Native Village
Youth and Education news
October 2010 Volume 2

Native American numbers on rise in North Dakota foster care system
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/289347/
Condensed by Native Village

North Dakota: A recent report about Adoption and Foster Care across the U.S. shows:

Caucasian children represent 40% of all foster children;
African-American children make up 31% ;
Hispanic children 20%;
Native American children about 2%.

But in North Dakota, Native youth are the largest minority group of foster children, and their numbers are rising. In 2008, they made up 29% of the state’s foster children. In 2009, it rose to 37%.

This 30% range has been a steady trend for the state's Native youth in the past ten years. 

Across North Dakota, Native youth make up 5.6% of the total under-18 population.

Next door in Minnesota, Native Americans made up 13% of foster kids in 2009. They were only 1.8% of the child population.

The 1978 the Indian Child Welfare Act became a national law. The law stresses keeping Native American foster youth within their families, their tribes or with any Native American family. The act made sure Native children would maintain cultural identity and connections.

However, there aren’t enough Native American foster parents to meet the need. Many tribes don't have the services needed to keep foster children inside their reservations.  The tribe must then transfer the child's care to the state.

 Adoption and Foster Care
From the National Congress of the American Indian
http://www.ncai.org/Adoption-and-Foster-Care.54.0.html

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