Indian Country held our collective breath. “On June 15, 2023 The United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in the Haaland v. Brackeen case. The litigation involving three foster families, the State of Texas, four intervening Indian tribes and countless amici (including the Hopi Tribe) came to an end after nearly seven years. The Court’s holdings implicate the Indian Child Welfare Act as good law.”
“The Indian Child Welfare Act is a civil rights statute designed to remedy the mass removal of American Indian children from their homes by states, religious organizations, and other private parties for placement in foster care or adoption, almost always without a modicum of due process. In the middle part of the 20th century, about one-third of all Native children had been removed and placed with non-Indian homes.” Matthew Fletcher, Turtle Talk
The untold story of stealing generations of Indian children across the US and Canada is slowly being revealed. It is the truth. Here is oral evidence of hidden spaces told to me by my Hopi maternal grandmother who was born in the late 1800’s. She had an encyclopedic memory and was an animated oral storyteller of daily life that her family lived in the Village of Orayvi at the turn of the century.
“Early in the morning before I was able to open my eyes, my father told me to be quiet and quickly pulled me from my sheepskin pallet and motioned to follow him. We quickly walked north from the village joining other men and children. As a child, I understood the danger we were in as the “solawa” was on the way to round up the children. If caught, we would be taken from the arms of our mothers, never to return.
We were taken to the “waa ki”, hidden spaces that were hard to see and find. Only our fathers, uncles and grandfathers knew where these places were. The children were handed shoulder over head to high caves along the north cliff faces. Several children could fit into these caves. We were told not to come out or make noise at all.
Being children, we overcame our fear and played games quietly. We ate the little amount of food that was left with us and waited… and waited. We did not know if the men would return. The waa ki was so well hidden that the “solawa” was never able to find us. So this is how we were never taken from our families and villages. Others were not so lucky.” Paaqapngym Hopi Elder
My 100+ year old grandmother never overcame her distrust of the anglo race, “pahana”. She would lock her door and hide us whenever an anglo or missionary came to her door.
This is truth. This happened. This is still happening to indigenous children worldwide today.
Author: MFredericks, 2023
Paaqavi Incorporated 
Yes, and in at least some of these instances I understand that the solawa were troops from Fort Apache, and probably from other garrisons in the region. This is a story of a inhumane and tragic tragic human rights violation with reverberating consequences.
Please keep sharing.