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Townhall
Whose Welfare?
by Thomas Sowell
Jan 30, 2013
If there is ever a contest for the law with the most grossly misleading
title, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 should be a prime
candidate, because the last thing this Act protects is the welfare of
Indian children.
The theory behind the Indian Child Welfare Act is that an American
Indian child should be raised in an American Indian culture.
Based on that theory, a newborn baby of American Indian ancestry, who
was adopted immediately after birth by a white couple, was at 27 months
of age taken away from the only parents she has ever known and given to
her father.
Apparently the tribe has rights under the Indian Child Welfare Act. If
this child were of any other race, a court would be free to decide the
case on the basis of whatever was in the best interests of the child.
Instead, the child is treated almost as property, contrary to the 13th
Amendment that outlawed slavery.
Fortunately, the legal issues growing out of this case are now before
the Supreme Court of the United States. We can only hope that the
justices will use their wisdom, instead of their cleverness, to decide
this case.
Solomon’s wisdom provided a good example many centuries ago, in a case
where two women each claimed to be the mother of a child and each
demanded custody. Since he did not know who was the real mother, King
Solomon said that he would cut the child in half and give each mother
her half.
When one of the women dropped her claim, in order to spare the child's
life, he knew that she was the real mother. Anyone who would ruin a
helpless child's life, in order to assert their own legal prerogatives,
or to protect the tribe's turf, raises very serious questions about
what kind of parent they are.
The question is not which home is better, but whether the child will
ever feel secure in any home again, after the shock of being forcibly
taken away…
Read the rest of the article at Townhall
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