Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Haaland v. Brackeen. (Audio and transcript of full oral arguments). SCOTUSblog reported on the arguments. At issue is the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 which attempts to prevent child welfare and adoption agencies from placing Native American children outside of their tribe. (SCOTUSblog case page.) A number of commentators have pointed out that issues of religion underlie the controversy in the four consolidated cases heard yesterday. Religion News Service explains, saying that the Act was a reaction to past efforts by the U.S. government to remove Native American children from their homes and place them in boarding schools:
The U.S. is only now reckoning with the history of its boarding schools, which separated generations of children from their families and prohibited them from speaking Native languages, dressing and wearing their hair in traditional styles and taking part in traditional spiritual practices in an effort to assimilate them into the dominant white Christian culture.
Half of boarding schools likely were supported by Christian institutions, according to a report released earlier this year by the U.S. Department of the Interior. A number of denominations are now researching and repenting for their past involvement.
