John,

Sign the petition: We cannot allow the rights of Native American families to be stripped

Tribal sovereignty is at risk and historically racist tactics could be implemented once again in the name of child welfare – tribal rights and the ability to preserve their unique cultural identities, raise their own children and govern themselves now lies in the hands of the Supreme Court.

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), adopted by Congress in 1978, reversed decades of family separation policies involving Native American families, including efforts to remove children for specious and frequently racist reasons. It establishes basic requirements to protect Native American children from continued forced removal from their families, tribes, and tribal culture. 

Child removal has been a key element in the U.S.'s dark history of tribal genocide. Mass graves discovered at indigenous boarding schools – where children who were forcibly removed from their families were prohibited from speaking their Native American languages and practicing their religions, and were often abused – have once again shined a light on America’s racist attempts of wiping out Native tribes physically or by forced assimilation. ICWA provides safeguards against forcible removal – individually, or en masse – of indigenous children.