ICWA case likely headed to SCOTUS

#ICWA is the single most important federal Indian law. Nothing else matters (land, water, natural resources, federal funding, gaming) if there are not members of the tribe to continue it. Without #ICWA some tribes face real threats of extinction/termination.

— Chrissi Ross Nimmo (@mizhardcase) April 7, 2021

The State of South Dakota seizes about 750 American Indian kids every year reaping over a billion federal dollars since the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed. In 2011 NPR took on the Daugaard Administration in a three part exposé. I have direct personal knowledge of those horrors and South Dakota's long history of racism is glaring under the media microscope again. 

Pennington County's behavior has been called shocking and Democratic former US Senator James Abourezk even urged the federal government to sue the State of South Dakota after the Guardian published a long piece on the thousands of American Indian children seized by the South Dakota Department of Social Services. 

According to attorney Kate Fort ICWA is constitutional.

Therefore, if nothing happens at all (remember, I’m not future speculating), then none of this applies till June 1. Second, I believe the parts of the decision that the majority agrees on is applicable only in the Fifth Circuit. There’s very little legal substance here. I think it’s revealing to read the attempt at remedy in Judge Duncan’s opinion–as had been argued repeatedly, nothing this court decided would redress the harms claimed by the plaintiffs. [Fort, Brackeen Decision Summary] 

The case is likely headed to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Learn more at Bill Janklow's idea of public radio and at Native News Online.

Folks who seek to dismantle #ICWA fit into one of four categories:
1) non-indians who want to adopt indian kids
2) people who profit off #1
3) non-indians who want to weaken tribal sovereignty
4) people who profit off of #3#defendICWA

— Chrissi Ross Nimmo (@mizhardcase) April 7, 2021

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