Court rules Indian Child Welfare Act doesn’t apply in boy’s adoption
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a lower court erred when it determined parental rights were improperly terminated in an adoption proceeding involving a child who was later identified as a member of the Cherokee Nation.
The most distressing thing about this ruling is that the court is undermining and circumventing the Tribes inherent sovereign right to determine and establish membership and citizenship. The primary purpose of the act is to preserve Tribal culture by allowing Tribes to intervene and assume custody of our most precious resource, children. This came about because before 1978 (when the act was enacted) Indian children were being adopted out to non-indian families, the reprecussions of this is still being felt as a large number of children now grown to adulthood have lost their cultual identity. While for the most part they were raised by families that loved and cared for them, they still report that a part of them missing, that part is their cultural identiy.
ReplyDeleteIn Minnesota about 10 years ago, the state supreme court ruled that it is the Tribe who determines if the child is eligible under ICWA and for memebership in their Tribe. I hope that the Tribe appeals this to the US Supreme Court.