An adoptive mother made her first contact with CAICW on Facebook about 1am Saturday morning, Nov. 20, 2010, only hours after she had lost her little girl:"They just took my baby after 3 years...her sobbing is forever etched in my soul. She wanted us to save her and we couldn't…devastated."
"..the despair on her face ... She didn't want to go and was looking for us to protect her and we couldn't...I can't remember ever feeling so worthless."Saturday, Nov. 20th, was National Adoption Day. On this day, a small girl, denied the right to be adopted by the only mother she'd ever known, spent the first day in her memory in foster care, frightened and alone. She was denied the right to be adopted by her “mom” solely because of heritage. In America, having even a small amount of Indian heritage can mean not having the same rights & opportunities for adoption that other children have.
SIGN THE PETITION
- Petition closes Jan. 21, 2011 - to be presented to Congressmen in DC Jan. 24-26.
Advocates of ICWA point to the devastation suffered by children of tribal heritage when, years ago, they were forcefully removed from homes they loved and forced to stay at boarding schools. The trauma those children experienced was, indeed, horrible and devastating.
However, in the implementation of the ICWA, the exact same thing has been happening to children in reverse.
What has to be acknowledged is that we live in a transient, multi-racial society. This means that many children who fall under the jurisdiction of the Indian Child Welfare Act have more than one heritage, and many times are predominantly of another heritage, and/or have family who not only aren’t connected to the Reservation, but have specifically LEFT it—having chosen not to participate in the reservation system. Their reasons include the high alcoholism, drug abuse, violence, child neglect, corruption, and suicide rates.
Though some argue ICWA has safeguards to prevent misuse, scores of multi-racial children are negatively affected by its application. Letters from birth parents, grandparents, foster families, and adoptive families concerning their children hurt by application of ICWA can be read at ~ http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html
YOUR PRAYERS are a Powerful Blessing for these families!
Due to ICWA, dozens of adoptions are held up every year. Even simple adoptions can be expensive and many families aren’t prepared for this additional expense. Time and again families have contacted the CAICW to ask for help because they don’t have the funds needed to hire attorney’s to defend their children.
A Firefighter in Texas, with his wife, stopped an abortion by offering to take the baby. They received the little boy immediately after birth and began adoption proceedings. The baby had been with them for a few weeks when they were informed a tribe was laying claim to the child - who had less than 2% heritage. The family, already loving the baby, fought back. Five years and thousands of dollars later, the little boy has still not been adopted.
Had the birth mother chosen abortion, no one would have stopped her.
Birth families have been hurt as well. After mortgaging homes and having nothing else to use, some have been forced to give up the fight for their children.
One grandfather with nothing left to fight with signed his final letter to us as "former grandfather of..."
A mother, responding to a tribal court summons for what was supposed to be a simple hearing, had her little girl ripped from her arms, not to be returned again.
Latino grandparents were raising their three grandchildren in California until social services decided that the children, 50% Ute, belonged on the reservation. They took the children from their paternal grandparents and placed them with their maternal grandmother on the Ute reservation,
where she proceeded to beat the boys for speaking Spanish. Three weeks later, one was near dead. His younger brother presented at the hospital with raccoon eyes. The maternal grandmother is now in prison and the children are again with their paternal grandparents. The oldest is permanently brain damaged.
A mother, having sent her children to visit their father for two weeks for a county ordered visitation, received a sudden tribal court summons. Believing that she was required to respond, she showed up for the hearing, where she was told the children were now in the custody of the father, and she is not allowed to step foot on the reservation again. When she went back to the county court to fight it, she was told that because she responded to the tribal court summons, she had voluntarily given them jurisdiction.
How was she to know?
A non-Indian father in Oklahoma was told that because he was "white," he had no rights to his child.
Of course that wasn't true. But unless a person has money to fight back with, whether it is true or not makes no difference.
WE NEED YOUR HELP. These families can not fight this alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment