Who Should Get to Adopt Native American Children?

Decades ago, Congress passed a law intended to keep native kids from being placed outside their tribes. Now, its future is in doubt.

Jered, a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, with his son at his house on the Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota.

Story by Lia Kvatum-APRIL 3, 2019

Sally Tarnowski is a state district court judge in Duluth, Minn. She presides over Courtroom 3 on the fourth floor of the St. Louis County Courthouse, an imposing building offering views of Lake Superior. The Anishinaabe, on whose ancestral lands Duluth sits, call the lake Gitchi-Gami — Great Sea. Today, the courtroom has an unusual set-up. The judge is not up at the dais. Instead, she is at a table along with a team of social workers, lawyers and guardians ad litem, as well as the parties being represented. Small bags of tobacco, traditional Anishinaabe medicine, are in abalone shells nearby, free for people to take. In the middle of the table are some sage and sweetgrass — also Anishinaabe medicines, for purification and healing.

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