Native American Children: Historical Trauma and Continued Vulnerability

            Native Americans have had a long history of mistreatment by the hands of “settlers”, mistreatment that did not evaporate with the rise of the United States or even the turn of the last two centuries. Many may be aware of the bloody overt aspects of their abuse, but there is another more pervasive method that has made Native Americans such a vulnerable population. Since the beginning of the 1900’s there has been a cultural attack on Native Americans and a primary target has been the children.

            Around the beginning of the 20^th century, the Bureau of Indian Affairs began removing Native American children from their families and forcing them to attend boarding schools off reservation where they were often treated poorly. “They lumped together tribal groups, which made it difficult for Native instructors who had to negotiate complex linguistic and historical tensions.” And most significantly these boarding schools emphasized assimilation into white culture with little regard to Native traditions. The results of these schools have had lasting consequences on the individuals placed in them, their families, and their community.

American "Indian Boarding Schools"

           

The removal and destruction of so many tribal families has created what some call “historical trauma”. Carol Locust believes that those who have been separated from their families and tribes experience “Split Feather Syndrome - the damage caused by loss of tribal identity and growing up ‘different’ in an inhospitable world”. The repercussions reach far and wide, including the endangerment of Native languages. Due to years of systematic rejection of their culture by mainstream America, many parents began to stop teaching their children (or were not given the option) their own native language. It has reached a point where fear of Native language extinction could become a possibility without well executed intervention.

Even after the abolishment of these boarding schools the shattering of families did not stop and simply found another way through the foster care and adoption system. The causes for removal in many cases were questionable at best and had a lot to do with cultural differences. For example, the collectivist parental style where an auntie or “aunties” may be caring for the child vs the nuclear family structures favored by individualist societies. From 1941-1967 the majority (85%) of Native American children removed from their families were placed outside of Native American homes, and communities. Great emphasis on assimilation was placed upon the children with distinct desire to “kill the Indian, save the man”.

 Despite the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978, Native children are still disproportionately removed and separated from family in the US. In states like Alaska where only 18% of children are considered Native, 55% of all children in foster care are Native American (Woodard, 2011). North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and Nebraska have similarly disproportionate numbers of native children in foster care.

Today there is a lot of controversy over ICWA, either that it isn’t being observed properly (sometimes being completely ignored), or applied without common sense (e.g, placing children in unsafe environments). But for many, ICWA isn’t enough or even the right answer. For example, The Lakota’s People’s Law Project in South Dakota argues that fosters facilities in South Dakota are simply the “new Indian boarding schools” and that the proper solution is to have “Foster/Kinship care run by Lakota, for Lakota”. Ultimately, there is work to be done to protect these children, protect these families, and to protect the diverse Native culture from extinction. Enough has been taken already, enough mistreatment, and reparations are overdue.     

-JTS          

For More Info:

Lakota People's Law Project

Saving America’s Endangered Languages

Native foster care: Lost children, shattered families. NPR

Incentives and cultural bias fuel foster system. NPR

               Native Americans Expose the Adoption Era and Repair Its Devastation

             Native American History Quiz

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