by Elizabeth Sharon Morris

“They just took my baby after 3 years…her sobbing is forever etched in my soul. She wanted us to save her and we couldn’t. Devastated."

An adoptive mother contacted CAICW on Facebook with this message at 1 am on Saturday, November 20, 2010, just hours after losing her little girl. CAICW cried with her. Why was this little girl, who screamed for her adoptive father to help her, taken - while he collapsed on the lawn, sobbing in grief? Because she had tribal heritage.  

While many argue that it is right and good that children of Native heritage be removed from non-Indian homes and turned over to tribal governments, many others question the policy. In this case, just five months after the little girl was taken, social services called the adoptive parents and asked if they would come and get her—immediately. Apparently the home she had been taken to “didn’t work out,” so now it was OK for her to return to the home they had torn her from just a few months prior. Of course, her parents immediately dropped everything to drive the two hours to get their little girl. When she saw them, the little girl threw herself into their arms and asked if she could finally “go home.”  

On Friday, October 19, 2012, Indian Country Today (ICT) reported on the “Veronica” episode of a Dr. Phil Show that had aired the day before. ICT claimed that the show “attacked the ICWA, and undermined the significance of Native children remaining in their tribe and being immersed in their culture.” It also announced a grassroots Facebook campaign to boycott the “Anti-Native American” Dr. Phil Show. The mission of the campaign ICT says, “is to hold Dr. Phil McGraw accountable by boycotting until he agrees to have a show where QUALIFIED experts discuss ICWA’s importance.”

This is an interesting demand, considering the fact that there were two qualified “experts” on the set that day: Cherokee Nation Attorney Chrissi Nimmo and Judge Les Marston. Furthermore, Terry Cross of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) had been invited too, but declined to appear.  

As a birth mother to children who are 50 percent tribal, I flatly refute claims by the tribal establishment that every single child of heritage “needs them.” No “tribal expert” knows our family or can speak for us. It is a myth that all tribal members want or need to be a part of Indian Country. Tribal members are individuals with their own minds and hearts.

The U.S. census shows that 75 percent of tribal members live off reservation. Some remain connected to Indian Country, but many extended families mainstreamed a long time ago. Many reject reservation life for the same reason our family does: it isn’t a safe place. Even though we love our extended family that live on the reservation, we choose not to live under a corrupt tribal government in a tract house surrounded by drugs, alcohol and violence. Not every Native person wants to live in or have their children exposed to these conditions.  

Furthermore, most “enrollable” children have more than one heritage. This means that they have more than one family, more than one traditional culture, multiple people who love them, and no heritage is more or less important than another.  

Tribal governments are now using the ICWA as a weapon to steal the rights and best interests of children, women and families across this country. Make no mistake—the Cherokee Nation alone has more than 100 attorneys targeting 1500 children across the United States who are in the process of being adopted. Many of these children, like Veronica, have less than 5 percent Cherokee heritage. Even that small heritage in many cases comes from families who at some point made deliberate CHOICES to leave Indian Country.

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Join CAICW in DV July 11, 2012, to Change ICWA!

. We are gathering in DC in July - Come Add Your Voice to the Call to Protect Children from the Indian Child Welfare Act! Why?

• To protect the individual rights of Indian children and their families
• To ensure they maintain the right to a safe, supportive and stable family
• To request support for appropriate amendments to the ICWA

While said to have been established with good intentions, the ICWA has frequently hurt families and their children of Native American heritage. Federal dollars are being used to support adherence to this law; however in many cases, the law is destroying loving, stable families.

Though proponents of ICWA argue that the act has safeguards to prevent misuse, numerous multi-racial children have been affected by it. Children who have never been near a reservation nor involved in tribal customs have been removed from homes they love and placed with strangers chosen by Social Services. Other children have been denied the security of stable home life in preference for a series of foster homes.  

Issues of Concern:
-- 1) Equal opportunities for adoption, safety and stability are not always available to children of all heritages. -- 2) Some families, Indian and non-Indian, have felt threatened by tribal government. Some have had to mortgage homes and endure lengthy legal processes to protect their children.
-- 3) Some Children have been removed from safe, loving homes and placed into dangerous situations.
-- 4) The Constitutional right of parents to make life choices for their children, for children of Indian heritage to associate freely, and for children of Indian heritage to enjoy Equal Protection has in some cases been denied

July 10 – Arrive in DC

7 p.m. Welcome and Kick-Off Reception at the Capitol Hill Suites Remind everyone of purpose of visit ~ Lobbying Skills 101 ~ Our message to Congress ~ Q&A time

July 11 – Advocacy and Education Day

9-11 a.m. Raise Awareness on Capitol Hill ~ Visit Legislative Offices ~ Pass out invitations to the afternoon teach-in/luncheon

12 p.m. Luncheon ~ Invite legislators and staffers ~ Speakers: Johnston Moore and Mark Fiddler

1-4 p.m. Impact of the ICWA 'Teach-in'

~ Speakers:  

Dr. William B. Allen, former Chair, US Comm On Civil Rights (1989), Emeritus Professor, Political Science MSU Johnston Moore, national speaker, adoptive and foster care father, and advocate about adoption and foster care. He has personally battled ICWA and can speak from personal experience regarding his two sons. ~ Families share their stories

July 12 – Lobby Day for Amendments

Participants meet one-on-one with members of Congress.

July 13 – Lobby Day for Amendments

Participants meet one-on-one with Congressional offices.

For more information - please contact us at CAICW.org!

PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY! . PLEASE HELP ICWA families with expenses for the DC trip - DONATE NOW :)

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Jesse Jackson Stirs Racism

Much of what Jesse Jackson said to New York Post columnist Amir Taheri at the First World Policy Forum in Evian, France, last week has been reported – but there was more to the interview than has been talked about.

Jackson said, "Obama is about change, and the change that Obama promises is not limited to what we do in America itself. It is a change of the way America looks at the world and its place in it." Jackson makes Obama sound like a messiah that assumes he truly can change the way half of America feels on the issues.

Taheri then asked Jackson if Obama's election will close the chapter of black grievances linked to slavery. Jackson appeared to take a deep breath and think, then responded, "No, that chapter won't be closed. However, Obama's victory will be a huge step in the direction we have wanted America to take for decades."

Of course he wouldn’t respond that it would be closed. The milking of white guilt has got to be maintained as long as possible. This is why he needed to stop and think before he responded to this unexpected question. Of course, white people can never, ever be absolved of the guilt they're all supposed to feel.

Jackson then rejected the suggestion that Obama was influenced by Marxist ideas in his youth. He said, "I see no evidence of that. Obama's thirst for justice and equality is rooted in his black culture." Again, Jachson shows his prejudice by insinuating that justice and equality are things foreign to non-black cultures. And yet, Obama sees no injustice in taking hard earned money from laborers and giving it to those that haven’t earned it. He sees no injustice in destroying the lives of unborn babies. He see no injustice in the agreements Palestinians have made with Israel, only to back track when the agreements weren't convenient anymore.

But, Taheri asks Jackson, is Obama - who's not a descendant of slaves - a typical American black? Jackson emphatically answered: "You don't need to be a descendant of slaves to experience the oppression, the suffocating injustice and the ugly racism that exists in our society," he says. "Obama experienced the same environment as all American blacks did." (while growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii as well as attending Columbia University and Harvard Law School.)

Jackson also strongly supports Obama's idea of opening up direct dialogue with the Iranian leadership. "We've got to talk to tell them what we want and hear what they want," Jackson says. "Nothing is gained by not talking to others."

This ignores the fact that many non-western countries have a foundational worldview different from Americans. One can not simply assume that by sitting down at the table one can talk things out if there is no foundational agreement in goals and objectives. Mid-eastern countries are notorious for saying what’s necessary at the table and then doing their own thing, because their goals and values are different than ours. We have a foundational history in America of attempting to compromise so that everyone benefits as a nation. They have a foundational history of doing what is necessary to benefit their individual tribes and clans, and that doesn't always mean their nations. Remember, as an example, that most of Saddam Hussein's administration came from his home town of Tikrit. They were members of his clan. This is common in the Middle-east. Clans come first – even before their nation. (See “From Beirut to Jerusalem” by Tom Friedman.) Compromise isn't a foundational value. Survival of and benefit for the clan is.

Jackson says that as long as the Palestinians haven't seen justice, the Middle East will "remain a source of danger to us all." He doesn’t understand that Justice isn’t what many of our Mid-east opponents are really looking for. They are looking to win, irrespective of justice.

Jackson goes on, "Barack is determined to repair our relations with the world of Islam and Muslims. Thanks to his background and ecumenical approach, he knows how Muslims feel while remaining committed to his own faith."

I don’t doubt that Barack, having attended a Muslim school in Indonesia as a child, understands how Muslims feel. My greater concern is that neither Obama or Jackson, despite calling themselves Christians, understand the way Christians feel or have any real understanding of Christianity at all. Jesus Christ had special warnings for those that would harm children, as abortion does. Christians also understand the special purpose God has for the Jewish people in the Middle East. And Christians understand that God made us all in his image. Race is unimportant in the eyes of God. My husband used to say he was a Christian first and a Native American second because when he accepted Jesus Christ, he accepted his part in the family of God – first and foremost. This is the way we’ve raised our kids. We don’t identify ourselves as Indian, White, Jewish, German, or Irish. My children are all of those things, but first and foremost, they are Christian. All the rest is secondary. It would be great if our society as a whole, including Obama and Jackson, would consider race a non-issue.