The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Of 1978

Superior Essays
A Closer Look at the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, was enacted by Congress with a goal of protecting Native American children while preserving the family unit (ICWA, 1978). The ICWA was created due to the alarming rates of Native American youth being removed from their homes in comparison to other ethnicities. The Act acknowledges tribal sovereignty and serves as set of recommendations for the removal of Indian children by the child welfare system. However, regardless of the ICWA of 1978 this social problem continues today as American Indian children are still being removed from their homes at alarming rates (Bussey, et al., 2013).
This paper will confront the reasons as to why the ICWA has
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As previously mentioned, the Act sets up requirements for agencies to follow in regards to the placement of Indian children and gives tribes jurisdiction in custody hearings. The ICWA recognizes the unique political status of Indian tribes and the historically biased treatment of Indian children by both public and private welfare agencies (ICWA, 1978). However, while the ICWA standards were supposed to remediate this inequity Indian children are still removed and placed in homes outside of their culture more than any other race or ethnicity in the United States (Bussey, et a., 2013). This is in part due to the government failing to recognize the generation of parent-less boarding school survivors trying to raise children of their own while simultaneously having no cultural identity, coping skills or any idea of how to parent. Native American parenting techniques are also not valued and often misinterpreted as being neglectful by caseworkers. Unfortunately, as a result many children are removed due to lack of cultural …show more content…
A decade prior to the passing of the ICWA, communities like the Spirit Lake tribe otherwise known as Devils Lake Sioux were concerned with the treatment of their tribal youth advocated and pushed for the Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA) to look into the issue (Mannes, 1995). As a result, in 1969 they found that, between 25-35% of young Natives living in states with large populations of American Indians had been separated or removed from their families at some point (Mannes, 1995). Consequently, the Devils Lake Sioux along with other tribes, allies and organizations like the AAIA were able to use this research and capitalize on the period’s push for social welfare to advocate for

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