U.S. Supreme Court takes up dispute over Native American adoption law

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Reuters

By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to resolve a dispute over the legality of decades-old federal requirements that give Native American families priority to adopt Native American children in a challenge pursued by a group of non-Native adoptive families and the state of Texas.

The justices will review lower court decisions that declared several key parts of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 unconstitutional. President Joe Biden's administration and several Native American tribes are defending the law, which aims to reinforce tribal connections by placing Native American children with relatives or within their communities.

The U.S. Congress passed the 1978 law in response to concern over child welfare practices that had resulted in the separation of large numbers of Native American children from their families through adoption or foster placement, usually in non-Native American homes. Tribes and Native American advocacy groups have maintained that the child welfare law helps preserve their culture and family connections.

The law set federal standards for removing children from their families and placing them for foster care or adoption, including requiring that "preference" be given to members of a child's extended family, other tribe members or "other Indian families."

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-supreme-court-takes-up-dispute-over-native-american-adoption-law/ar-AAUpVXB?li=BBnb7Kz

[intheflow]

1. What the fuck?

Some white couple won't be happy unless they have a "papoose" of their own? They MUST have that Indian child, actual relatives and tribal communities could never raise that child better than a white couple!

- for the sarcastic-impaired among us.

[hoosierspud]

3. This case is cover for overturning Native sovereignty.

Go to crooked.com and listen to Season 2 of the podcast "This Land". There are some heavy hitters trying to repeal this law.

[womanofthehills]

5. A big problem has been with the foster system

A local Korean/Hispanic family has about 10 kids - three of their own and the rest foster/adopted. They fostered three little American Indian siblings for over 5 yrs. Basically the only daddy and mommy and sisters and brothers the kids know. For yrs foster care said they could not adopt the kids but instead of finding the kids a different native foster family they left the kids there for yrs - till removing them would be traumatic. This yr, they let the family adobt the kids but they said it was rare for them to do so.

[manicdem]

12. Thanks, I didn't think of that

It would be awful to split up families like that, and I'm sure there's many more out there. Or times when you may have to split siblings apart.

[cinematicdiversions]

15. Racism has no place in adoption.

Unfortunately this law puts the best interests of the individual child below that of an archaic racial and cultural segregation.

The best interests of the child should be paramount.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. I can't wrap my head around the reasons for the challenge

I think it's some form of religious paternalism - our culture is richer and Christian and better than yours and the children will be better off.

[GB_RN]

4. This Makes No Sense...

Unless it's more of that fucking Christian Dominionism bullshit.

[hoosierspud]

6. Follow the money.

The gaming industry wants Native sovereignty repealed to kill their competition. This is about way more than adoption.

[GB_RN]

8. Native Sovereignty Originally Dates Back To Signed Treaties, Though.

That being the case, it can't be overturned by the SCOTUS. Unless I'm missing something? 🤷?♂️

[ripcord]

10. Tribes returning kids to abusive homes where they are killed

People seem to want to make negative comments about this case without knowing any of the facts.

[Cozmo]

7. Doesn't SCOTUS have anything better to do??????

[ripcord]

9. It makes perfect sense if you are concerned about the kids

Take the case of young Antonio Renova. Montana officials knew his family was beating him, so they put him in foster care in 2014. He lived with that family for nearly five years and had he been of non-Indian ancestry, they could have adopted him. But he was a Crow Indian—so when his foster parents expressed an interest in adopting him, state and tribal officials instead sent him back to his birth parents. Months later, they beat him to death.

Or consider the case of 5-year-old Declan Stewart. Oklahoma child protection officers knew he was being beaten by his mother’s boyfriend. Had he not been Indian, they could have found him a safe home to live in. But because he was Cherokee, they were forced to return him to his mother’s custody. And in 2007, her boyfriend raped and murdered him.

Laurynn Whiteshield was only 3 when she died. She and her sister Michaela were raised by a foster family—until the foster parents expressed an interest in adopting them. But their ancestry was Spirit Lake, so officials from that tribe instead placed them on the reservation, in the care of their grandfather. A month later, his wife murdered Laurynn, and Michaela was returned to foster care.

https://www.discoursemagazine.com/politics/2021/10/26/the-most-unconstitutional-law-in-america/

We need to think of the kids first rather than a law that allows tribes to return them to abusive homes. The U.S. government is failing to protect these kids based on their race just as the tribal governments are failing them just to show their sovereignty.

[hoosierspud]

11. Courts have denied the family members of children

Custody for reasons like being poor or having been homeless in the past. It's a complicated issue and big, monied interests are involved. Check this out; it's an excellent discussion of the topic:
https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/

[intheflow]

14. The law says to return the kids to family or the community.

It never said it should return the child to an abusive situation. Poor little Antonio was failed by the foster care system, not by the law itself.

[ripcord]

16. You have no idea what you are talking about

The tribes insisted that these kids be returned under ICWA and then they returned the children to their families who killed them, under ICWA the foster system has no say in the matter. The tribal governments should be charged in the murder of these children for placing them in abusive homes.

[Bayard]

13. Damned if you do, damned if you don't

And the kids are caught in the middle in the tug-of-war.

I firmly believe Native children should stay in Native families for cultural reasons. If their own families are unsuitable, by all means, place them with a different Native family.

Some would argue that children from other cultures, races, religions, should then only be placed with like families. I would argue that our indigenous population here in the U.S., their beliefs, languages, and traditions are in danger of dying out altogether. It must be preserved, and their culture passed down to following generations, with pride. We owe them that much.