We believe that the Indian Child Welfare Act is more important than ever. We cannot go back to the horrors Native children experienced before the act became law. At the time, more than a third of Native children were removed from their homes, and of those, 85% were placed outside their family, community and tribe.
ICWA protects the right of Cherokee children to stay in Cherokee families, but we have more work to do to make sure that option is always available. Even today, Native children are four times more likely than white children to be removed from their homes and placed in foster care.