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Preserving Our Culture – One Child At A Time
Contact Us:
Phone: 918-431-4115
Fax: 918-458-6146
Cherokee Nation Indian Child Welfare provides adoption services for Cherokee children who cannot be cared for by their birth parents and who need and can benefit from new and permanent family ties established through legal adoption.
The tribe began their adoption program in July of 1992; not only to provide placement for children through the tribal court system but to assist states, attorneys and other agencies in complying with the Indian Child Welfare Act. The Indian Child Welfare Act is a federal law that was passed by Congress in 1978. This Act defines the tribe's role in child custody proceedings and recognizes “that there is no resource that is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of Indian tribes than their own children.” The Indian Child Welfare Act recognizes three placement preferences: 1.) within that child's extended family; 2.) within that child's tribe and 3.) within another federally recognized tribe.
Home Study Certification
To be an adoptive family with the Cherokee Nation at least one of the parents must be a member of a federally recognized tribe; you can be a relative that is over the age of eighteen years of age or an unmarried person that is at least twenty-one years of age. A home study must also be completed. Cherokee Nation can do your home study as long as you live within a reasonable driving distance. ICW usually travels approximately 8 hours and an overnight stay for home study certification. If a family does not live within a reasonable driving distance, the home study would need to be contracted out by a licensed social worker in the area in which the family resides.
You can become an adoptive family even if:
- You are a single adult
- You are divorced
- You do not own your own home
- You live with other family members
- You are a working mother
- You are over forty years of age
- You earn a modest income
- You have a disability
For more information on becoming an adoptive family with the Cherokee Nation please e-mail: adoption@cherokee.org
Placement Procedures
Cherokee Nation is looking for a variety of Indian families from all over the United States who are willing to be a resource for our Cherokee children and other Indian children. The Cherokee Nation Adoption Program is actively recruiting families of ALL degrees of Indian blood. One of Cherokee Nation's goals is to match, as closely as possible, the blood quantum of the child with that of adoptive families.
Voluntary Placements
The Cherokee Nation also provides a variety of services for birth parents that are wishing to voluntarily place their child for adoption. ICW will provide the birth parents with a variety of home studies and profiles of potential adoptive families that are willing to comply with the birth parents desires in regard to an adoptive family (i.e. the amount of openness the birth parents would like, the degree of Indian blood, the state in which the birth parents would like their children placed, etc.)
The Cherokee Nation will also provide birth parents with transportation to and from medical appointments, and assistance in setting up other services the birth parents may require.
Private Adoption Agencies
The Cherokee Nation works with private adoption agencies across the United States in an effort to assist them with compliance of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Cherokee Nation can provide home studies and profiles to agencies for birth parents to review that meet the placement preferences under federal law. The Cherokee Nation has homes available across the United States and families that are willing to work with private agencies in which fees apply.
Step-Parent Adoptions and Guardianships
Cherokee Nation monitors step-parent adoptions and guardianship cases across the United States . The Cherokee Nation can provide assistance to attorneys and families in an effort to make certain that the Indian Child Welfare Act is followed in these situations.
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