Indian Children: Citizens, not Cultural Artifacts - Are Some Children's Lives Destroyed by ICWA? Indian Child Welfare Act "Teach-In" Friday, October 28, 2011, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Hearing Room, Wash, DC Keynote speaker: Dr. William B. Allen - Emeritus Professor, Political Science, MSU and former Chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights (1989) Across America, children who had never been near a reservation nor involved in tribal customs - including multi-racial children with extremely minimal blood quantum - have been removed from homes they know and love and placed with strangers chosen by tribal social services. The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 in effort to help prevent Native-American tribes and families from losing children to non-Native homes through foster care and adoption. Though well-intentioned, the Act is now harming children all across the country as courts and tribes place culture and tribal sovereignty above children's basic needs for permanency and stability. Listen as the constitutionality of an Act that limits placement options and delays permanency for many of our nation's most vulnerable children is discussed. 1) Some Children have been removed from safe, loving homes and placed into dangerous situations. 2) Some families, Indian and non-Indian, have felt threatened by tribal government. Some have had to mortgage homes and endure lengthy legal processes to protect their children. 3) Equal opportunities for adoption, safety ...
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