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FOSTER CARE SYSTEM: WHERE ARE OUR CHILDREN?




 

 

In a world of statistics, where even educational statistics in the United States, do not account for Native people because the percentages are so small. American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) children, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), are overrepresented in foster care at a rate 2.7 times greater than their proportion in the general population.

NICWA reports that Native children are overrepresented in the child welfare system nationwide, in particular when you look at the foster care system. The starting point is a report of abuse or neglect where the process goes from investigation to placement.

For American Indian children, when there is a report of abuse or neglect, they are twice as likely to be investigated and four times more likely to be placed in foster care than the majority population (White) children. Some people point to bias against Natives in the child welfare system in terms of the outcome for Native children. This bias is represented in the numbers when you compare NICWA numbers for Native (AI/ AN) children to placement of children in the foster care system for children from the majority (White) population.

The total population of Native children in a state, including Native AI/AN children on and off tribal land and the numbers in the state welfare system (like South Dakota) provide the data for NICWA. In South Dakota, the “Disproportionality Rate” is 3.7 percent where for children in the children welfare system 12.9 percent are Native.

The top five states in the U.S. with children in the foster care system are: South Dakota (47.9 percent), Alaska (46.6 percent), Montana (36.9 percent), North Dakota (31.4 percent) and Minnesota (23.9 percent).

When you look at these numbers, you wonder where these children end up. In states where tribes are responsible for providing child welfare services, it is still troubling when you begin looking for a child or children who are placed into the system.

In the past six years I have had children in my tiospaye who were placed outside the state in the foster care system with a relative. For six years, I kept track of them. A month ago, one of the foster parents inadvertently left a “pocket dial” on my phone. The foster parent was scolding a small boy. When I began asking questions, all communication stopped.

It has been almost a month and a half in trying to track down the right “authority” in the foster care system to check on these children. I called the state where the children reside. There was no record of them. The county in which they lived told me to contact the tribe since they had no record.

I contacted the tribal office in Pine Ridge. The person in charge at the tribe said that they would track them through the limited information I had and shared with them (telephone number and address). She, at the tribal office, said they would call me back. A week has passed and no call back from the tribe. I am one individual (tribal member) trying to track down three young children (also tribal members) in the foster care system (they were placed by OST).

A few years ago, one individual in the tribe began asking similar questions: Where are our children? The children taken?

That thought has stayed with me through this personal search for three small children. Who can speak for them? What happens after they are placed and time has passed and a relative has not inquired about them? Where do they end up? Do we have a system in place to track them? Where are our children?

Delphine Red Shirt can be reached through email at redshirtphd@gmail.com.

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