Earlier in the Minnesota legislative session, Bluestem posted stories about efforts to codify the federal Indian Child Welfare Art into state law. The federal law has been challenged in the US Supreme Court.
We published the Minnesota Reformer story, MN lawmakers hope to codify Indian Child Welfare Act language into state law and one from Session Daily, Joint panel hears testimony on legislation to codify protections of Native American children.
On Thursday night, the Minnesota House passed the legislation 128-0, following the Minnesota Senate's 66-1 vote.
Attentive readers will know that the Minnesota House has 134 members. According to the March 9 Journal of the House, four members were excused from attendance, while the roll call on SFS 667 on page 1516 reveals that Dawn Gillman, R-Dassel, and Isaac Schultz, R-Elmdale Township, didn't vote on the bill, although they cast votes on all other bills and amendments up for a roll call vote during the floor session.
We don't know why they didn't vote.
As I've posted before, the experience of my next-door neighbors, who adopted three brothers who are Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate members, by a distant cousin who is also a SWO citizen, has given Bluestem a picture of the benefits of the Indian Child Welfare Act for indigenous families, communities and nations.
Meanwhile, here in South Dakota, SDPB's Victoria Wicks reported in House kills study for Native families:
A bill to create a study committee to improve Native children’s lives was killed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, March 1.
Senate Bill 191 was approved on the Senate side and then received unanimous approval in the House Judiciary Committee, but two days later it died on the House floor. . . .
The news digest
At Session Daily, Jonathan Moher reports in House passes bill to codify protections for Native American kids, families:
The federal government established the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 to help end the practice begun in the 1800s of separating Native American children from their families in an attempt to “kill the Indian and save the child,” Rep. Alicia Kozlowski (DFL-Duluth) explained last month during an emotional House hearing on the topic.
The Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act was enacted in 1985 to strengthen and expand parts of the federal law. However, a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court (Brackeen v. Haaland) could result in the federal act being overturned.
The House took action Thursday to mitigate the impact in Minnesota should that happen.
Members voted 128-0 to pass HF1071/SF667* that would add the federal provisions — including procedures and requirements for child protection, placement and permanency proceedings — to the Minnesota act. Passed by the Senate 66-1 on Feb. 27, the bill now heads to Gov. Tim Walz.
“This bill is before us in the present because it is needed as a result of the past,” said Rep. Jessica Hanson (DFL-Burnsville). “… America failed and, in many ways, continues to fail the original inhabitants of this land.”
Supporters believe the bill will help reinforce Minnesota’s recognition of the stability, security and sovereignty of its tribal nations and communities.
Rep. Heather Keeler (DFL-Moorhead) said many consider the federal act “an apology” for the harm done to Native American communities.
“This bill says we agree, on Minnesota land, that our children deserve the opportunity to have access to their family, their culture, their beliefs,” she said.
During committee testimony, Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, said the federal act has helped tens of thousands of American Indian children find fairness and healing by establishing standards that include working to keep families together and helping kids retain their heritage.
“In the long run, this [bill] will help us preserve our way of life, our language and our culture,” she said.
Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the often touching floor debate:
At the Minnesota Reformer, Michelle Griffith reports in Bill codifying Indian Child Welfare Act language into state law heads to Walz’s desk:
A bill aimed at keeping Native American children within the foster care system in Native American homes will now go to Gov. Tim Walz’s desk to be signed into law after the House unanimously voted for it on Thursday.
The legislation is well-timed — the U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to overturn identical federal laws.
The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 established minimum standards for the removal of Native American children from their homes. The law also prioritized placing children into homes of extended family members and other tribal homes — places that could reflect the values of Native American culture.
ICWA was enacted following a century-long campaign by the federal government of forcibly removing Native children from their homes and placing them in boarding schools and white adoptive families. The mission was to assimilate Native children into the white American mainstream — or “kill the Indian in him, save the man,” as the founder of the first boarding school infamously said.
The U.S. Supreme Court in November heard a case, Brakeen v. Haaland, which argues ICWA discriminates against non-Native families because of their race. ICWA proponents argue tribal citizenship is a political — not racial — category.
The conservative justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett — who are both adoptive parents — appeared skeptical of the law.
It’s not clear what would happen in Minnesota — which has its own Indian Family Preservation Act — if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns ICWA. It could face its own court challenge.
The Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act was adopted in 1985 as a supplement to ICWA. The bill passed in the House on Thursday (SF667) would add language — like definitions and required processes — to strengthen the state law to include ICWA language.
Rep. Heather Keeler, DFL-Moorhead, said that Minnesota lawmakers were doing the right thing by passing the provisions that the federal government appears likely to dissolve. Keeler is an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe. Many spectators and House members themselves wore orange clothing to Thursday’s floor session, as orange has come to symbolize raising awareness of the legacy of Native American boarding schools.
Keeler drew criticism recently for saying on Facebook that she was “sick of white Christians adopting our babies and rejoicing. She later apologized, saying her comments “distracted from what matters most — protecting our kids, protecting our culture, and working to make the best Minnesota possible.”
“Other people have been attempting to exterminate us for generations, but the fact that we keep showing up in these spaces is an act of resiliency,” Keeler said in a statement. “We’ve overcome decades of harm aimed at our community through our children. What this bill does is continue to protect Indigenous children, so they continue to have a lifeline to their culture.”
The Senate last month passed the bill 66-1, with Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, the lone dissenting vote.
Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, said on the floor that he supported the bill and today went to Target to purchase “the only orange article of men’s clothing I could find.”
“It (the bill) ensures potential for the integrity of culture and the transmission of identity and values,” Hudson said. “I don’t know that I know anybody in my life, anybody in my circle, that is going to be directly impacted by this. But I’m glad that people will be.”
After all 128 House members [see note at the top of this post] unanimously voted for the bill, spectators cheered, and Rep. Alicia Kozlowski, a Duluth Democrat who is Ojibwe and Mexican, went up to the front of the room and hugged other members while cheering and dancing.
Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan, who served in the House between 2015-18, and Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, appeared briefly on the House floor to greet members during discussion for the bill. Kunesh is the bill’s chief author.
“I am grateful to all my colleagues in the Legislature for passing this bill, which will protect Native families and help tribes, counties, and government agencies and prevent the removal and disconnection of Indian children from their families, culture, and tribes,” Kunesh said in a statement.
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