Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) (1876-1938) Writer, musician, educator, and Indian rights activist, Zitkala-Sa (or Red Bird) was born on the Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. After her white father abandoned the family, she was brought up by her Indian mother in traditional Sioux ways. At the age of eight, Zitkala-Sa's life was transformed when white missionaries came to Pine Ridge and convinced her to enroll in a boarding school in Wabash, Indiana. Part of a movement to "civilize" Indian children by removing them from their native culture and indoctrinating them in Euro-American ways, the school trained Indian pupils in manual labor, Christianity, and the English language. Zitkala-Sa found it a hostile environment and struggled to adapt.
Carlisle Indian School Collection, 1878-1969
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Bureau of Archives and History Pennsylvania State Archives MG-216
Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania (1880)
The United States Indian School at Carlisle, Pa., was founded by Gen. Richard Henry Pratt in 1879, and served as a model for government boarding schools for Indians until its closure in 1918. Over 10,000 students enrolled at the Carlisle Training School during its 39 years, where, separated from their native cultures, the students were prepared for work in industrial and manual labor and socialized into "civilized" life. Given new white names to replace their Indian ones, the students were prohibited from speaking their native languages, were instructed in Christianity, and were fed, clothed, and housed under strict military discipline.
T. Roosevelt on Native Americans From his State of the Union Message, 1901
In my judgment the time has arrived when we should definitely make up our minds to recognize the Indian as an individual and not as a member of a tribe. The General Allotment Act is a mighty pulverizing engine to break up the tribal mass. It acts directly upon the family and the individual. Under its provisions some sixty thousand Indians have already become citizens of the United States. We should now break up the tribal funds, doing for them what allotment does for the tribal lands; that is, they should be divided into individual holdings.
10/16/1011
"Nearly 700 Native American children in South Dakota are being removed from their homes every year, sometimes in questionable circumstances. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is largely failing to place them according to the law. The vast majority of native kids in foster care in South Dakota are in nonnative homes or group homes, according to an NPR analysis of state records.
Years ago, thousands of Native American children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools, where the motto opf the schools' founder was "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." Children lost touch with their culture, traditions and families. Many suffered horrible abuse, leaving entire generations missing from the one place whose future depended on them — their tribes.
In 1978, Congress tried to put a stop to it. They passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, which says except in the rarest circumstances, Native American children must be placed with their relatives or tribes. It also says states must do everything it can to keep native families together.
But 32 states are failing to abide by the act in one way or another, and, an NPR investigation has found, nowhere is that more apparent than in South Dakota."
Daily Kos: South Dakota kidnaps Indian children and sticks them in white-foster care
Get the Story:
Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families (NPR 10/25)
Incentives And Cultural Bias Fuel Foster System (NPR 10/25)
Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families : NPR
"Nearly 700 Native American children in South Dakota are being ..."
Disproportionality Rates of Native American Children In Foster Care (NPR 10/25)
Incentives And Cultural Bias Fuel Foster System
"Among them is Children's Home Society, the state's largest foster care ... like a corrupt and racist social services system that targets Native American youth .... My gut reaction is to investigate quitting my job to defend these families. ... Most of the cases the children were taken away because of alcohol abuse. ..."
Governor Dennis Daugaard conflict of interest in his position as Lieutenant Governor and executive director of the Children's Home Society, which draws millions in federal funds for the foster care services it provides.
…Every time a state puts a child in foster care, the federal government sends money. Because South Dakota is poor, it receives even more money than other states – almost a hundred million dollars a year [Sullivan and Walters, 2011.10.25].
Then there's the bonus money. Take for example something the federal government calls the “adoption incentive bonus.” States receive money if they move kids out of foster care and into adoption — about $4,000 a child. But according to federal records, if the child has “special needs,” a state can get as much as $12,000.
A decade ago, South Dakota designated all Native American children “special needs,” which means Native American children who are permanently removed from their homes are worth more financially to the state than other children.
In 10 years, this adoption bonus program has brought South Dakota almost a million dollars [Sullivan and Walters, 2011.10.25].
“I mean look, we're a poor state,” he says. “We're not a high income state. We're like North Dakota without oil. We're like Nebraska without Omaha and Lincoln. We don't have resources. We don't have wealth. We don't have high income jobs. We don't have factories opening here hiring people in high wage jobs” [Sullivan and Walters, 2011.10.25].