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Supreme Court Upholds Native American Adoption Preferences
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: US - Indian Child Welfare Act
HEADLINE: Supreme Court Upholds Native American Adoption Preferences
TEASER: Critics say law — which helps ensure Native foster children are adopted by tribal families — is racial discrimination
PUBLISHED AT: 07/XX/23
BYLINE: Levi Stallings
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Phoenix, Arizona
VIDEOGRAPHER: Levi Stallings
VIDEO EDITOR:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Stearns, Reifenrath
VIDEO SOURCE (S):
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_
TRT: 2:42
VID APPROVED BY: mia
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: Please return script to Stearns when complete))
((INTRO:))
In its latest session, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld preferences for Native American foster children to be adopted by Native American parents. The Indian Child Welfare Act was challenged by non-Native foster parents who say it is discriminatory. For VOA, Levi Stallings has our story from the Southwest state of Arizona.
((NARRATOR))
Elisia Manuel and her husband adopted Native American children in accordance with the Indian Child Welfare Act, which put them ahead of other prospective parents.
((Elisia Manuel, Parent))
“They were a white family, and they seemed like a very nice family. The father was a doctor, and the mom was a stay-at-home mom, and they had the love in their heart to care for a child. But the tribe said, 'We want our child, basically our child that’s Native American, to go to a home that’s Native American.'”
((NARRATOR))
Derrick Beetso is director of the Tribal Self-Governance Program at Arizona State University.
((Derrick Beetso, ASU Tribal Self-Governance Program))
"The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978, and it came on the heels of Congress recognizing through multiple hearings and congressional testimony that there was an epidemic in Indian country. A lot of Native children were being targeted by adoption agencies and otherwise being removed from Indian homes and placed in non-Indian families.”
((NARRATOR))
The law gives adoption preference to members of the child’s extended family, followed by members of the child’s tribe and then another Native American home.
((Elisia Manuel, Parent))
“Everybody wants to know where they come from. Everybody wants to know, ‘Who am I? Who are my grandparents? Who are my ancestors? Where was my creation story at?’”
((SCOTUS b-roll from archive))
((NARRATOR))
Supreme Court Justices ruled 7-2 against a challenge by non-Native foster families and the state of Texas that argued the federal law discriminated based on race.
Laura Pahules has spent over a decade advocating for foster children. Like the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, she questions the law’s benefit for children.
((Laura Pahules, Foster Child Advocate))
“I know they would love to keep the children with their own culture, and I understand that, but if there’s no one to care for that child within their environment, then I think it would be a travesty for the child to not allow someone else who is willing to adopt the child and raise them in stability and give them the life free of trauma that they deserve.”
((NARRATOR))
The Supreme Court based its ruling on Native American sovereignty and did not respond to arguments that its adoption preferences are racially discriminatory, leaving in place protections that ensure that families like Manuel’s will be able to use the Indian Child Welfare Act for future adoptions.
((Levi Stallings for VOA News, Phoenix, Arizona))
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