We are a coalition of tribes
We are a coalition of tribes mobilizing to protect tribal children, tribal families and tribal sovereignty in California and beyond.
Mission
CTFC is on a mission to promote and protect the health, safety and welfare of tribal children and families which are inherent tribal governmental functions and at the core of tribal sovereignty and tribal self-governance.
Purpose
Our purpose is to manifest that Indian children deserve to be safe and well. Only tribes can decide what is best for the safety and well-being of their children.
Values
ICWA, in all of her complexities, must be protected and with strong laws we can create strong tribal infrastructure which offers the greatest opportunity to achieve our purpose. We advocate at every level for true ICWA compliance by supporting and unifying tribal voice. We strengthen tribal infrastructure through training, policy development and gaining the highest access to funding possible. We educate at the county, state, federal and tribal levels.
What is ICWA?
The Indian Child Welfare Act was one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in the last century for tribal people. ICWA provides protections for tribal kids and families by requiring state child welfare agencies to provide services to families prior to removal, to confirm that a child needs to be removed for legitimate reasons and not because of bias, and if a child must be removed, they are placed with their extended family and in their community.
History
For more than 100 years tribal children were taken from their families and communities because of targeted state and federal policies. Tribal children were sent to boarding schools and to foster and adoptive homes of strangers. This is not a long-ago history; this reality continues to impact kids and families today. Not only did these removals rob children of their identities and support networks, but it also impacted tribal communities by creating generations of grieving community members.
In the 1970s, tribes and tribal families went to Congress asking that these policies and practices be stopped. In 1978 Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act when they found that up to 1/3 of tribal children across the country had been taken and placed outside their families and communities, often without their families or tribes knowing where they were taken.
Since the Act passed, more than 40 years ago, implementation has been slow and inconsistent in California. Today, tribal children in California are close to 5 times more likely to enter foster than white children.
The CTFC Origin Story
Because of these failures, in 2017, a dedicated group of elected tribal leaders formed the ICWA Compliance Task Force, to propel forward a unified effort in the implementation of ICWA in California. After a year of investigation, the Task Force delivered their findings regarding ICWA compliance in California to then Attorney General Xavier Becerra. The mandate of the Task Force Report was clear: California must do better to protect tribes and tribal families, and to realize the promise of ICWA.
Soon after the delivery of the Task Force Report, the California Tribal Families Coalition (CTFC) was formed at the direction of tribal leaders to ensure the recommendations of the report did not languish, without action, leaving their promise untested. Tribal leaders set forth the mission of CTFC at its founding to promote and protect the health, safety and welfare of tribal children and families which are inherent tribal governmental functions and at the core of tribal sovereignty and tribal governance. With this mission, and the recommendations of the Task Force Report as our guiding star, we continue to push forward. These efforts are critical for California tribes, as California is the epicenter of ICWA. California courts have more ICWA appeals than all other states combined and are home to some of the most divisive and controversial cases involving ICWA. As a state at the cutting edge of child welfare innovation and reform, California must fulfill the promises made to Indian tribes, communities, and families in 1978 – tribes and the state have worked together towards this end through a series of legislation related to the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Where we’re headed
Read about our Systems Change work.
