi, with DiCaprio, Rick Yorn, Adam Somner, Marianne Bower, Lisa Frechette, John Atwood, Shea Kammer and Niels Juul serving as executive producers.

Estranged? | Adoption Illusions and Stockholm Syndrome

Estrangement is a very common outcome of adoption and fostering. We all deserve to be safe and respect our mental, physical, emotional and psychological health and many times estrangement is the only option. #adopteetwitter #adopteevoices #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth pic.twitter.com/6MCHsEEVe4

— Lina Vanegas (She/her) (@LinaLeadsWLove) May 18, 2023

 

I'm a member of several online adoptee-only support groups, and it's astonishing how many of us are estranged from our adoptive families. #AdopteeVoices #AdopteeTwitter https://t.co/ZAL6HMDXXS

— Jill Daviau 😷 (@neithskye) May 19, 2023

 

👇AN OLD POST from 2014/2021

Adoption Illusions and Stockholm Syndrome

By Trace - BLOG EDITOR

 

"...I’ve been thinking about this concept for a long time. Adopters,
when it comes right down to it, count on Stockholm Syndrome. Children
who don’t succumb are labelled RAD.

Whenever I encounter an
infertile woman so desperate to be a mother that she’ll bring home a
stranger’s baby and force it to live in her fantasy, I always secretly
wonder what she would do if she were single and desperate to be
married.

Would she drag some strange man home and force him to
watch the Notebook and cuddle? And if she did, would society think it
was beautiful and precious?  Or would they think she was delusional and
dangerous?  Rhetorical question, of course.  But why? Why is what is
clearly a crime between adults viewed in such an overwhelmingly positive
way when one of the parties is a child?..."  - Renee Musgrove 

 

This comment by Renee has been in my head for over a year and I finally did research on Stockholm Syndrome! KEEP READING

Catholic-Operated Native Boarding Schools in the United States pre-1970

NEW Website :  https://ctah.archivistsacwr.org/

Compiled
by a group of archivists, historians, and concerned Catholics, the List
of Catholic-operated Native Boarding Schools in the United States,
pre-1978, represents the first and most comprehensive source for
information on Native boarding schools that were overseen or staffed by
the Catholic Church before 1978. Our motivation for assembling this data
was to provide a resource to help boarding school survivors, their
descendants, Tribal Nations, and the Church itself navigate the history
of Catholic involvement with Native boarding schools.

The
list has two primary objectives: first, to identify all
Catholic-operated boarding schools designated specifically to educate
Native American and Alaska Native children in the United States, and
second, to identify all Catholic entities that were involved in the
operation of each school. We are under no pretense that our list is
complete. We have done our best to offer the most accurate information
possible, but we also anticipate future revisions as additional
information is obtained.

 

By
bringing together basic information about Catholic-run Native boarding
schools and the various Catholic institutions involved in their
operation, the list responds to the clear request from Tribal Nations
for access to archival records in Catholic repositories. Families and
communities of boarding school survivors and their descendants deserve
prioritized access to information regarding their own histories. The
Catholic Church also has an obligation to understand the scope of its
own role in this history. Making basic facts about the history of
Catholic institutional involvement in the boarding schools more
transparent aids in that understanding and facilitates identification of
possible sources of archival records as one preliminary step to support
information access.

Our
goal is for Tribal Nations, families, and individuals to be able to use
the list to locate records for schools that members of their
communities attended. Our hope is that Catholic institutional archives
and Tribal Nations will build relationships to increase understanding
about records for Catholic-operated Native boarding schools and further
develop the historical record. 

 

Email Contact: https://ctah.archivistsacwr.org/contact/

 

BRUTAL PAST| Mental Impact of Cross-Cultural Adoptions

👉 The Brutal Past and Uncertain Future of Native Adoptions.
“It is our right as Indian nations to raise our children,” said Sandy
White Hawk, founder of the Minnesota-based First Nations Repatriation
Institute, which serves Native people affected by adoption and foster
care. 

In 1958, the Indian Adoption Project(s) were created “to stimulate
adoption of American Indian children by Caucasian families on a
nationwide basis.” 

See a 1967 portrait of a Long Island family,
the Zuckermans, who took part in the project.  The program was immensely popular in New York, which was already
the center of a robust and lucrative adoption marketplace.  

Such
treatment of Native parents and caretakers by white social workers
was not uncommon, but the Devils Lake Sioux were among the first to
fight back publicly.  Members of the tribe, which is now called the
Spirit Lake Tribe, traveled to New York for a news
conference at the Indian Affairs office arranged that summer.  CLICK: [https://turtletalk.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/proquestdocuments-2018-11-09.pdf.]

 

COMMENT:

kkseattle

Seattle May 17

The
entire argument for eradicating the Indian Child Welfare Act was
expressed in a white supremacist poem by Robert Louis Stevenson that I
expect Samuel Alito to quote in the opinion, with zero sense of irony: 

Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow, 

Little frosty Eskimo,
Little Turk or Japanee, 

Oh! don't you wish that you were me? 

You have seen the scarlet trees 

And the lions over seas; 

You have eaten ostrich eggs, 

And turned the turtle off their legs. 

 Such a life is very fine, 

But it's not so nice as mine: 

You must often as you trod, 

Have wearied NOT to be abroad. 

You have curious things to eat, 

I am fed on proper meat; 

You must dwell upon the foam,

 But I am safe and live at home. 

 Little Indian, Sioux or Crow,
Little frosty Eskimo,
Little Turk or Japanee, 

Oh! don't you wish that you were me? VIA

 (New York Times)

++

The Indian Child Welfare Act

A challenge before the Supreme Court.

Race Question in Supreme Court Adoption Case Unnerves Tribes

Nov. 7, 2022

Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Law on Adopting Native American Children

Feb. 28, 2022

Who Can Adopt a Native American Child? A Texas Couple vs. 573 Tribes

June 5, 2019

👇

Not Feeling “American Enough”: The Mental Impact of Cross-Cultural Adoption.
“For adoptees in the adoptee community, to move forward is to have
allies,” she explains. “The narrative [around cross-cultural adoption
tends to] lie with adoptive parents, and so we need them to elevate our
stories, to elevate us in order for people to know that there is another
narrative out there. It's not this fairy tale.”

 

👀Let's celebrate - over TWO MILLION VIEWS on our little website! THANK YOU! -TLH

Northern California County’s Child Welfare System Again Called out by Civil Grand Jury

  A report released Monday by a northern California
civil grand jury finds that the local child welfare system routinely
misses court deadlines, creating “an unnecessary amount of stress” for
children and families — particularly members of tribal communities who
are overrepresented in the foster care system.

In its report, Humboldt County Child Welfare Services and the Courts: Late Reports, Dysfunctional Systems, and Traumatized Children, the local watchdog group describes inefficiency and staff shortages as delaying family reunification for California families.

 

READ

The Morrill Family on National Television Summer 1981, 7 Ojibwe Adoptees placed in Mormon family...

By Leland P Morrill  (Navajo adoptee and contributor to the book series Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects) posted in 2013

"Today's Child" started in June 1964 when Helen Allen - a veteran reporter for the Toronto Telegram - was questioned at the time by a skeptical Children's Aid Societies, but supported by Ontario's provincial government. 

During its first few years, about 80% of the children featured in the column were adopted.
Helen Allen in this National Television show states that she personally adopted 10,000 to 11,000 children.  Who knows how many native and aboriginal children were adopted through her in Ontario, Canada?

Featured on this video are seven Ojibwe children, my adopted brothers and sisters, to a Mormon family who adopted 10 children. 

I was a Navajo "undocumented adoptee" before we moved to Ontario, Canada. 

Note on the video how many of my brothers and sisters are not white like our adopted parents. 

What is Genocide?  What constitutes Human Trafficking? 

Native Children who are deemed adoptable because of the 3rd world conditions forced on them through the Reservation system (Concentration Camps) may be labelled under "neglect", by Departments of Social Services that blur the lines between neglect and impoverishment; thus creating the definition of "abused or neglected" to encompass those "whose environment is injurious to the child's welfare." 

Genocide is the worst crime possible, undoubtedly the most serious crime that can be
committed under international law. 

The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
(hereinafter the Statute) testifies to the fact that this is the most serious of the crimes
within its jurisdiction.

It places Genocide first, followed by Crimes against Humanity,
War Crimes and the Crime of Aggression. 

The crime of genocide is defined in Article 6
of the Statute in the following terms:
[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 

United Nations defined genocide as the intentional "destruction of racial,
national, linguistic, religious or political groups," "with the purpose of destroying it in
whole or in part or of preventing its preservation or development,"either "causing the
death of members of a group or injuring their health or physical integrity" or interfering
with their biological reproduction or also "destroying the specific characteristics of the
group" through the "transfer of children." 

This video is evidence.  This is why ICWA and history matters. - Trace

 

Virtual Roundtable on the Indian Child Welfare Act (11am EASTERN)

 

WASHINGTON — In preparation for a fast-approaching U.S. Supreme Court decision on the fate of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Democratic minority members are holding a roundtable discussion this morning regarding the longstanding law that affirms tribal sovereignty in Indian child adoption cases. 

“House
Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.)
will host a virtual roundtable to discuss the history and significance
of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA),” according to a statement from
his office.

“ICWA
is a more than 40-year-old law that protects the well-being and best
interests of Native children and families in state child welfare
systems. In the past several years, ICWA has faced a series of legal
challenges, the most prominent being the Brackeen v. Haaland Supreme Court case.

“The
virtual roundtable will feature expert panelists to discuss the history
of ICWA and the role Congress can play to strengthen ICWA and protect
Native children and families.”

Of
note, according to Grijalva: “This is the first congressional convening
to examine ICWA since the onset of recent litigation efforts.”

 RELATED: “Indian Child Welfare Act again reaches U.S. Supreme Court. The basics of ICWA and why the high court is reviewing it now.”

Thanks to Indigenous Wire for this update

ONEIDA OP-ED: Protecting ICWA

 

It not only upholds Oneida’s vision of protecting families and
preserving our core values and traditional beliefs – it has promoted the
best interest of Oneida children for more than 40 years. 

READ

States Seek to Protect Tribes’ Rights in Child Custody Cases

Followers of the case say it’s unclear how the court will rule, or on which grounds the court might decide to overturn the law. Some states are making backup plans.

 https://stateline.org/2023/04/14/states-seek-to-protect-tribes-rights-in-child-custody-cases/

NO MORE MMIW #MMIP

 

May 5th is MMIWG2S Awareness Day