Maine Wabanaki-State Truth and Reconciliation Commission facts for kids

The Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, also known as the MWTRC, was a special group. It looked into how Wabanaki children and families were treated in Maine's child welfare system. This was from 1978, when the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) started, until recently. The MWTRC began on February 12, 2012, and shared its final report on June 14, 2015. Its main goal was to find truth, help people heal, and make positive changes. It gave Wabanaki people and others a chance to share their stories. The final report offered ideas to make sure the ICWA rules were followed better.

A Look Back: Why the Commission Was Needed

The Wabanaki people have lived in parts of Canada and the United States, including Maine, for thousands of years. They have faced many unfair rules over time.

The Doctrine of Discovery

One of these unfair ideas was called the Doctrine of Discovery. Many people interviewed by the MWTRC said this idea was the start of problems for Wabanaki Tribes. This old rule allowed Christian explorers to claim lands and control Indigenous people. It even led to the creation of Indian boarding schools in the United States.

Indian Boarding Schools

Schools like the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879-1918) were set up to make Native children live like mainstream American culture. More than 10,000 Indigenous children went to Carlisle. Sadly, 186 of them died while attending.

The Indian Adoption Project

Later, in 1958, the Indian Adoption Project (IAP) began. This project aimed to place Native children into white homes for adoption. It was replaced in 1966 by the Adoption Resource Exchange of North America (ARENA), which continued this work. While official numbers say 395 Native children were adopted through the IAP, some believe over 12,000 Native children were adopted into non-Native homes between 1961 and 1976.

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)

In 1978, the United States government passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). This law was created because many Native children were being taken from their homes. Studies showed that 25% to 30% of Native children were removed from their families. Also, 85% of these children were placed outside their families or communities, even when relatives were willing to care for them. The ICWA was made to protect Native children and keep Native families and tribes strong.

What the MWTRC Set Out to Do

When the Maine Wabanaki-State Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed, it had seven main goals:

• To let Wabanaki people who had experiences with Maine's child welfare system share their stories.
• To give a voice to those working in tribal and state welfare systems, as well as caregivers and legal staff, about their experiences with Wabanaki families.
• To create a more complete history of Wabanaki people within the state child welfare system.
• To work with community groups to help Wabanaki people and state child welfare staff heal and understand each other better.
• To improve child welfare practices and make lasting changes for the best child welfare system.
• To make sure the lessons learned by the MWTRC were not forgotten. This included giving advice to tribal and state governments.
• To help individuals, relationships, systems, and cultures come together and heal.

Important Dates for the MWTRC

The Commissioners

Matthew Dunlap

• Matthew Dunlap: Maine's Secretary of State.
• gkisedtanamoogk: (key-said-TAH-NAH-mook) is Wampanoag from Massachusetts.
• Gail Werrbach: A professor and director at the University of Maine School of Social Work.
• Sandy White Hawk: A Sicangu Lakota person who was adopted from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She founded the First Nations Repatriation Institute.
• Carol Wishcamper: Works as a consultant, helping non-profit groups in Maine.

What the Final Report Found and Suggested

The MWTRC's final report included about 159 statements from both Native and non-Native people. These included Native elders, foster parents, former children in the child welfare system, judges, tribal lawyers, and social workers. People from all four Wabanaki groups—the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot—shared their experiences.

The main findings showed that Native children were 5.1 times more likely to be placed in foster care than other children. Also, reviews from 2006 and 2009 found that over half of Native children did not have their Native background officially checked. This means the actual number of Native children in the system who should be covered by the ICWA is unknown.

The MWTRC found that unfair treatment and institutional racism against Wabanaki people still exist. There were also problems with who had authority (tribal vs. state) over child welfare cases. The commission concluded that these findings showed a form of cultural genocide. This means causing serious harm and forcibly moving people from one group to another, as defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide.

In total, the MWTRC made fourteen recommendations. Some of these suggestions included:

• Respecting the rights of tribes and following agreements between tribal, state, and federal governments.
• Supporting the Wabanaki tribes in their healing and celebrating their cultural traditions.
• Creating better training for staff in the United States Department of Health and Human Services, legal, and court systems. This training should go beyond basic rules to help people understand unfair biases and build cultural awareness.
• Giving more support to non-Native adoptive or foster families to help Wabanaki children stay connected to their culture.
• Creating more Native foster and therapeutic homes.
• Bringing back the ICWA Workgroup to help create and use new training methods.
• Working with Wabanaki tribes to create a plan to regularly check if the ICWA is being followed.