The Indian Child Welfare Act; An Acknowledgement of Sovereignty in the Best Interests of the Child

In part II of this paper the social, legislative, and judicial histories that lead to the situation that the ICWA was designed to correct will be discussed. There was substantial testimony before Congress during the creation of the act. The resulting Act is an express affirmation that the United States policy of assimilation and removal of Indian children from the tribes has been replaced with an acknowledgement of a tribe\u27s sovereign interest in controlling the placement of its most precious resource, its children. Part III will examine the reaction of the states to the requirements imposed by ICWA. Adoption advocates claiming to work for the best interests of Indian children often argue in favor of the Existing Indian Family exception and have gained support from certain members of Congress. Their perspective is often based on racial stereotypes about Indian life that perpetuate the belief that Indian children would be better off raised in non-Indian environments. Part IV will briefly attempt to answer this question looking to some alternatives that have been successful and others that have not, and others that have not yet been tried