Native Children in Foster Care Lose Their Identities
~ Linda Lou Flewin
“Current National Trends show that the number of available foster homes is shrinking the number of children and adolescents in foster care is increasing.”
http://www.mtfc.com/Chamberlain%20et%20al_1992.pdf
Native American children whether fostered or adopted lose their identities and connections to their tribal heritage due to insufficient research and poor placements in foster/adoption homes. Trans racial fosterings/adoptions are often a recipe for disaster as the homes the children are placed inoften have no resource/access or knowledge to the children's rich and unique tribal background. One of the better resources I have seen for advice to non-native Foster parents is the below:
http://www.nfpainc.org/uploads/American_Indian_Children_in_Foster_Care.pdf
The majority of the provinces in Canada where the Children’s Aid Society are complicit in removing these children away from their own race have no knowledge or it seems also has no interest in what happens to these children when the children start to become of an age to be curious about their own race and indeed start to want to learn. There seems to be no encouragement to help these children and their biological family to visit on a regular basis or if this is not possible,to arrange for the children to meet with their tribal elders to gain an understanding of who they are and to learn their own tribal history.
Thus the children get lost in the system and lose who they are and where they come from. A few months back there was the tragic story of a native boy in foster care whose biological mother had passed away in prison. He was a teenager and should have been allowed to go to her funeral but was denied this by the Children’s Aid Society. What sort of closure did he have and how will it affect him in his adult life, the same can be said for all native children in care no matter what the circumstances.
“Washington, D.C. 11/19/2007 - American Indian and Alaskan Native children are overrepresented in the nation's foster care system at more than 1.6 times the expected level, according to a new report by the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) and the national, nonpartisan Kids Are Waiting campaign, a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Yet tribal governments are excluded from some of the largest sources of federal child welfare funding.” "Native American children make up a greater proportion of children in foster care than in the general population," said Bill Thorne, a member of the Pomo tribe, Utah Court of Appeals judge and member of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. "To make matters worse, tribes do not have direct access to federal child welfare dollars to help Native American children needing foster care, often resulting in removal not only from their families but also their culture."
http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=31250
The significant lack of Federal funding to Tribes or the streaming thereof to enable them to manage their own child welfare services is a big question to pose..why not? Why do the Governments of both Canada and the US want to withhold the funding to enable the Nations to manage their own child welfare services and which would prevent such a high level of the Nations children dying in care, neglect, high levels of suicide and substance abuse. All of which could be significantly reduced if the children are with their own tribes.
States with Greatest Disproportionality of American Indian and Alaskan Native Children in State Foster Care
State Percent of Native American Children in the General Child Population Percent of Native American Children in Foster Care
Alaska 20% 50.9%
Idaho 1% 6.6%
Minnesota 2% 12.2%
Montana 10% 33.6%
Nebraska 1% 9.0%
North Dakota 9% 26.4%
Oregon 10% 11.3%
South Dakota 15% 52.2%
Utah 1% 5.7%
Washington 2% 8.4%
*These data are drawn from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), which provides information only on those American Indian/Alaskan Native children who self-identify as American Indian/Alaskan Native and are placed by state child welfare agencies in foster care. AFCARS data do not include American Indian/Alaskan Native children who receive foster care services from tribal children's programs. It is estimated that that approximately two-thirds of Native American children in foster care are placed by state child welfare agencies and one-third to 40 percent are placed in foster care by tribal authorities.
Time for a Reform????…..waaaay past time…..I found the following site which says it better than I ever can and it is to be hoped that this also follows through into First Nations in Canada.
http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Foster_care_reform/NICWAReport.pdf
Finally,I would like to Thank Pew Charitable Trust and NICWA for helping me to write this article.
Banner Graphic:
www.firstpeople.us
