Nancy Marie Spears

Indigenous tribes face food and heating challenges as the U.S. government shutdown continues into its second month.

With the federal government shutdown barrelling toward a Nov. 1 “fiscal cliff,” state, local and tribal leaders are issuing urgent warnings that millions of families will soon be unable to meet basic needs.

For the first time, tribal data is being included in a federal database that is essential to understanding the nation’s child welfare system.

Proposed legislation calls for increased funding and new programs aimed at improving the well-being of Indigenous children and their families.

Novelist Angeline Boulley's newest book tells the story of an Ojibwe girl's experience in foster care.

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services has announced new tribal home-visiting grant awards.

To inform child welfare agencies about what Indigenous children in foster care need most, a new survey gives voice to the youth themselves. 

Thirteen members of Congress are calling on the Justice Department to return the visibility of its own report on missing and murdered Indigenous people. 

A class-action lawsuit calls on the government to provide a "full accounting" of costs borne by tribes for Indian boarding schools.

For National Reunification Month, the Denver Zoo celebrated with dozens of parents who reunited with children through Colorado's family courts.

Indigenous archivists are grappling with a federal funding cut that targeted groups preserving the history of Indian boarding schools.

An upcoming report shows tribes have redefined and tailored US foster care laws to match the priorities of their unique communities and cultures.

At a Senate hearing, Native American leaders issued scathing rebukes of the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to tribal services.

Gov. Tim Walz has signed a bill removing barriers for the state’s Ombudsperson for American Indian Families in child welfare cases. 

Colorado lawmakers want to strengthen laws requiring special protections for Indigenous children and families in child welfare cases.

A conversation with Linda Spears, member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe and president and CEO of the Child Welfare League of America.

The proposed Birth Center will provide resources to expecting or parenting mothers, including traditional medicine approaches. 

Advocates for missing Indigenous people, including kids, fear the Trump administration won't follow-up on systemic reforms in the works.

Starting next month, Indigenous people who went through Canada’s child welfare system can apply for compensation for harms caused to them. 

Researchers used ground-penetrating radar , near-infrared photography and drones to search for remains of Native children who attended boarding schools.

Researchers are documenting the experiences of American Indian and Alaska Native women whose children were adopted or placed in foster care.

The Trump administration ordered a halt to most federal spending on social services, prompting quick lawsuits.

By Nancy Marie Spears

Resources for tribal child welfare services are headed to tribal communities across the country via the Native American Child Protection Act.

By Nancy Marie Spears

President Biden apologized to survivors of Indian boarding schools, describing “one of the most horrific chapters in American history.” 

A new online training portal has been created to assist tribes, social workers and attorneys on laws that affect Indigenous children and families.

A national project documents the systemic abuse endured by generations of Indigenous people under the government’s boarding school programs.

Oral arguments were held in a Minnesota Supreme Court case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act, as the law's supporters rallied outside.

Several California bills aim to better serve Indigenous families, including one to tackle the issue of youth who go missing from foster care.

Dolores Subia BigFoot, a pioneering child psychologist in Indian Country, is set to retire — but her trauma-healing work continues.

Veronica Krupnick’s advocacy has taken her from college counseling to Indian Child Welfare Act preservation work and even a Senate candidacy.

Gov. Tim Walz has ushered in notable child welfare reforms, free college aid and the state’s first ombudsperson for foster youth.

The Interior Department's unprecedented review found that nearly 1,000 children died at hundreds of institutions created for "forced assimilation."

Under a historic agreement between Canada and First Nations leaders, the government will pay $47.8 billion to reform child welfare services.

State policymakers looking to broaden "active efforts" in child welfare cases face cost challenges and potential threats to Indigenous families' legal protections.

To prevent entries into foster care, the federal government has awarded six tribal communities $3 million to expand programs for families with young children.

A bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress last week to help local child welfare agencies meet the requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is invoking a federal law to protect Native American graves and remains to sue the U.S. Army.

A bill moving through the California Legislature takes aim at the problem of youth missing from foster care — and focuses on tribal children.

Mark Fiddler has focused much of the past decade on attempts to dismantle the law that aims to preserve Indigenous families and tribes.

A case before the Minnesota Court of Appeals revives a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act, as well as a local version of the law. 

Under a new rule released by the Biden administration, tribes will no longer share the costs of child support collections.

The Department of the Interior will soon release its historic final report on the devastation caused by U.S.-backed Indian boarding schools.

In part three of the series Born of History, Andres “Dre” Thornock embarks on a political path that leads them back to the Tulalip reservation.

In part two of the series Born of History: A Tulalip Youth’s Journey to Indigenize Child Welfare, Andres “Dre” Thornock leaves tribal land.

Part one in the three-part series Born of History, about one youth’s journey through a tribal foster care system and into a life of advocacy. 

New research highlights an issue vital to the well-being of Indigenous children and families: their stewardship of the natural environment. 

Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act, state courts have still fielded challenges to the law.

Indigenous communities in three states are mourning the discovery of human remains this week, many of them children at boarding schools.

The Imprint's Q+A with Shannon Smith of the ICWA Law Center on the implications of the Supreme Court's important ruling.

The federal law designed to maintain bonds between Native children and their families and tribes has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A long-awaited online archive, put together by Native researchers, may help boarding school survivors find answers.

The My Two Aunties program helps keep Native children out of foster care and ensure families remain safe and intact.

A bipartisan bill would increase funds for tribal courts and child welfare systems and ease administrative burdens to access family resources.  

A civil grand jury found that Humboldt County's child welfare system creates “an unnecessary amount of stress” families

Jess Ahūgišįnįwįga Lopez-Walker not only makes traditional baby boards, she's pushing for their acceptance in the foster care system.

A new lawsuit accuses a Northern California county of unfairly denying Native American youth access to extended foster care benefits.

A new think tank has formed to protect tribal sovereignty in light of a looming Supreme Court ruling affecting Indigenous children.

In a new memoir, Sandy White Hawk writes of her abusive adoptive home and how she went on to empower other adoptees across the country By Nancy Marie Spears

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott yesterday announced the newest appointments to leadership in the state's Department of Family and Protective Services.

New research shows that tribal colleges and universities are far more likely than mainstream schools to support students with on-site child care.

A report on the progress New Mexico has made on fulfilling commitments to better care for foster youth has found the state falling short.

Demonstrators gathered at the Supreme Court today to voice support for the Indian Child Welfare Act as the 44-year-old law is challenged.

What you need to know to follow the arguments in next week's Supreme Court case over the fate of the Indian Child Welfare Act

An untold story behind the Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Tribal leaders emphasize the importance of the Indian Child Welfare Act ahead of oral arguments before the Supreme Court.

Researchers in Minnesota are collaborating on a survey of Indigenous survivors of family separation to document the abuse and participants' ways of coping.

A new state law that took effect August 5 in Alaska aims to “address and improve deep structural inequities” in the state’s child welfare system — protecting residents should broader federal protections be overturned by a pending Supreme Court case.

The Supreme Court will begin to hear oral arguments in a case that challenges the federal Indian Child Welfare Act in November.

The city of Palmdale, California is moving forward on a housing project that keeps siblings in foster care housed together.

At a southern Oklahoma gymnasium, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland kicked off her "Road to Healing" tour, hearing from survivors of America's Indian boarding schools.

A bill that would establish a formal Truth and Healing Commission for Indian boarding school survivors was given preliminary approval by a House committee last week.

With the Indian Child Welfare Act facing a Supreme Court challenge, states have enacted their own versions to protect Indigenous families from separation.

As the Canadian government pays out billions of dollars in reparations to Indigenous families torn apart by foster care, a case up for consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court threatens to strip legal protections from U.S.-born Native American children, families and tribal communities. 

In June, Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland ordered a long-overdue investigation into the thousands of Indigenous children the U.S. government sent to boarding schools over the course of a century.