Scholars’ Circle – US Supreme Court decision on indigenous rights of children in an adoption case – June 25, 2023

What does the recent Supreme Court case upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) mean for Indian adoption law? Is adoption of Indian Children based on child welfare or Tribal interests? We will explore why this is a false distinction. And why ICWA is essential for preserving the tribes and their identity, and perhaps most importantly, their sovereignty. [ dur: 58mins. ] N. Bruce Duthu is the Samson Occom Professor (and former Chair) of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Shadow Nations: Tribal Sovereignty and the Limits of Legal Pluralism and American Indians and the Law and was a contributing author of Felix S. Cohen’s Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the leading treatise in the field of federal Indian law. He has co-produced a documentary Dawland. The film is about the impact of the removal of children from Wabanaki families for placement in foster homes with white families. Professor Duthu is an enrolled tribal member of the United Houma Nation of Louisiana. Gregory Ablavsky is Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. He is the author of The Savage Constitution, The Indian Child Welfare Act And the Presentment Clause: A Very Pink Herring and Federal Ground: Governing Property and Violence in the First U.S. Territories. He also filed an amicus brief in this case. Robert J. Miller is Professor of Law at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He is Interim Chief Justice at Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals. He is the author of Reservation “Capitalism”: Economic Development in Indian Country and Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny. and A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma. He is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe. This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin, Mihika Chechi, and Sudd Dongre.