Today, the United State Supreme Court issued a ruling that will protect the rights of tribes and Native American families when it comes to foster care and adoption proceedings involving Native children.

The court’s opinion, decided by a 7-2 margin, in the case Haaland v. Brackeen upheld the federal Indian Child Welfare Act or ICWA. The 1978 law gives tribal governments exclusive jurisdiction over Native children who live on reservations and has protected the continued existence of Indian tribes and their most vital resource – Indian children – for 45 years.

Michigan State University experts with direct experience, research, advocacy and involvement in the case can comment on the decision.

Kathryn E. Fort is director of MSU’s Indian Law Clinic and represents Native American tribes in Indian Child Welfare Act cases in state and federal court. In 2015, she started the Indian Child Welfare Act Appellate Project, which represents tribes in complex ICWA litigation across the country. She is the author of “American Indian Children and the Law,” and has written many articles on the topic. Her clinic represents the four intervening tribes in the case: Cherokee Nation, Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Oneida Indian Nation and Quinault Indian Nation. She has been involved in this case since 2017 and has worked on all stages of it.  

Contact: fort@law.msu.edu, 517-432-6992

“The Supreme Court's decision today is a resounding victory for the Indian Child Welfare Act, for Native families, and for tribal nations,” she said. “We are pleased to have played an important part in what will surely be one of the most important federal Indian law decision for years to come. The Clinic will continue to represent tribes in ICWA cases in state courts, and this opinion today demonstrates both the importance of our work, and the support for it.”

“A reversal of this decision would have diminished the protections ICWA provides for Native families, and it would have caused harm to those families and unpredictability in our child protection systems. Upholding the case directly restores the federal trust relationship, and the government-to-government relationship that tribes have had with Congress for many years. This decision is a ringing endorsement of a law that is considered the “gold standard” in child protection by a host of nonprofits, doctors, social workers, state attorneys general and members of Congress.”

Read a full Q&A with Fort on today’s decision.

Wenona Singel is an associate professor of Law at MSU College of Law and the Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center. She teaches Federal Law and Indian Tribes, Property, and other courses related to Natural Resources, Environmental Justice, and Indigenous Human Rights. SCOTUS cited Singel’s research throughout the Haaland v. Brackeen decision. Her forthcoming book titled “Indian Removal, Past and Present,” will detail her personal family history and generational trauma that ICWA was created to prevent.

Contact: singel@law.msu.edu, 517-432-6915

“What a huge relief that SCOTUS did not eviscerate ICWA. I’m thankful for the work of all the advocates on the case,” she said. “I also want to add that this is particularly moving for me, given that my mom and four of her siblings were removed from her parents by Catholic Social Services. Both of my mom’s parents were survivors of Holy Childhood Indian boarding school in Harbor Springs, MI and were undoubtedly struggling from the trauma of that experience when their children were taken from them. My mom lived in multiple foster homes from infancy until age 5, when she and one of her sisters were adopted by a white Catholic couple who became my adoptive grandparents. When I asked my adoptive grandmother for the paperwork for my mom’s adoption, she laughed and said there wasn’t any. Two of my mom’s siblings lived in foster care until they became adults. I can’t imagine the pain they must have experienced.

“Then, when I was a toddler, my newborn sister was placed with another family without any due process. My mom fought for her return and succeeded, only to submit to coercive pressure to relinquish my sister to an adoptive couple when I was 4 years old. I spent my entire life longing for my sister and searching for her.

“Given my history, it’s surreal to see my name repeatedly appear in today’s decision affirming ICWA.”