Administrative Burden and the Reproduction of Settler Colonialism: A Case Study of the Indian Child Welfare Act

Abstract

H a na e. brow nThe Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) sought to end the forced removal of Native children from their tribes. Decades later, American Indian children are still placed in foster and adoptive care at disproportionately high rates. Drawing on forty years of archival data, this study examines the role of administrative burden in reproducing these inequalities and the system of domination from which they arise: settler colonialism. Focusing on three arenas-notice, meeting and hearing involvement, and foster family certification-this article illuminates the burdens imposed on tribal governments that serve as mediating institutions in ICWA implementation. Findings suggest that burdens have particularly strong consequences for inequality when they fall on third-party organizations. They also demonstrate how administrative burden operates as a mechanism for the reproduction of settler-colonial domination.

Introduction: Administrative Burden as a Mechanism of Inequality in Policy Implementation

“…The primary focus of administrative burden research thus far has been on limiting access in rights-granting venues, such as political rights or access to benefits. However, as contributors to this double issue point out, burdens also matter as a method of social control in rights-depriving venues, that is, citizen-state interactions in which people have involuntary contact with coercive state institutions (Ed-wards et al 2023, this volume, issue 5; see also Brown 2023, this volume, issue 5). An obvious example is the criminal legal system.…”