In the middle of a lengthy speech to Native American tribes last week, Attorney General Eric Holder planted the Justice Department firmly on the side of tribes against states, as the tribes struggle to keep their families together.

Holder said the Justice Department was "redoubling" the department's support of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a nearly four-decade-old law that attempts to keep Native children close to their relatives and tribes, even in cases where they may have to be removed from their parents.

Holder said the department is hiring more attorneys and working with other federal agencies in an effort to "protect Indian children from being illegally removed from their families," which he said was done sometimes "by those acting in bad faith."

Those possible bad actors are state social service agencies and even judges who push for the removal of Indian children in cases where removal may not be warranted, or they fail to place Native children with their relatives, their tribes or Native American foster families when they are removed.