Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
End Date
12-6-2011 12:00 PM
Subject Areas
North America, children, colonial/imperial, family, gender, indigenous, motherhood, race, reproduction
Abstract
In the late twentieth century, the removal of American Indian children and their fostering and adoption within white families had become a common and troubling practice. In 1969, the Association of American Indian Affairs (AAIA) found that in most states with large American Indian populations, 25 to 35% of Indian children had been separated from their families and placed in foster or adoptive homes or in institutions. In most cases, authorities placed Indian children in non-Indian families. The AAIA and many other Indian groups and individuals, mobilized in the 1970s to lobby the federal government to enact legislation that would restrict this practice. The result was the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, which gave tribal courts jurisdiction over most cases involving the fostering and adoption of Indian children.
Building on my previous comparative research regarding the removal and institutionalization of indigenous children in the United States and Australia up to 1940, this paper examines the constellation of racial ideologies, gender ideals, federal policies, and social work practices that aligned in the post-World War II era to produce such elevated levels of Indian fostering and adoption in non-Indian families. I argue that liberal policymakers and child welfare workers did not so much respond to an observable need within Indian communities, as they created and magnified a problem that they then sought to solve, largely without any consultation with or input from Indian people.
Keywords
American Indian, adoption, Indian Child Welfare Act
Creative Commons License
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Where Have all the Children Gone? The Adoption of American Indian Children by Non-Indian Families in the Post-World War II Era
In the late twentieth century, the removal of American Indian children and their fostering and adoption within white families had become a common and troubling practice. In 1969, the Association of American Indian Affairs (AAIA) found that in most states with large American Indian populations, 25 to 35% of Indian children had been separated from their families and placed in foster or adoptive homes or in institutions. In most cases, authorities placed Indian children in non-Indian families. The AAIA and many other Indian groups and individuals, mobilized in the 1970s to lobby the federal government to enact legislation that would restrict this practice. The result was the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, which gave tribal courts jurisdiction over most cases involving the fostering and adoption of Indian children.
Building on my previous comparative research regarding the removal and institutionalization of indigenous children in the United States and Australia up to 1940, this paper examines the constellation of racial ideologies, gender ideals, federal policies, and social work practices that aligned in the post-World War II era to produce such elevated levels of Indian fostering and adoption in non-Indian families. I argue that liberal policymakers and child welfare workers did not so much respond to an observable need within Indian communities, as they created and magnified a problem that they then sought to solve, largely without any consultation with or input from Indian people.