My next guest represent the original Americans, almost forgotten in this day and age, but still very much alive, if not altogether well.

Our Native Americans here are Mary Wood, director of adoption and foster care, and Russell Sims, the executive director of the Council of the Three Rivers American Indian Center.

Welcome to Black Horizons.

We're glad to have you here!

Miss Wood, would you represent you, the Director of Adoption and Foster Care?

Native Americans have a unique thing when it comes to adoption and foster care, don't you?

I cant adopt a Native American, can I?

The Indian Child Welfare Act is a federal law that was passed in 1978 to prevent the placement of Indian children in non-Indian families.

At that time, as high as 20% of all Indian children were removed from their original families and place to non-Indian families.

Those adoptions are the most problematic adoptions that have been done anywhere in the United States with the highest amount of disruptions.

And so looking at what was happening to Indian nations and what was happening to Indian children in adoption.

A number of Indian people had worked for many, many years until we finally had the Indian Child Welfare Act passed.

What the Indian Child Welfare Act does, basically, is set down guidelines to say to state courts for the placement of Indian children.

And those guidelines requests require that you place a child first within their own extended family, their own tribe.

Secondly, within other tribes.

Thirdly, within families who are approved by Indian tribes or Indian organizations, and last of all, by those families who can meet the needs of a child who are non-Indian.

Which means that most Indian children at this point can and should be placed with Native American families.

Is that happening?

Are there enough members of of the various tribes stepping forward to adopt their own?

Oh, there are more than enough families available.

Indian families wait six, seven, eight years to adopt a child.

They have a longer waiting time than white families do who are looking for to adopt a child.

Why?!

Because there are a lot of problems with the Indian child welfare.

There are a lot of problems with implementation of the act, and there are also not a lot of children who are freed and available for adoption.

So yes, there are enough families.

No, those families are not necessarily getting the opportunity to adopt the children.

Mr.Sims, do we still need a Bureau of Indian Affairs?

It seems to me that that's almost an outmoded concept.

Is it government bureaucracy that you have to deal with, or are they helpful?

They're helpful.

It would be a lot more helpful if native people had total control of their own destiny through the bureau, but the beer is that was set up through the Party of Interior to be the conduit for many types of services, including dollars to to native tribes across the country.

Are they doing a good job or a bad job, or are they just helpful as you say?

they do a bad job.

They do a bad jo because the administrative costs in its operation.

Does most of the money go for that?

Yeah!

99 and this is like a bizarre percentage, but like 99% out of every 100% or a dollar is structured in the administrative costs of delivering a service.

So therefore... Is this still a case of the great white father forgive me in Washington, D.C., paternalistic looking at at Americans of native descent and telling them what's best for them?

Partially and partially not, as I said, that the beer is in fact needed to carry out a lot of the executive orders, the congressional mandates, the very areas of law.

And on the other hand, they also work with the various tribes and different rights such as water rights, fishing rights and and things like that, in conjunction with the Department of Interior, where the problem is not enough, latitude is given to native people in coming up and concluding with their own destiny as to where they want to go and how they want to get there.

That's where the problems are.

Okay.

How do you maintain your culture, especially living in an urban environment?

It's usually done in a family environment.

That's why there's Indian centers to be able to step outside of that environment and to share your cultures with others.

We have a center here that's been here since 76.

We were incorporated in 72 and we were located in DorseyVille.

We have cultural events as well as as well as educational services.

And it's a reinforcement to what moms and dads at home want to do.

You all have a big powwow coming up to September 28th and 29th.

It's the 18th annual powwow.

What is the powwow?

Powwow is equivalent t a celebration for Indian people.

Our pow wow particularly is a educational celebration where we invite the general public to come and participate as well as watch.

And for native people, it's where we let our hair down and be our our true selves.

Are either of you at all dismayed about when you let your hair down, when the drums are playing and you're dancing and you have on full regalia that people say, oh, look at those Indians, they look so had such happy people, and they're dancing and having a good time.

And they overlook many of the problems that you still face here in America.

Well, I mean, it's to any cause.

There's a good side to bad side when we're in our colorful regalia and stuff, then we're pedestal people.

I mean, because we're very colorful and and then on the downside of that is that when we're in our everyday costumes and fitting into the mainstream, being acculturated, then our voice isn't so loud.

We sort of blend in, disappear that good or bad in some aspects, considering what has happened in the last 20 years.

It's good.

I mean, we we believe that the best way of change is to get into the system and become part of that system where decisions are made.

But you lose something!

Miss Wood, don't you lose something when you get into the system?

I think that you do.

But I think that experience has taught many of us that it is the only way to go, that if we stay totally separate and fight our own battles and don't try to to become a part of a system.

You get crushed is what you get!

Right!

But that's a shameful commentary, isn't it?

Yes!

I mean, you know, many of your heroes, no matter if they're not of your tribe, are the ones who rose up and fought, but they got crushed.

Yeah.

But one of the problems that that exists is that natives in general are seen by general public as one population.

I mean, there were 373 different nations of native people which have their own independent sovereignty, which means that they're quite different in terms of how they're structured and how they do business.

Language, even language even.

So that that creates a problem.

So my particular problem or our particular problem may be quite different than somebody that's a sister center or a sister tribe or something of the agency.

And so you just can't lump it all.

I mean, what might be good for me may be very bad for the Indian Center in Philadelphia, or tribe up north or out west.

So is there any way that you can work with other ethnic minorities in the United States to to achieve your aims, for instance, I think would of you working with adoption.

There are a lot of black social workers I know that just are vehemently opposed to transracial adoption, probably for some of the very same cultural reasons that you are.

Do you work with any of these people to to make sure that agenda items can be achieved?

We have always been involved in a national level.

We've been involved in adoption at the Council of Three Rivers since 1982, and we have during all of that time, been involved nationally.

We have a national name for our involvement with Indian Child Welfare Act, but also for our involved in adoption period.

We've always attended national adoptive parent conferences and have been a number of of a number of social work associations have helped in putting together some, some statements to be presented at those conferences.

Is there a phone number of people are interested in the powwow?

Or any of the other issues that we've talked about today that people can call?

Yeah, they can call 782- 4457.

Would you repeat that please?

782-4457.

Miss Wood and Mr.

Sims, Thank you very muc for being here on Black Horizons Thanks for having us!