attorney general

Feds Pledge to Help Tribes with Enforcement of Indian Child Welfare Act

At the conclusion of the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, D.C. this month, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder briefly outlined the plan to require more compliance with ICWA.

“This federal initiative represents a long overdue recognition by the Department of Justice that, 38 years after Indian Child Welfare Act was enacted into law, the illegal and unnecessary removal of Indian children from their families continues,” said A. Gay Kingman, executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association in Rapid City.

Read the full article at the Rapid City Journal website.

See related coverage at the NPR website.

See the ICWA INFO post with the full-text of Holder’s remarks.

Native American Kids Need More Protection, Advisory Panel Tells Holder

A panel of Indian-country experts will recommend to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday that tribes be allowed to criminally prosecute non-Indians who sexually or physically abuse Native American children on tribal land, saying that juveniles on reservations are living with “dire” levels of violence and poverty.

Read the full article at the Washington Post website.

Read the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence 120-page report on the Washington Post website.