#indigenous child welfare

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Content Warning for discussions of residential schools and the systemic violence and abuse of Indigenous children.

It was a reunion decades in the making and a kickoff to the new year the Quill family will never forget. Sisters Nita and Brandy Quill met for the first time at a SkyTrain station in Vancouver last week, more than 30 years after they were separated during a period of colonial violence against Indigenous families known as the ’60s Scoop. The pair found each other on Facebook in the years after their mother’s death. “It’s surreal. Nothing like this has ever happened in our lives before,” Brandy said, embracing her long-lost sister at Burrard Station downtown. “This is to me a miracle. I’m just trying to take it in. It will probably take a long time to process it. It’s a dream come true.”

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Tagging @politicsofcanada

[alinahdee]

ICWA STANDS!

[gwydionmisha]

The Indian Child Welfare Act prevents the kidnapping of indigenous children to be raised by white people, and the adoption of indigenous children away from their community by non-natives, activities which have been part of the US Government's genocide against Native Americans.

[starlightshadowsworld]

ICWA literally just got saved from the chopping block and is being broken.

Chanel is a native baby who's mother was murdered by Chanel's father.

ICWA states a native child is to be looked by their community.

But Chanel, instead of being under the care of her grandmother is with a foster family in Alaska.

A very racist foster family.

Who fantasise about putting her work.

Dehumanise her by never calling her name and comparing her to a dog and Mowgli from the jungle book.

There is a petition here to request actions be made to bring Chanel back home to her grandmother.

Please sign.

This poor child deserves so much better than these awful people who compare her to animals and don't even try to hide their disdain for her people.

These people are actively breaking ICWA, which is protected by federal law.

Chanel is a baby and my heart breaks for her.

[thoughtportal]

The Christian Groups Fighting Against the Indian Child Welfare Act https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/02/the-christian-groups-fighting-against-the-indian-child-welfare-act/ 

https://lakotalaw.org/news/2021-09-17/icwa-sovereignty

https://abovethelaw.com/2022/11/supreme-court-indian-child-welfare-act-gibson-dunn/

https://www.gibsondunn.com/former-exxonmobil-counsel-david-woodcock-joins-gibson-dunn-in-dallas/

[or-pheus]

ICWA WAS UPHELD BY SCOTUS

[jeannereames]

ICWA STANDS!!!!

[embraceyourdestiny]

Hello everyone please sign and share this petition to protect the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)

They are trying to strip down the Native community and this needs to be stopped

(via)

[katoriyouko]

At 200,000 signatures, this petition becomes one of the top signed on Change.org!

At 200,000 signatures, this petition becomes one of the top signed on Change.org!

Recent signers

Nathan Doyle signed 1 hour ago

Elsa Stenmark signed 1 hour ago

Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas started this petition to Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton and 2 others

Hello, thank you for taking the time to read about this issue and support. We are the Esto’k Gna of Somi S’ek, the Original Peoples of so-called Texas. We have been here before any other group of people migrated or were forcibly displaced onto our lands. We aim to protect and live our Lifeways, while sharing with others about who we are. We are not protestors. We are protectors. We are carrying out the tasks given to us by our parents, our parents' parents, and the generations backwards and forwards. Today, we come to you to talk about so-called Texas and the various ways they continue to attack us: Native peoples, the land, the water, the air. We call on Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas and Brent Webster, First Assistant Attorney General to uphold and protect the Indian Child Welfare Act

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously upheld the Trudeau government's Indigenous child welfare law, dismissing Quebec's appeal in a landmark opinion affirming Indigenous Peoples' jurisdiction over child and family services. The high court sided with the Canadian government in a decision rendered Friday morning, reversing a Quebec Court of Appeal decision to declare the law partly unconstitutional. "The act as a whole is constitutionally valid," the court concluded. "Developed in co-operation with Indigenous Peoples, the act represents a significant step forward on the path to reconciliation."

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[ichabodjane]

I like to celebrate holidays by donating to good causes when I can and I want to encourage others to do the same if it's something you can do!

For me that's a local mutual aid group (not sharing for privacy reasons but I recommend looking up emergency aid groups in your locale) and on 4th of July/Thanksgiving, we also donate to the Native American Rights Fund! Here's a link if you'd also like to help out!

Native American Rights Fund

From their About Us:

"Since 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided legal assistance to Native American tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide who might otherwise have gone without adequate representation. NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases, and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, voting rights, and Indian education.

Since NARF’s inception, Indian law has changed dramatically. It has become a recognized specialty with a well-documented body of statutes and case law. However, that has not made it a simpler field. In the 1970’s and the early 1980’s, courts were generally receptive to Indian rights cases. However, since the mid to late 1980’s, an increasingly conservative federal bench has made Indian rights cases more difficult to win. Combined with the huge cost of litigation—in time and in money—this means NARF and its Indian clients are always attuned to opportunities for negotiation, consensus, and settlement."

[shamandrummer]

Court Case Threatens Native Sovereignty

A serious threat to Native American tribes across the United states looms large. A decision on the Supreme Court case Brackeen v. Haaland -- a direct assault on the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), and by extension, the very right of tribes to be classified as sovereign nations -- is expected later this year.

Enacted in 1978, ICWA was part of the federal government's efforts to rectify the incomprehensible harm it caused to Native families through the forcible removal of Native children from their communities into boarding schools or non-Native foster and adoptive homes. Between 1819 and 1969, hundreds of thousands of children were taken from their families and homes.

ICWA establishes minimum standards for a Native child to be removed from their home and empowers tribes to be more involved in adoption and custody procedures for kids enrolled or eligible to enroll in tribal nations. The law gives tribal courts exclusive jurisdiction over members who live on tribal land, in the hopes of keeping families together, and creates a process whereby they're noticed and involved in cases outside of these boundaries.

For years, people and organizations hostile to ICWA have tried to erode the legislation through the court system. Should ICWA fall, it's not only adoption and foster cases that will be gravely impacted; the basic foundations of tribal sovereignty could be unwound. Observers in Indian Country have long believed that attacks on the legislation have broader aims in mind than the well-being of children, and many anti-ICWA proponents are also perceived as gunning for access to natural resources, mineral rights and more.

Calling into question the authority of Congress to deal with tribal nations as distinct sovereigns would have ​major reverberations throughout the field of Indian law. These attacks on sovereignty can be traced back to the Trail of Tears, the deadly westward displacement of five tribes between 1830 and 1850 initiated by then-President Andrew Jackson. The argument made at the time was that the tribes were being overwhelmed by European settlers, and they would be annihilated if the government didn't take them into custody and move them. ​In truth, those tribes controlled the waterways, and Andrew Jackson said, "​We want it, and we are going to take it."

Tribal sovereignty predates the coming of the colonial powers. From 1778 to 1871, the United States federal government signed 370 treaties with tribal nations. Many were used as tools to forcibly remove Indigenous people from their native lands and relocate them to reservations. In exchange for the land they had lived on for generations, tribes were offered many now-broken promises from the government: of peace, the provision of health and education, hunting and fishing rights and protection against enemies.

According to the Constitution, treaties can only be enacted between two sovereign nations. That status and the right of tribes to self-govern was affirmed in the 1832 Worcester v. Georgia Supreme Court case. It's also grounded in the Constitution through not one, but two clauses, and was reiterated yet again in the 1990s by a Department of Justice memorandum that tribal nations have the unique status of ​"domestic dependent nations." You can help protect tribal sovereignty by supporting the Native American Rights Fund.

[makingcontact]

The Rest of the Story: Indigenous Resistance

U.S. Supreme Court building, credit: wikimedia commons In this episode, we revisit two stories concerning indigenous rights we’ve covered in the past. In the first half, Rebecca Nagle joins us to discuss the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act and why the legitimacy of the law is so important to tribal sovereignty. We also talk about the right’s legal strategy in the…

[whatamidoingwithmylifeman]

Bring Chanel Home

BRING CHANEL HOME

^ that is a link to the petition to bring Chanel home and away from her abusive foster family

[youjustgotlawyered]

ICWA IS SAVED BY A 7-2 VOTE! I anticipated it being a closer win due to Gorsuch, so this is great news!