About ICWA

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Click to learn more about the Indian Child Welfare Act & why we must protect it.

About ICWA

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was enacted in 1978 in response to a crisis affecting American Indian and Alaska Native children, families, and tribes. Studies revealed that large numbers of Native children were being separated from their parents, extended families, and communities by state child welfare and private adoption agencies. In fact, research found that 25%–35% of all Native children were being removed; of these, 85% were placed outside of their families and communities—even when fit and willing relatives were available.

At the time, not only was ICWA vitally needed, but it was crafted to address some of the most longstanding and egregious removal practices specifically targeting Native children. Among its added protections for Native children, ICWA requires caseworkers to make several considerations when handling an ICWA case, including:

Providing active efforts to the family;

Identifying a placement that fits under the ICWA preference provisions;

Notifying the child’s tribe and the child’s parents of the child custody proceeding; and

Working actively to involve the child’s tribe and the child’s parents in the proceedings.

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Protect ICWA

The Protect ICWA Campaign was established by the National Indian Child Welfare Association, the National Congress of American Indians, the Association on American Indian Affairs, and the Native American Rights Fund.

Together, we work to serve and support Native children, youth, and families through upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The Campaign works to inform policy, legal, and communications strategies with the mission to uphold and protect ICWA. Sign up for the Protect ICWA newsletter Follow @protecticwa on Instagram Follow @protecticwa on Twitter

U.S. Supreme Court Asked to Review Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals En Banc Decision in Brackeen v. Haaland ICWA Case

Following a decision in Brackeen v. Haaland Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) case from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals en banc (reviewed before all sitting judges within the federal circuit), four of the parties in the case filed petitions asking the United States Supreme Court to review the decision.

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https://www.change.org/p/protect-the-indian-child-welfare-act

Since birds are basically dinosaurs...what about a t-rex or theropod pegasus?

this might be the best ask ever???

I like them.

~ Larn

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Discord | Patreon

Wait what's a buildings fire evacuation plan if you aren't supposed to use the elevator to get down

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This Thanksgiving, if you’ve ever once in your life claimed Indian heritage, give a couple bucks to NICWA. Im not here to argue with you about whether or not you have NDN heritage, but if you truly do, the reason why you know nothing about it is because of your ancestor being taken away and colonized by the methods the Indian Child Welfare Act protects against. Right now ICWA is under attack by a horrifying court case that threatens to undo all the recent strides we’ve made in tribal sovereignty and NDN cultural preservation by eliminating NDN children.

The court case is called Brackeen v. Haaland and is spearheaded by a literal Oil & Gas lawyer named Matthew McGill that has succeeded in destroying the sovereignty of Tribal lands for pipeline construction and has even tried to disestablish entire reservations for his Big Oil paycheck. Their case is a disgusting attack with no legal merit, but still may pass in their favour because of the greed of our Supreme Court. Here’s the most important snippet from that link.

Do not let them trick you into thinking this is to protect NDN children. Child abuse is a widespread US problem and the federal and state governments have never handled it with the best interests of children in mind, let alone NDN children. This is why I am offering up a link to NICWA, a program that ACTUALLY intervenes in cases of child abuse among the NDN community, while allowing the child to remain an established member of the tribal nation. This program is led by tribal leaders who know the communities they are operating in intimately, and therefore can actually act on what is best for the child.

If you are concerned about NDN Child welfare, DO NOT support the striking down of ICWA and instead support public programs on tribal lands and tribal child welfare programs like NICWA.

Direct Link To Give

I know I already made a post about this. But ICWA is LITERALLY being challenged by a white couple that wants to adopt indigenous children to erase their culture and Christianize them. The tribe, whom has a say in who can take their children, is like "Nah, we don't want our youth Christianized like you tride last time"

And the lawyer that's helping the white couple try to overturn ICWA (so that they can erase the cultures of indigenous children) is doing it pro-bono (which means he's not charging the couple anything).

AND that lawyer is a big time lawyer whose clients are usually oil and gas industries. He's literally fighting for indigenous children to be ripped from their tribes and culture so there's less indigenous people to protest big oil destroying their sacred land.

-fae

When I was younger and more abled, I was so fucking on board with the fantasy genre’s subversion of traditional femininity. We weren’t just fainting maidens locked up in towers; we could do anything men could do, be as strong or as physical or as violent. I got into western martial arts and learned to fight with a rapier, fell in love with the longsword.

But since I’ve gotten too disabled to fight anymore, I… find myself coming back to that maiden in a tower. It’s that funny thing, where subverting femininity is powerful for the people who have always been forced into it… but for the people who have always been excluded, the powerful thing can be embracing it.

As I’m disabled, as I say to groups of friends, “I can’t walk that far,” as I’m in too much pain to keep partying, I find myself worrying: I’m boring, too quiet, too stationary, irrelevant. The message sent to the disabled is: You’re out of the narrative, you’re secondary, you’re a burden.

The remarkable thing about the maiden in her tower is not her immobility; it’s common for disabled people to be abandoned, set adrift, waiting at bus stops or watching out the windows, forgotten in institutions or stranded in our houses. The remarkable thing is that she’s like a beacon, turning her tower into a lighthouse; people want to come to her, she’s important, she inspires through her appearance and words and craftwork.  In medieval romances she gives gifts, write letters, sends messengers, and summons lovers; she plays chess, commissions ballads, composes music, commands knights. She is her household’s moral centre in a castle under siege. She is a castle unto herself, and the integrity of her body matters.

That can be so revolutionary to those of us stuck in our towers who fall prey to thinking: Nobody would want to visit; nobody would want to listen; nobody would want to stay.