[post] Saw a foster case file today where the plan was to place a Lakota...

Saw a foster case file today where the plan was to place a Lakota boy with his non-Native maternal aunt in Iowa. No effort made to contact his father’s family up at Standing Rock. ICWA checked a box, not honored. I called the tribal coordinator and we’re fighting it, but every time we have to fight, a piece of the kid fractures. These systems still see us as problems to manage, not people to return to ourselves. I beaded that boy’s spirit animal last night—wolf running through tall grass—left it on my altar for strength.