Pupils at Carlisle Native Industrial School, Pennsylvania (PD)
WARNING: Graphic Images
From 1869 to the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their parents and placed at boarding schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs [1][2].
There the children were forbidden to use their tribal names, speak their tribal languages, wear their tribal clothing, or practice their tribal religions. Discipline was generally harsh. Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse were not unknown.
Though perhaps well intentioned, this cultural genocide (now termed ethnocide) was inexcusable [3][4A]. The trauma to these children was incalculable [4B].
Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)
The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was created as a reaction to such forced assimilation [5][6A][9A]. The purpose of the ICWA was to protect the cultural identity and heritage of Indian tribes [9B].
The ICWA mandates that the state pursue the best interests of the tribe, rather than that of the individual child, in cases of abuse. Officials must place an abused or neglected child with race-matched foster and adoptive families [6B].
Published guidelines by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in fact, indicate that child welfare officials should not consider the best interests of the child in placement – irrespective of poverty, substance abuse, or other “non-conforming social behavior” such as crime in the home [9C].
For any child living on a reservation, the tribe has exclusive jurisdiction of child welfare cases [9D]. Continue reading
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