Native American Foster Care

• An average of 700 children get removed from their homes a year in South Dakota
• In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act to put a stop to this
• In North Dakota, Indian children make up 15% of the population but 50% of the children in foster care.

• Tanya Hill lost 9 grandchildren
• Delores Hipints has 2 grandchildren in the system
• Liz Gugli had two of her grandchildren taken by DSS
• Westila Cupiwin has not seen her grandchild for 12 years

Derrin Yellow Robe spent a year and a half in foster care before returning to his home on the Crow Creek Reservation.

• At least 32 states are failing to abide by the the Child Welfare Act.
• Only 13% of native kids are placed in native homes.
• South Dakota is removing children at almost three times the rate of other states, despite the fact that less than 12% of the children in foster care have actually been physically and sexually abused in their homes.

Many Native Americans argue that they can send their own licensed worker to do a home study, instead of sending a private agency. Home study, social worker training, and family replacements should be done by people who understand the children’s culture.

• Tells of Native American, Dwayne Stenstrom, that was raised in a white foster home
• Taken at eight years old in 1968 from the Winnebago Reservation on the Nebraska plains
• Had tons of family members, but was sent to stay with white foster parents
• The Indian Child Welfare Act says that except in the rarest of cases, Native American foster care children must be placed with relatives, their tribes or other Native Americans
• The Indian Child Welfare Act says that except in the rarest of cases, Native American foster care children must be placed with relatives, their tribes or other Native Americans
• Children are more likely to end up in foster care than other race

Thank you for your attention!

Tribes are doing wonderful things where they can get the resources to operate their own child welfare and foster care programs.

• Tthe lack of communication and the stereotypes and cultural biases that are built in when social workers who come into communities
• Know nothing about our extended families or about our child-caring, child-rearing practices and sometimes mistake behavior in our communities and call it neglect or remove children for inappropriate reasons - the Indian Child Welfare Act actually also requires that states prevent the removal of children by providing active efforts to keep the family together.

Improving Foster Care

Terry Cross is director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association

Alaska

"We have a large project in Alaska. It's led by the Tlingit and Hyatt tribes of Alaska and a consortia of 16 tribes. And they're in partnership with the state and the state courts to do three things: They're increasing the capacity of the tribes to provide in-home services so children don't ever have to go into foster care, their families can stay together; second, to increase the number of tribal homes, particularly relatives' homes, by increasing the amount of tribal licensing of their own homes; and then finally to increase the capacity of the tribal services to work with the court systems."

What?

Though we may think that forced assimilation has ended, many Native American children are still being taken out of their native homes and moving in with more "American" families.

Specifics:

Native American

Foster Care

A social worker believed Howe’s daughter was abusing her prescription pills. She called the Indian Child Welfare Act director to get a hearing, but he said there was nothing he could do. Howe asked the social worker if they could move the children into a Native American home so they could participate in cultural activities. But Social Service's claimed they only had a few Native American homes. This was a surprise to a few of the residences who claimed their homes have been empty for years.

Janice Howe fougnt South Dakota for a year and a half before her grandchildren were returned to her.

Incentives

• States receive $4,000 per child if they move kids out of foster care and into adoption, or if child has 'special needs', a state can get as much as $12,000
• In 2000, South Dakota designated all Native American children as 'special needs'
• Because South Dakota is poor, it receives more money than other states, about 100 million dollars per year.

Privately run group: Children’s Home

• 10 years ago the group was in losing money
• In 2002 Dennis Dauggard took over. The Children’s Home grew 7 times its size financially and added 2 facilities.
• Dauggard was also the state’s lieutenant governor until this year. His organization received more than $50million.

Foster Group Power

• South Dakota: 90% of Indian Children are placed in privately run groups or homes.

Survivors

When Dwayne Stenstrom was 8 years old a state worker told him that he and his brother were going to a special camp for the summer. Instead, he spent 12 years in foster care.

• Federal law: Native American children who are removed from their homes should be placed with their relatives or tribes.
• However this isn’t happening. Hundreds of Native American children are being placed in private homes. The homes get paid millions of dollars to care for kids.

• 32 states are failing to abide by the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Children's Home, the Black Hill campus.

(cc) photo by theaucitron on Flickr