ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the U.S. Supreme Court decision Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (2013) to remove a Native child from her Native father’s custody and place her with a non-Native adoptive family chosen by her non-Native birth mother, and the ensuing change to the court’s interpretation of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). Using reproductive justice as a lens, the author explores the 2013 Supreme Court decision as an erosion of the ICWA’s ability to protect the reproductive justice of Native communities, arguing the decision shores up the foundations of a U.S. legal system which developed in part out of a need to erode Native sovereignty and self-determination. Further the author argues adoption of Native children is an issue of reproductive justice, of the ability of Native families to parent Native children, and to assert sovereignty over their communities.
