{"id":35905,"date":"2023-02-07T18:05:15","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T01:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/states-push-to-enshrine-protections-for-tribal-children-as-law-faces-court-tests\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T01:05:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T01:05:15","slug":"states-push-to-enshrine-protections-for-tribal-children-as-law-faces-court-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/states-push-to-enshrine-protections-for-tribal-children-as-law-faces-court-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"States push to enshrine protections for tribal children as law faces court tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Demonstrators
Demonstrators stand outside the U.S. Supreme Court, as the court hears arguments over the Indian Child Welfare Act on Nov. 9, 2022. Montana is one of a handful U.S. states considering legislation this year to include provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act in state law. (Mariam Zuhaib\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Mariam Zuhaib<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

HELENA, Mont. \u2014 Leo Thompson received plenty of love, food and shelter from the non-Native American family that raised them, but missed out on any exposure to their Indigenous culture, heritage, ancestors and community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only time they acknowledged my heritage was when they\u2019d make passive comments like, \u2018Oh, you know, you\u2019ve always liked that Native American stuff,'\u201d said Thompson, who lives in Missoula, Montana. \u201cThat stuff that they so casually referred to is not casual at all. It\u2019s the practices of my ancestors. It\u2019s the very same culture that\u2019s healed my soul. Reconnecting with my heritage as an adult has been a long and arduous journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montana is one of a handful U.S. states \u2014 along with Wyoming, Utah and North Dakota \u2014 considering legislation this year to keep more Native American children from enduring similar experiences by including provisions of the U.S. Indian Child Welfare Act in state law.<\/p>\n

The states are driven by concerns that Supreme Court challenges have put the federal law in jeopardy. During a hearing last year, the justices seemed likely to leave in place<\/a> most of the law that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings involving Native children. The law also requires child welfare agencies to provide services to help Native families move toward reunification.<\/p>\n

Ten other states have similar laws in place, including New Mexico<\/a>, whose law took effect this year, and they too could be affected, depending on how the justices rule. Most federally recognized tribes want the act upheld, fearing that an adverse ruling could dismantle a whole range of federal laws based on their political relationships with the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

Thompson, who uses she\/they pronouns, shared their story during a recent legislative hearing on a bill sponsored by Montana Democratic Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy.<\/p>\n

The federal Indian Child Welfare Act was passed by Congress in 1978 in response to the alarming rate at which Native American and Alaskan Native children were taken from their homes by public and private agencies. From 1887-1969, Native children were placed in boarding schools<\/a> that used abusive practices to assimilate them into white society. Many were adopted by non-Native families, often depriving them of their tribal and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

The law has helped change that, but there is still work to do.<\/p>\n

In Montana, nearly 11% of all children are Indigenous but they made up 37% of those in foster care in 2021, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association. About 9% of North Dakota children are Indigenous, but account for 44% of the children in foster care, the association said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have witnessed and experienced the benefits of keeping a child within the care of their family where he stays connected, rooted and knows who he is and where he comes from,\u201d Sharen Kickingwoman, with the ACLU of Montana. testified. \u201cWe know from our experiences and research that affirming Indigenous identity, especially for youth, is some of the strongest things you can do to enhance resilience amidst adverse childhood experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyoming\u2019s effort is furthest along, having passed the Senate 20-11. In Utah, tribes and statewide officials support the proposal, yet lawmakers held it in a legislative committee during the final week of January amid questions about whether it was needed yet and despite a request by Navajo Nation leaders to pass it.<\/p>\n

Bills in Montana and North Dakota have had committee hearings but no votes, while a South Dakota bill was rejected this week.<\/p>\n

One aspect of the case awaiting a Supreme Court ruling argued that the Indian Child Welfare Act amounts to federal overreach, and that such protections should be enacted in state law. Another argument is the act provides race-based protections that violate the equal protection guarantee in the Constitution. Native Americans argue the measure is a government-to-government agreement between the U.S. and sovereign tribal nations that, like the U.S., determine citizenship in ways that aren\u2019t based on race.<\/p>\n

No one testified against the proposed policy during a Montana hearing, while supporters testified about the importance of family relationships within tribes.<\/p>\n

Kickingwoman, a member of the Gros Ventre and Blackfeet nations, said Native societies are built around kinship. Kickingwoman said she\u2019s been honored to provide guardianship to many of her relatives, including her cousin\u2019s son, who she said by mainstream society\u2019s standards would be considered a distant relative,\u201d but to her is a son.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of our extended families and friends are close kin in relation to us,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat may be on paper seen as a second or third cousin really is a brother or sister, maybe a niece or a nephew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keegan Modrano, a policy director with the ACLU of Montana who is Muscogee Creek, also was raised by a non-Native family, and was therefore deprived of being raised with their cultural practices, language or people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can not fully ever completely express the incompleteness I feel living my life,\u201d Modrano told the committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy younger self wants nothing more than a Native father figure in my life. My younger self wants nothing more than a Native mother, for cousins and kin, aunties and uncles,\u201d they said. \u201cI cannot rest and I will fight every day so that no other Indian child feels that loss or experiences child removal or the foster care system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Former
Former state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy makes a comment on the Montana Senate floor in Helena, on March 20, 2013. Windy Boy, now a Democratic Representative from Box Elder, is sponsoring legislation to enshrine protections contained in the Indian Child Welfare Act into state law. (Eliza Wiley\/Independent Record)<\/span>Eliza Wiley<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Participants
Participants listen during a rally in support of 3-year-old baby Veronica, Veronica's biological father, Dusten Brown, and the Indian Child Welfare Act, in Oklahoma City on Aug. 19, 2013. (Sue Ogrocki\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Sue Ogrocki<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings involving Native children<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35905"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}