Arizona think tank challenges US Indian Child Welfare Act

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Arizona think tank challenges US Indian Child Welfare Act

Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press
Updated 7:08 pm, Tuesday, July 7, 2015

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A right-leaning think tank has brought what it believes is the most comprehensive challenge to a law that gives preference to American Indian families in adoptions of Indian children.

In a lawsuit announced Tuesday, the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute says that the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 doesn't consider what's in the best interest of Indian children and discriminates based on race. Clint Bolick, the institute's vice president of litigation, said the well-intentioned 1978 law has outlived its purpose and is unconstitutional.

"Our goal here is to end the separate and unequal treatment of children with Indian blood," he said.

Congress passed the law after finding that high numbers of Indian children were removed from their homes by private and public agencies and placed with non-Indian caretakers. The law gives the child's tribe and family a say in decisions affecting the child.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Arizona-think-tank-challenges-Indian-Child-6371145.php

[Orrex]

1. Terrific. Just when I thought we'd run out of ways to screw Native Americans.

[jwirr]

2. There were good reasons why that 1978 law was passed. White communities (such as the

Mormons) have traditionally taken children from the reservation and into white homes or schools (institutions) for religious reasons. The children were often mistreated and punished for their "Indian ways". White foster homes even when not treating the children badly still tried to turn them into white citizens.

When the children returned home to their parents or other family members they no longer belonged. They had psychological problems, identity problems and other problems adjusting back into the community.

I am totally against a change in this law. Obviously Arizona has not been following the law because they have white foster parents who want to adopt the children. I want to see it enforced. My children's tribe has this law also and it works here except that we often do not have enough native families who want to do foster care.

An aside: I wonder if the Goldwater Institute has anything to do with the Mormon church? To me this sounds like a continuation of the Mormon policies that were the reason for the law in the first place. The Mormon church believe that the Native Tribes are the lost tribes of Israel and seeks to bring them back into the fold by making them "whiter than snow."

[cstanleytech]

3. You would think trying to keep the children with their families and or tribe

first before trying to take them away and place them somewhere else "would" be in the best interest of the children.