Native American Indian Children Research Paper

The removal of Indian children from their families were at a significantly higher rate than whites and other non-white groups. A study conducted by the Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA) (1977) found that 25 to 35% of all Indian children were being placed in out-of-home care (as cited in Byler, 1977; Fischler, 1980). The study further found that 40% of all adoptions in

Native Americans have been neglected, abused, and tormented since the 1700’s when their land was abruptly invaded by Europeans. Europeans declared this “unknown” territory to be their property from then forward and did anything and everything to make sure this would happen. This included forced assimilation, where Natives were stripped of their cultural traditions and forced to assimilate to an english speaking, westernized culture (McLeigh, 2010). This included taking children from their families and sending them to boarding school to learn a new language, new cultural traditions, and new religious practices. Starting in 1860 and lasting until 1970, children were taken from their families at a young age and often lost touch with their family

The Indian Act was created in 1876 and has been amended many times through history. The Act was created by European settlers under the British crown in order to assert control over the Indigenous people of Canada. It developed into the takeover of Indigenous land, imposed the rule of the Crown on Indigenous affairs, openly allowed discrimination, and restricts hunting. Also, the act implemented the abolishment of band councils, entrapment within harsh reserve living conditions, the creation of residential schools, the constraint on traditions, culture, ceremonies, and the systematic growth of cultural genocide. This racist relic has imposed a great deal of injustice towards Indigenous people. It establishes a “us v. them” mentality and separates

In the past year and a half with events like DPAL, Native American rights along with the rights of other minority groups in the United States haven’t been shown the same rights as Caucasians when it comes to civil liberty issues. In 1978 Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Under the ICWA tribes have significant input on whether the removal of children from them is necessary, “efforts must be made to support and rehabilitate a family before its child is placed into foster care or adopted.” (Ryznar, 2013). The ICWA also was enacted to examine how it “establishes standards for state-court child custody proceedings involving Indian children… “the consequences…of abusive child welfare practices that [separated] Indian children from their families and tribes through adoption or foster care placement, usually in non-Indian homes.” (Cornell University Law School). In 2009, a couple from South Carolina, Melanie and Matthew Capobianco, wanted to adopt a baby whose father (Dusten Brown) was an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and mother Christina Maldonado of Hispanic background. Due to Brown being a registered member of the Cherokee Nation, and under the ICWA, a child that

There were cases in Swain County where Native American children were mistreated by DSS system, and this mistreatment did result in the wrongful death of a Cherokee child. Family safety was created to make sure that the needs of Cherokee children were met. Obviously, Cherokee officials were very angry about the chain of events that transpired in Swain County DSS. The problem here is that since Family Safety is such a new program many enrolled members on the reservation don’t know about it, and they don’t know that the organization was specifically founded to meet the needs of their children. This is one of the core problems that the organization ran into while I interned there. People believed that this was the same as DSS and thus they prejudged the organization. They did not want help from Family Safety because they thought that white people were once again meddling in their affairs. The vast majority of employees at Family Safety were enrolled members of the Cherokee tribe, or at least descendants. Every single program within Family Safety was created to better serve the needs of the Cherokee community. Poverty was one of the major problems that I encountered during my

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, was enacted by Congress with a goal of protecting Native American children while preserving the family unit (Turner, 2016). The ICWA created a guideline for the removal of Indian children and established a set of requirements for child welfare systems to abide by (Bussey, 2013). In accordance to the ICWA, child welfare agencies must follow the guidelines first by verifying if a child is enrolled with a tribe or suspected to be eligible for enrollment (ICWA, 1978). In addition, the act acknowledges federally recognized tribes as having sovereignty in making decisions about the welfare of Indian children who are members of their tribe (Matheson, 1996).

Rather than interpret behaviors of the Native Americans counselors understand what greatly impacts American Indians in social issues. Native Americans are greatly impacted with Major Health Issues, Employment Issues, Economic Issues, and Family Dynamics.

For several hundred years people have sought answers to the Indian problems, who are the Indians, and what rights do they have? These questions may seem simple, but the answers themselves present a difficult number of further questions and answers. State and Federal governments have tried to provide some order with a number of laws and policies, sometimes resulting in state and federal conflicts. The Federal Government's attempt to deal with Indian tribes can be easily understood by following the history of Federal Indian Policy. Indians all over the United States fought policies which threatened to destroy their familial bonds and traditions. The Passamaquoddy Indian Tribe of Maine, resisted no less

Native Americans on the reservations are at socially and economically disadvantage compared to persons who reside in metropolitan cities. Life advancement opportunities and individual accountability for better living standards are almost non-existence in many Native American communities. The environment that is around young adolescents are very

In city sites, family and public observances are preserved through links to tribal populations and city governments and backup organizations; therefore, diversities in tribal observances may be preserved with frequent Pan-Indianism performances (Evans-Campbell et al, 2002). In addition, important interpersonal links with parents, other relations, or care-provider are imperative in the growth of discrete resiliency (Evans-Campbell et al, 2002). Parent attachment and care have been acknowledged as barriers counter to drug abuse in the teenage years and as an adult (Evans-Campbell et al, 2002). The influence of parental sustenance to psychological and physical wellbeing may be even more noticeable and predominate in the American Indian parental structure (Evans-Campbell et al, 2002).

The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), Pub L 95-608; 25 USC 1901-1963, is a federal law that protects Indians children from unwarranted removal of their tribes (USC 1901-1963). This federal law was in response to the high number of Indian children being removed from their tribal homes by social services and placed in non-tribal homes. Despite this federal mandate, many states and local counties continue to struggle in complying with the regulations of ICWA. Historically, in comparison to the general population, a very high percentage of Indian children have been removed unwarranted and a very high percent of such Indian children have been placed in non-Indian foster (National Indian Welfare Association, n.d). For example, a 1976

According to Anastas & Clark, (2012), 58% of the children in foster care are children of color other than white. Reading this section I came across a lot of laws and acts that led up to the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act. One was called the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974. Years later the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 came about. This act was made to “ establish standards to ensure reasonable efforts prior to the removal of Indian children from their families whereas the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 prioritized family preservation and permanency as major goals of child welfare” (Anastas & Clark, 2012, p.148).

I can assume that the main objectives of this chapter are to define the Indian law; who, where, and when it is appropriate to settle cases amongst themselves or other tribes as long as the conditions meet the requirements for the tribes to have their own jury. Besides the need to describe what the law is for Indians, there are also sections that set the characteristics and requirements that are used by federal government to define a tribe and an individual as an American Indian legally.

This was taking away as early as the fur trade industry began. This change the way of life known to the Native Americans. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson made into law "Indian Removal Act" Where Native Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and way of life. According to Carlisle-Penna Pratt (1879) “Kill the Indian and save the man was the goal and the beginning of the boarding schools era.” When the children no longer could fit in their culture or any other, they became depressed, lost, confused, a deep sense of grief and loss. Which impact subsequent generations. This damage from that early abuse, loneliness and lack of love is being seen as a major factor in the illness that plagues tribes today. It has been passed on from one generation to the next and manifesting in high rates of poverty substance abuse, domestic violence, depression and suicide. These facts are what historic trauma is associated with brain development: The emotional stress, anger, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, grief, abuse, neglect, shame, this also has created poor health problems that also effect brain development. Diseases such as alcoholism, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and suicide is what affects children 's today.

Historically, many groups have been identified as marginalized. For the purpose of this assignment, I chose to research the American Indian culture. Growing up, we were taught very little about the American Indian culture. Historically, we learned how the Indian tribes were removed from their lands, either through treaties or through force in favor of early white settlers. From early on, the American Indians were segregated on to reservations or Indian country and assimilated in to day or boarding schools in what is has been referred to as “ethnic cleansing” (Anderson, 2016).