October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Tribes Question Foster Group’s Power And Influence

Children at the Black Hills campus of the Children’s Home Society head into the main building for lunch. The home caters to children with special needs, many of whom are Native American.

On a small crest deep in South Dakota’s Black Hills, a dozen children jumped on sleds and floated across the snow. They are wards of the state, and this is their home: the western campus of the Children’s Home Society.

There are rolling hills, a babbling brook — even a new school.

Children’s Home Director Bill Colson says it’s a place to help children who can’t make it in regular foster homes.

“We want to solve the problems, and sometimes it just seems like you’re beating your head against the wall,” he says. “But the reality is we are making progress, and I feel great about it, and our agency feels good about it.”

State officials say Children’s Home and other organizations like it are necessary. But Native American tribes say their children don’t need to be there. Instead, they should be placed with their relatives or tribal members.

Federal law agrees. In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, to halt a century-long practice of forcing Native American children into boarding schools. It says that except in the most extreme circumstances, children must be placed with family or tribal members if they have to be removed from their homes.

But a 2005 government report found 32 states are failing to abide by the law in one way or another. And an NPR news investigation has found that in South Dakota, 90 percent of Native American children in foster care are placed in non-native homes or privately run group homes. It’s a generation of children once again being taken from their native traditions and culture.

At Children’s Home, which is the largest private foster care provider in the state, Colson says he’s heard the tribe’s complaints. But he says the organization’s priority is to return Native American kids to their families.

“Our goal is to have kids be in a family and be successful,” he says.

With multiple campuses and emergency centers, Children’s Home provides services for up to 2,000 children a year. It’s now one of the largest nonprofits in the state. But it wasn’t always.

The Turnaround

Ten years ago, this group was in financial trouble. For several years, tax records show, it was losing money. Then in 2002, a former banker named Dennis Daugaard joined the team. He became the group’s chief operating officer. A year later, he was promoted to executive director. And things began to change.

Nati Harnik/APSouth Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, seen here at a news conference in October, spent seven years in leadership positions at Children’s Home Society before becoming the state’s governor.

The money the group was getting from the state doubled under his leadership. Children’s Home grew financially to seven times its size. It added two new facilities.

State records show it seized on a big opportunity. The state began outsourcing much of its work, such as training foster care parents and examining potential foster homes. Children’s Home got almost every one of those contracts.

The group paid Daugaard $115,000 a year. But that wasn’t his only job. He was also the state’s lieutenant governor — and a rising star in state politics.

The seven years Daugaard spent at Children’s Home — and his ability to turn the place around — were prominent features of his successful 2010 bid for governor.

Competition-Free Contracts

It could be that Children’s Home was the best organization for the job, at the best price for all those contracts it got.

But it would be difficult for tax payers to know. In just about every case, the group did not compete for the contracts or bid against any other organization. For almost seven years, until this year, Daugaard’s colleagues in state government just chose the organization and sent it money — more than $50 million in all.

“It’s a massive conflict of interest,” says Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, adding that any organization run by a state’s top elected official would have undue power in that state.

“When you’re lieutenant governor, people are anxious to curry favor with you,” she says.

Daugaard declined NPR’s repeated requests for an interview. In a statement, his office said Children’s Home was the only viable organization that could have done the work, and that Daugaard never used his influence as lieutenant governor to secure contracts for the organization.

Tribal leaders, though, say the unusual relationship provides a window into the role money and politics play in South Dakota’s foster care system. They say the dominance of Children’s Home in this area is but one example of the interests of the state trumping the interests of native children.

“They make a living off of our children,” says Juanita Sherick, the tribal social worker on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation.

She says the state pushes aggressively in her cases to place kids in Children’s Home who, she says, should be placed with their grandmothers, aunts and uncles — family members who are often desperate to take them in.

“Give the children back to their relatives, because the creator gave those children to those families,” Sherick says. “Who has any right to take them away from those families?”

Tribes Want Alternatives

In recent years, critics say Children’s Home has become a virtual powerhouse. It not only examines all the potential foster families and homes, it houses the most children. It trains the state’s case workers and holds all of the state’s training classes for foster parents. It does all of the state’s examinations of children who may have been abused.

For all of this work, Children’s Home is paid tens of millions of dollars every year.

On the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, tribal social worker Rose Mendoza finds that ridiculous. Children’s Home got the state’s only contract to examine potential foster homes, called kinship home studies, even on the reservations.

Laura Sullivan/NPRChildren’s artwork lines the halls of the Children’s Home Society in South Dakota. Officials there say they try to keep Native American kids connected to their culture.

“Why send a private agency onto our reservation?” she said. “[Children's Home] is not calling us to request permission to come onto the reservation to do these home studies.”

Mendoza says her agency would do the work for free. They know the families, they know the homes.

In a state where the majority of foster children are native, Mendoza and many of their tribal officials say home studies, social worker training and family placements should be done by people who know and understand the children’s culture.

“Everybody says cultural differences,” Mendoza said. “But it’s really understanding what that means. It’s a way of life. Our way of life is different.”

Tribes weren’t the only ones left out. Troy Hoppes ran a group similar to Children’s Home named Canyon Hills Center. He says he didn’t know about many of the contracts until after they were given to Children’s Home.

“I just remember in the news there [were] some grants that were awarded, and obviously I was envious,” he says. “We wanted to get some grants for ourselves, as well.”

Hoppes says his organization would have jumped at the chance to take on the additional work.

“Facilities love the opportunity to branch out with things like that and give their staff opportunities to advance their skills,” he says.

Gov. Daugaard’s Response

In its statement, Daugaard’s office said that any group home that has a license to care for children can be placed on the state providers’ list and given children.

But Hoppes says that they were on this list, yet the home struggled to fill its beds. At the same time, Children’s Home had a waiting list.

In his statement, Daugaard also emphasizes that the job of lieutenant governor was part time, and that he never supervised any of the people who approved the government contracts. State social services officials in their statement said Children’s Home was never treated any differently from other organizations.

Children’s Home has won many state accolades for its work with children. But that doesn’t mean much to Suzanne Crow or her granddaughter Brianna, who spent three years there.

When Crow was a child, she was also taken from her family. She was sent to a boarding school.

“Every night me and my sister would meet at her bed and would say, ‘Let’s run away tomorrow,’ ” Crow remembers. “We used to make all our plans just to comfort ourselves that we’re still there. This foster care system reminds me of that.”

She didn’t want Brianna to grow up like she did, not knowing who she was, not knowing that someone in the world loved her. It took a court order for the state to send Brianna home to her stepfather.

“I didn’t care what it took,” Crow says. “I battled with them.”

State records show South Dakota paid Children’s Home almost $50,000 over three years to care for Brianna.

But across the state, grandmothers, aunts and uncles, family and tribal members would have cared for Brianna — and hundreds of other Native American children like her. They would have done so for free, keeping them close to their tribes and culture like federal law intended.

*********

Readers: As you know this is just horrific. When will this kidnapping end for these peoples? I only HOPE this will come to an end before these peoples have reached their end.

Doug: Yes a “civilized society” has done wonders for the Native American Indians. You can see how pleased they are with the outcome of their lives…their tribes.

Wilma: Yeah. Exactly.  But as you can see, money is being sent, aid is being given, but the children are being used, separated from the families to get it. It is a sick story.

Al: You guessed it right. As you can see from the article I posted today, these children do have a high resale value.  Did I already say this was sick? I’ll say it again, “What is happening to the Native American Indian families is sick”.

How convenient that the ex-banker Dennis Daugaard, also holding a leadership position at Children’s Home Society  is the republican Governor of South Dakota, bringing in the big bucks to this foster home, all at the expense of these children. Time to get this man ousted.

Stay tuned for Part III

Peace & Love...and do something today strictly for someone else.

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 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Readers: We have talked about the slaughter of 12 million Native American Indians, on my blog quite a few times. History tells one story, but we know the real truth is vastly different. I was listening to NPR the other day and I learned something that was so disturbing to me.  The extermination of the native peoples that are still living here continues.

What do you get when you take a child away from his family? When you take away their culture, their traditions…when you cut their hair before its time? Years of living a slow death.

Following is a year long investigation by NPR:

Incentives And Cultural Bias Fuel Foster System

The dirt roads on the Crow Creek Indian reservation in South Dakota blow dust on the window frames of simple houses.

The people who live here are poor — in a way few Americans are poor. There are no grocery stores or restaurants. There’s only electricity when it’s possible to pay the bill.

This is where Janice Howe grew up, on a barren stretch of land that has belonged to the Dakota people for more than 100 years.

“I’m the eldest of nine kids,” she explains, settling into a chair in the kitchen. “I went to college and I got my bachelor’s degree in nursing.”

Her sister lives across the street. Her parents live across the road. Her daughter lives two doors down with her four grandchildren — two young granddaughters and two twin babies.

And then one evening two years ago, Howe’s phone rang.

It was a social worker from the Department of Social Services. She said her daughter Erin Yellow Robe was going to be arrested for drugs.

Howe couldn’t believe it. She had never seen any sign of drugs or any other problems.

And then the social worker changed Howe’s life. She said she was coming to take Howe’s grandchildren away.

The next morning, a car pulled up outside Yellow Robe’s house. Howe’s daughter wouldn’t let go of her one-year-old twin babies. She kept saying she hadn’t done anything wrong.

The social worker buckled the babies into car seats.

“They were sitting in the cars,” Howe says, choking up. “They were just looking at me. Because you know most babies don’t cry if they’re raised in a secure environment. So I went out there and took their diaper bags. And they left.”

But as Howe watched the car pull around the bend, she realized the social worker took the two babies, but allowed Howe to keep her two granddaughters, 5-year-old Rashauna and 6-year-old Antoinette.

“I thought that was weird,” Howe says. “I just thought, why can’t I keep them all?”

A Mandate To Keep Children Connected

Howe, other relatives and other members of the tribe all wanted the children. And federal law says they should have gotten them. The Indian Child Welfare Act mandates that, except in the rarest circumstances, Indian children must be placed with relatives, a tribal member or at the very least, another Native American. It also says the state must make every effort to first keep a family together with services and programs.

The law was passed in 1978 in response to a century-long practice of forcing Native American children into harsh and often abusive boarding schools where they lost contact with their culture, traditions, language and families.

Except now a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its culture. This time it’s through state-run foster care.

In South Dakota, Native American children make up only 15 percent of the child population, yet they make up more than half the children in foster care. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is removing 700 native children every year, sometimes in questionable circumstances. According to a review of state records, it is also largely failing to place native children with their relatives or tribes.

According to state records, almost 90 percent of the kids in family foster care are in non-native homes or group care.

State officials say they’re doing everything they can to keep native families together. Poverty, crime and alcoholism are all real problems on South Dakota’s reservations and in the state’s poorest areas. But, state records show there’s another powerful force at work — money. The federal government sends the state thousands of dollars for every child it takes.

Howe’s twin grandbabies were taken to a white foster home about 100 miles away.

On the day they were taken, Howe says she and her daughter sat on the steps and cried as they waited for the police to come to take her daughter to jail.

Several hours went by and no one came. A week went by, a month, and then summer turned into fall, and still no one came.

To this day, Howe’s daughter has never been arrested for drugs — or anything else. Department of Social Service officials told NPR they can’t talk about individual cases or confirm the details of Howe’s account.

But one source who has reviewed the department’s file said the social worker believed Yellow Robe was abusing her prescription pills. But the same source also says the file notes the case was based on a rumor — from a woman who, the source says, didn’t like the Howe family.

And yet not only did they take the two babies, two months later, Howe waited at the school bus stop. But when the bus came, the girls weren’t on it. A social worker had taken them from school.

“They didn’t even call and tell me. Nothing,” Howe says.

The social worker in this case, like many the department employs, hadn’t been on the job long and quit a short time later. She told Howe that the older girls had had too much contact with their mother – a woman who had never been charged with anything. And then Antoinette and Rashauna, they too were gone.

“It enrages me,” says Crow Creek tribal council member Peter Lengkeek. “We’re very tight-knit families and cousins are disappearing. Family members are disappearing.”

The Crow Creek tribe has lost more than 33 children in recent years. The reservation only has 1,400 people. Last year Lengkeek asked social service officials to tell him where the children were and who they were placed with.

Seven months later, he received a list. Lengkeek says every single child was placed in a white foster home.

He says if the state had its way, “we’d still be playing cowboys and Indians. I couldn’t imagine what they tell these kids about where they come from and who they are.”

“It’s kidnapping,” he says. “That’s how we see it.”

Navigating State Policies

Virgena Wieseler, who runs a division of South Dakota’s department of social services, says the department believes in the Indian Child Welfare Act and does its best to find relatives or tribal member placements for Indian children.

“We come from a stance of safety,” she says. “That’s our overarching goal with all children. If they can be returned to their parent or returned to a relative and be safe and that safety can be managed then that’s our goal.”

Department Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon says they’re dealing with abject poverty and substance abuse and have to do what’s best for the kids, which sometimes means driving onto a reservation and taking a child.

“Of course we think it’s legal or we wouldn’t be doing it,” she says.

Malsam-Rysdon cited two laws. One is a federal statute that only pertains to emergency situations. The other is a state law that allows the state to remove children in danger.

But two South Dakota judges, two lawyers and a dozen tribal advocates told NPR that state law doesn’t apply. Federal law says tribes are sovereign. The experts say a state official can’t drive off with an Indian child from Crow Creek any more than a Crow Creek official could drive off with a child from Rapid City.

Some tribes have agreements with the state, which allows social services to operate on their reservations. Crow Creek, however, does not.

But the state has never been challenged in court on this specific issue, so Howe was stuck in a strange — but common — legal limbo.

Because she lives on a reservation, state courts don’t apply to her. But especially on poor reservations like hers, tribal courts can be over-run, underfunded and operated only part time.

Howe didn’t know how to get a hearing. She didn’t know any judges or lawyers. She certainly couldn’t afford one.

And social services told her they couldn’t tell her anything. Letters to the state and governor went unanswered.

But even here in a place with few resources or computers, she thought there must be something she could do. And then she thought of one more person to call: a man named Dave Valandra.

Valandra’s the tribe’s Indian Child Welfare Act director. He’s a federal employee, who is charged with making sure the law is being followed, namely that children removed by the state are placed with relatives or tribal members.

But when she called him, Howe says he told her: “‘There’s nothing I can do.’ – that’s what he said to me” she says.

Dave Valandra works in a square, gray building for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Valandra’s official job is to help members who live off the reservation with their cases in state court. Many can’t afford South Dakota’s public defenders.

But Valandra can also help tribal members who are on the reservation. He can push for a tribal court hearing.

He doesn’t do that very often, however, because he says he trusts the state to do what’s best for native families.

“I get along real good with the state and I have a good rapport with them,” he says. “I’m satisfied.”

Tribal officials say they are not satisfied. They say he won’t show up at their council meetings to answer their questions. Valandra says he doesn’t need to appear because the Indian Child Welfare Act is being followed.

“The state does have Native American foster homes, so under the [Indian Child Welfare Act], they are following the law by placing the child in a Native American environment,” he says. “So yeah, it’s working.”

But state records show only 13 percent of native kids in foster care are placed in native homes. In fact, Valandra admits that not one of the children in his almost three dozen cases is placed with a Native American family.

Asked if he’s concerned these children may have been let down a bit, he seemed at a loss for words.

“Of my cases right now, I think they’re all…right now, the placement of the children right now are…boy that’s, huh,” he said.

Tribal Foster Homes Remain Empty

With Valandra a dead end, Janice Howe asked the social worker to move the children to a native home where they could participate in cultural activities such as going to sweats and sundance. But nothing changed.

John Poole/NPR , Marcella Dion lives on the Crow Creek reservation and has been licensed as a foster care provider since 2005, but the state has never sent her any children. Recently she took in her brother’s granddaughter, Isabella.

Social Service’s Wieseler said they would like all native children to be in native homes. But she says they’ve only got a few and they don’t have room.

“We are constantly recruiting,” she says, “constantly recruiting in all of our offices for all kinds of foster families and we are always trying to recruit them because we need more.”

That comes as a surprise to Marcella Dion. She’s a native foster home provider on the Crow Creek reservation and has lots of room.

Her home’s been empty for six years.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on,’” she says. “I got my [Indian Child Welfare license]. No kids.”

Then there’s Suzanne Crow, also from Crow Creek.

“I’ve been a foster parent here for over a year,” she said. “They’ve never called me for any Indian kids.”

In that year, hundreds of native children in South Dakota were placed in white foster homes. Officials on the Pine Ridge reservation, several hours away, also say they have 20 empty homes.

A few months ago, Crow asked a social worker why she hadn’t received any native foster children.

“He said well there’s a long process this and that,” Crow remembers. “And I said, ‘You know what? The long process is there’s no road from you to Indian people. That’s the long process.’”

Howe and her daughter waited months just to see the kids. She missed braiding their long hair. They follow Dakota tradition that you don’t cut hair unless there’s a death in the family.

When they were finally granted a visit in December 2009, Howe says she burst into tears. Their hair was cut to their shoulders.

The girls also looked thin and had holes in their socks, Howe says. They begged Howe and their mother to take them home.

She recalls Rashauna telling her that she knew how to get to the river and said she was going to try to swim home.

“I just kept saying, pray,” Howe says she told the children, tearing up at the memory. “Pray hard. Grandma’s going to get you back. I don’t know how but grandma’s going to get you back. When you start feeling bad pray or look outside because we’re both looking at the same sky. Ok? Ok, they said. And they left.”

She wouldn’t see them again for another year.

An Increasing Case Load

In downtown Rapid City, Danny Sheehan was digging around in a closet down the hall from his office pulling open file cabinets and taking out files.

“These are all the different people who had their kids taken away from their entire families,” explains Sheehan, who works for the Lakota People’s law office. “Not one of them has had their children left with a relative of any kind.”

There are about 150 case files in all.

He hopes one day he can sue. He’s been involved in cases like this in the past, including fighting Three Mile Island, the Ku Klux Klan – even representing a group that wants access to UFO records. But he says these cases are expensive, time consuming and fraught with legal hurdles.

“Maybe if we devoted all our resources to a particular case and said, look, we’re going to land on you like a ton of bricks [social services] and make you give this one kid back and sue you and do everything else, they would probably just turn the kid loose,” he says. “But it wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t stop them from doing it a hundred times again.”

There are children in South Dakota who need to be removed from their families. But according to state figures, less than 12 percent of the children in foster care in South Dakota have been actually physically or sexually abused in their homes. That’s less than the national average.

And yet South Dakota is removing children at almost three times the rate of other states, according to data from the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.

Culture, Poverty or Neglect?

There’s one word that makes it possible for the state to remove Janice Howe’s grandchildren and more than 700 other native kids every year: Neglect. The state says parents have neglected their children.

The problem, says Bob Walters, a council representative from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, is that neglect is subjective.

Walters, along with officials from seven other South Dakota tribes NPR interviewed, say what social workers call neglect, is often poverty — and sometimes native tradition.

“The standards are set too high for our people,” Walters says. “We’re family people. If there is 30 people in my home, that’s fine. [When] I was raised, there was my mom, my dad and 12 kids. And I’m very thankful I grew up that way.”

He says social workers are often young and there’s constant turnover. He says many seem to have never set foot on a reservation before.

Walters says the workers don’t understand that most tribal members don’t have money to buy gas for a parenting class two hours away or that food is often shared among families.

State officials acknowledge that only 11 of their 183 case workers are Native American. But officials say they do yearly training to teach workers native practices.

Federal Financial Incentives For Removing Children

Sometimes, though, it’s not just cultural differences. Jolene Abourezk worked for the department for seven years. She says when she worked there, removing kids was expected.

Department officials told her, “It’s good, you are doing a good job for taking more kids,” Abourezk says. “It’s just the norm here. It happens so often people don’t question it. So you know if something happens all the time the same way, people don’t question it anymore. It’s just how it’s done.

Abourezk now works for her tribe, the Oglala Sioux, and reviews every case to help get kids back.

“When I look at the cases and read the police reports,” she said, “it just seems like a lot of them are just minor offenses.”

Few social workers would wish for more cases. A close review of South Dakota’s budget shows there’s a financial incentive for the department as a whole to remove more children.

Every time a state puts a child in foster care, the federal government sends money. Because South Dakota is poor, it receives even more money than other states – almost a hundred million dollars a year.

Bill Napoli chaired the state Senate Appropriations Committee until he retired three years ago. He says he remembers when the state first saw the large amounts of money the federal government was sending the Department of Social Services in the late 1990s.

“When that money came down the pike, it was huge,” Napoli says. “That’s when we saw a real influx of kids being taken out of families.”

He said there was little lawmakers could do to rein in the department. This was federal money, and it went straight to social services.

“I’m sure they were trying to answer a public perception of a problem,” he said. “And then slowly it grew to a point where they had so much power that no one — no one — could question what they were doing. Is that a recipe for a bureaucracy that’s totally out of control? I would say so.”

In an interview with NPR, department officials Wieseler and Kim Malsam-Rysdon say they strongly disagree, and that money has never influenced the department’s decisions to remove a child.

“The state doesn’t financially benefit from kids being in care,” Malsam-Rysdon says. “The state is always paying some part of it.”

She says it’s true the department gets more money the more children it takes. But she says, “it’s still state general dollars that have to match all those dollars that come in.”

Except it’s not exactly a match. According to state records, last year, the federal government reimbursed the state for almost three quarters of the money it spent on foster care.

Then there’s the bonus money. Take for example something the federal government calls the “adoption incentive bonus.” States receive money if they move kids out of foster care and into adoption — about $4,000 a child. But according to federal records, if the child has “special needs,” a state can get as much as $12,000.

A decade ago, South Dakota designated all Native American children “special needs,” which means Native American children who are permanently removed from their homes are worth more financially to the state than other children.

In 10 years, this adoption bonus program has brought South Dakota almost a million dollars.

Malsam-Rysdon says that money stays in the department and is used to help children.

“The key to that funding is that those dollars are to be used to support adoptive placements,” she says. “So the state does not gain monetarily from placing kids in adoption.”

But that money and a hundred million dollars more funnels into the state economy every year. The department employs a thousand workers. It supports almost 700 foster families who receive as much as $9,000 a year per child and 1,400 families who receive thousands in adoption subsidies. Dozens of independent group homes also receive millions of dollars in contracts to take care of children.

Governor Bill Janklow ran the state in the 1990s. Asked how important the federal money that goes to social services is to the state he said: “Incredibly important.”

“I mean look, we’re a poor state,” he says. “We’re not a high income state. We’re like North Dakota without oil. We’re like Nebraska without Omaha and Lincoln. We don’t have resources. We don’t have wealth. We don’t have high income jobs. We don’t have factories opening here hiring people in high wage jobs.”

The federal government gave South Dakota at least $15,000 for Howe’s grandchildren while they were in foster care. More than half of that money went to the department’s administrative costs, according to federal records.

But even now as the money filters in, the federal government asks few questions about whether states are complying with the Indian Child Welfare Act. A 2005 government audit found at least 32 states are failing in one way or another to abide by it.

George Sheldon, who recently took over the federal Administration for Children and Families, is the man in Washington sending the money. He says the federal government needs to make complying with the law a priority for the states.

“I think we’ve got to do better and frankly to the extent we can provide some leadership I’d like to see us do that,” Sheldon says. “When you have a financing system that pays states to keep kids in care, what’s the incentive to keep kids out of care?”

A Conclusion For Janice Howe

Howe’s grandchildren had been gone a year and a half. There was so much frustration. The family seemed to be falling apart.

John Poole/NPR , Janice Howe’s grandchildren, from left, Daylyn, 3, Rashauna, 6, and Antoinette, 8, play on the Crow Creek Reservation. The children were taken off the reservation by South Dakota’s Department of Social Services for a year and a half after a social worker heard an unsubstantiated rumor about their mother’s possible abuse of prescription pills. Their mother was never charged with anything.

Howe made one last desperate move. She went to her tribe’s council meeting and told her entire story. She told them how the state was now about to put the children up for adoption. Many on the council nodded with familiarity.

And then they did something they had never done before. They passed a resolution warning the state that if it did not return the Yellow Robe Children, it would be charged with kidnapping and prosecuted.

Nobody thought it would work.

But a few weeks later, a car pulled up outside of Howe’s house with Antoinette, Rashauna and the two twins, who were now 2 1/2 years old.

“Antoinette came in and said ‘Grandma, Grandma. We get to stay! We get to stay!’” Howe says.

The state offered no explanation or apology. The social worker warned that this was a trial run and the state could take them back at anytime.

Howe thinks the babies were treated well. But Rashauna and Antoinette left a size 10 and came back a size smaller. Howe says they hoard food under their pillows and hide under the bed when a car pulls up.

“I feel like they were traumatized so much,” Howe says.

The children don’t remember their native dance, something Howe says is especially important for Antoinette, the oldest.

“We go to sweats,” Howe says. “We have ceremonies at certain times a year. She’s got to be getting ready to learn these things that she has to do in order to become a young lady. They took a year and a half away from us. How are we going to get that back?”

On this day, 48 people showed up, and Antoinette and Rashauna played in the front room. Howe says they usually hide from outsiders and explained that like their mother, they are especially afraid of white people and do not want to talk to them.

Later, Howe asked Rashauna: “What was it like in foster care?”

“I thought we were going to stay there forever,” Rashauna says.

And then suddenly Antoinette blurts out a story about how Rashauna wet her pants and the foster parents made her wear the underwear on her head.

Howe looked away, so they wouldn’t see her eyes fill with tears. As the singing started, they slowly swayed, knowing that even now, social services can come back. Even now, at anytime, they can take the children.

Readers: This story makes me so mad. Can you imagine…Indian children taken away from their Indian families to live with white families so that they state can make money off of them, while the children slowly lose their culture, their traditions, and most importantly their connection to where and who they came from? It is a horrible situation for the families. As if the extermination of the American Indian was not enough, the destruction still continues to this day.

Tomorrow: Part II

ZL: “When I have time”…that’s the rub. I’m not complaining but in reality it still takes me two hours + to do my blog every morning. I read all of the comments, plus online content to inspire my write, (even if it is copy and paste – it’s the formatting that takes time) as well as commenting to readers that I wish to address.  Taking more time to comment as an anonymous person, just to give my two cents without being “known”(even if it was to take you OUT in the process :) is not a priority for me.

That being said, I do do exactly how I please. It’s just wishful thinking because sometimes I miss being able to participate in the thick of it. But the best part of it all is that I have many readers who do, and I love that they take the time out of their busy days to be here when there are many other blogs they could be participating in.

In the words of /SB,   “Have a loving day today all”.

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

“ Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox“

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Good morning!

I just Love the flow of this blog. I find an article about one thing,  and it leads to another even more interesting topic. You just never know where the dialogue is going to end up, with the back and forth chitchat that happens along the way.

Alycedale: When I read Abbott’s Article, I thought it was BS. I had no desire to break it down,  but I knew someone would. No surprise it was you. And I wouldn’t have expected any less of an analysis from a girl who knows how to intelligently scrutinize a story.

And look where it lead us? Lickin’ pussy – Please pass the dental dam, I’d like to indulge in a little lamb. :)

Ah…Sometimes I wish I was just another reader so I could jump in on the convo and give my personal two anonymously. I don’t have that pleasure, but no matter. I get pleasure that such needed, insightful information is afforded to the girls ( and guys) on my blog.

Thanks Social B for posting the risk of transmission of disease from woman to woman. I will echo the words of Winter. And by the way, I will agree with ZL as well, ‘It is an individual thing”. And in my opinion, you and Alycedale are about as different as two girls could be, at least with respect to the emotional thing. I would expect you to say exactly what you did. And I would expect Alycedale the same same. Aren’t we girls just so perfectly diverse? 

Love being a girl…Love the girls on this blog. I am so blessed to be in the blog presence of such wonderful women of the world. ♥

So…wha’at’s up? What’s on everyone’s mind?

I can tell you what’s on my mind. Occupy Wall Street has been gathering nightly in Oakland. Two nights ago a two tour war veteran, Scott Olsen was critically injured by police projectiles.  Well, MoveOn beat me to it this morning, but none the less, I’m blogging it anyway. The thugs with guns are at it again abusing their powers.  This video footage needs to be seen. And please, take a moment and give your support but signing the petition at MoveOn to stop the police oppression of Occupy Oakland. Thanks.

War Veteran Wounded By Police At Occupy Oakland, Stun Grenade Thrown At Folks Helping Him

Readers: What do you think of this movement? I’m glad that people are coming together as a community and speaking their minds; they are discontent, and angry, and they have the right to be. With all that is happening in our country, this revolution is needed. A fire has been lit with the people and it is growing and gaining. I back it. I just HOPE that it stays well organized, focused on the goal, and peaceful. The scene in Oakland two nights ago, with respect to the police brutality was horrifying and upsetting.

Here’s a segment from Rachel Maddow last night discussing just that:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As usual, thoughts on anything, blog me.

Peace & Love

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

“ Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox“

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Good morning!

Well…I missed him again. Our president Obama was in San Francisco yesterday at the W Hotel for a fundraiser, and from what I read, he wasn’t exactly greeted with cheers from the waiting crowd.

“I was a supporter of Obama, but I’m so disillusioned right now,” said protester Catherine Woods. “And it seems to be getting worse and worse.”

Then I read this article this morning:

Obama courts Hispanic vote on fundraising tour of the west

President enlists support of Antonio Banderas and Eva Longoria as he moves to shore up crucial support from Latino voters

Barack Obama walks with the Bonilla family in Nevada on his fundraising tour of the west Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Barack Obama is using a three-day visit to the West to raise funds for the 2012 White House race and to shore up the Latino vote that could prove pivotal to his re-election chances.

Obama won 67% of the Latino vote in the 2008 election campaign. But a Gallup poll this summer showed support among Latinos, upset over the failure of the president to reform immigration laws and hit disproportionately hard by unemployment, had dropped to 48%.

Over the last few months, he has made a belated effort to court Latinos, from inviting Hispanic journalists to the White House for a round-table to high-profile speeches at gatherings.

On Monday night, he attended a fund-raising party in Los Angeles co-hosted by actors Antonio Banderas and Eva Longoria. It was attended by about 120 donors from the Latino community, each paying at least $5,000 to attend.

The event attracted some criticism from within the Latino community, with some saying he should be meeting people struggling with unemployment or facing deportation or the loss of their homes rather than actors and celebrities.

At the party, Obama promised to deliver on his promises on immigration reform. He said people tended to forget how much he had accomplished: he had completed 60% of promises he made during the 2008 election campaign.

“I’m pretty confident we can get the other 40% done in the next five years,” he told the guests.

Pollsters predict that the drop in support among Latinos, if repeated in next year’s election, could see Obama lose swing states such as Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, which he took last time.

He could also lose Florida, where the Latinos are predominantly of Cuban origin and strongly Republican. Lose Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, and Obama would be on his way to being a one-term president.

“The Hispanic vote is going to be a lot trickier for Obama this time,” Brad Coker, a pollster based in Jacksonville, Florida and head of Mason-Dixon polling, said today. “It is going to be a significant influence on the outcome but it is too early yet to say exactly where.”

The Banderas-Longoria party was the first such purely Latino fund-raising event Obama has attended. Also present were the comedian George Lopez, and mayors Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles and Julian Castro of San Antonio.

Villaraigosa blamed Congress rather than the president for the failure to enact immigration reform, including the proposed Dream legislation that would have offered a route to citizenship for the young. “President Obama does not have a vote in Congress. President Obama has been supportive of comprehensive immigration reform. ……He has called on the Congress to do their job and to fix the broken immigration system, ” Villraigosa said.
“The fact that they’ve failed to do that is not his responsibility or his fault, if you will. It’s theirs.”

While there is sympathy in the Latino community for that view, there is also a widespread feeling that Obama has failed to make immigration a priority and might have pushed it through during the early part of his presidency, when the Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House.

Such views were passionately expressed by Latino activists at a conference in DC last month, ‘Take Back the American Dream’. They contrasted Obama’s rhetoric with the actions of his administration and one statistic stood out, the level of deportations.

Federal government figures show the administration was on course to outstrip George W. Bush in terms of deportation. Obama has deported just over 1 million while Bush’s administration deported 1.57 million: but that took Bush eight years while Obama has been in office just three years.
Faced with a wave of outrage, the White House has ordered a slowdown.

While there is disillusionment with Obama, there is little sign of an exodus of Latinos to the Republicans because of their anti-immigration rhetoric.

Among those seeking the Republican nomination to take on Obama next year, the Texas governor Rick Perry could win some Latino support because he opposes creation of a wall along the Mexican border and has offered the children of illegal immigrants the same chance of an education as citizens.

But the other candidates have been strident, including Herman Cain, who upset Latinos by suggesting an electrified fence along the border to kill Mexicans, though he later said it was a joke.

Robert Zavala(42) a Latino who was out picketing Obama on his visit this week, will vote Republican but not for Cain. “I think that joke about Mexicans was inappropriate,” he said.

Zavala, in a phone interview today from Las Vegas, said Latinos were upset over lack of jobs and predicted Obama will lose Nevada. “He can do great speeches. He can move the massses but he cannot create jobs,” said Zavala, who works in the entertainment industry.

Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster who has helped scores of Republicans get elected to Congress, told party members from Nevada, Colorado, California and other western states last week that Latinos were the fastest growing part of the population. “As a party, we have to do better with Hispanic voters.”

He suggested the party could make itself more attractive by giving a higher profile to prominent Latinos in the party such as Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida and a Tea Party favourite.

Coker agreed, saying that Rubio as the vice-presidential pick would give the Republicans a boost among Latinos and if he did not want to do it, there were other prominent Latinos, such as the Nevada governor Brian Sandoval.

“That would be a wild card that would upset the Latino applecart for Obama,” Coker said.

The beauty for the Republicans is they do not even have to attract many Latinos. Obama could lose if disillusioned Latinos just opt not to turn out.

Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster worked on the John Kerry presidential campaign and more recently for the Democratic senate leader Harry Reid in his re-election campaign last year in Nevada last year that was successful in getting the Latino vote out. He said the figures on Hispanic voters nationwide, while not as good as 2008, were not as bad as Republican pollsters suggested.

“There is no question that people are not happy and that is across the board, including Hispanics, but there is a jump between saying people are unhappy and that they will vote for someone else,” he said.

Looking at polling date, Mellman said about one in five Latinos were undecided. For many of Latinos there were serious flaws in Republican policy, not just on immigration but on other issues they cared about, such as education.

**********

Readers: I just want to say “Get over your disillusionment.” Obama is still the same same great man. Instead of looking at what hasn’t done, look at all that he has done. And more importantly look at the powers that are preventing him. Oh and don’t forget…the powers that are preventing him from prevailing are republicans that we allowed back in the driver’s seat last year. Remember? Those who chose not to vote, allowed this mess to be created. The blame shouldn’t be on Obama but ourselves for not showing up at the polls and ensuring the dems remained the majority. Remember, Obama had coattails…long flowing coattails. We had the numbers we needed then; we don’t now.

Let me post a segment from the above article:

Villaraigosa blamed Congress rather than the president for the failure to enact immigration reform, including the proposed Dream legislation that would have offered a route to citizenship for the young. “President Obama does not have a vote in Congress. President Obama has been supportive of comprehensive immigration reform. ……He has called on the Congress to do their job and to fix the broken immigration system, ” Villraigosa said.
“The fact that they’ve failed to do that is not his responsibility or his fault, if you will. It’s theirs.”

While there is sympathy in the Latino community for that view, there is also a widespread feeling that Obama has failed to make immigration a priority and might have pushed it through during the early part of his presidency, when the Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House.

Helloo…Obama can only do so much. He isn’t a miracle worker. And he does not have a vote in Congress. Obama has to deal with the House being a republican majority and the Senate not sticking together. So…whose fault it it that we no longer control both the Senate and the House? Look in mirror. So stop complaining, and get back in the game. If you’re going to bitch, bitch at the Senate…make your voice heard, and blame yourself for the republicans controlling the House.

It’s scary how people not only forget how much Obama has done, but c’mon what is scarier, is how can one forget what the republicans, the party of “no”, the party of “destruction”, the party of “money first, country last”, the party of “we don’t care what happens to the county as long as Obama doesn’t get a second term”, are saying and doing everyday!?

For people to even consider a republican president come 2012 is just insane. And the excuse of not turning out at the next election because you are so “disillusioned” is stupid to say the least, not to mention totally irresponsible, if you truly care about our country and want change to happen.  Look what happened when people didn’t show up at the polls last November. And look where we are right now. Plan on it getting a lot worse if history…no if people repeat themselves.

Bottom line is…We can still get what we want. And Obama is the man who can deliver, if we just stop our bitching and back him, and get control of both the Senate and the House.  A no show vote from the dems is a vote for the republicans. It is as simple as that. Opting to not show up is not an option.

I’ll tell you what…I am disillusioned too, I’m very disillusioned…but it’s not over Obama’s actions.

Thoughts? Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Readers: Naomi Wolf has some pretty scary things to share with us:

Occupy Wall Street: Naomi Wolf calls attention to the disturbing involvement of Homeland Security in her arrest

Naomi Wolf, political activist and author of “Give Me Liberty,” calls attention to the enormous power that the federal government can wield to prevent constitutionally guaranteed rights. “History shows they start with the Other and it gets closer and closer and closer and someday they come for you.”

***********

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"