Representatives from hundreds of tribes are meeting this week in Arizona to redouble enforcement efforts of the Indian Child Welfare Act. The law was passed three decades ago, but today American Indian children are more than twice as likely to be sent to foster homes, often off the reservation.
Between 1969 and 1974 a quarter of all Native American children were removed from their families and placed in non-Indian homes or boarding schools, according to surveys by the Association on American Indian Affairs.
The Indian Child Welfare Act -- or ICWA -- was passed to ensure at-risk children be placed with their relatives or at the very least within their communities. Sarah Kastelic is a spokeswoman for the private, non profit National Indian Child Welfare Association.
"This is not a law that’s out of date," Kastelic said. "When we look at those data from across the country we have to affirm that actually the problem is ICWA isn’t being implemented, not in a uniform way."
Kastelic said sanctions are needed when children are wrongfully separated from their families. And judges and state workers should be trained on how to implement the law.
