Guest: If Indian Child Welfare act is overturned, tribes would face genocide by separation
This month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could dramatically harm Native American families across the country.
The case challenges the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, often known as ICWA. One of the most important parts of the act concerns Native American children who have been removed from their parents’ custody or who are orphaned, among other situations.
The act created a federal law that requires Native American children who need homes to be placed with Native American relatives and families. The act protects tribal sovereignty by federally recognizing a tribe’s ability to care for Native children, not through state courts. As one would expect, tribes prefer a placement with blood relatives and members of a child’s own nation.
Opponents of the act say this is an unfair form of discrimination against non-Native people who may want to adopt a Native child. However, claiming this is a racial issue ignores history and disrespects tribal sovereignty.
When the act was enacted in 1978, between one-quarter and one-third of Native American children who were removed from their homes were placed with non-Native families, and many never returned to their tribes. Even under the act, our tribe has seen precious children who represent our future torn away from us.
To keep our culture alive, our children should be in homes where they can develop a full connection with their ancestry. It is the only way to ensure our traditions continue.
Being a sovereign nation is different from a race. The United States needs to honor the agreements it made with sovereign tribal nations, who are best equipped to determine their own course and care for the welfare of their people. Tribal leaders want to keep children out of state welfare systems and find them homes where their full identity can be celebrated and nurtured.
For decades, the Indian Child Welfare Act has helped prevent the incalculable harm caused by removing children from their tribes and begun to repair the damage caused by discriminatory policies of states and the federal government.
If the act is overturned, Native nations would face genocide by separation. It would be like reviving the boarding school system that devastated so many families and traumatized so many children.
The Supreme Court must not allow this echo of a dark, bloody history to continue.
John “Rocky” Barrett is the chairman of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Guest: Native children should not be placed with non-Native families
