Hey y'all,

I've been lurking on this sight for a while now, and I've noticed semi-regularly posts along the lines of "People really don't like CWS/social workers. How can I change that?" I see comments of varying degree of usefulness, but, considering most of these conversations revolve around the U.S. I am surprised that ICWA and why it exists isn't the first thing being brought up. Just in case people are unaware (which isn't your fault - ICWA is something many CWS workers are woefully undertrained on), I'm offering a general and brief primer now on the history behind IWCA.

Indigenous children are grossly overrepresented in child welfare in the U.S. This is not accidental, but a by-product of intentional, once-lawful practices of the United States government. The first of these was the creation of residential boarding school. The goal behind these schools was to "kill the Indian, save the man." Indigenous families were mandated to send their children to these school, often hundreds of miles away. Families who refused were punished, typically by witholding rations. Parents had to make the choice between watching their children starve or sending them away. Children were also straight-up kidnapped. These children were kept from their families and communities for months or more likely years at a time. The children were forbidden from practicing their culture and religion and forced to speak English and practice Christianity. The schools were overcrowded, militaristic, and abusive. Many, many, many children died. Survivors of boarding school are now grandparents - this is not ancient history

The schools eventually fell out of favor, but this was only a change in tactic. Next came the era of the Indian Adoption Progress, where the official policy of Child Welfare, nationally, was to take Indigenous families from their homes and place them into white homes. Some of these children ended up in foster homes due to real abuse happening in their birth homes (due to the intergenerational trauma of colonization and genocide, and also many of their parents were boarding school survivors who learned to parent from boarding school), but many were kidnapped. Social workers would drive through reservations and literally snatch "unattended" children. These children would later be adopted into white homes, and adoptive families were strongly discouraged from providing the child with any connection to the birth family or tribe. Survivors of government kidnapping are also still alive today.

This lead to the passing of the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, in the 70's. ICWA states that every effort must be made to keep an Indigenous child with the family, or the tribe if not possible. Inquiry into possible Indigenous heritage must be made at every point of contact until heritage is disproven. Tribes must be notified asap if there is any reason to suspect a child could be Indigenous. Despite being a 40 year old law, CWS workers are still undertrained in it, and ICWA is often underutilized. Indigenous children are still overrepresented in the system, and active efforts are generally not being made to keep children in their home or tribe. Indigenous families are not the only group to be targeted and negatively impacted by child welfare. Black families and poor families have similar histories. These histories are also present - poor people and people of color are still overrepresented in child welfare, and not because they're inherently unfit to be parents.

On top of this history, the ability of the government to take away children on the ruling of one judge is an enormous power. Parents do not have a jury in child welfare. The process is convoluted and confusing for people who have knowledge in it - for parents who don't have knowledge in family law trying to comprehend this system while their own past trauma is being activated and they're in this new trauma of having their children taken away, it's incomprehensible, and parents can feel like the system is set up against them as a result. In addition, many social workers have shit bedside manner. This is a very general summary of why people feel the way that they feel about CWS/social workers. This is not comprehensive or in depth in any way.

What I'm really curious about is why aren't people pointing at ICWA and its ineffective implementation (no federal funding, no training, what is even the definition of "active efforts", etc.) in these discussion? I've had ICWA pounded into me in grad school, but I've learned that that's not actually a typical experience, and many CWS textbooks and training materials forget about ICWA. Did y'all learn about ICWA in school or on the job training if you came to child welfare through that route?

Edit:

Citing some sources

Indian Boarding Schools

Indian Adoption Policy

Overrepresentation of Indigenous Children in Child Welfare

Number of Children in Foster Care by Race compare to Population of Children in U.S. by Race

See the section on "Societal Factors of Poverty and Neglect" for a short overview of the representation of poor people in child welfare