theivorybilledwoodpecker:

Native Americans recall torture, hatred at boarding schools

“The only thing they didn’t do was put us in (an oven) and gas us,” said Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier during a Saturday event on the Rosebud Si

NBC News

I ask everyone to read this and keep it in mind. What Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier and other children went through in boarding schools is horrific. In addition, some children were taken from their families and adopted out to white families. The families were told no one wanted the children, but this seldom was true. In some cases, the families may have had the best of intentions, but by raising the children outside of their culture and pushing the family’s values on the children, the families traumatized these children.

These atrocities led to the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act. This act allows Native American and Alaska Natives to control the foster care placement of children from their tribes. Its goal is to prevent cultural genocide.

But this act is in danger. The same SCOTUS that went against countless cases of precedent and dealt a blow to tribal sovereignty this year will decide in Haaland v. Brackeen whether ICWA will be upheld.

Even if there weren’t the history of the boarding schools, Native Americans and Alaska Natives are supposed to have sovereignty. That means that they should have the rights of any country. It would be ludricous for America to tell France they have to consult America about foster care placement of French children in France. If America tried to make a court decision about that, France would laugh at us, and if we attempted to go over seas to enforce that decision, it would be seen as an act of war. The SCOTUS has no right to tell sovereign tribes that they have no control over placement of children from their tribes.

Don’t lose sight of this case.