#1539 Stolen Children is Stolen History, Heritage, and Culture (Indian Child Welfare Act)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2023
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 1/25/2023
Today, we take a look at the long, global history of invading peoples stealing the children of native families to be acculturated into the population of the invading force. Reasons can range from a tactic of war and an intention to commit genocide, usually based on an ideology of racial superiority, to concerns over shifting national demographics, simple economic dispossession, or all of the above. We end with a discussion of ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is currently being challenged in the US Supreme Court to the detriment of native children and sovereignty.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: The kidnapping campaign of Nazi Germany - DW Documentary - Air Date 3-11-20
On orders from Heinrich Himmler, the Nazis abducted children from Poland for forced Germanization.
Ch. 2: Claims of Russia kidnapping Ukrainian children throughout the region - ABC News - Air Date 11-22-22
Amid the war in Ukraine, children have been caught in the middle, with claims of some being kidnapped.
A brief history of Australia's Stolen Generations
Ch. 4: 10th Anniversary since the Apology to the Stolen Generations - Behind the News - Air Date 2-12-18
The 13th of February 2018 marks 10 years since former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said sorry to the Stolen Generations.
Nick Estes says the institutions were part of a “genocidal process” of “dispossession and theft of Indigenous people’s lands and resources.”
Ch. 6: Canadian government announces $2B in compensation settlement - TRT World - Air Date 1-24-23
Canada has announced it will pay more than 2 billion dollars to hundreds of Indigenous communities to settle a lawsuit seeking compensation for the loss of language and culture caused by residential schools.
Ch. 7: How the US stole thousands of Native American children - VOX - Air Date 10-14-19
Ranjani Chakraborty revisits underreported and often overlooked moments from the past to give context to the present.
Ch. 8: Jen Deerinwater on Indian Child Welfare Act - Counterspin - Air Date 12-9-22
Opposing the actual mission of those who want to eliminate the Indian Child Welfare Act is just…reality: the reality that made the Act necessary in the first place
The case that seeks to strike down the Indian Child Welfare Act is about colonialism, not civil rights.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 12: Final comments on the opposing world views of apologies
TAKE ACTION!
Follow @ProtectICWA on Twitter and check out their resources
ACLU: “Native Families' Right to Stay Together is at Stake at the Supreme Court”
ACLU: “Keep Our Families Together”: A Law That Protects Native Families is at Risk”
EDUCATE YOURSELF & SHARE
“Why Are Right-Wing Groups Targeting a Law Aimed at Protecting Native Families?” (Mother Jones)
“Supreme Court case on adoption of Indigenous children could threaten Native American sovereignty” (San Diego Tribune)
“The fight over American Indian children“ (Politico - Newsletter)
“Experts say 2 lawsuits pose greatest threat to tribal sovereignty in decades” (Anchorage Daily News)
Curated by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: Black and white photo of hundreds of Native American children in uniform settler clothing posed in front of Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania (c. 1900).
Credit: “Pupils at Carlisle Native Industrial School” by Unknown author - Unknown source | License: Public Domain
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast, in which we shall |
| 0:07.4 | take a look at the long global history of invaders stealing the children of Native families |
| 0:13.6 | to be acculturated into the population of the invading force. |
| 0:18.1 | Reasons can range from a tactic of war and an intention to commit genocide, usually based |
| 0:23.0 | on an ideology of racial superiority, to concerns over shifting national demographics, simple |
| 0:28.8 | economic dispossession or all of the above. |
| 0:32.2 | And we end with a very important discussion of Iqwah, the Indian Child Wealth Air Act, |
| 0:38.3 | which is currently being challenged in the US Supreme Court. |
| 0:42.6 | The first 28 or so minutes of the show give historical context for the practice of abducting |
| 0:48.2 | children in various contexts around the world. |
| 0:51.0 | If for any reason you find that too difficult to listen to, I encourage you to skip to around |
| 0:56.3 | the 28 minute mark rather than turning the show off as the explanation and discussion around |
| 1:02.1 | the Indian Child Wealth Air Act is critical to the future of Native sovereignty in the US |
| 1:07.2 | and is not to be missed. |
| 1:09.4 | Clips today are from a DW documentary, ABC News, that's the Australian ABC, Histories |
| 1:16.6 | Stories, Behind the News, Democracy Now, TRT World, Vox, Counter-Spin and Amicus, with |
| 1:24.6 | an additional members only clip from Amicus and Stay Tunes to the End, where I'll attempt |
| 1:29.8 | to explain the differing world views on apologies. |
| 1:40.1 | September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and for more than five years brought terror |
| 1:46.5 | to much of Europe with its ideology of a master race. |
| 1:52.7 | A central figure in that campaign was Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. |
| 1:57.4 | The leading Nazi was obsessed with racial purity and came up with a plan to bolster the so-called |
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