TRC reports and comments pour in on ICWA regulation

http://www.wearecominghome.com/

Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report

Posted by Kate Fort at Turtle Talk

Recently released, here is the executive summary on residential schools, the survivors’ stories, and the call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. There has also been extensive news coverage in Canada surrounding the release of the report.

Executive Summary (pdf, 388 pages)

The Survivors Speak (pdf, 260 pages)

Calls to Action (pdf, 20 pages)

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Additional Comments on Proposed ICWA Regulations

Posted by Kate Fort

More than 1,000 additional comments were posted this week to regulations.gov on the proposed ICWA regulations, bringing the total number of comments to 1,869. We have updated the tribal nations comments page here, and the organizations page here.

Here are a few additional individual comments we noted as we scrolled through them:
361_-_Erdrich,_Karen_Louise
942_-_Jones,_Laura
919_-_Spotted_Elk,_Sheldon
2097_-_Blanchard,_Evelyn
1524_-_White_Hawk,_Sandy
298_Hirsch_Bertram
1525_-_Houska,_Tara
886_-_Lidot,_Tom
1280_-_Drobnick,_Heidi_A
Sweet_Victoria

Proposed ICWA guidelines, Tribal Nations respond

Tribal Nation Comments on the Proposed ICWA Guidelines

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Kate Fort

We will update as more roll in–as currently available from Regulations.gov or sent directly to us at fort [at] law [dot] msu [dot] edu

Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Proclamation
Cherokee Nation Tribal Council Resolution
Letter from AAG, Chrissi Ross Nimmo
Letter from ICW ED, Nikki Baker Limore
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
Pueblo of Pojoaque Tribal Court
Oklahoma Indian Child Welfare Association

Kate Fort at Turtle Talk is a leader in reporting on ICWA. Please follow the Turtle Talk blog here.

Our Souls Cry: Proposed ICWA guidelines and hearings underway

By Trace

 

Last week I did write a statement and submitted it via email to the BIA.

I also read the Regulations for State Courts and Agencies in Indian Child Custody Proceedings and made a comment as an adoptee, as an advocate for other Native American adoptees and as an unofficial expert since I have authored three books (one as a memoir) about the Indian Adoption Projects.

 

Article on Yesterday’s Public Hearing on Proposed ICWA Regulations

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Kate Fort

 

Here, via NICWA.

“That’s been the plan from the beginning,” Bradley Goodsky told a mostly sympathetic audience at Mystic Lake Casino on Wednesday. “It’s like [child protection] has a crystal ball and we’re doomed to fail.”
Goodsky was one of the speakers to address federal administrators who are considering making it more difficult for social workers to put Indian children in foster care. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is proposing new rules that it says will strengthen the Indian Child Welfare Act, the 1978 law passed by Congress to stop the “often unwarranted” breakup of Indian families.
The act provides guidelines to child protection agencies and juvenile courts that set a high standard for placing Indian children into foster care, and it gives tribes a say in those cases. The proposed changes would raise that bar even higher, by requiring that child protection and the courts first determine if a child is Indian, and then only remove that child from a home where there is “present or impending risk of serious bodily injury or death.”  Kevin Washburn, the U.S. Interior Department assistant secretary who leads the BIA, is touring the country with other agency officials to hear from tribes and the public about the proposals.

“Guidelines are great,” Washburn told the group at the casino in Prior Lake. “We need things that are legally enforceable.”

But those voices were far outnumbered by speakers who told stories about the damage caused to Indian children by being separated from their culture.

“Native adoptive souls have been stolen,” said Gio Cerise, who was just 2 weeks old when adopted into a non-Indian family in 1965. “Our souls cry.”

Do you have your written comments in yet? They are due May 19.