Indian Child Welfare Practice Within Urban American Indian/Native American Communities.

Abstract

hildren are the future of any community. Through them, tradition and culture remain alive and are passed on to new generations. At a time when many American Indian/Native American (hereafter referred to as AIAN or Native) communities are determined to protect their cultural inheritance, the role of children as the sustainers of tribal survival is essential. Without them, Native communities are literally in danger of losing themselves, and when children are mistreated or are taken from Native communities, the future of the entire community is put at risk. This may be especially true in urban Native communities where efforts to preserve Native culture and family norms can be especially challenging.One of the biggest challenges Native communities face today is the struggle to keep Native children in their communities. Too many tribal children are involved in the child welfare system, and reports of child maltreatment among Native families, already high, continue to rise. The statistics are dramatic: i Child maltreatment rates for American Indian children are the second highest in the country (21.3 cases per 1,000), higher than those for Asian children (2.7 cases per 1,000), Hispanic children (9.9 cases per 1,000),

Child Development Research in North American Native Communities—Looking Back and Moving Forward: Introduction

“…Family ties were further undermined by high rates of removal of Native children into non‐Native foster and adoptive families. This practice resulted from efforts by religious groups to adopt Native children, as when many Navajo and other Native children in the Southwestern United States were placed with Mormon families (Pavlik, 1992; Topper, 1979), as well as from social service systems that were poorly informed about Native parenting practices and quick to remove Native children from their homes and communities (Evans‐Campbell, 2006; Horejsi & Heavy Runner, 1992). Prior to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, Native children were removed from their homes at a rate 50–60 times that of non‐Native children (Westermeyer, 1977a, 1977b).…”