President Obama signed a new act to amend the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act by enacting certain requirements for foster care placements in Indian Country. Known as the Native American Children’s Safety Act, the new law places some stringent requirements that may actually harm tribal efforts to implement the Indian Child Welfare Act.
It’s tough to argue against efforts to protect our children, and the imposition of tough requirements for that protection. So many of our feelings are emotional, and not always practical. We frequently get into trouble for pointing out the practical. But I have been convinced that there are some problems with NACSA by a well written blog at Turtle Talk. Turtle Talk is the Indigenous Law and Policy Center Blog at Michigan State University College of Law.
So many of us have been foster children in the past. Because there was a dearth of foster homes when my sisters and I were taken from our mother in the 1960’s, we were placed at the Seattle Youth Detention Center, behind bars, and subjected to the same daily requirements, including discipline, for kids there as a part of the juvenile justice system. I spent Christmas 1963 behind bars. That had a substantial effect on my sisters and me.
And all my mother really needed was some financial support to feed us and decent housing. With five children in the house, she often left us alone to go earn money to feed us. She picked fern for flower shops, raspberries, strawberries, pole beans, pie cherries and took in ironing for money. We were not yet eligible for any help from the State of Washington, which as I recall needed two years of residency for eligibility. Mom later told me that the State of Washington was willing to give us plane tickets back to Alaska, but there wasn’t much of a life there for a single mother of five children. That’s why we left Alaska in the first place. So instead of getting help, we were held in kiddy jail for months.
While it’s commendable that the law has been enacted for the right reasons, it is up to all of use to make sure that its implementation will not further damage our children. That’s true for all legislation. We cannot applaud the passage of legislation without following it up to see if it has the intended effect.
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