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Lessons from American Indian and Alaska Native Culture to Reorient the Child Welfare System
The forceful imposition of Western ideologies, practices and beliefs on indigenous communities have historically stripped them from their families, communities and culture. This heinous, historical practice of separation has been deeply embedded in the American child welfare system and continues to deprive Native communities of their family rights and connection to their culture. In this series, we engage in critical conversations with Dr. Sarah Kastelic (Alutiiq), Executive Director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), to highlight the struggles of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribal communities, and what we can learn from these very communities to reorient the child welfare system.
Installment I with Dr. Sarah Kastelic, Executive Director at NICWA
Kinship in Native Communities
At ASCI, we know that kinship stretches far beyond blood relation. This same belief is shared by American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribal communities. Their family construct comprises the community, connecting one another to culture and giving individuals a sense of belonging. “Our definition [of family] is really expansive,” explains Executive Director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) Dr. Sarah Kastelic (Alutiiq). “One way we think about the importance of family is in many indigenous cultures. When you meet someone and introduce yourself to someone, your introduction isn’t a Western style introduction of your name, job and credentials. But, it’s a way of talking about who you belong to and the place that you belong.”
She continues: “Traditional introductions are really quite beautiful in the way that they embed the person in layers of belonging. It’s really talking about this broader sense of extended family and community, and I think that historically, our communities had the same collective responsibility for children as many other societies. It’s this notion of children belonging to everyone, being the responsibility of everyone, and everyone having the job of keeping eyes on kids.”
“Traditional introductions are really quite beautiful in the way that they embed the person in layers of belonging. It’s really talking about this broader sense of extended family and community, and I think that historically, our communities had the same collective responsibility for children as many other societies. It’s this notion of children belonging to everyone, being the responsibility of everyone, and everyone having the job of keeping eyes on kids.
Nonprofit membership organization NICWA works to “support the safety, health, and spiritual strength of American Indian and Alaska Native children along the broad continuum of their lives,” as stated on its website. As the nation’s most comprehensive source of information on AI/AN child welfare, NICWA works to bring positive systems change at state, federal and tribal levels.
This work is critical in educating the public about the nature of AI/AN culture, which emphasizes that the whole tribe is responsible for the welfare of children, not just biological parents. Dr. Kastelic explains, “Our historical way of keeping kids safe was absolutely through shared responsibility for children and certainly not expecting that biological parents would be able to meet all the needs of children or take care of everything that kids would need. It was an acknowledgment that parenting is hard.
“There are lots of challenges, and it’s natural for parents to need help. And, we need help from lots of different people who have different gifts and talents and skills and who can help us take care of our kids in a good way. We think about the definition of family and permanency from the perspective of children. So, who does that child say their family is?”
The longstanding impositions of Western ideologies of family on Native communities have plagued them for centuries and continue to have negative implications for AI/AN children, as evident in the child welfare system.
Heinous History of Native Children Being Removed from Their Communities
Beginning in 1860 and continuing for almost 100 years, Native children as young as 5 years old were forcibly taken from their tribes and brought to government-run boarding schools. This practice ripped Native children from their communities, identities and culture as they were forced to assimilate to the culture of the white Anglo-Americans who had taken over their land. Not only did this leave traumatic scars on the individuals who survived this period, but the separation caused a great traumatic separation of culture within tribal communities and made finding their lost loved ones a nearly impossible task—even to this day.
The racially biased narrative of Native communities being unfit to raise Native children continued into the early twentieth century, as it was standard practice to remove Native children from their families and communities to be adopted into White families. According to NICWA, during this time, approximately 25 to 35 percent of all Native children were removed by state child welfare and private adoption agencies, with 85 percent of those children placed outside their families and communities—even when fit and willing relatives were available.
Today, AI/AN children are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system nationwide, making up 2.1 percent of all children who are placed outside their homes in foster care, despite being only 0.9 percent of the U.S. child population.
The issues of racism and cultural misinterpretation continue to result in countless, baseless reports of abuse and neglect allegations within AI/AN communities, and the continued removal of these children from their communities at higher rates than their non-Native counterparts. “Racism is baked into the DNA of this country” Dr. Kastelic says. “When colonizers first arrived here and encountered indigenous people, immediately we were labeled as ‘inferior, less than, savage,’ etc. So, those early notions get carried forward in policy, in funding that individual bias [and] systemic bias, [and in] cross-cultural communication challenges in the workforce. The things we see today are a direct result of those initial encounters and all of the policies that flowed from it. The inequities that we see in the education system, in our interactions with police and incarceration experiences, certainly in the child welfare system. The pervasive inequity is all traced back to that initial relationship. Our colonizers felt that they could use us—our bodies, our labor—for whatever they needed us for. They felt like it was permissible to take our children. And still today, we hear from private adoption agencies that Native children are the ‘most desirable’ because we’re both exotic and closest to White, so, there’s really high demand for Native kids.
The things we see today are a direct result of those initial encounters and all of the policies that flowed from it. The inequities that we see in the education system, in our interactions with police and incarceration experiences, certainly in the child welfare system. The pervasive inequity is all traced back to that initial relationship. Our colonizers felt that they could use us—our bodies, our labor—for whatever they needed us for. They felt like it was permissible to take our children. And still today, we hear from private adoption agencies that Native children are the ‘most desirable’ because we’re both exotic and closest to White, so, there’s really high demand for Native kids.
“The inequities we see now are direct results of racism being embedded in deferral policies that sent our relatives to boarding schools, that took our children, that systematically dismantled our families, and they thought all of that was just fine. It’s no wonder we find ourselves in this situation with such high experiences of trauma, so many adverse childhood experiences, such high involvement in the child welfare system. All of this is the perfect opportunity to shine the light on what we know has always worked for our families historically—our natural safety net, our natural protection system for kids, which is our community. Outside the formal child welfare system, prevention happens in community. And we all have a role in making sure kids are safe.”
This natural safety net of community that American Indian and Alaska Native communities possess is evident in their innate abilities to care for and protect their children, families and culture at all costs. Further, it is critical to break down the barriers that have kept Native communities disenfranchised and disconnected from their culture. This is made possible when federal legislation and policy reflect that which is in the best interest of American Indian and Alaska Native people—an emphasis on cultural connectedness and community.
