Indian Children: Citizens, not Cultural Artifacts

Are Children’s Lives Destroyed by ICWA?

Attend the Indian Child Welfare Act “Teach-In”

Friday, October 28, 2011, 9am - 1pm

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Hearing Room, Dirksen Bldg, Wash, DC

Keynote speaker: Dr. William B. Allen

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.

Come hear real stories of children whose lives have been impacted by the Indian Child Welfare Act. Listen to legal experts and scholars discuss the constitutionality of an Act that limits placement options and delays permanency for many of our nation’s most vulnerable children.

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 and stability are not always available to children of all heritages.

4) The constitutional right of parents to make life choices for their children including political associations has been interfered with.

5) The constitutional right for children of Indian heritage to enjoy Equal Protection has in some cases been denied.

Letters from tribal and non-tribal birth parents, extended family, foster parents and pre-adoptive families can be read at http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html

In the words of Dr. William Allen, Emeritus Professor, Political Science, MSU and former Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1989), 

“... we are talking about our brothers and our sisters. We’re talking about what happens to people who share with us an extremely important identity. And that identity is the identity of free citizens in a Republic…"

The Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare (CAICW) is the only national organization advocating for families who have lost or are at risk of losing children due to application of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). We well understand the original purpose of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Although ICWA has safeguards to prevent misuse, stories affecting multi-racial families abound across America. It is important that we come together as a community to talk about them.