For centuries, Indigenous children in the United States have endured forceful removal from their families and communities. This is not new information. Yet in 2023, Native American children continue to be removed from their families and extended families, their language, culture, and way of life. Such actions also, of course, remove children from their sovereign tribes. 

This is contrary to the intent behind the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). ICWA, a federal law, was enacted to protect the best interests of Native American children and to promote the stability and security of Native tribes and families.

That law was upheld in June by the US Supreme Court in a 7–2 decision in the case of Haaland v. Brackeen, which held that Native tribes retain jurisdiction over adoption and non-Native families like the Brackeens (and other petitioners included in the combined cases) must get tribal permission to adopt Native children to do so. 

ICWA, in short, remains the law of the land. But the challenge of preserving Native families persists, despite the legal victory. 

To understand the importance of ICWA, a little history is in order. It is impossible to discuss Native child welfare today without considering federal policy toward Native children prior to the law’s passage. Historically, federal policy actively sought to destroy Native American cultures and force feed assimilation. This philosophy, in the infamous words of General Richard Henry Pratt—who founded an “Indian boarding school” in Carlisle, PA—was to “kill the Indian…and save the man.”

By 1926, according to one estimate, 83 percent of all Native youth were attending Indian boarding schools. Then, in 1953, the federal government adopted a policy toward Native nations known as “termination,” which sought to eliminate tribal authorities and sovereignty altogether, until, pressured by social movement organizations like the Association on American Indian Affairs, Congress reversed itself two decades later by passing the Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act in 1975.

Read the full article about the welfare of Indigenous children at Nonprofit Quarterly.