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    Indian Removal Survivor Brings Doc, Discussion to OSU’s Fawcett Center

    “I don’t get why people won’t just leave us alone,” says Sandra White Hawk, Elder in Residence at the Indian Child Welfare Law Office of Minneapolis. “Our sovereign status should be enough to protect our children.”

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    White Hawk’s visit is in response to the November 3 vote that could overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. She knows firsthand how disastrous the unrestricted removal of Indian children from their homes can be. A survivor of the abuse, trauma and alienation of this system, she brings filmmaker Drew Nicholas’ documentary Blood Memory: A Story of Removal and Return to Ohio State’s Foster Center on Wednesday, October 19 to generate discussion, awareness and action.

    The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was passed almost half a century ago to address the widespread removal of Indigenous children from their homes. In fact, research found that 25% –35% of all Indigenous children were being removed from their homes. Even when fit and willing relatives were available, nearly all of these ­children – 85% – were placed in unrelated families outside of their communities.

    “Before all of this, we didn’t have a word for orphan,” White Hawk says. “Because if something happened to the family, a relative stepped up and that child was just absorbed into their relatives. We literally had no word for it. That says a lot.

    “So, the act was passed in 1978. The goal was to stop the wholesale removal of Indian children. Before the act was passed, they would say, well, the family doesn’t have water, doesn’t have electricity, too many people in the house – that one just still gets me. Everything was judged according to a white standard. If we didn’t live like white people, like somehow that was the way, then we were deemed unable to care for our children. So, one in four children were removed from their home prior to the age of 4.”

    The 1978 act gave sovereign tribal governments a voice in the systematic dismantling of Indigenous families. If children were to be taken from their homes, they must be placed first with family members. If that was not available or reasonable, then they were placed with tribal members. The children were only placed in non-Native homes if no family or tribal placement could be arranged.

    On November 9, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act. Why would anyone want to overturn this act?

    “People made money on adoption,” she says. “And they still do make money on adoption.”

    The free event offers a screening of Blood Memory, which tells much of White Hawk’s own story, followed by a conversation with White Hawk. OSU’s Ashley L. Landers, assistant professor in the Human Development and Family Science program, will lead the discussion. The two will share the research they presented to SCOTUS to preserve the landmark legislation.

    “There are so many ways to preserve a family, to get them to healing so that they can be who they were meant to be,” White Hawk says. “Why someone would want to take away an act that focuses on family preservation is beyond me. It makes no sense.”

    Register for the free event at osu.edu.

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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