Thousands of captured Ukrainian children sent to Russia for adoption

As horrific as that is, it’s happened here, too

Russia troops have absconded with thousands of Ukrainian children who were separated from their families during the war, the Washington Post reports. While the numbers aren’t clear, Ukraine’s top children’s rights official said family and friends have reported more than 10,000 unaccompanied Ukrainian children have been sent to Russia.

For example, Oleksandr, a 12-year-old boy injured in a Russian attack in Mariupol, was separated from his grandmother while seeking medical help, the Post story said. Troops took him to a hospital in Donetsk, in Russian-occupied Ukraine, where he was told Russian parents would adopt him.

Lyudmila, the grandmother, somehow was able to save him before he left for Russia. She shared her grandson’s experience: They “told him that Ukraine is bad and Ukrainians are evil,” she said. “They forced the children to speak Russian.”

I couldn’t read this story without thinking about the legacy of Indian boarding schools and other U.S. assimilation policies.

We rightfully condemn Russia’s actions, which are war crimes. At the same time, we need to take a hard look at our own history, and our failure to repair the deep harm U.S. actions have inflicted on Indigenous children, families, and communities.

We can’t condemn the one, and ignore the other.

News: Supreme Court to hear ICWA case, abusive priests sent to Indian mission schools, and more

In this post:

• U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments in critical ICWA case Nov. 9
• Abusive priests clustered at Indian mission schools
• U. of M. Regent worried Morris campus is ‘too diverse,’ later apologizes
• Bemidji City Council to discuss displaying Tribal flags at City Hall

The Complex Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools & Contemporary Child Welfare Systems, and more

In this post:

• The Complex Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools & Contemporary Child Welfare Systems
• Tribes file briefs on critical ICWA case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
• U.S. District Court in South Dakota finds county election redistricting plan dilutes Native voting power
• Line 5 updates

The ongoing effort to save the Indian Child Welfare Act from legal challenges and colonial messaging

Efforts to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) have been going on almost since it was passed.

Researchers have reviewed editorials and commentaries over 40 years to show how writers have tried to sway public opinion against ICWA. The findings were recently published in The Indigenous Peoples’ Journal of Law, Culture & Resistance at UCLA, under the headline “Editorializing ICWA: 40 Years of Colonial Commentary.”

“There is a clear agenda and public relations campaign presented in our research of anti-ICWA columns, particularly those from the 21st century,” the article says. These columns “use a settler colonial ethic in an attempt to ‘destroy’ ICWA and ‘replace’ Native parents with white couples.”

ICWA under attack in Big Oil proxy fight, sacred Indigenous cave art sold to highest bidder, and more

In this blog:

• ICWA under attack in Big Oil proxy fight
• Sacred Indigenous cave art sold to highest bidder, leaving the Osage Nation heartbroken
• Rondo Redux: highway splits black neighborhood in Virginia
• New evidence of corruption at the EPA

Decision delayed (again) on DAPL shut down; Appeals Court strikes down key ICWA provision, and more

In this blog:

• Judge, Army Corps, play Kick-the-Can-Down-the-Road on DAPL shut down
• U.S. Court of Appeals weakens Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)
• ND House passes law mandating Native American history as a part of K-12 education
• CNN Op/Ed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, Tara Houska: The pipeline that President Biden needs to stop
• Water protectors blockade Enbridge’s Bemidji office demanding #StopLine3
• Michigan tribal leaders denounce Enbridge for ‘manipulative’ video about Indigenous peacemaking
• Enbridge and Frankenstein

News and Events: State Fair’s Indigenous Food Day; Appeals Court upholds ICWA, and more

In this blog:

• Indigenous Food Day, featuring Sioux Chef Sean Sherman Sunday, Sept. 1 at the State Fair
• Growth & Justice to host breakfast talk by MPCA Commission Laura Bishop Aug. 21 (hint: it’s an opportunity to ask about Line 3)
• Native American Journalists Association rips Washington Post over Indian mascot commentary and survey
• Appeals Courts reverses lower court, upholds constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act

Judge Rules Indian Child Welfare Act Unconstitutional

A U.S. District Court Judge in Texas has ruled the Indian Child Welfare Law Act (ICWA) unconstitutional, calling it a race-based policy. The decision could reverse a 40-year-old federal law to protect indigenous families and cultures.

Expect an appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Michigan Episcopal Diocese Calls Crude Oil Pipeline Immoral, and Other Weekend Reading

A large West Michigan diocese is calling on Gov. Rick Snyder to scale back oil transportation through the controversial Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, according to a story posted on mlive.com: Pumping oil through Enbridge’s Line 5 is immoral, diocese says

In a resolution signed Feb. 18, the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan implored Snyder to use his executive power to protect the “integrity of creation.”

“We fellow stewards of the gift of creation, strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth,” the resolution, signed by Bishop Whayne M. Hougland Jr., reads. “By sustaining the life of the earth, we work toward justice and peace among all people.”

That’s leadership. Continue for more articles.

Yukon Presbytery Apologize to Native Alaskans; This Day in History: The Indian Child Welfare Act

OK, it’s election day, so we’re going to blog with some good news: Presbytery of Yukon offers apology to Native Alaskans. (The Yukon Presbytery covers all of Alaska.) As the Presbyterian News Service reported it:

Native representatives and the presbytery both acknowledge this significant gesture is the start of a long process to address the abuses of the past century, especially as it relates to the treatment of Native Alaskan children at church-affiliated boarding schools.