Cherokee Nation Chief Bill John Baker discusses an Indian Child Welfare Act case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. Dusten Brown, in sunglasses, was forced to give up his daughter after the justices ruled against him. Photo from National Congress of American Indians / Flickr
Conservative writer George F. Will joins conservative attack on Indian Child Welfare Act by bringing up blood quantum of Indian children:
The 1978 act’s advocates say it is not about race but about the rights of sovereign tribes, as though that distinction is meaningful. The act empowers tribes to abort adoption proceedings, or even take children from foster homes, solely because the children have even a minuscule quantum of American Indian blood. Although, remember, this act is supposedly not about race. The most recent case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court concerned a child who was 1.2 percent Cherokee. The Goldwater Institute, the Phoenix think tank whose litigators are challenging the ICWA’s constitutionality, says “her nearest full-blooded Indian ancestor lived in the time of George Washington’s father.” Children’s welfare, which is paramount under all 50 states’ laws, is sacrificed to abstractions such as tribal “integrity” or “coherence.” The Goldwater litigators say that guidelines from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs tell courts that in determining foster care or adoption, “Placement in an Indian home is presumed to be in the child’s best interest.” The ICWA forbids blocking placement in an Indian home because of poverty, substance abuse or “nonconforming social behavior,” according to a Goldwater report. The ICWA was passed to prevent a real abuse, the taking of Indian children from their homes without justifiable cause. But by protecting tribal sovereignty without stipulating the primary importance of protecting the best interests of the children, the rights of the tribes have essentially erased those of the children and the parents who wish to adopt them.Get the Story:
George F. Will: The blood-stained Indian Child Welfare Act (The Washington Post 9/3)
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