Child Removal Continues

One of the primary forms that the genocide of Indigenous people has taken is that of child removal. It continues unabated in South Dakota (and, based on anecdotal evidence, in other states as well), where an investigation by National Public Radio uncovered systemic injustice in the foster care system, in particular a very high rate of removal of Native children.

As the investigation overview explains,

Nearly 700 Native American children in South Dakota are being removed from their homes every year, sometimes under questionable circumstances. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is largely failing to place them according to the law. The vast majority of native kids in foster care in South Dakota are in nonnative homes or group homes, according to an NPR analysis of state records.

It is, unfortunately, the same old story that you've seen in several of our texts and films thus far. The systematic removal of Native children from their families is one of the reasons that the UN Convention on Genocide includes "removing children from one group and placing them with another group" in its definition of genocide.

The whole series is here: Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families.

I have to admit that I found this so demoralizing--the fact that, at this point in time, with a law designed to protect Native children from removal because so many Native children were being taken away, this is still happening--that I just couldn't bring myself to post for a while.