Tribes applaud Supreme Court ruling on Native American adoption

The US Supreme Court has upheld federal requirements that Native Americans and Indian tribal members have preferences in adopting or fostering Native children.

The 7-2 ruling released Thursday by the high court rejected a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, which, among other provisions, set federal standards for separating Native American children from their families and placing them in foster care. foster or adoption. It required that “preference” be given to members of the child’s extended family, other members of the tribe, or “other Indian families.”

In a tweet before the ruling, the Cherokee Nation, which numbers 450,000 citizens, said defying the law risked separating Native American families, diluting the tribal nation’s sovereignty and Damaging cultural preservation.

On Thursday, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr called the ruling a “great victory for Native tribes, children, and the future of our culture and heritage.”

“We hope this ruling ends the political attacks aimed at diminishing tribal sovereignty and creating instability across Indian law that have persisted for far too long,” he said in a statement.

More than three-quarters of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the country and nearly two dozen state attorneys general from across the political spectrum had spoken out in favor of the law.

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation @ChuckHoskin_Jr issue statement after #scot defends #ICWA pic.twitter.com/AtV83oNGBb

— Cherokee Nation (@CherokeeNation) June 15, 2023

At the time of the law’s passage, 25-35% of all Native American children were being removed from their homes, with about 85% “placed outside of their families and communities, even when able and willing relatives were available,” according to research cited by the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

The latest challenge stemmed from a lawsuit first filed in 2017 against the US Department of the Interior and federal officials by the state of Texas and three non-Native American families seeking to adopt or foster Native American children.

The lead plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, Chad and Jennifer Brackeen of Fort Worth, Texas, adopted a Native American child after a protracted legal fight with the Navajo Nation, one of the two largest Native American tribes, based in the southwest. The Brackeens are trying to adopt the boy’s half-sister, now four, who has lived with them since infancy. The Navajo Nation has opposed that adoption.

Among other claims, the plaintiffs said the statute discriminates racially against non-Native Americans, violates the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guarantee of equality, and oversteps state rights by unconstitutionally directing the actions of state agencies in adoption matters.

A federal judge ruled in favor of the challengers on both claims in 2018, and while an appeals court later reduced the ruling in 2021, it also affirmed the invalidation of certain parts of the law.

The Supreme Court handed down a major decision on Thursday in the Haaland v. Brackeen, affirming the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act by a vote of 7-2.

The decision represents a major victory for Indian federal law. https://t.co/nOCK9mcShA

— Lakota People’s Law Project (@lakotalaw) June 15, 2023

Writing for the majority of seven justices in the opinion released Thursday, the Conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett noted that the law “requires a state court to place an Indian child with an Indian caregiver, if one is available. That is true even if the child already lives with a non-Indian family and the state court believes that it is in the best interest of the child to stay there.”

He added that the “issues are complicated,” but “the bottom line is that we reject all of the petitioners’ objections to the statute.”

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, with Alito writing that the decision “prejudices the rights and interests of these children.”

Proponents of the law have said that designating “Indians” in the legislation is allowed by both the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents, because the designation is considered political.

Advocates have warned that a ruling against the law could have had much broader implications for the constitutionally recognized sovereignty of tribal nations.

Some saw the threat to the 1978 law as a reflection of the dark past of the forced removal and assimilation of thousands of young Native Americans in government-run centers. boarding schools in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries.

A report from the Department of the Interior released last year found the US boarding school system to be “broad”, consisting of 408 “federal Indian boarding schools” in 37 states and territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and seven schools in Hawaii. The report found that hundreds of children died in boarding schools, identifying at least 53 burial sites.

Officials have said the number is likely to rise to the thousands or tens of thousands as the investigation continues, though the Interior Department has not said when the planned second report on the schools will be released.

In a statement praising the ruling on Thursday, US President Joe Biden said that “our nation’s painful history looms large over today’s decision.”

“In the not too distant past, native children were stolen from the arms of the people who loved them. They were sent to boarding schools or to be raised by non-Indian families, all with the goal of erasing who they are as native and tribal citizens,” she said.

“These were acts of unspeakable cruelty that affected generations of Native children and threatened the very survival of the Tribal Nations. The Indian Child Welfare Act was our Nation’s promise: never again.”