[BearwWthoutBorders] Violations of Indian Child Welfare Act

[Hunter Gray]

South Dakota isn't the only state with significant violations of the 1978 National Indian Child Welfare Act.  There are others.  In many cases, these violations are willful, deliberate.  In other instances, they occur because of the ignorance of county welfare workers regarding the Act.  I handled a fair number of advocate cases involving the ICWA in North Dakota, finding that -- in the 1980s and 1990s -- a great many welfare staff at local levels had never even heard of it -- or, if they had, their knowledge was vague, often erroneous.  Their administrators usually had never mentioned the Act. Much news media still has almost Zero awareness of ICWA -- and this certainly includes all the cable news outfits -- which devote very little time generally to Native Americans and Native concerns.  Good indeed to see the tribes taking a strong initiative on all of this.   H.


Indianz.Com. In Print.
http://www.indianz.com/News/2012/007888.asp 

NPR: Tribes take on state and BIA in Indian child welfare battle
Monday, December 3, 2012
Filed Under: Law | National 
More on: bia, icwa, south dakota
  
"South Dakota's foster care system "systematically violated the spirit and the letter" of a law meant to protect Native American children, a coalition of tribal directors from the state's nine Sioux tribes said in a report released Thursday night. The report comes a year after NPR aired a series questioning whether the law was being enforced. 

The 30-year-old Indian Child Welfare Act says native children must be placed with relatives or their tribes if they are removed from their homes, except in unusual circumstances. The coalition said the state appears to have violated the law willfully, "and it may have done so at least partly to bring federal tax dollars into the state." 

An official with South Dakota's Department of Social Services said in a statement that the department has not seen the report and cannot comment on it. They have said in the past they believe in the law and money has never influenced their program." 

Get the Story:
Tribal Coalition Report Finds South Dakota 'Willfully' Violated Child Welfare Law (NPR 11/30) 

Also Today:
Indian welfare directors criticize S.D. foster care (AP 12/1)
South Dakota Tribes Charge State With ICWA Violations (Indian Country Today 12/1) 

Related Stories:
Report outlines Indian Child Welfare Act woes in South Dakota (11/30) 

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

See my reflection On Being a Militant and Radical
Organizer -- And an Effective One:
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded, and with more photos in Fall 2012. Material on our Native
background.)  And see Personal Background Narrative: 
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm  (Updated into 2012) 

For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial introduction by me.  We are now at 
the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement
of 1962-63:  http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
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