If ICWA is overturned, there will be countless lost Native children

ALBUQUERQUE

A federal law that is meant to secure identity for Native children has become a ticking time bomb on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

A federal lawsuit, Brackeen v. Haaland, makes the case that the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act is unconstitutional to permit tribes to keep Native children within their communities.ICWA states custody of Native children lies first with the child’s relatives, then the child’s tribal community, then other tribal communities, and lastly to the non-Native people who seek to adopt them.

Chad and Jennifer Brackeen of Texas were able to foster and eventually adopt a Navajo child and later sought to adopt the child’s sibling. However, the Navajo Nation intervened and prevented the adoption from going through.

The Texas Tribune reported that Jennifer Brackeen blogged how Native children in the foster care system are being heartbroken every day because their non-Native adoptive families are not given equal priority as Native communities are, and she considered that unfair and unconstitutional.

Read the full story in the June 15 edition of the Navajo Times.