Testimony

The Rhode Island Indian Child Welfare Act

Last updated: April 25, 2024

Testimony in Support of HB7697
An Act Relating to Domestic Relations – The Rhode Island Indian Child Welfare Act
House Committee on Judiciary
Thursday, April 4 2024
Kavya Gopinath, Policy Analyst, Economic Progress Institute

The Economic Progress Institute supports Representative Spears’ HB7697, which codifies the federal legislation pertaining to the federal Indian Child Welfare Act into state law.

Protecting the rights and culture of American Indian children, families, and tribes is key to promoting equity and honoring the history of Rhode Island. The federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was enacted in 1978 in response to the disproportionate rates at which American Indian children were removed from their homes and communities compared to non-American Indian children.

In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, the federal government forced American Indian children to leave their homes and tribes to attend boarding schools, often completely severing their connection with their families and tribes. Rhode Island itself did not have any boarding schools so Narragansett and Wamponoag children were forced across state lines to Pennsylvania or New York, further displacing them from their ancestral lands. Many children suffered physical and sexual abuse and at least 500 died while attending these federally operated boarding schools.1

From 1958 to 1967, the Indian Adoption Project placed American Indian children with white families with the explicit purpose of assimilating the children into mainstream culture causing generations of Indian children to lose their cultural identities.2 The US has a long history of displacing Indian children from their families and tribes.

The 1978 ICWA was a key measure in preventing future displacement. It established a standard for the removal of an American Indian child from their families and clarifies the role of state and tribal governments in child welfare cases.3 The act also requires active efforts from the state to reunite the American Indian child with their parents and provide the parents with the needed support and resources to help maintain custody of their child. In cases where the child is removed from their family, the ICWA protects the child’s rights to regularly visit their Indian family, relatives, and to stay connected to their tribe.

In 2023, the Haaland vs Brackeen Supreme Court Case challenged the constitutionality of the ICWA.4 Although the Supreme Court upheld the ICWA last year, there is no guarantee they will do so in the future. By codifying the ICWA into state law, American Indian children will be protected and continue to have the rights afforded by the ICWA regardless of what happens at the federal level. Seventeen other states – including Connecticut and Maine – have passed their own ICWA laws. The Economic Progress Institute urges passage of HB7697.

1 Report on Federal Indian Boarding School system reveals horrors endured by Native Americans – The

Boston Globe

2 Understanding the Indian Child Welfare Act – ICWA Law Center

3 Indian Child Welfare Act – Child Welfare Information Gateway

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