Byron Dorgan: Indian parents put first priority on their children

Monday, September 7, 2015  

Indian children in South Dakota. Photo from Lakota People's Law Project

Retired Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the founder of the Center for Native American Youth, defends the Indian Child Welfare Act from an attack by conservative forces:

George F. Will’s Sept. 3 op-ed column on the Indian Child Welfare Act, “Kids pay the price for tribes,” highlighted our country’s long, shameful history of mistreatment of the First Americans.

Nothing in the act says that children in dangerous homes must stay. The “best interest of the child” standard is applied in all cases under the act. To insinuate that a tribal government isn’t concerned about the best interest of native children is insulting.

The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed to help keep native children safe and connected to their tribal nations. Before the act passed in 1978, generations of babies were forcibly removed from native families and communities. It was racism, paternalism and colonialism at their core.

Mr. Will cherry-picked tragic cases that, sadly, aren’t unique to tribes. So many U.S. children have died in foster care or after being returned to their families that a federal commission was created in 2013 to investigate child abuse and neglect fatalities in the child welfare system. Native children aren’t overrepresented in these deaths.

Get the Story:
Byron Dorgan: Improving treatment of Native American children (The Washington Post 9/7)

Another Opinion:
Joaquin Gallegos: Tribes are essential to the well-being of Native American children (The Washington Post 9/4)

Opinion: Indian Child Welfare Act doesn't help Indian children (9/3)
South Dakota waits 13 years to arrest Crow Creek Sioux woman (08/20)
Lakota Country Times: Indian Child Welfare Act is under attack (08/20)
Monique Vondall-Rieke: Conservative group's faulty ICWA report (07/13)
Conservative group disputes legality of Indian Child Welfare Act (07/08)
Conservative group to file class action lawsuit to challenge ICWA (07/06)
Lorie Graham and Kathryn Fort: The truth about Indian children (06/25)
Elizabeth Morris: More funding won't stop Indian child abuse (06/22)
New case challenges Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act (06/09)
Opinion: BIA politicizes placement of Indian children in new rule (06/01)
John Guenther: Indian Child Welfare Act remains under attack (05/29)
Lawsuit challenges constitutionality of Indian Child Welfare Act (05/27)
Judge at center of ICWA lawsuit in South Dakota stripped of title (05/25)
Matthew Scraper: ICWA opponents wrong to cite blood quantum (05/25)
Cherokee Nation father supports Indian Child Welfare Act rule (05/14)
BIA hopes to implement new ICWA regulation by end of year (05/08)
Allie Greenleaf Maldonado: My personal ICWA success story (05/08)
Court rebuffs Cherokee Nation in Indian Child Welfare Act case (05/04)
South Dakota defendants seek reconsideration in ICWA dispute (04/28)
Column: Commission takes on truth and reconciliation in Maine (04/24)
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Stephen Pevar: Tribes and families fight back with ICWA lawsuit (04/15)
Albert Bender: A landmark victory for Indian Child Welfare Act (04/14)
Nebraska measure seeks to improve Indian Child Welfare Act (04/06)
South Dakota authorities quiet on ruling in landmark ICWA case (04/01)
Non-Indian adoption group disputes BIA's new ICWA guidelines (03/31)
Tribes and families in South Dakota win big victory in ICWA case (03/31)