The Continued Destruction Of The Native American Indian: Part II
Posted by Michelle Moquin on October 29th, 2011
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.
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.
“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.”
Suzanne Crow’s struggle to bring home her grandchildren harkens her boarding school days.
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.
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 29th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
HOW YOUR PERSONALITY IMPACTS YOUR WEIGHT
When it comes to personality and weight control, there are certain things that make perfect sense.
Those undisciplined types who mindlessly munch in front of the TV or purposefully stuff down food at the kitchen table tend to be heavier, while the organized, conscientious folks — the ones who measure out their portions, for example — are more likely to keep the pounds off.
But apparently, not all personality-weight associations are quite so logical. Now scientists are learning that some surprising personality traits may lead to a growing waistline.
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) recently studied the relationship between personality and weight over a substantial period of adulthood. The findings reveal that people who are aggressive, cynical and competitive are prone to gaining extra weight.
Now that had me scratching my head, I must admit. Aren’t those competitive types going to be the ones most likely to do whatever is necessary to stay in control — of their weight and everything else?
To learn more about the findings, I called lead investigator Angelina Sutin, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the NIA’s Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience in Baltimore. She told me that the research, which appeared in the July issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, produced a mix of results that don’t always add up as easily as we’d expect.
“We know how complex the reasons for weight gain can be, and we were extremely interested to see how psychological factors might contribute,” Dr. Sutin said.
Dr. Sutin lead the observational study, which examined data from the NIA’s Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), an ongoing research project that addresses normal aging. In the BLSA, 2,000 men and women were weighed and their body mass index (BMI) and other markers for excess fat were measured over the course of 50 years.
Participants were generally healthy and highly educated. All were evaluated on what personality psychologists call the “Big Five” domains of personality — extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness — along with 30 subcategories of these traits.
Researchers measured which personality traits were associated with weight gain — and which ones weren’t.
Among all personality traits — and this was not unexpected — the biggest contributor toward weight gain was impulsiveness (a subcategory of neuroticism).
Those who fell into the high end of the impulsivity range gained, on average, an extra 22 pounds over their life spans. “Individuals with this [characteristic] tend to give into temptation and lack the discipline to stay on track amid difficulties or frustration,” Dr. Sutin found.
“To maintain a healthy weight, it is typically necessary to have a healthy diet and a sustained program of physical activity, both of which require commitment and restraint. Such control may be difficult for highly impulsive individuals.”
What other traits influenced an accumulation of pounds? Some others were obvious, like extraversion, which I can easily associate with a certain joie de vivre that could lead to weight gain.
Neuroticism, conservativeness, warmth and a tendency to take risks were also traits that (unsurprisingly) were associated with weight gain.
It isn’t that hard to picture a heavyset, warm, conservative person — especially if he is also a risk taker — Winston Churchill, anyone? But then there are the antagonistic people (those who are aggressive, competitive and cynical).
We might expect them to be thinner because, after all, no mere plate of food is going to get the best of them! But they actually tended to gain more and more weight over the decades, until they became clearly too heavy for good health.
And there may be a physiological reason for that, Dr. Sutin told me. “Antagonistic people can be very reactive to stress,” she said, “and stress increases the production of hormones that can lead to weight gain.”
And who consistently maintained their weight over the decades? No surprise here. It tended to be the people who were open, agreeable, conscientious, active, straightforward, modest, orderly and/or dutiful.
More research may yield clues as to how to apply the personality traits of thinner people to those less likely to resist fried chicken and Oreos. Until then, if you’re having trouble watching your weight, watch your stress level. It may be turning your battle of the bulge into a war.
Source:
Angelina Sutin, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow, National Institute on Aging, Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Baltimore.
October 29th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
Thank you Michelle for telling our story. No one cares it seems. The governor of SD is just another in a long line of crooks. They kidnap our children knowing that no one will do anything to stop them.
Preeti
October 29th, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Al you are an example that color or race isn’t the carrier of evil. Just because some whites practice what their parents taught them doesn’t mean it is a product of their race. It is what they were taught by evil people.
You represent the good in all of us. It doesn’t make you a saint but what fun is in that.
Laura
October 29th, 2011 at 11:20 pm
An easy way you can keep Wall Street Occupied:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2JlxbKtBkGM%26sns%3Dfb&sns=fb&v=2JlxbKtBkGM&gl=US
/SB
October 29th, 2011 at 11:24 pm
Maybe this link is better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JlxbKtBkGM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
/SB
October 30th, 2011 at 4:54 am
Social Butterfly: I couldn’t get on to any of the links from comment #4. Comment #5 is a great idea and I do get a ton of junk mail, a lot of which is from my bank. That is so funny. And a great way to catch their attention.
Laura: Thank you for the kind words, nobody is ever born a racist. They have to learn it from someone.
Michelle: The fact that Dennis Daugaard went from foster care first, to be the Governor of S. Dakota speaks volumes about his foster home set up. This story hurt me, I almost wish I didn’t read it. Looking at the photo of Dennis Daugaard becoming Governor, I don’t know, he looks disappointed he didn’t go straight to being president.
Al
October 30th, 2011 at 7:40 am
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/opinion/what-the-costumes-reveal.html?_r=1
October 30th, 2011 at 11:00 am
Zen Lill: Haven’t written you in a while. Doesn’t mean anything other than I haven’t written you in a while. Hope that your Mojo is working right. Did I forget to say “Hello”? Well, I will write to you again soon.
Bye,
Al