By Miriam Raftery

June 15, 2023 (Washington D.C.) – By a 7-2 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court voted this morning to uphold the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) provisions which require that Native Americans be given preference to foster or adopt Native  American children. 

The law was enacted to keep children in their Tribal community and protect tribal sovereignty, in response to many decades of Indian children being taken away from their families by both state and federal authorities and given to white families to adopt, or winding up in the foster care system, losing cultural identity. The law gives priority to adoption by others in the Tribal community, if parents cannot care for their own children.

“By ruling on the side of children’s health and safety, the U.S. Constitution, and centuries of precedent, the justices have landed on the right side of the law,” reads a statement issued by  leaders of four tribes involved in the case – the Cherokee Nation, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Southern California, the Oneida Nation, and the Quinault Indian Nation.  “With these latest political attacks on  ICWA now behind us, we hope we can move forward  on focusing on what is best for our children.”