| This dissertation is a case study of the origin, antecedents, and enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). It describes the political and policy processes that enabled the legislation to be enacted in support of American Indian needs and over the opposition of the Executive Branch. The research analyses (1) the evolution of federal Indian child welfare policy, the main players and their positions in the Indian policy network in the 1970s, and the extent of Indian child placements; (2) the significance of federal Indian boarding schools (subject of Title IV of ICWA) in the formation of federal Indian child-welfare policy, focusing on the forcible separation of parents and children; (3) the immediate antecedents to the act in the Indian Adoption Project and other destructive policies of the 1950s--1960s, representative legal cases in the 1970s, and the actions by Indian tribes and other activists prior to getting legislation introduced; (4) the legislative gestation of ICWA from first rough draft to enactment, including both the political and policy strategies used, as well as the special interests (Indian and non-Indian) involved; and (5) conclusions placing the ICWA into the context of reform legislation generally, and making suggestions for further research into its efficacy and effectiveness.; Original research in the Archives of the Association on American Indian Affairs, a prime mover behind ICWA, provides never-before-published material on Indian boarding schools, adoption and foster care, and the origins of ICWA. Congressional and other government documents are used extensively. New material is presented analyzing for the first time the politics behind the political duel over ICWA between Morris K. Udall (D-AZ), the Act's principal House sponsor, and President Jimmy Carter. The dissertation presents new evidence to suggest that ICWA and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 were politically tied together making passage of both possible. |
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