Electronic ICWA book updated - cases added

The Internet version of The Practical Guide to the Indian Child Welfare Act has been updated to include 61 new full-text cases through 8/1/09.
These new cases can be found at:
a) updates page
b) case index A-Z
c) FAQ Topic pages
d) State resources - cases

See the Scope of the Guide to learn what has been added to the Internet version since the print publication was published in 2007.

Indian Child Welfare

The 30th anniversary of The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was recently marked. For more information about the ICWA, see the following:

Recent law journal articles online:

• Reparations, self-determination, and the seventh generation, by Lorie M. Graham. Harvard Human Rights Journal, Volume 21. Available at Harvard's web site: http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss21/47-104.pdf
  


• The voice of the Indian child: strengthening the Indian Child Welfare Act through children's participation, by Barbara Ann Atwood. Arizona Law Review, Volume 50. Available at the University of Arizona's web site: http://www.law.arizona.edu/journals/ALR/ALR2008/VOL501/Atwood--FINAL.pdf
  


• Civil procedure: narrowed lens, clearer focus: considering the use of de novo review in Indian child welfare proceedings - In re welfare of child of T.T.B.. , by Emily Bucher. William Mitchell Law Review, Volume 34, Number 4. Available at the William Mitchell College of Law's web site. http://www.wmitchell.edu/lawreview/Volume34/documents/7.Bucher.pdf

The Native American Rights Fund and the Library continue to update our Practical Guide to the Indian Child Welfare Act at http://www.narf.org/icwa. The Guide is intended to answer questions about the ICWA by people of all levels of familiarity with this important law, and to provide a comprehensive resource of information on the ICWA.

And the National Indian Child Welfare Association has recently posted materials about its upcoming conference: "Access to Prevention, Protection, and Treatment: A Matter of Fairness, Justice, and Action."

From http://www.nicwa.org/conference/:

"The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) serves as a promising practice for serving Indian children and families and its role in strengthening tribal communities. The intent of Congress under ICWA was to ''protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families'' (25 U.S.C. § 1902). Tribal communities are strengthening and sustaining their traditional methods of protecting and nurturing Indian children."

In the Indian Law Bulletins this week:

• A case against the United States alleging trust mismanagement and a failure to properly account for trust funds. Federal Trial Courts
• A case relating to termination of parental rights under the Indian Child Welfare Act. State Courts
• A notice from the Secretary of the Interior announcing the Department's intent to form a negotiated rulemaking committee to develop recommendations for proposed regulations regarding Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)-funded school facilities under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Regulatory bulletin
• News relating to the current state of the Indian Health Service in the "Health & Welfare" section of the News Bulletin.

Search our site more efficiently

This month we launched a new search engine for our web site, donated to NARF by ISYS Search Software. The search interface is still under development, but still offers great improvements over our previous search engine.

Now you can search parts of the NARF web site in addition to the entire site, with a powerful search engine that lets you select search screens, search terms within proximity of each other, and preview highlighted results. Especially helpful to web site users is the ability to isolate large segments of our site, such as the tribal law collection or the ICWA web guide to conduct research. From any NARF page, click on "Search". http://document.narf.org/

Note that the Library's collection of materials must still be searched using the catalog at http://nillcat.narf.org/

As we continue to customize ISYS to fit our web site, we welcome suggestions for improvement or general comments. Send Emails to dselden@narf.org

A Practical Guide to the Indian Child Welfare Act

BOULDER, CO-NARF is proud to announce the publication of its new "Practical Guide to the Indian Child Welfare Act." The Guide, available both on the Internet and in print, is a powerful resource tool for tribal, state and federal entities involved in Indian child custody proceedings. Among the wealth of contents and resources is frequently asked questions with answers falling under 22 topics, including:

Application of the ICWA
Jurisdiction
Who has rights under the Act
Intervention
Role of Tribal Courts
Tribal State Agreements
Foster placement & removal
Resources

The Internet version, available at www.narf.org/icwa, also contains more than 1,000 full-text resources.

The ICWA Practical Guide Project was generously funded by the Administration for Native Americans, with supplemental funding by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and supported by NICWA as a key partner. NARF and an Advisory Board-made up of multi-disciplinary team consisting of members of tribal courts, tribal ICWA departments, state governments, Indian law practitioners, Native non-profit organizations, law firms and urban Indian centers-provided guidance on the comprehensive content of the guide. To order a copy of the Guide, print a free copy, or access the expanded Internet edition, please visit: www.narf.org/icwa.