National | Opinion

Indian parents air complaints about child welfare system

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Great Plains Indian Child Welfare Act Summit opened on Wednesday with heartbreaking testimony from parents and grandparents whose children were taken from their homes.

Several speakers said they worked hard to meet the requirements imposed by the South Dakota Department of Social Services. But they said they weren't able to regain custody of their loved ones, many of whom ended up being adopted by non-Indian families.

"I am Lakota and I just want my kids back," Kathryn Thunder Hawk, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said at the summit. She said her children remain in DSS foster care.

The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was written to ensure tribal children stay in Indian homes. But the law doesn't appear to carry much of an impact in South Dakota, according to a report from the Lakota People's Law Project found that

Indian children make up 13.8 percent of the state population yet they represent 56.3 percent of the foster care population, the report said. Of the 440 Indian children in foster care as of July 2011, 87 percent were placed in non-Indian homes while 39 Indian foster homes went empty, according to the group.

Avis Dion, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, has been a foster parent for more than 13 years. But she said the state has refused to recognize her tribal credentials so her home has gone empty for the last five years.

"Social Services ain't recognizing our ICWA licenses," Dion said of the state department.

Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn, the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, attended the first day of the summit. He acknowledge he isn't an expert on ICWA matters and said he will look to tribes to offer solutions.

The summit concludes Friday.

Get the Story:
Government official's attend local ICWA Summit (Black Hills Fox 5/15)
Law considers what's best for the children in Native American adoptions (KSFY-TV 5/15)
Fed official to attend SD summit on tribal welfare (AP 5/14)