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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales
Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to fight to protect the Indian Child Welfare Act. By Jill Fratis, KNBA News.
V.P. Harris discussed ICWA in remarks at the White House Tribal Nations Summit, which was held this week in Washington, D.C.
She says she has a longstanding history of fighting for the principles of ICWA, pointing to her work as an attorney and now as vice president.
V.P. Harris says she’s fully aware of the essential protection ICWA provides.
“And back to the time doing that work as an attorney representing children and families in San Francisco, and working on ICWA cases to my time as Attorney General of California, and partnering with tribal leaders and child agencies and law enforcement to enforce ICWA. I will tell you as I stand here as vice president that President Biden and I remain determined to work with you, with Native leaders to safeguard the protections of ICWA.”
Summit attendee Monique Baker, Governance Administrator for the Tribal Government of St. Paul, AK. says she feels comforted the White House is acknowledging the challenges tribal families face.
“Native children being torn away from their families, the trauma they endured, and knowing that something is being done to make sure this will never happen again. It’s truly amazing to hear all this during the summit this year, and look forward to hearing more next year.”
Harris made the comments about IWCA, as challenges to the decades old law intended to keep Native children with Native families, was recently heard in the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Thursday, tribal leaders and top federal officials hosted a number of panels at the summit – including on health care.
Baker says she’s interested in information and discussions about extending health care after childbirth.
Baker says providing postpartum care including depression screenings is a huge step in the right direction for Native families.
“That means so much for all Native women, as mother myself, I wish I had that coverage. I wish I knew more things like that.”
The two-day White House Tribal Nations Summit concluded Thursday with topics ranging from veterans issues to a special message from astronaut Nicole Mann (Wailacki), who’s currently in space on a mission – the first Native American woman to go to space.
Click here to watch Commander Mann’s Summit Remarks from the International Space Station
The Interior Department is putting $75 million toward community relocation efforts for three tribes in Alaska and Washington state, that are struggling with the consequences of a changing climate.
Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) is the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.
“We’ve never really done anything like this before in this country, particularly for tribes.”
He says the Interior Department hopes to capitalize on some of the progress Newtok, AK. has already made and develop a blueprint for the federal government’s future response to climate change.
“We wanna make sure that we are gaining experience on the federal side of things, working with tribes to do climate relocation work.”
Newland says the department weighed a lot of factors in deciding how to allocate the money.
“We evaluated a number of communities that have gone through some of our climate funding programs before and we weighted a number of different factors, like readiness, need, existing plans as well as our ability to glean lessons learned.”
The tribes will also receive funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Eight other tribes across the U.S. will share $40 million to assist in planning for climate change mitigation.
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