By Téa Cushman, Child Welfare Youth Fellow
A key component of this research was an interview conducted with Grace Johnson, member of the Oglala-Lakota tribe and Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons for the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, Misty Flowers, member of the Isanti Dakota tribe and Diligent Recruitment Advisor at the National Center for Diligent Recruitment, Jill Holt, Assistant Director at the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Coalition, and Kitty Washburn, Tribal Liaison at the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Coalition. Their knowledge, experience, and time is invaluable and appreciated!
The United States government has made intentional efforts to eliminate Indigenous nations across the country. Tactics such as forced relocation, mass hangings, forced sterilization, and the removal of Indigenous children from their families have been used to steal land, assimilate Indigenous peoples, and erase their culture (Lawrence, 2000). One of the five physical elements of genocide according to the United Nations is “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” (Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes | United Nations, 2022). This type of forcible transfer was sanctioned by the U.S. government through Indian Boarding Schools and the Indian Adoption Project from the mid 1800s till the late 1900s. Removing Indigenous foster youth from Indigenous families continues the genocidal practices of Indian boarding schools by stripping youth of their culture and language. During the past few decades, efforts have been made to correct course and remedy decades of damage by ensuring that Indigenous youth stay with Indigenous families. This is progress, but it’s essential that in looking forward, we also become familiar with the systems and policies that made an American genocide possible. To understand the detrimental effects of the government’s historic mistreatment of Indigenous people, we must first examine how these practices began.
History of Indian Boarding Schools and the Indian Adoption Project
Beginning in the mid 1800s, the United States government took a different approach to its long history of genocide and dispossession of Indigenous communities. Assimilation through the removal of Indigenous youth from their families became the official policy, leading to the creation of the first off-reservation boarding school in 1879. The Carlisle Indian Boarding School was founded by Richard Henry Pratt whose philosophy of assimilation was: “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man” (Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center). More than 500 boarding schools with this same philosophy spread across the United States and operated for nearly 100 years.
Genoa, Nebraska was home to a boarding school that spread 640 acres with over thirty buildings. From 1884 to 1934, The Genoa U.S. Indian School enrolled over 4,300 children from over 40 Indigenous nations (About Genoa & Indian Boarding Schools | Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project, n.d.). Children as young as five years old were forcibly removed from their families, taken to these schools, and subjected to mistreatment that sought to strip them of their Indigenous identities. First hand accounts detail the horrific abuses that occurred in these schools including physical abuse, whippings, solitary confinement, sexual abuse, and oppression of language and cultural practices (Coyhis, 2011). Many of the children who attended these boarding schools are alive today grappling with the effects of the abuse and loss of their culture. Reactions to this trauma have manifested as high rates of substance abuse and mental health struggles (Indian Health Service, 2023). To be clear, the root of many of these issues is intergenerational trauma. Jill Holt, Assistant Director at the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Coalition explained, “The corporal punishment that occurred in the boarding schools was something those kids had never experienced because that was not a traditional way of parenting.” Misty Flowers, Diligent Recruitment Advisor at the National Center for Diligent Recruitment, built upon this, saying that “We’re treating the symptoms of historical trauma…and the learned behaviors of these boarding schools.” Unfortunately, the hundreds of boarding schools were not the only method of forceful separation that the United States government used in its attempt to remove Indigenous children from their families, tribes, and culture.
The practice of removing Indigenous children from their families continued in the form of the Indian Adoption Project beginning in the early 1950s. This furthered the policy of “Indian extraction, whereby Indian children would be adopted out primarily to non-Indian families in order to reduce reservation populations and spending on boarding schools” (About the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) , n.d.). Kitty Washburn, Tribal Liaison at the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Coalition, summarized governmental policy against Indigenous communities saying, “it’s been extermination, assimilation, then relocation.” Senate hearings in 1974 exposed the systemic horrors of the child welfare system as native families detailed their experiences having their children removed without notice or legal representation. New mothers also shared stories of being pressured to give up their children by welfare agents. Both the Indian Boarding Schools and the Indian Adoption Project systemized violent assimilation leading to “more than a quarter of all Native children being separated from their families” (About the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) , n.d.). These alarming stories and statistics led congress to enact the Indian Child Welfare Act in October 1978.
Indian Child Welfare Act
The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is a Federal law that established minimum Federal standards for the removal and out-of-home placement of “American Indian and Alaska Native” youth. The intention of ICWA was to protect the best interests of Indigenous youth and promote the stability and security of Indigenous families. ICWA “reaffirms the inherent rights of tribal nations to be involved in child welfare matters involving their citizens. It ensures tribes can advocate for the best interest of their tribal members” (Supporting Native American Children & Families’ Rights, n.d.). When Indigenous child welfare proceedings are within state courts as opposed to tribal courts, ICWA provides standards that must be met to protect Native children and preserve family/relations. “These standards include:
- Requiring state courts to give notice to both tribes and Indian parents of Indian child welfare proceedings;
- Allowing tribes to participate as intervenors in state-court proceedings;
- Requiring the testimony of qualified expert witnesses and other “active efforts” to prevent the break-up of Indian families; and
- Establishing preferences for family placement, tribal placement, and Indian family placement in all foster care and adoption proceedings” (About the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) , n.d.).
Following the standards laid out in ICWA is the first step in ensuring that the trauma inflicted on Indigenous families and communities does not continue to be a cyclical pattern of systemic oppression. ICWA is just the beginning of the legislative and social recognition essential to ending the genocidal practices of the United States government against Indigenous populations. Unfortunately, Native youth are still vastly overrepresented in our legal system.. The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) emphasizes, “One national study found that, where abuse has been reported, American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) children are two times more likely to be investigated, two times more likely to have allegations of abuse or neglect substantiated, and four times more likely to be placed in foster care than Caucasian/White children ((Hill, 2007) (National Indian Child Welfare Association, 2021)) In 2019, Nebraska had fifth highest disproportionate rates of AI/AN children in foster care (National Indian Child Welfare Association). Improvements to the application of ICWA are necessary so that these alarming disproportionalities do not continue.
Implications and Execution in Nebraska
In 2015, Nebraska passed their ICWA statute aimed at creating a more comprehensive bill to further protect Native youth, clearly define active efforts, and recognize the important role tribes have in the lives of Native children. Despite this, there are still actors within the child welfare system that are not following the rules and procedures. Whether it is because of miseducation or racism, the effect of loss of culture and traumatization are the same. The Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Coalition (NICWC) highlights some alarming statistics that show there is more work to be done.
Native children in Nebraska are two and a half times more likely to be placed in foster care than non-natives. In 2022, Native youth were 1% of Nebraska’s general youth population but 3.6% of the child welfare population (2023 Kids Count in Nebraska Report, Voices for Children in Nebraska, 34). Additionally, at the end of June 2024, Native youth were 1% of Nebraska’s general youth population but 2.8% of the state wards placed out of their homes, 4.3% of the youth probation population place out of home, and 16.8% of the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center Population (2024 annual report, Nebraska Foster Care Review Office, 51, 73, 77). Indigenous girls are 20 times more likely than other girls to be court-ordered into the state’s juvenile facility (About ICWA | NICWC, n.d.). When asked what could be improved, Misty Flowers explained, “We need more attorneys that know and understand ICWA” in order to provide adequate representation. Adding to that, Grace Johnson, Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons for the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, stressed the need for more native therapists, native caseworkers, native adoptive/foster parents, and funding for the tribe’s caseworkers and ICWA specialists. Indigenous representation in these social systems and professions will undoubtedly have a positive effect on the efforts toward welfare reform in Nebraska.
Conclusion
The United States government has sanctioned and successfully hidden the genocide it inflicted on Indigenous peoples. In more ways than one, the Indigenous population has been intentionally harmed. And, to be clear, harm is still being inflicted. The racism perpetuated by the development of boarding schools and the Indian Adoption Project still exists, however far more subtly, in our systems and policies today. Children were specifically targeted through the Indian Boarding Schools and Indian Adoption Project to destroy the culture and the family structure of Indigenous communities. The generational effects of these violent practices are still felt today — whether by the survivors themselves or their families. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 attempted to correct that course, however, there is still plenty of work that needs to be done. Additionally, it is essential to call upon the U.S. government to follow through on treaty obligations and take intentional steps toward repairing the damage it inflicted. One important way to do so is through reparations. Grace Johnson recognized the complexity of what reparations would look like and gave possible examples: language immersion and tribal schools fully funded by the U.S. government to bring back native languages, programs to assist tribal communities in becoming food sovereign, and Land Back initiatives. There is no way to undo the damage that has been done, so moving forward with directed and effective measures to ensure the prosperity and unity of the Indigenous community is imperative.
If you would like to be a part of supporting the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Coalition as they work to “protect the rights and cultural connections of Native children and youth in Nebraska,” you can donate here: Donate with PayPal Giving Fund
References
About Genoa & Indian Boarding Schools | Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project. (n.d.). Genoaindianschool.org. https://genoaindianschool.org/about-genoa-indian-boarding-schools
About ICWA | NICWC. (n.d.). Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Coalition. Retrieved November 28, 2024, from https://nicwc.org/about-icwa/
About the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) . (n.d.). Standing Strong for Native Families-Native American Rights Fund. https://icwa.narf.org/about-icwa
Coyhis, D. (2011). The Wellbriety Journey to Forgiveness. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZwF9NnQbWM
Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes | United Nations. (2022). United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition
Indian Health Service. (2023, March). Behavioral Health | Fact Sheets. Indian Health Service. https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/behavioralhealth/
Lawrence, J. (2000). The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women. The American Indian Quarterly, 24(3), 400–419. https://doi.org/10.1353/aiq.2000.0008
National Indian Child Welfare Association. (2021, October). Disproportionality in Child Welfare. National Indian Child Welfare Association. Retrieved January 22, 2025, from https://www.nicwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NICWA_11_2021-Disproportionality-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Nebraska Foster Care Review Office. (2024). 2024 Annual Report. Nebraska Foster Care Review Office.https://www.google.com/url?q=https://fcro.nebraska.gov/pdf/FCRO-Reports/2024%2520Annual%2520Report.pdf&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1734745279607464&usg=AOvVaw2vSERVdEWzLSqXkogJUjUq
Supporting Native American Children & Families’ Rights. (n.d.). Standing Strong for Native Families-Native American Rights Fund. https://icwa.narf.org/
Voices for Children in Nebraska, & Shirk, J. (2024). 2023 Kids Count in Nebraska Report. Voices for Children. https://voicesforchildren.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/KC2023_FullDocument_FINAL.pdf