Hits up, this episode has language that might not be for everyone, so be mindful, there will be some swearing.

You're listening to Code Switch, I'm BA Parker.

Now, the US Supreme Court typically begins releasing decisions in May and June.

This term, one of the cases they're considering, is the Constitutionality of Iqua, or the Indian Child Welfare Act.

So with the decision looming, I started listening to a podcast called This Land, about the implications for Native people if Iqua is struck down.

It's hosted by Rebecca Nagel, she's a journalist based in Oklahoma and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

It's nice to meet you.

Oh yeah, I'm Oceo Missouri, I'm a Tessa Dolla, Delacca Yelligayla. Hi, my name is Rebecca Nagel.

I'm a citizen of Cherokee Nation. I live in Talakwa, Oklahoma and I am from Joplin, Missouri.

I wanted to talk to Rebecca about the history behind Iqua.

It's a better understand how a case about the rights of white foster parents could, as she explains in the podcast, gut Native sovereignty.

So you host the podcast, This Land, and the second season takes on a case about Indian Child Welfare Act or Iqua.

Can you explain what Iqua is for us?

Yeah, absolutely. So Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978.

And it was after a big national survey had found that about a third of Native kids had been removed from their family and their tribes.

So there were a couple of things going on. There was a federal program where the federal government literally gave the Child Welfare League of America money to take Native kids out of Native homes and place them in white homes with the very racist thinking that they were better off there.

And the other thing that was happening in greater numbers is that state child welfare workers were taking Native kids away from Native families for all sorts of reasons that didn't really have anything to do with abuse or neglect.

So they would take kids because they were being raised by a grandparent instead of the biological parent. They would take kids because families were struggling with poverty.

I've heard people say, yeah, we had a drill in our house that if a car drove up the driveway, we knew that it would be somebody from the government or social worker or something.

I remember one of my uncles saying that he remembers the day that the social worker came and got me drove into the driveway and I was totalling around and they were all sitting around the house as far as I know that's how it was told to me.

And she just simply got out of the car, scooped me up and put me in the car.

When there was congressional testimonies, Native parents talked about going to the store to get groceries and coming home and their kids were gone.

...