How tribal classifications benefit indigenous peoples and promote children’s health.

American Indian and Alaska Native children’s health and well-being are best protected when they are placed with family or tribal members, doctors told the US Supreme Court.

Allowing children from these communities to be placed in state foster care by family or tribal members removes children from their culture and perpetuates the harmful effects of decades of state and federal policies that have allowed Native children to be removed from their families. Tribes.

Because evidence shows that children’s mental and physical health is better when they are placed with a family or tribe member. American Medical Association and State Medical Associations Litigation Center And the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urges the US Supreme Court to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA).

The law — a response to decades of laws that uprooted children from their families and clans and encouraged forced ordination — says a child’s extended family is the first choice, followed by members of the child’s clan. In the case presented by the US Supreme Court in Holland et al. No. Bracken et al.Seven people, along with Texas, Louisiana, and Indiana, are challenging ICWA’s provisions of race-based discrimination to violate state sovereignty.

“Repeal of ICWA risks sending many children back to the old sham realities. The historical trauma suffered by many will be compounded and amplified by new losses. “Protecting ICWA protects critical family and tribal support networks,” says American Indian and Alaska Native “So Children Can Thrive.” An amicus brief was submitted to the Supreme Court (PDF) at the AAP and AMA Litigation Center.

Learn more about issues The AMA Litigation Center is providing assistance. And learn about Litigation center case selection criteria.

Placement with extended family — a grandparent, aunt, uncle or adult sibling — helps a child maintain family and community ties and provides a sense of stability, identity and belonging, the brief tells the court, citing a 2012 Annie E. Casey Foundation report. “,Going out for kidsHe said.

A meta-analysis of studies involving more than 600,000 children found that so-called “kinship care” resulted in fewer behavioral problems, mental health disorders, and fewer behavioral disturbances in children compared to children in non-kinship care.

Kinship care is especially important for American Indian and Alaska Native children, for whom “being completely unaware that culture determines health and not receiving culturally competent care can be a strange and frustrating experience,” he said. Other studies are mentioned Amicus briefs by physician organizations.

Family bonding in tribal societies goes beyond the idea of ​​the nuclear family.

“The wider tribal community may have a relationship and responsibility to the child similar to that of a family, and adoption by a tribal member provides many advantages for close family kinship care,” Short says. And when AAP members treat children from ethnic communities, they recognize that “identification and strong ties to one’s community have major benefits—positive self-concept, intrinsic motivation and optimism, and social connectedness, all of which contribute to success in adulthood.”

The brief tells the court that “a child-welfare agency should not be identified [American Indian or Alaska Native child] From the child’s family, regardless of the child’s tribal affiliation, then they find that illegal separation is the only reason for the child to be separated from the tribe.

At the 2022 AMA Annual Meeting, House of Representatives Adoption Policy on the health care needs of American Indian children in foster care to the

• In the year Recognize the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 as a model in the American Indian and Alaska Native Child Welfare Act.
• Support federal legislation to prevent arbitrary removal of American Indian and Alaska Natives from their homes by government and private agencies.
• Work with local and state medical associations and relevant stakeholders to support such legislation.
• Support state and federal funding opportunities for American Indian and Alaska Native child welfare systems.