S.D. Foster Facilities are the New Indian Boarding Schools

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Tuesday May 13, 2014 · 4:03 PM PDT

2014/05/13 · 16:03

Chase Iron Eyes

Hello, my name is Chase Iron Eyes and I represent the Lakota People's Law Project as South Dakota legal counsel.

The state of South Dakota has forcibly removed our Lakota children from their tribes for 150 years. The Indian Child Welfare Act continues to be violated daily. Lakota leaders agree on the best permanent solution to this crisis: a Lakota-run foster care and family service system.

I am writing here today to urgently request that you watch our new video and support us in our campaign to bring the Lakota children home. Time is running out: if we don't act now, we will lose this opportunity to end the crisis.

Learn more, watch the video at donate at www.LakotaLaw.org/Life.

There is a profound and fundamental cultural bias in South Dakota. There is mistrust and hatred against the Native people in South Dakota, passed down through generations of prejudice, bigotry, and misunderstanding. This culture enables the slow genocide that South Dakota continues to inflict upon its own population. Lakota kids disappear at alarming rates from their tribes and families in South Dakota. Just 13% of the child population in South Dakota is Native American, and yet they make up 54% of the children housed in state foster care. Last year, South Dakota even admitted that it had been over-prescribing powerful anti-psychotic drugs, which have not gained widespread approval for use by children, in state-run foster homes.

It is time for the tribes in South Dakota to organize and bring back the traditional ways of self-governance. The federal government must redirect funds away from the Department of Social Services, and towards new, Lakota-run child and family service programs. Lakota leaders agree on the total solution: tribal foster care programs, run by Lakota, for Lakota. However, we need your help to start the process before time runs out! If we do not seize this opportunity, we may have to start from scratch with new federal and state appointees.

By 2016, the Lakota People’s Law Project hopes to have successfully assisted 8 Federally recognized tribes in South Dakota with their development and implementation of Tribal Title IV Programs.

That's why I am writing to ask that you donate now to "Bringing Lakota Children Home," a part of the Lakota Initiative for Family Empowerment, or L.I.F.E. Campaign. Your tax-deductible gift to Lakota People's Law Project (a subsidiary of the Romero Institute), of just $10 right now will double to $20, and provide an hour of much needed tribal assistance. Your gift of $75 will be doubled to $150, enough to provide a day’s compensation to a Lakota grant specialist. If you can provide any support, please give.

We have the opportunity to bring our Lakota children home. Please help us so we don't miss this chance.

Learn more, watch the video at donate at www.LakotaLaw.org/Life.

Wopila,
Chase Iron Eyes
Lakota People's Law Project

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S.D. Foster Facilities are the New Indian Boarding Schools

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