"ICWA for Dummies" - Illegality of ICWA for Those That Can't Think

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As the birth Mother of five enrolled members of the Leech Lake Tribe, and the legal custodian of four additional members, I stand behind the Larsons 100%. I know life on the Leech Lake Reservation very well. My husband was a member of the tribe. He passed away foour years ago, but just three weeks before he died, so week from his cancer that he needed a wheel chair, he again went to DC and told Senators that ICWA was a bad law. He also spoke at the National Press Club about it. Then he came home, spent ten days in the hospital, and was discharged to our home to die. His last strength was used fighting ICWA.

This case in Utah is NOT ISOLATED and many children and families have suffered from ICWA. Someone needs to stand up and say it is wrong! Please see more ICWA family stories at http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html

Those that think this ICWA law has any validity are insane. The only reason this law exists is because the tribal governments have been doling out millions of dollars to federal and state campaign coffers for the last 30 years. Surprise! The tribes aren't as broke as they lead you to believe. Only trouble is, it's YOUR money that they are buying Senators with, and it's not being used for it's intended purposes.

Yes, there are many constitutional attorneys and professors that say that much of Indian law is unconstitutional. Please contact me and I can refer you to some.

Importantly, look at the last US census and ask yourself why so many enrolled members have moved off the reservation.

Now, ask yourself two questions:

#1) WHY have so many enrollable members moved off the reservation? As for our family and many of our relatives, the answer is that The Reservation Is No Place to Safely Raise Your Children.

Racists will try figure out some way to blame it on the "white man." Only trouble is, MOST Enrollable members are more white than Indian. It's easy math. Most tribes require only 1/4 blood quantum to be enrollable. SOME TRIBES have much LESS. And the Cherokee Tribe has NO required blood quantum. We have a case where a tribe has been interfering with an adoption of a child with less than 2% blood quantum. (http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html)

#2) If the Tribes have so much money to pay Congressmen with, as well as attorneys to chase children down with, why aren't they instead spending that same money on infrastructure and job growth on the reservation? What are the true priorities? Why not just develop resources and make an honest effort to move away from the federal dole? If the reservations were cleaned up, wouldn't more people want to stay there and live? How can a government call itself Sovereign when it is constantly running to the US Congress and demanding more money? Sounds like a bunch of teenagers!

So, let me wrap this little lesson up. I will use my family as an example in order to get the point across.

The Tribe Does NOT Own My Family - and in Particular, MY Children.

My Children are 50% Minnesota Chippewa, but they are also 1/4 German, Jewish, and a spattering pf Irish Catholic. They have OTHER relatives than just those on the reservation. MOST enrollable children have relatives of other heritage.

In fact, we have German Jewish relatives that died at Auschwitz.

So tell me why my children's Native American heritage is more important than their Jewish, Irish, or Scottish heritage. Tell me why in the world the state of Minnesota has passed a law last year that says that suggests tribal heritage is more important, and that the Minnesota tribes have jurisdiction over any enrollable child, even if the child and his family don't want to be involved with the tribe and has never had any contact or relationship with the tribe.

That law affects not only my children but my grandchildren, who will all be at least 1/4 Minnesota Chippewa.

For every non-Indian screaming about how we have to honor Leech Lake's tribal sovereignty...why don't they move their families to Cass Lake, Minnesota. Enroll their kids in school there and encourage them to go play at the housing tracts.

If they are not willing to raise their own children under the conditions of the Leech Lake Reservation, they shouldn’t be demanding that our children be raised there.

A commenter had the nerve in a post to suggest the Larson's had "kidnapped" this baby. Excuse me? Who the heck are the ones doing the kidnapping, but the tribes themselves that push federal and state legislators to give them all the rights to Our Children!

If anyone can connect me with the Larson’s, we have lots to talk about and much work to do.
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