Need Funds to Defend Your Child from ICWA? CAICW has partnered with FirstGiving.com to provide you with resources to build a Family Fundraiser under our 501c3. CAICW will not charge you to make the site or take any portion of your funds.
For those who don't understand the Indian Child Welfare Act; it may seem hard to believe:
A U.S. House Report stated that ICWA "seeks to protect the rights of the Indian child as an Indian and the rights of the Indian Community and Tribe in retaining its children in its society.
But is that what's happening? One mother who experienced the ICWA says,"...they came on Saturday morning and took him away. He had just celebrated his second birthday and his second Christmas... The screams as they took him away will not go away. I hear them everyday and I try to put them out of my head but still each day I hear him scream, “No, Mama, No!”
“...I couldn’t protect him."
Advocates of ICWA point to the devastation suffered by children of tribal heritage when, years ago, they were forcefully removed from homes they loved and forced to stay at boarding schools. The trauma those children and families experienced was, indeed, devastating.
However, ICWA has been used to do the exact same thing: remove children from homes and environments they love and force them to live with people they barely know.
Though some argue that the act has safeguards to prevent misuse, scores of multi-racial children have been hurt. Read Letters from Families at - http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html
In the words of Dr. William Allen, former Chair, US Comm. On Civil Rights (1989) & Emeritus Professor, Political Science MSU;
“... we are talking about our brothers and our sisters. We’re talking about what happens to people who share with us an extremely important identity. And that identity is the identity of free citizens in a Republic…" (Re: The Indian Child Welfare Act, September 20, 2008, Wahkon, MN)
All Children deserve to feel safe. Please help us Advocate, Educate, Assist, & Defend
There is no inborn difference between persons of tribal heritage and other persons. Any emotionally healthy child, no matter their heritage, will be devastated when they are taken from their familiar homes and forced to live with strangers.
Even children of 100% tribal heritage can be devastated if taken from the only home they know and love, even if it is non-tribal, and placed into a reservation home they know nothing about.
CAICW been advocating for families affected by the Indian Child Welfare Act since 2004 and is the only National org advocating for these families. Our advocacy is both Judicial & Legislative, as well as a prayer resource & shoulder to cry on.
- Children have been removed from safe, loving homes and been placed into dangerous situations by Social Services.
- Indian and non-Indian families have felt threatened by tribal government. Some have had to mortgage homes and endure lengthy legal processes to protect their children.
- Equal opportunities for adoption, safety and stability are not available to children of all heritages.
- The Constitutional right of parents to make life choices for their children, for children of Indian heritage to associate freely, and for children of Indian heritage to enjoy Equal Protection has in many cases been denied.
- Indian and non-Indian families have felt threatened by tribal government. Some have had to mortgage homes and endure lengthy legal processes to protect their children.
- Equal opportunities for adoption, safety and stability are not available to children of all heritages.
- The Constitutional right of parents to make life choices for their children, for children of Indian heritage to associate freely, and for children of Indian heritage to enjoy Equal Protection has in many cases been denied.
- Please share these important links:
CAICW Home Website: (Ministry, Case law, legal resources) http://www.caicw.org
CAICW Facebook 'Cause' page: (Advocacy, Petition, support for families) http://www.causes.com/causes/537834
CAICW - Christian Evangelism and Ministry - Gal. 2:10, “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."
