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Gov. Tate Reeves has joined with 24 other states to ask President Joe Biden to end the Federal Public Health Emergency for COVID-19, which would allow the state to remove some people from Medicaid coverage. 

First declared in January 2020 under the Trump Administration, the public health emergency gives health care providers flexibility in how they operate. This public health emergency has been extended repeatedly since — it was last extended again in October and set to end in January 2023, though the department has not indicated it will not renew. The department has said it will give governors at least 60 days notice before a declaration ends.

“It’s past time to get back to life as normal,” Reeves said in a tweet Monday. 

His comment echoed the notion put forth by the governors in the letter: “While the virus will be with us for some time, the emergency phase of the pandemic is behind us.”

While Mississippi is not currently seeing a major surge, COVID-19 cases are still occurring on a daily basis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3,255 cases were identified in Mississippi in the last week. Case numbers have ticked up slightly in recent weeks, but have not approached any of the earlier peaks. The CDC also reports that 53.5% of Mississippians have completed the primary vaccine series, a number that has held stagnant for some time. 

During the public health emergency, states are not allowed to kick anyone off Medicaid under federal regulations. In exchange, the states have received extra federal funding. 

In the letter, the governors say the increased number of people covered by Medicaid has been a drain on state funding. The percentage of each person’s care the federal government covered was increased, but the state has more people they are responsible for overseeing. 

The governors say that 20 million people have been added to Medicaid coverage since the start of the pandemic, a number that “continues to climb as the (public health emergency) continues to be extended every 90 days.”

The Mississippi Division of Medicaid has also changed the services they provide for those who would have traditionally lost eligibility, to the confusion of patients and providers. 

By lifting the public health emergency, Mississippi could return to only providing Medicaid coverage to specific groups: poor pregnant women, poor children, the disabled, some categories of the elderly and some caretakers of Medicaid recipients living in extreme poverty.

Reeves ended Mississippi’s state of emergency in November of last year.

The post Gov. Reeves, other governors ask Biden to end COVID-19 health emergency appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Hard to believe this has been my 57th year of covering sports in Mississippi. Fifty-seven years! Think about it. I covered the integration of sports in Mississippi. I covered the game-changing effects of Title IX on women’s sports. I have watched college baseball go from being a springtime dalliance to a huge business, one that Mississippi teams are extremely proficient at. Two years, two national championships. Can’t wait for next spring.

I have covered 13 head football coaches at Ole Miss, nine at Mississippi State — including the legendary Mike Leach, 13 at Southern Miss and 10 at Jackson State. That 13th coach at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin, and that 10th at Jackson State, Deion Sanders, have kept me really busy here the last few weeks.

And I know what you’re thinking: Where is he going with this? Bear with me, I am getting there …

People ask me all the time: Do you ever get tired of writing about games or the people who play them? I do not. Every game is its own passion play. Every athlete has his or her own story. I have learned over the years, it’s not so much about the games as it is the people who play them. Fact is, sports are a huge part of Mississippi’s social fabric.

I love what I do. I love my job. Indeed, I love the job I have now more than any I have ever had. For the past six years, I have written my columns for Mississippi Today, joining this not-for-profit company not long after its launch.

I believe in Mississippi Today’s mission. I believe we have filled a void left by newspapers’ drastic cutbacks and, worse, closures, across the state. In a democracy such as ours, newspapers have been the traditional watchdog over government at all levels. In Mississippi, we were dangerously close to losing that, especially at the state level. Mississippi Today has filled the void.

As our newsroom has grown, so has our influence. One of the biggest news stories in Mississippi this year has been the Robin Hood-in-reverse, robbing-from-the-poor, giving-to-the-rich welfare scandal that has rocked the state. Mississippi Today’s Anna Wolfe first uncovered and then has owned that ongoing story.

What’s more, Mississippi Today currently is covering the state’s health care crisis as no other news organization has. Hospitals are closing, and many more are on the verge. Health services are being slashed. Hundreds of thousands of Mississippians cannot afford the care they need. Too many people are dying far before they should. State government has largely turned a blind eye to the catastrophe. Mississippi Today hasn’t. And won’t.

By now, you probably know that Mississippi Today is a non-profit newsroom. Our digital, public service journalism is free. We operate for the most part on gifts from foundations and on donations from readers such as you. Please consider helping us continue to cover Mississippi and its people in the manner it must be covered.

I work here, but I give, too. Please join me.

Most of all, keep reading. You keep reading, and we’ll keep telling your stories.

Now through December 31, the Maddox Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s education program, and additional supporters will match your new recurring donation dollar-for-dollar, combined up to $54,000. That means your $25 turns into $100 to continue telling your stories.

Maddox Foundation was founded by Dan Maddox in 1968. He and his wife, Margaret Maddox, had a commitment to young people, a love of nature and a vision for making their corner of the world a better place. Maddox Foundation President Robin Hurdle has continued their legacy, which lives on through the current work of the foundation. 

Maddox Foundation, located in Hernando, has made many signature investment grants into youth development. These investments include renovating and supporting the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA; putting an internet-connected computer in every public classroom in Mississippi; creating innovative places for children to learn and play; establishing the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi; and funding the Education Director position and the MTV exhibit at the Grammy Museum Mississippi.

The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation (JLFF), based in Berkeley, CA, supports organizations that advance social justice by promoting world-changing work in investigative journalism, the arts, documentary film and democracy. As a small foundation, JLFF’s investment in NewsMatch allows the Foundation to make a difference across the entire field of local investigative journalism.

The Hewlett Foundation’s Education program supports media outlets that strengthen the information ecosystem around our country’s K-12 education systems. They believe that local communities are a key part of improving teaching and learning opportunities for every student.

The post 57 years of sports, 57 years of stories appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Read this story in English: With hospitals under strain, health officials beg people to get COVID, flu vaccines

Los hospitales regionales más grandes en Mississippi, donde los pacientes más enfermos suelen recibir atención, están llenos, y los funcionarios de salud estatales están rogando a los habitantes de Mississippi que se vacunen contra el COVID-19 y la gripe para protegerse a sí mismos y al sistema de atención médica.

“Es la incapacidad de transferir (a los pacientes) a un nivel superior de atención: nuestros hospitales de Nivel 1 y Nivel 2 realmente están siendo inundados”, dijo el jueves el Dr. Dan Edney, Oficial de Salud del Estado. “… Hemos tenido muchas transferencias fuera del estado”.

Los hospitales de los estados vecinos también se encuentran en situaciones similares y no pueden aceptar transferencias.

Hasta el mediodía del jueves, algunos hospitales en Tennessee no aceptaban transferencias, dijo Jim Craig, adjunto principal y director de protección de la salud del Departamento de Salud del Estado de Mississippi.

Las camas disponibles en la unidad de cuidados intensivos (UCI) alrededor de Mississippi están disminuyendo, con 65 camas disponibles en todo el estado, una tendencia similar a los últimos dos inviernos, dijo Edney.

Hasta el jueves, solo había 27 camas de UCI disponibles en los hospitales más grandes.

“Son 27 camas para todo: traumatismos, accidentes cerebrovasculares, ataques cardíacos. No solo la gripe y el COVID”, dijo. “Queremos proteger esas camas lo mejor que podamos”.

El Centro Médico de la Universidad de Mississippi, el único centro de trauma de Nivel 1 del estado, estaba lleno, lo que significa que las camas están llenas, dijo un portavoz de UMMC a la 1 p.m. Jueves.

North Mississippi Medical Center en Tupelo, un centro de trauma de Nivel 2, ha negado un promedio de transferencia de un paciente cada día durante los últimos tres meses debido a problemas graves de personal. También ha tenido problemas para transferir pacientes a otros hospitales.

“Cuando tenemos que transferirnos, principalmente por servicios que no brindamos, como quemaduras, experimentamos más dificultades debido a los problemas de capacidad de los hospitales receptores”, dijo Kim Marlatt, vicepresidenta de marketing de North Mississippi Health System.

El único centro de quemados del estado, anteriormente ubicado en Merit Health Central en Jackson, cerró en octubre.

St. Dominic Memorial Hospital en Jackson también está experimentando problemas de capacidad.

“S t. Dominic’s está trabajando diligentemente para explorar todas las soluciones posibles para satisfacer las necesidades de atención y seguridad de los pacientes en las comunidades a las que servimos”, dijo Meredith Bailess, directora de marketing del hospital.

Edney, junto con el epidemiólogo estatal Dr. Paul Byers, instó a los habitantes de Misisipi a obtener su refuerzo bivalente de COVID-19, que incluye un componente de la cepa del virus original y un componente de la variante omicron para brindar una mejor protección contra la cepa dominante actual del virus.

“Este (refuerzo bivalente) es una vacuna de refuerzo muy importante para brindar protección no solo contra la infección, sino también contra esas hospitalizaciones y protegernos de las muertes”, dijo Byers. “Es extremadamente importante para nosotros ahora, especialmente para las personas más vulnerables de nuestra población, asegurarnos de que todas las personas elegibles estén al día con la vacuna de refuerzo bivalente”.

La aceptación del refuerzo bivalente de Mississippi ha sido baja, al igual que la nación.

Mississippi está experimentando una actividad gripal “muy alta“, y Edney y Byers también alentaron a las personas a vacunarse contra la gripe.

Los habitantes de Mississippi pueden programar una cita para las vacunas contra la influenza y el COVID-19 en el sitio web del departamento de salud. Las citas para vacunas también están disponibles en el sitio web federal vaccines.gov.

Las personas pueden recibir el refuerzo COVID-19 actualizado incluso si no han recibido una vacuna de refuerzo anterior. Eso significa que si recibió dos dosis de Pfizer, Moderna o Noravax, o una dosis de Johnson & Johnson, califica para el nuevo refuerzo siempre que hayan pasado dos meses desde su última dosis. También es elegible si recibió una dosis de refuerzo hace más de dos meses.

“Haga lo que pueda para protegerse a sí mismo y a su familia para que no termine en el sistema de atención médica cuando está bajo estrés”, dijo Edney.

Andrés Fuentes

Andrés Fuentes es periodista de FOX8-TV en Nueva Orleans y traductor de Mississippi Today. Antes de que el nativo de Nueva Orleans regresara, era periodista para WLOX-TV en Biloxi, Mississippi.

The post Con los hospitales bajo presión, los funcionarios de salud ruegan a las personas que se vacunen contra el COVID y la gripe appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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A Ridgeland man who left threatening voicemails and said he wanted to kill federal health officials pleaded guilty to making those threats, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Mississippi. 

In July 2021, Robert Wiser Bates, 39, called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and left messages for its director, Rochelle Walensky, saying that he wanted to kill her, according to court documents. 

He admitted to FBI agents that he made the threatening calls to Walensky and that he also wanted to kill Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. 

The reason why he made the threats was not available in court records. 

Bates was charged with making threats against a federal official and making threats in interstate communications, according to court records. He only pleaded guilty to making interstate threats, according to court documents. 

A trial date was set for Dec. 5, but in November he changed his plea to guilty and on Monday signed a plea agreement, according to court documents. 

Bates is set to be sentenced on March 7, 2023 in Jackson by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Jordan III. 

Interstate transmission of threats has a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. 

The post Ridgeland man faces jail time for threatening federal health officials appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Chemical plants and paper mills are among the top polluters in Mississippi, which has seen a decrease in the total amount of toxic releases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency over the last five years.

Certain industries are required by federal law to report every year to the EPA their toxic releases, which include air and water emissions as well as land disposals.

Over the last five years, the facilities with the most toxic releases in Mississippi were: 

1. Tronox, LLC – 72.6 million pounds of releases: Tronox is a chemical plant in Hamilton, which received a $65,000 fine from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in July for exceeding air pollution limits. MDEQ also issued the facility a $65,000 fine for an air pollution violation in 2013, as well a $7,500 fine in 2011 for not having a groundwater monitoring plan.  
2. Chemours DeLisle – 72.3 million pounds: Chemours is a chemical plant in DeLisle formerly owned by Dupont. MDEQ has issued the facility multiple fines over the last decade for air pollution violations: a $28,350 fine in 2011; a $117,000 fine in 2012; a $19,500 fine in 2015 for failing to test emissions; and then a $33,750 fine in June for exceeding emissions limits.
3. Georgia Pacific Leaf River – 15.7 million pounds: Georgia Pacific is a pulp mill in New Augusta. 
4. Choctaw Generation LP – 10.6 million pounds: Choctaw Generation LP is a coal-fired power plant in Ackerman owned by Southern Company. MDEQ issued the facility a $18,750 fine in 2020 for exceeding water pollutant limits. 
5. Tyson Farms, Carthage –  9.5 million pounds: Tyson Farms is a poultry processing center in Carthage. In 2016, MDEQ fined the facility $65,000 for unpermitted wastewater discharges. 

Overall, toxic releases reported to the EPA show a 17% decrease in the state from 2017 through 2021, the latest year of available data. The most abundant chemicals in those releases were manganese, nitrate, vanadium, ammonia and chromium.

The industries with the most toxic releases in that time were chemical plants, paper and pulp mills, meat products — specifically poultry processors — facilities, fossil fuel power stations, and oil refineries.

But the amount of toxic releases from a facility doesn't tell the whole story. As ProPublica explored in its in-depth analysis of air pollution last year, the EPA assigns a risk score for certain chemicals included in the toxic release data to quantify their threat-level to people living nearby. The analysis found that residents in the Cherokee Forest neighborhood in Pascagoula faced an especially high risk of getting cancer because of nearby air pollution, including from the shipbuilding facility VT Halter Marine, which was recently purchased by Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards.

The EPA announced last month that Mississippi would receive a $500,000 grant to measure air pollutants in the neighborhood.

In 2020, the latest year with available risk, or RSEI, scores, the facilities in Mississippi with the highest scores — a higher score meaning more dangerous emissions — were:

1. True Temper Sports Inc. (RSEI score: 265,663): a fabricated metals plant in Amory that emits chromium, zinc, and nickel into the air. MDEQ fined the company $37,500 in 2012 for exceeding water pollution limits, and $39,655 in 2013 for a hazardous waste violation.
2. Rolls-Royce Naval Marine Inc. (RSEI score: 244,407): a facility in Pascagoula that builds propellers for U.S. Navy ships. It emits chromium and nickel into the air.
3. Chevron Products (RSEI score: 188,439): an oil refinery in Pascagoula that releases mercury and other chemicals into the air and water. In 2017, MDEQ fined the company $70,200 for failing to do required air emission tests.
4. Georgia Pacific Leaf River (RSEI score: 122,745): a pulp mill in New Augusta that discharges polycyclic aromatic compounds into the water.
5. Quality Steel Corp. (RSEI score: 85,079): a metals manufacturer in Cleveland that emits chromium and nickel into the air.

The post Data Dive: Mississippi’s worst polluters appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The state’s legislative watchdog committee has issued a report critical of the Mississippi Board of Barber Examiners, and suggests lawmakers consider dissolving it and the separate cosmetology board and put regulation of both under the Health Department.

Findings of the report by the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, or PEER, include:

• Mississippi has more restrictive requirements for a barber’s license than 40 other states.

• The board’s exam practices “are not effective in evaluating a candidate’s preparedness for licensure.” In the last year, only 39% of candidates taking barber exams passed.

• In the last year, the board inspected only 191 of the state’s 2,134 barber shops and schools.

• The board last year paid its members improper per diem and travel reimbursement, including paying board members for days they did no board work and paying travel expenses without proper documentation. It also improperly paid staff members at a lower mileage rate than that set in state policy.

• The board lacks internal accounting controls, which puts it at risk for mismanagement and fraud.

• The board’s “lack of knowledge and expertise related to required retirement contributions” cost the board and its licensees nearly $20,000 in delinquent interest payments. And, “the board might have extended its current lease with terms that are not in the state’s best interest.”

• The board’s records are hard to decipher and not easily accessible to staff. The board is not located in a state-owned office building and not easily accessible to licensees or the public.

• Lawmakers “should consider dissolving the Barber Board and the State Board of Cosmetology to create a Barbering Advisory Council and a Cosmetology Advisory Council within the Department of Health’s Professional Licensure Division.” Also, lawmakers should consider making age and education requirements comparable to those of surrounding states and consider prohibiting board members from administering exams.

Lawmakers and other state politicians have for years discussed and debated consolidating or eliminating many of the states scores of small agencies, boards and commissions and reigning in bureaucratic red tape in professional licensure and regulations. They are run by appointed boards, mostly members of the industry they regulate, which raises questions of fairness and competition.

But efforts to reduce or consolidate such boards have had minimal success. They have legislative and political clout. For instance, no elected leader relishes the prospect of thousands of barbers or cosmetologists mad over consolidation come election time.

The barber board refutes many of the PEER report’s findings and “does not agree or concur with dissolving (barber and cosmetology) boards under any circumstances.”

In a written response, the board said it does agree some changes need to be made, but “Dissolving boards does not address the issues of the industry. You will lose the knowledge, history and expertise of the current professionals attempting to streamline or effect cost savings over time.”

The board said it has tried but has not received support from the Legislature in updating current laws. It says it lacks funding to find a third party to administer exams and that its inspectors are part time and limited to working 60 hours or less a month, which limits the number of inspections annually. It said it also lacks funding for a records management system.

The board said, “All board members, inspectors and staff have been provided a copy of the state travel policy rules and regulations. All board members, inspectors and other staff will have training.” But it said it was not asked by PEER to provide documentation of travel and expenses and has since provided them. It also said the state has failed to provide help for the agency to secure better office space.

The post Watchdog report slams state barber board, recommends axing it appeared first on Mississippi Today.

PASCAGOULA – Aaliyah Jackson almost didn’t make it to her job interview at Ingalls Shipbuilding on a recent Monday morning. 

The 18-year-old St. Martin High School senior was pumping gas when a faulty latch sent gasoline spraying all over her only professional dress. Panicked and shaking, she took out her phone and dialed the one person she knew would know what to do: Mrs. Marvin.

That’s her high school career coach. The one who helped her prepare for Ingalls’ first-ever high school career fair. Jackson hopes to land a job sandblasting ships. 

“I don’t have a lot of professional clothes. So I texted her, having a panic attack, covered in gas, asking what I should do,” she said.

Brittini Marvin, per usual, knew what to say. She told Jackson to go home and clean up. She reminded her it would be ok, even if she missed the school bus taking students to the interviews. 

After quickly washing her dress at home, Jackson made it on the bus on time to ride with her coach to the Ingalls offices. And Marvin wasn’t far during the whole process: cheering Jackson on between a written test, physical test and interview.

“I love her,” Jackson said. “I didn’t even know what a resume really was before I went to her office.”

Jackson County has one of the most thorough career coaching programs in the state that goes by the name “P3,” short for “purpose, passion, and paycheck.” The first iteration of a similar program launched about six years ago in northeast Mississippi, funded by grant money from Toyota. 

The programs use career coaches hired from outside the school system — but stationed within a high school — to help students develop a post-grad plan. P3, for example, focuses on its students having one of “three Es”: enrollment (into higher education), employment, or enlistment. 

Meanwhile, a statewide career coaching program has been steadily unrolling as a way to confront Mississippi’s ongoing struggles to increase the workforce participation rate and get young Mississippians into high-paying and in-demand jobs. Last session, the Legislature designated $8 million in American Sovereignty Restoration Act Funds for the statewide version of the program.

Now that funding could double. Gov. Tate Reeves’ legislative budget proposal included the recommendation to up the program’s funding to $16 million through general state funds. 

The statewide program is run by the workforce development office, Accelerate Mississippi. The state had 25 coaches — including those in Jackson County — before last year’s funding. By mid-January, there will be 140 coaches, according to the workforce development office. 

“We’ve been watching what’s happening in Jackson County and what had already been going on in the northeast part of the state,” said Garrett McInnis, Accelerate Mississippi’s deputy director of external affairs. “It was the right place and right time to expand the concept and now we have something that has the potential to positively impact a lot of people and make us more competitive as a state.” 

The access to career coaches was vital for students like Jackson, who graduated early with a last day of school on Dec. 16. Without help to form a plan and set up a job for after graduation, Jackson worries she could have felt stuck at her current job at Taco Bell. 

She is confident enough that she’d start training for a new job at Ingalls come January; she already put her two-weeks notice in at the fast-food joint. 

Jackson County’s success over the last two years, with help from its local chamber of commerce and economic development office, has set a roadmap for the budding statewide program to follow. Career coaches say their advice is catered to every type of student — not just those looking for guidance for in-demand trades like at the Ingalls career fair.

“As career coaches we work with the private and public sectors,” said Amanda Stubbs, a coach at Gautier High School. “We have brought in Ingalls, Chevron, health care workers, counselors, attorneys. We take students on tours and to meet CEOs. The more our students know, the more they can grow.” 

Ava McRaney, 17 and a senior at Vancleave High School, may be her class’ valedictorian but she still felt lost when it came to sorting out how to set up a path to become the first physician in her family. She wound up making an appointment with the school’s career coach, Kim Wiley. 

“I don’t know if I would have been applied to colleges already if it wasn’t for her,” McRaney said.

Wiley set up for McRaney to talk to a medical student about exactly what steps to take during undergraduate college — even carving out what time of year to study for the MCATs — in order to make her dreams a reality. 

“She walked away feeling confident, knowing this is exactly what I need to do,” Wiley said. “She has a plan in place and knows how to move forward.” 

Through the program’s connections to the community, McRaney was able to meet Singing River hospital’s CEO and shadow surgeons in November. 

“I loved every second of the surgeries and I couldn’t take my eyes off what was happening,” McRaney said. “I got to be in the actual operating room. It was just an awesome experience and if I didn’t have that, I’d probably still feel unsure of everything.” 

McRaney already received an acceptance letter from the University of Mississippi. She hopes to one day be an orthopedic surgeon. 

Valerie Jerde, 18 and an early-graduate senior at Pascagoula High School, was at Ingalls’ recent job fair applying to work as a joiner, or a ship’s craftsman. Jerde recently found out she is pregnant. She wants a well-paying career to provide for her new family.

“I could see myself growing at Ingalls,” she said. “But I have always been taught not to keep my eggs in one basket.”

That’s why she’s grateful for the strong connection she’s built with career coach Shunda Williams. Jerde says she knows the coach will be there if she needs career or life advice even when she’s no longer a student. 

“She’s a role model,” Jerde said. 

Unlike high school counselors, the career coaches salaries aren’t paid by the school district. They can’t get called in to proctor a test or substitute teach a class. Their schedule is fully dedicated to helping students plan career paths. 

The American Schools Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250 students to one counselor. In reality, the national average for that ratio is more like 415-to-1. The career coaches add to a student’s team to ensure fewer are leaving Mississippi high schools without a job or pathway to a job in place. 

The coaches say they’re often intervening to help break cycles of poverty, whether that means buying interview clothes for a student who cannot afford their own or helping a family fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (commonly called FAFSA) so a student can enroll in community college. 

McInnis with Accelerate Mississippi said by January, 51 of Mississippi’s 82 counties will have career coaches in their schools. 

“It’s not nearly enough,” he said. “We need more.

The post Mississippi is investing millions of dollars in high school career coaches. Here’s how it works. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A challenge to a decades-old federal law that aims to keep Native American children and their families together is before the U.S. Supreme Court, and it has the potential to impact tribes around the country, including those in Mississippi. 

The Indian Child Welfare Act governs child custody of Native children. If a child is removed from their parents, the act sets preferences to place the child with another family member, another member of the tribe or a different tribe. 

The case Brackeen v. Halaand before the Supreme Court challenges these preferences. Three pairs of non-Native foster parents and three states are suing the federal government and five tribes, arguing the act discriminates against non-Native people based on race. 

Tribes including the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are watching the case and see more at stake than adoption. 

“As the only federally recognized tribe in the State of Mississippi, our 11,000 plus members are descendants of those members who chose to remain here in Mississippi to preserve our cultural heritage on our ancestral homelands,” the tribe said in a statement. “Today, just as in the past, the preservation and security of our tribe, and our tribal children and families are of utmost importance.”

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in November and is expected to make a ruling next year. 

ICWA was created in response to the mistreatment of generations of Native American people by the government, including the enrollment of children in boarding schools where they were forced to abandon their religion and culture and the adoption of children out of tribes. 

When the act passed in 1978, between 25% and 35% of all Native children were taken from their families and put in foster homes, up for adoption or into institutions, according to surveys by the Association on American Indian Affairs. They were often placed with non-Native and white families.

ICWA gives tribes the opportunity to be notified about cases involving Native American children and to intervene. It established a process for transferring child custody cases to tribal court. 

The act recognizes that tribes have sovereignty and exclusive jurisdiction over their members who live on tribal land or are domiciled there. The act’s standards also apply to Native child custody proceedings in state court for those who don’t live on tribal lands. 

During Senate committee hearings about Indian child welfare in the late 1970s, then Choctaw Chief Calvin Isaac testified that raising Native children in non-Native homes reduces tribes’ chances of survival. 

The tribe still holds a similar view and says ICWA helps tribes maintain sovereignty by ensuring they have the opportunity to protect and preserve the wellbeing of their children.

“Children are tribal communities’ most valuable resource since the language, culture, and traditions that make those communities unique are passed down from generation to generation,” the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians said in a statement.

The Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services, which oversees foster care and adoption in the state, recognizes ICWA and has developed policies and procedures for how to handle cases with Native children and follow the act. 

This includes giving the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians or any tribe that a child belongs to the right to assume jurisdiction of the child. The department also signed a memorandum of understanding with the tribe in 2020. 

In the Supreme Court case, two couples from Texas and Nevada were successfully able to adopt Native American children, even after challenges from the tribes where the children were eligible for membership. 

Another plaintiff, a Minnesota couple, tried to adopt a child who was placed with her grandmother, who is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. The grandmother eventually adopted the girl.

During oral arguments in November, attorneys representing the plaintiffs challenging ICWA argued a number of issues with the act, including that it violates equal protection through racial discrimination and goes beyond the powers given to Congress to regulate Native American affairs. 

Another issue challengers brought up is whether Native Americans should be classified politically through tribes or racially through their ancestry. 

Ian Gershengorn, the attorney representing the five tribes in the Brackeen case, told the justices during oral arguments that tribal self-government is at the core of ICWA. All federally recognized tribes and members of those tribes have a common political relationship with the United States, which he said is why a political classification is more appropriate than a racial one. 

In court documents, defendants have expressed concerns that a challenge to the act could reduce the legal rights of tribes in issues including environmental regulations, land and gaming. 

Ashley Landers is a professor in the human development and family science program at Ohio State University who studies child welfare of Native children. She wonders what protections for Native children will remain if ICWA is overturned or drastically changed. 

“What are the protections in place to try and right this historic wrong?” Landers said. “We need to have ownership of what we’ve done to Native families.” 

Some researchers and advocates want to shift the focus from adoptive parents to adoptees by having the Supreme Court consider the impact on Native American children in foster care and adoption.  

Sandy White Hawk, an adoptee from the Sicangu Lakota Tribe in South Dakota, is founder of the First Nations Repatriation Institute in Minnesota. She is also research partners with Landers.

The institute serves as a resource for Native people impacted by foster care or adoption, and it supports family and cultural reunification and community healing and offers technical assistance, research, education and advocacy. 

“It’s still happening,” White Hawk said about the adoption of Native American children out of their tribal communities. “Children are still being taken.”

She was placed with a white missionary couple who she said saw her adoption as a way of saving her. In that family, White Hawk endured physical and sexual abuse and grew up hearing her Native American heritage spoken about negatively. 

White Hawk and Landers have researched the experiences of Native Americans, including mental health outcomes of Native adoptees and the kind of abuse they experience in foster care and adoptive homes. 

In one of their papers submitted to the Supreme Court in Brackeen v. Haaland, they found that Native American adoptees are more likely to report self harm and suicidal ideation compared to white adoptees. Their research found Native adoptees have the unique context of historical trauma, assimilation and systemic child removal that suggests their mental health outcomes would differ from adoptees of other races. 

“Adoption is complex and has grief and loss and it impacts everyone, but the person who gets the least support and resources is the adoptee,” White Hawk said, adding that adoptees are often expected to feel grateful about their adoptions. 

Landers said it’s a false narrative that taking Native children from their homes will result in them living a better life. Instead, resources should be allocated to help families stay together and prevent removal, Landers said. 

This isn’t the Mississippi Choctaws’ first Supreme Court case. Over 30 years ago, the tribe brought a case that helped interpret ICWA and define tribes’ role in the custody of Native American children. 

In Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, the court ruled that through the ICWA, tribal courts have the power to hear adoption proceedings for Native children. 

The case started when the tribe appealed the adoption of twins born to Choctaw tribe members who lived on reservation land in Neshoba County. The children were born hundreds of miles away in Harrison County, and the children’s parents agreed to their adoption by a non-native couple, the Holyfields. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that tribes have jurisdiction over children domiciled on a reservation based on tribe membership or eligible membership, even if they aren’t physically present there. As a result, the Harrison County Chancery Court didn’t have the jurisdiction to approve the adoption for the twins. 

“MBCI was party to the first U.S. Supreme Court case to uphold ICWA and has continued to support Congress’s constitutional duty to uphold the sovereignty of Indian tribes by joining a brief supporting the tribes involved in the latest U.S. Supreme Court case challenging ICWA,” the tribe said in a statement. 

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