What is ICWA and How Can We Protect It? 

Implications of the Supreme Court's ICWA Decision 

The Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments in the Brackeen v. Haaland case in November of 2022 and will be issuing a decision on this case in the spring or early summer of 2023. This case challenges the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). This learning exchange developed for NCWWI students and alumni will explore the implications of this decision for children and families as well as social workers in child welfare.

Please note: The second half of the session will be spent in small group discussions. Plan to join with your webcam and microphone enabled and ready to explore these issues with your colleagues.

Our panelists:

Meschelle Linjean, MA, MSW, is a Graduate Research Assistant and PhD student at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Her research interests include Indian Child Welfare and Indigenous adoptee reconnection, land-based and culture-centered approaches and initiatives to address historical and generational trauma and expand resiliency in Indigenous communities; environmental and social justice for marginalized communities; critical mental health; and Indigenous methodologies. She has experience in Tribal and Urban Native services, health and human services, and federal contracting.

Angelique Day, PhD, MSW, is an Associate Professor, School of Social Work, and Adjunct Faculty, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington Seattle. She has broad training and experience in the field of child welfare policy and practice, with particular emphasis on youth who are placed out of home, kinship care, and the Indian Child Welfare Act. She is currently working in partnership with the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina, Salt River Pima Maricopa Tribe of Arizona, two tribes in Washington State: Yakama Nation and Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe, and seven tribes who collaborate through the Southern Plains Consortium in Oklahoma. Her research interests, professional experiences, and professional relationships at the federal and State levels make her a contributor in building new knowledge through the development of original research and its dissemination in the political arena.

 Virginia Drywater Whitekiller, PhD., (United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians) is a professor of social work at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In addition to teaching, she pursues an active research agenda utilizing the theory of cultural resilience as applied to American Indian/Alaska Native/First Nations population issues such as microaggressions, higher education retention, identity, and Indian child welfare. Virginia served as the 2018-2019 Fulbright Canada Jarislowsky Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies at Vancouver Island University, British Columbia. In 2009, she was selected as a Smithsonian Community Scholar conducting research at the Smithsonian Achieves in Suitland, Maryland. She has 20 years' experience in child welfare workforce development and serves as an Indian child welfare consultant for the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute.