In a small, tightly packed press chamber at the Capitol, a panel of Indigenous leaders and delegates took to the podium and directly addressed the Utah legislature last Tuesday.
The eight sovereign Indigenous nations of Utah stood together and urged state leaders to pass House Bill 40, legislation sponsored by Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, who was also in attendance. A hold by the House Judiciary Committee has halted the bill from advancing.
“For the past 40 years, the good people of Utah have been … making this legislation move forward,” Navajo Nation President Buu Nguyen said in his speech last Tuesday. “You’re just continuing the good work that’s already been done. We have a system in place that’s been working.”
Lawmakers modeled HB40 after the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a federal law enacted in 1978. Overall, ICWA works to protect Native children during the adoption process and prioritize their placement in Indigenous homes. While ICWA has been a federal law for 40 years, HB40 would make it a legal standard in Utah law.
HB40 comes as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs ICWA. Plaintiffs of an ongoing federal case argue that ICWA discriminates against non-Native families in the adoption process, violating the 14th Amendment. Defendants argue there is no part of the federal law which does not consider a full, individual assessment of the welfare of each Native child.
In the end, HB40 is not contingent upon the Supreme Court. If Utah passes and enacts the bill, ICWA would remain in effect within the state regardless of a federal judicial decision.
Nguyen argues that ICWA has eased the adoption and foster home placement processes for Native children during the four decades the law has been in effect.
According to the National Indian Child Welfare Association, prior to ICWA, over one quarter of all Native children were being removed from their families, and of these, “85% were placed outside of their families and communities — even when fit and willing relatives were available.”
Besides prioritizing the placement of Indigenous children in Indigenous homes, ICWA encourages open adoptions — whereby, even if a Native child is placed in a non-Native home, they are encouraged to maintain a familial connection with their tribe.
Honorable Navajo Council Delegate Eugenia Charles-Newton maintains that self-identity is crucial.
“Country, culture, tradition and language are all important to self-identity, which has been such an important part of ICWA,” Charles-Newton said. “When so many of our children were taken away from Indian communities in an effort to assimilate them, in that process, a lot of those children didn’t know their identity, or where they came from.”
The importance of knowing your history, both familial and tribal, cannot be understated, said Hope Jackson, chairwoman of the Confederate Tribes of the Goshute. She recalled when the state took five family members, and one of them, upon returning home years later, could no longer form a connection.
“She doesn’t speak her tribal language, doesn’t know her blood family, has lost her tradition and her culture,” Jackson said. “What she cares about most is that she lost her sisters – forever. This is what we don’t want our children to go through.”
One tribal leader, who introduced himself to the crowd as Red Bottom, gave his own telling of pre-ICWA foster homes. His moniker was a name he earned because he was excessively spanked at the foster home where he spent part of his youth.
He described conditions in foster homes as so desperate that he instead opted to live and bring himself up on the street. Red Bottom now dedicates his time to fighting for the rights of Native children everywhere, beyond Utah.
Red Bottom, Jackson, Nguyen and the entire panel of tribal leaders have one goal in mind: the welfare of Native children.
“My greatest responsibility as an elected tribal member is to protect our children,” Jackson said. “There is no resource that is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of the Indian tribes than the children.”
