Because I am completely outraged about the situation in South Dakota that has been diaried by Meteor Blades here, I followed up on the actions suggested by Daniel Sheehan in his excellent action diary. Laura Sullivan has a piece on this at NPR called Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families. Every single person should listen to that story. Native children are being kidnapped from their families and being put into white foster care. The state of South Dakota is paid more by the federal government for fostering Indian children and a lot of these kids are being taken under questionable circumstances. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 says that Indian children must be fostered by Indian Foster Care wherever possible. But there are Native American foster care providers and family members that are not being given the chance to care for these kids. If the kids are not placed with a relative or tribal member, there is no way for family to sue the federal court to force compliance with the law. The links explain this outrageous and heartbreaking situation better than I have and I hope you will go read and listen.
On Thursday when I dialed Senator Daniel Akaka's office and referenced the Indian Child Welfare Act I was immediately forwarded to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs number. I was irritated by that since I had called to speak to Senator Akaka's staff directly. I called his office again.
The same staffer sounded irritated this time when I made it clear I wanted to leave a message with that office. She told me I was "wasting my time" calling him directly. That they didn't have anything to do with the Committee on Indian Affairs. I clarified that Senator Akaka is the chair of that committee. Yes, the staffer told me, and then went on to explain that that is committee business and that I had the wrong number. She was dismissive in tone, and this irritated me. So I restated her assertion that I was wasting my time calling the Senator directly. She agreed again. I asked her if she had a problem with my publicizing that. Nope.
Several commenters suggested I write a diary about this. As Aji said:
Does anyone here think for one solitary moment that, if he were called by defense or banking lobbyists, one of his staffers would tell the caller that "it's a waste of time" to call him directly and s/he should instead call the Committee staff line?
And, no, I don't care if it was a rogue staffer too full of himself. It's Akaka's job to keep him in line, not to be an embarrassment to his boss and an obstacle to constituents.
Sadly, I did not get the female staffer's name. But it doesn't really matter who did this, it should be an embarrassment to Senator Akaka. If you agree with me, please flood Senator Akaka's office with phone calls and emails.
Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Chair of United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs:
http://akaka.senate.gov/....
(202) 224-6361
While you are on the phone, please advocate for the Lakota families who are being so horribly wronged.