The Bureau of Indian Affairs is finally getting around to holding a summit with South Dakota tribal officials to talk about our state's alleged violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act. That meeting happens in Rapid City April 15–17, a year and a half after NPR broke the story of abuses of American Indian children in South Dakota's foster care system.
Our Legislature has a chance to creak into action to address ICWA compliance. House Bill 1211 comes before House Judiciary on Wednesday (barring snow-day schedule changes). HB 1211 would create a system of court monitors to gather data on how well South Dakota's courts follow the ICWA. We'd get a centralized database to allow investigators to look for patterns of noncompliance. The court monitors would also help the courts and social services understand and follow the federal law to protect the rights of Indian families.
HB 1211 does not address the cost of hiring, training, and deploying these court monitors or collecting and making useful their data. As House Judiciary takes up this touchy issue, expect opposition to focus on those nuts and bolts and not on the main issue, South Dakota's perennial resistance to doing right by its reservation neighbors.