5/24/23

Montana joins New Mexico, North Dakota, Wyoming in protecting Indigenous foster care

The Supreme Court of the United States is hearing arguments in Brackeen v. Haaland to determine whether the Indian Child Welfare Act or ICWA violates the constitution by considering placement of Indigenous children solely based on race. Tribal nations are recognized by the federal government as political sovereigns and not a racial group. 

New Mexico codified protections in 2022 and according to attorney Kate Fort ICWA is constitutional so it's not impossible Justice Neil Gorsuch will side with the sane members of the Court like he did in McGirt v. Oklahoma.
The Montana bill was amended by lawmakers to sunset after two years. Its Democratic sponsor, Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, said he initially introduced the measure a decade ago after some state district court judges were not following the federal law in Native children custody cases. In Montana, nearly 11% of all children are Indigenous, but they made up 37% of those in foster care in 2021, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association. [Montana acts to protect Native American priority in adopting Native children]
In my home state Republican former South Dakota Governors Mike Rounds, Denny Daugaard and Attorney General Marty Jackley covered up their state's abuses after NPR took on that state’s Duck Dynasty in a three part exposé. Pennington County's behavior has been called shocking and the late 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 plight of thousands of American Indian children seized by the South Dakota Department of Social Services. Sen. Abourezk shepherded the passage of ICWA in 1978.

South Dakota's current Republican governor conspired with the Trump Organization in their effort to exterminate Indigenous Americans by introducing a deadly virus to Native communities creating a raging pandemic.

The far white wing of the Republican Party has been working to erase tribal sovereignty in states like Montana for decades.

ip photo.
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