How Minnesota’s Foster Care System Reminds Native Moms of a Racist Legacy – By Jessica Washington (Mother Jones) / December 20, 2021
“That fear is always there.”
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This story was published in partnership with The Fuller Project.
Teresa Nord prefers the peacefulness of her new rural home hours outside of Minneapolis, but today she’s seated in a retro diner outfitted with plush booths and vintage tables, one of her favorite places in the city.
She quickly decides on a BLT salad with chicken and wild rice soup, then engages in a remarkably easy conversation, floating between her own story and those of Native women and families she’s helped as a parent mentor over the last few years. But tears begin to fill her deep blue-green eyes when she talks about her own daughter – and how she nearly lost her.
Since 2018, Nord has worked at the Indian Child Welfare Act Law Center, an organization dedicated to helping Native mothers and families reunite with their children in the foster care system. She sees the legacy of generations wrapped up in the child welfare system. She can tell you which judges allow smudging, a traditional practice for many tribes that helps alleviate stress and anxiety, before court. And which social workers are particularly “nasty” to Native moms.
