New bill would keep Native American families together, proponents say

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: There's a bill that's moving in the Minnesota legislature that its supporters say would help keep more Native families together. The Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act was a subject of a state Senate hearing this morning, and testimony was emotional. People recounted how forced removal by private and public child welfare agencies tore apart their families. Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Chairman Faron Jackson, Sr. spoke at this morning's hearing.

FARON JACKSON, SR: My two younger brothers were removed at the age of four and five from our home in the '60s before the ICWA or MIFPA laws were established. And it caused-- it caused a lot of trauma in our family. And we can still feel it today. And my two biological brothers were removed and placed in home after home, sometimes separated, sometimes reunited in farm homes throughout Northern Minnesota. Our parents were never notified where my brothers were at.

And when my brothers were released when they were 18 years old, they came back home, and they were angry. They were angry at the system, and they were angry at my parents because they felt my parents didn't love them. And it caused-- it caused a lot of dysfunction in our family. Even today, even though they're my biological brothers, we kind of feel like strangers, in a way, when we're together.

CATHY WURZER: That is Faron Jackson, the chairman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. The bill passed. It's moving on to another committee. Assistant Senate Majority Leader, DFL Senator Mary Kunesh is the chief sponsor of the bill. She's on the line right now to talk about how it will change Minnesota law.

Welcome, Senator.

MARY KUNESH: Thank you so much for having me here this afternoon.

CATHY WURZER: Now, this bill modifies Minnesota's Indian Family Preservation Act. I believe that was passed in 1985. It was updated in 2015. So what are the changes you're seeking to make to the existing law?

MARY KUNESH: A lot of the changes that we're doing are sort of technical bills. But mostly what this process and this bill does is it shores up the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act should the Indian Child Welfare Act at the federal level go away. And we want to make sure that this is codified in our state legislature. We're concerned that if we don't put in these safeguards that if ICWA is shut down or removed or put aside at the federal level that we wouldn't be able to continue to do the work that we need to preserve our Native families here in Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: We should say that the Supreme Court is currently considering a case challenging the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. So tell us a little bit about how this Act, the Minnesota law, tries to keep families together.

MARY KUNESH: Well, first you have to understand ICWA, Indian Child Welfare Act. That's a federal law that was enacted in '78. And it ensures that there is a process that is carefully done if there is a risk of children being mistreated or need to be removed from the home.

And so what MIFPA is, is the Minnesota version of ICWA. And so what it does is it strengthens and it expands those federal ICWA laws. It mandates our state interest in preserving our tribal identity for Native folks. And then it ensures that tribes, as sovereign nations, have that direct contact and influence in the out-of-home placement or if there's adoption for our Native kids.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, even with these protections in state law, oh, gosh, I believe it's 26% of children in Minnesota foster care have identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, even though they make up about 1% of kids in the state. That is a huge inequity. What's going on there?

MARY KUNESH: Well, that's nothing new. That's how it has been historically. Our Native kids have been removed from their families at highest rates of any other group of groups here in Minnesota, higher than our African American or our Asian or our Latinx. And if you look historically, there was a very intentional removal process going back to the Indian Civilization Act back in 1819.

So this has been going on since then. And we had the peace policy, and then the forced removal of children from their homes and put into boarding school. So this has been a way of life for our social services and the attitude of public services that we remove our Indian children for their own good, not realizing or not recognizing the unique cultural and familial efforts that we have to keep our families together.

CATHY WURZER: What about the kids who are facing physical harm, how does this law protect those kids because I would presume you do need to get kids out of the dangerous situation, perhaps, or a situation that's not nurturing to them?

MARY KUNESH: Right. I mean, nobody wants to see kids in any kind of danger. We don't want to see them neglected. We don't want to see them abused. And so these MIFPA requirements apply in cases where our Native American kids are receiving voluntary or involuntary services from social services.

And so what we want to make sure is that we are making-- we're including the tribes in these decision makings, but we are also making sure it's like a family first placement for those children. If there is a child that should be removed for their safety from a Native home, then we want to make sure that they are placed with Native foster care or with kin or with somebody that understands the cultural relevance of their tribe. And that's what we are trying to preserve.

CATHY WURZER: So I want to bring it around to the personal, if I could, for a moment. I know you have Lakota heritage. I think your mom's an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, if I'm not mistaken. How has your family been affected by forced removal?

MARY KUNESH: Well, I think many of us carry that genetic trauma through it. And of course, we heard the stories growing up. My grandfather was born out on Standing Rock Nation. He came here with his family as a young man.

But his brothers were sent to Carlisle out in Pennsylvania. And the thing about Carlisle is that they shared a lot of their records. So you could see a behavior card of my one uncle, Collie, who ran away time and time again. But it wasn't until he jumped a train trying to run away, had his leg cut off that they let him go back home. And these are-- that is a tragedy unto itself.

But we heard so many horrible stories today, one from an elder that told the story of how her family was disband and from another young woman, Sherri Johnson, and Bobbi Jo Potter who had their own stories to tell. So every family has these stories. We haven't talked about it for a long time. And now we're finally starting to talk about it and do something about it to ensure that this doesn't continue to happen.

CATHY WURZER: I know the bill had bipartisan support in committee this morning. Do you expect it will have support in the full Senate and then go on and be signed by the governor?

MARY KUNESH: I would hope so. Our next stop is in the Judiciary Committee, and that will be on Friday. And so we'll be talking a little bit more about the love of the bill. But then we will have two hearings in the House. I believe those are on the 14th and the 21st. And we're hoping to take this bill to the floor in both bodies as soon as possible and get the governor's signature just to ensure that should anything happen with the federal ICWA law that Minnesota has these protections in place.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Senator Kunesh, thank you for the conversation.

MARY KUNESH: Absolutely. Thank you so much for taking an interest in this.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to DFL Senator Mary Kunesh. She's an Assistant Majority Leader and the chief sponsor of the bill called the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act.