Leslie Stonechild

How many ppl out there know of an Indian/Native/Aboriginal foster children?

I am guessing 100% as almost all our families have one of them from the cousin or family member we are not suppose to talk about. Or maybe you once were that one family member and now you are fighting the good fight.

Anyways my statement is the Lack of Respect from Foster Families given to Birth Families. For some reason they have this sense that they are all righteous and they have saved all these poor souls and now your cousins are victimized once again by religion of foster families.

Recently when I was assisting my family in the funeral arrangements for my cousin who was fostered I never felt so patronized or saddened for my cousins that have been lost. No blame put towards anyone, not my Auntie or the system or the family, just the question of WHY!

Yes, a little angry I am because I worked to fight this kind of thing and now a days all a foster Indian Kid gets is the paid Indian worker who comes and shows them how to tolerate there life by showing them beads and feathers. Why!!! Does this still happen!

When will we be able to take care of our own? When can we be one again? Why must we suffer so much? All this is just my need to express some resentment and let you all know that the Battle is still on and the War needs more soldiers!

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Where's the Pow-wow at????

AngelFeather

I hear ya there, It truly is frustrating... The system has failed So many kids and yet they arent willing to fix and old system that has remained the same for over 30 years. I even wrote to Iris Evans when she was the Minister Of Child Welfare of course just got a survey which im sure just got tossed on a desk somewhere.

I have seen it too often... our children being taken off the reserves.. raised by either whites or abusive family members that only do it for the money. Heck IF you yourself work for Child welfare you can get your whole family to be foster parents regardless of your history. This one woman was able to get her sister who was a crack addict to be a Foster Parent of a severly FAS child, who needed to be fed by a tube. She was turned in, the child taken and returned back to the Foster Parent once she so called attended treatment for 2 weeks for her 5 year old addiction...NOW thats a failed system. Then the issue of the Social workers is another thing... a big part of thme have NO clue.. and dont deserve to work with such a system.
Im not calling ALL foster parents down but I can say that In my eyes and in the eyes of alot of people the whole system is whacked. There are those few that truly DO care and want to help... and those are the SAME homes in which Children are ripped out of. Its an endless battle and the only ones suffereing are the children... because garunteed they gonna have it rough when they get older. they will get it from both ends... the whites for bieng an Indian and from the Indians for being raised white... So the solution? Im not sure because everyone keeps turning thier heads when it is brought up. and then we wonder why there are so many messed up kids...because heads keep turning and eyes keep blinded.
Am i passionate about this ? YES... I was one of those KIDS... and I DO Blame the system that so claimed to want to help me because they only made things worse. Until people are willing to listen and take accountability for a failed system this is going keep happening. ALL I can say is keep our kids close give them unconditional love and dont be so quick to give them up to a system that claims to want to help the family.