The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1978, stands as a crucial piece of legislation designed to rectify the historical injustices of separating American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) families. This act aims to protect AI/AN children and families from further trauma by ensuring that decisions regarding their welfare consider tribal affiliation and cultural heritage. For the Navajo Nation, the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States, ICWA holds profound significance. Spanning 27,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, the Navajo Nation is home to 400,000 enrolled members, both within their ancestral lands and across the globe.
In this insightful discussion, Jonathan Nez, President of the Navajo Nation, provides his invaluable perspective on ICWA, tribal sovereignty, and the ongoing challenges in implementing this vital law. He emphasizes why the full enforcement of ICWA is not just a legal matter, but a cornerstone for the future and cultural preservation of his tribe, particularly concerning the Navajo Nation Foster Care Program.
The Cornerstone of Sovereignty: ICWA’s Reflection of Tribal Political Status
The relationship between Indigenous nations and the U.S. federal government is unique, rooted in treaties and agreements. For the Navajo Nation, the Treaty of 1868 is paramount, recognizing their inherent sovereignty. President Nez clarifies the distinction often missed: “When people use the word ‘reservation,’ I tell them: Use the word nation instead, because that’s what we are. We are the Navajo Nation, not the Navajo Reservation.” This distinction underscores the self-governing status of the Navajo people.
Sovereignty, as President Nez explains, is not merely a political concept; it is a lived reality. The Navajo Nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a powerful example. Implementing a mask mandate for over a year and enacting lockdowns during outbreaks demonstrated their capacity for self-governance and protecting their people. “That’s what sovereignty is about — the ability to govern yourselves and your people,” Nez states. Furthermore, he highlights that sovereignty extends beyond self-interest, encompassing the ability to support others, as evidenced by the Navajo Nation’s assistance to India with homemade masks during their own challenging times.
Federal Indian law, including ICWA, is a protective framework for Indigenous peoples and their way of life, acknowledging this sovereignty. President Nez powerfully recalls the pre-ICWA era, where Navajo children were forcibly taken to boarding schools, often with tragic consequences. “Many children ran away from the schools, trying to get home, sometimes in harsh weather. Many of our Navajo students never made it home.” ICWA emerged as a response to this painful history, aiming to heal the Nation and other tribes by prioritizing the placement of children within their families and tribes. This healing process is ongoing, and ICWA is central to it.
However, the protections afforded by ICWA and other federal laws are facing erosion. President Nez points to the struggle to maintain cultural education within Navajo schools. “For example, today we are fighting to be able to teach our culture, our tradition, and our Way of Life to our own people in our own school districts.” He emphasizes that while culture and tradition are primarily taught at home, ICWA plays a crucial role when children must be removed from their families. The law mandates that placement preference be given to extended family, community members, and the tribe itself. The Navajo Nation further emphasizes clan kinship in placement decisions, recognizing the deep bonds of k’é (family, relatives) within the clan system.
Navigating ICWA: The Navajo Nation Foster Care Program in Action
President Nez sheds light on the practical application of ICWA through the Navajo Nation foster care program, overseen by the Division of Social Services in partnership with the Department of Justice. A significant aspect of their work involves responding to inquiries to identify Navajo children globally who may be subject to ICWA protections. “We get a lot of inquiries, asking to identify whether certain children throughout the world are Navajo. We currently have active ICWA cases in more than 20 states.” This widespread involvement underscores the complexity and reach of ICWA implementation.
A major challenge for the Navajo Nation foster care program is the need for more Navajo foster homes. “We are working to have more Navajo foster parents, as we still do not have enough Navajo foster homes.” Despite these efforts, temporary placements outside of Navajo homes are sometimes necessary. In such cases, the priority is to ensure that the child’s cultural needs are met. “We monitor those children, to make sure that the family has resources to teach that child our Way of Life, and we encourage visitations to occur.” However, the ultimate goal remains reunification within the Nation.
Disagreements regarding temporary placements can lead to litigation, often fueled by misunderstandings about the best interests of the child. President Nez addresses this directly: “People’s first reaction is sometimes, ‘Don’t you want the child to be happy with the family they’ve gotten used to? Isn’t that in the best interest of the child?'” He counters this perspective by emphasizing the Navajo viewpoint: the intrinsic connection between Navajo children and their land, language, and Way of Life. “If you look at it through our viewpoint, our land, our language, and our Way of Life teaching reflect who we are. We would rather have our children stay with our people, so we can help them be successful into the future.”
Cultural Teachings: Shaping the Future of Navajo Children and Families
President Nez emphasizes that tribes are best positioned to determine what is best for their children. For the Navajo Nation, this means ensuring children are deeply rooted in their culture and history. “For the Navajo, we want our children to know our history, to know who they are.” He advocates for an educational system that centers Navajo culture, tradition, and language – what he terms “educational sovereignty.” This includes incorporating crucial historical events like the Long Walk into curricula, not to incite negativity, but to foster understanding, resilience, and identity. “That kind of information should be in textbooks, not to create anger or hate, but to help our children understand who they are and to give them strength to know they can persevere through anything.” This cultural education is integral to healing, both for the individual child and the Nation as a whole, and is a core component of the Navajo Nation foster care program philosophy.
This cultural immersion is precisely what is at stake when Navajo children are placed outside of their Nation. “Children are not going to get that education if they are away from the Nation, if they’re with a family that doesn’t know Navajo. All that history, that Way of Life, will be taken from them.” President Nez points out the long-term consequences of cultural disconnection. Navajo individuals raised outside their culture often experience a profound sense of loss and a yearning to reconnect with their roots as adults. “When they get older, children who are adopted by non-Native families often feel robbed because they didn’t get that teaching. They long to know who they are, and many return to the tribe as adults. They come full circle.” This journey of rediscovery can sometimes be accompanied by resentment towards foster or adoptive families who were unaware of or did not prioritize their cultural heritage. The Navajo Nation foster care program seeks to prevent this outcome by ensuring cultural continuity.
The ultimate goal is to guide individuals back to hózhó, the Navajo concept of balance, restoration, and healing. President Nez explains, “In Navajo, hózhó means balance, restoration, and healing. When these young children are taken away, they’re out of balance. If they are not taught how to regain that hózhó, it’s going to affect them for their entire lifetime.” Therefore, maintaining cultural connection through programs like the Navajo Nation foster care program is not just about legal compliance; it is about fostering the holistic well-being of Navajo children.
Bridging Worldviews: Understanding Navajo Culture and Family Ties
President Nez addresses the challenges in fostering understanding among non-Native individuals regarding tribal cultures and values. “Sometimes it’s hard for others to understand our worldview.” He emphasizes the distinctiveness of the Navajo Way of Life teaching and worldview. Prioritizing culture, tradition, and language for young people is seen as essential for their success in a diverse country. “If you give an Indigenous child their culture, tradition, Way of Life teaching, and their language, they are more likely to succeed in this multi-ethnic country that we live in.”
Navajo priorities, rooted in their worldview, may differ from mainstream perspectives. President Nez offers a poignant example: resource allocation within Navajo households. “For example, 30 percent to 40 percent of our people still don’t have running water or electricity. When we haul water home, the first thing we do is give the water to our animals, and then to our plants, because they sustain life. Next is drinking water, and then whatever is left goes to personal hygiene.” He argues that socioeconomic disparities, such as lack of running water, should not be grounds for removing children from their families and communities. Instead, such challenges can foster resilience. “It might even help that child build resilience, like I did, and encourage that child to be successful later in life.”
Acknowledging the complexities within Indigenous communities, President Nez addresses the prevalence of issues like alcoholism, drug addiction, violence, PTSD, and suicide, often stemming from historical trauma and the pressures of navigating two distinct worlds. “That is because there is a lot of confusion in our people. We have to negotiate two worlds, and achieve balance, hózhó, in two worlds — the Indigenous world and the non-Indigenous world, which is society today. It’s no wonder our kids question who they are at times.” Understanding these challenges within the context of historical and ongoing systemic pressures is crucial for effective and culturally sensitive approaches to child welfare, including the Navajo Nation foster care program.
A Vision for the Future: Empowering Navajo Children through ICWA
President Nez articulates a hopeful vision for Navajo children, viewing them as “our future leaders.” He emphasizes that ICWA is intended to provide a foundation for this future by keeping children connected to their homes, culture, and Way of Life. “ICWA was intended to keep our young people in their homes, where the water is, where the fire poker is, in our Way of Life teaching. That’s where protection is.” He highlights the central role of home in Navajo culture, the hogan, as the origin of life, policy, and protection. This cultural understanding informed the Navajo Nation’s unified response to the COVID-19 pandemic, where community members readily adhered to stay-at-home orders, prioritizing collective well-being over individual freedoms.
Reflecting on the historical hardships faced by the Navajo Nation, President Nez acknowledges the ongoing process of healing and moving forward. “What we have been through as a Nation has been painful. Some are not ready to forgive after all that hardship. But there are others that are moving forward and healing so the next generation after us can move out of this bondage, or subjugation, that has existed in the United States for so long.” He calls for a fundamental shift in perspective regarding ICWA. “We need to change the way people think about ICWA. It’s not about reconstruction. It’s about having a Nation be a Nation, and having our people be proud of their Nation.” For the Navajo Nation, ICWA, and by extension, the Navajo Nation foster care program, are not merely legal mechanisms, but instruments of self-determination, cultural preservation, and nation-building, ensuring a future where Navajo children thrive, rooted in their heritage and empowered to lead.
