Publication Date
“The removal of Indian children from their natural homes and tribal setting has been and continues to be a national crisis.” These words were published in a 1976 federal task force report. Two years later, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed. This legislation has been a critical tool over the last four decades for preserving Native families and culture.
At the time the law was implemented, roughly one-third of Native children were being stripped from their homes—typically to be placed with white families or in boarding schools far from their communities.