Can a Non-Native Family Adopt an Indian Child? - Weekend Wisdom

Question: This was a question from someone in South Dakota. She says, "I haven't listened to all your back episodes, but can you address ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, as it pertains to adoption? I live in a state where the majority of children in foster care are Native Americans, and ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, is confusing and divisive. At the end of the day, I just want the children I care for to be safe. I understand the reason for the law, but I hate when the comments on an ICWA story about adoption accuse foster care providers of kidnapping.

Resources:

• Indian Child Welfare Law Center - ICWLC.org
• Child Welfare Information Gateway - Info on ICWA

Transcript

Please pardon any errors, this is an automated transcript.

Welcome to this week's We Can Wisdom. We Can Wisdom is the podcast where we answer
your questions. Each week we will pick a question from one that's been sent in and
attempt to answer it. So send us your questions. You can email them to info
@creatingafamily .org or you can click on the link in the show notes to get them
here as well. All right, jumping right in. This was a question from someone in
South Dakota. She says, "I haven't listened to all your back episodes, but can you
address IQUA, ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, as it pertains to adoption?
I live in a state where the majority of children in foster care are Native
Americans, and IQUA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, is confusing and divisive.
At the end of the day, I just want the children I care for to be safe. I
understand the reason for the law, but I hate when the comments on an IQUA story
about adoption accuse foster care providers of kidnapping. Well, that's a can of
worms, isn't it? I do understand your hurt. You feel like you're providing a safe
landing for a child, and you're made to feel like you're being accused of doing
something wrong. I know you understand the reason for the Indian Child Welfare Act,
but I think it'd be helpful to others if I explained some of the history that led
up to its passage. So, basically from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s,
there are numerous state and federal policies that weakened or destroyed Indian tribal
and family structure. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the
federal government forced Indian kids to leave their homes and tribes to attend
boarding schools. And not only was this traumatic for the kids, it also often
resulting in permanently severing the connection between Indian children and their
families and their tribe. And then from 1958 to 1967, the Child Welfare League of
America was under contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to run what has been
called the Indian Adoption Project where Native American children were placed with and
adopted by white families. The point of this was to assimilate these kids into our
society, but the result was that these kids lost their identity as Indians. And just
in general, the child welfare practices from the 1950s through the 1970s removed
Indian children from their homes. It was often based on solely poverty. Now,
we could argue that that continues to this day, and I think it does, but it
certainly was existing back then and certainly existing to annihilate Indian families.
All of this history resulted in statistics like the following. In Minnesota, from
1971 to 1972, 13 % of all Indian children and 25 % of all Indian children under the
age of one were in adoptive homes. And of those homes, 90 % were placed with non
native families. I mean, that's an unbelievable statistic. Just think about that.
13 % of all kids, 25 % of all Indian kids under the age of one, were in adoptive
homes, and the vast majority of those homes were non -native. As a result of all of
that, Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, and that act recognized
tribal sovereignty, saying that the tribe was in the best position to make decisions
regarding the interest of Indian children. Part of the act was to preserve Indian
families and active efforts to keep families together, including providing social
supports to these families. And saying that Indian children must be placed with their
extended family or tribe, if at all possible, when they were removed in their homes.
So the Bottom line is that it is very difficult for non -natives to adopt an Indian
child. Foster parents should realize this when a child is placed in their home. And
I realize you probably know most of this, and my answer to your question doesn't
feel very satisfying. And it's particularly tragic when a child has resided for a
long time with a non -native family. And the goal, of course, is to not place
Native American kids with non -native families for fostering, and the focus should be
on finding extended family or tribal members to foster the children. But this doesn't
always happen, especially in states with a large American Indian population. And
sometimes it doesn't happen because it's easier and faster to find non -native foster
homes. So the result can be some very hard situations, which it sounds like you
have experienced. You know, one wants to be accused of kidnapping. That hurts. And
I'm really sorry that it happened to you. I We want others to know there's a great
resource out there for understanding the intricacies of the Indian Child Welfare Act,
and that is the Indian Child Welfare Law Center, and you can find it at
icwlcindianchildwelfarelawcenter .org.
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