Welcome back to another episode of All Tie And The Legend of America's Universe.

Hello relatives! Welcome back to another episode of All My Relations. Today is a very special day,

and we are interrupting our regular show schedule to celebrate and acknowledge that we have big, big, huge news.

And maybe you've already heard, but this morning, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold and affirm the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Yay! It's a really big deal. So I asked my good friend, Sidelta Assoe, who is currently in DC, to come on the show and talk about why this is such a big deal.

Hi Sidelta!

Hello, All My Relations! And before we go any further, I just want to read you a little bit of Sidelta's bio.

Sidelta is Mandan Hadatza, Rick Ron Cherokee, and a senior program and policy analyst and specialist at the National Education Association,

and was recently appointed by the Biden Administration to the National Advisory Council on Indian Affairs.

So what an honor it is to have Sidelta here to talk with us.

Let's just start by explaining why this is such a big win.

So before we talk about that, let's talk about what Iqua is.

The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed by Congress in 1978, and it sets federal requirements that apply to state child custody proceedings involving an Indian child who is a member of or eligible for membership in a federally recognized tribe.

In passing Iqua, Congress moved to protect the best interest of Indian children, promote the stability and security of Indian families, and one of the most important parts here is the preferences do not mean that the child has to be placed in a native home, but the process gives recognition and does recognize tribal sovereignty and refers to its authority, which is one of the main parts of this case that was heard last spring, I guess, or a couple months ago.

Right, that this case is also is while it's about the protection of native children, it's very much about upholding tribal sovereignty.

Yeah, this case is about tribal sovereignty.

And today the Supreme Court affirmed the 1978 legislation, which gives preference to Native Americans in the adoption process and does not discriminate on the basis of race.

The important thing to understand here is that Iqua draws classifications based not on race, but on connections to tribal groups.

Under the Constitution, those tribal groups are separate sovereign nations.

So essentially we native people are a political group. We are card carrying tribal citizens, which is why the court rejects all of the challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act and Justin Barrett wrote, quote, some on the merits and others for lack of standing.

And I think it's important to acknowledge that prior to Iqua, the Association of American Indian Affairs reported that 25 to 35% of all Native children had been separated from their families and placed in the foster homes, adopted homes or institutions that were non-native.

And I think that the other part I want to point out is 1978 is not ancient history.

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