Native Survivors Of Foster Care Return Home : NPR

Native Survivors Of Foster Care Return Home : NPR: ...The Indian Child Welfare Act says that except in the rarest of cases, Native American children who have to be removed from their homes must be placed with relatives, their tribes or other Native Americans. Yet 32 states are failing in some way to abide by the law, according to 2005 government audit.

These children are also more likely to end up in foster care than other races, even in similar circumstances, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association.  The result is generations of children growing up without a connection to their culture, traditions and tribes — as Stenstrom did.

He grew up on the Nebraska plains, on the Winnebago Reservation. He and his brother spent the summers outside on the prairie with their grandfather.