After fighting to win back her parental rights, a young Native American mother prevailed. Then the state came for her second child.
After fighting to win back her parental rights, a young Native American mother prevailed. Then the state came for her second child.
So a social worker comes over, inspects the home.
Finds drugs scattered about, moldy bottles, rotten food, diaper hasn’t been changed in days. Deems the child at risk. Child is taken by the state.
Mother becomes homeless and jobless.
Around the time that Social Services cut off services to Hinojosa, her life was finally stabilizing. She moved in with her mother. She reenrolled in parenting classes. She began meeting with a behavioral analyst named Valere Walton, who started Hinojosa on an intensive case management plan to help her develop better parenting skills.I’m sorry, but this is all pretty standard shit regardless of race. She’s a bad mother, and is crying racism since the state took her kids.
But the ICWA requires a higher standard of evidence. So what might be considered typical is not enough. And those were the circumstances when the children were taken away. Her parental rights were terminated 9 months later with no consideration of any changes that had occurred.
The state also returned her kids. Two courts ruled that they shouldn’t have been taken away. And she never cried racism. ProPublica is the one pointing out that this is an example of a systemic issue in South Dakota that is disproportionately hurting Native Americans.