Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act Documentary Now Available

Our newly completed one hour long film from producer Susan Reetz, Missing Threads: The Story of the Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act, explores the connection between family, tribal culture and children, and the consequences of severing those ties.

The project began in 2012 with initial funding from the Midwest Child Welfare Implementation Center (Lincoln, Nebraska) which made it possible to capture interviews with two tribal social workers, two tribal attorneys, two former Wisconsin Department of Children and Families staff and sponsoring senator Robert Jauch (now retired). This portion of the story outlines why all 11 Wisconsin tribes and representatives of Wisconsin state government made the unprecedented decision to work together to codify the federal Indian Child Welfare Act into Wisconsin law, and how the bill was drafted, enacted and implemented.

Additional funding from the Ho-Chunk Nation, Forest County Potawatomi Foundation and the Oneida Nation made it possible to film in-depth interviews with a Forest County Potawatomi man and a Ho-Chunk woman who were removed from their families as children and placed in non-Native foster homes. These personal stories illustrate the long term impact of a Native child’s removal from their culture and subsequent efforts to reunite with family and tribe, and find their personal identity.

The goal of the film is to inform viewers about the importance of maintaining connection between Native children and their tribes and culture, and the state’s legal responsibility to make sure proper channels and procedures are followed. It will be used to educate social workers, attorneys, judges and the general public. It can also be used as a road map by other states seeking to undertake their own codification of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act.

Three hundred DVDs will be given away to tribal and state judges, attorneys, social workers, foster care staff and others who may have contact with a case impacted by the Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act. The film will be shown at the Green Bay Film Festival (http://www.gbfilmfestival.org/filmgreenbay/) on March 5, and by late fall it will also be available on YouTube for free viewing. More information can be found at http://missingthreadswicwa.blogspot.com/.