removed from their homes and placed with non-native families - the tie to their cultures and communities severed in the process. 35 years later, the fundamental protections of the law are still being fought for. >> the requirements of that act apply from the minute indian parents and indian kids walk into the courtroom and it's just not happening. here in south dakota, native children are only 13 percent of the children in the state but more than 50 percent of those in foster care. and the majority are placed with non-native families, in group homes or institutions. >> we welcome you to beautiful pine ridge south dakota, where leaders are born. for the lakota people here, the issue isn't just about child custody, it's about cultural survival. in the southwest corner of south dakota is the town of rapid city. a federal class-action lawsuit has been filed against officials here, alleging that the state routinely violates the indian child welfare act. i went to meet one of the mothers involved in the lawsuit, madonna pappan. >> hi there. >> how's it going, madonna? i'm wab from al jazeera. >> nice to meet you. come on in. >> thank you. >> i don't like it. >> okay then don't eat that baby. not that part anyway. eat that part. madonna's two children were taken into state custody two years ago. her daughter was removed after madonna's husband drove intoxicated with the young girl in the car. dakotah, her son, was at home with a sitter at the time. >> my son had no reason to be taken and they took him from me at school two days later. i requested to see him before they had taken him so i could talk to him and explain to him what was going to happen. and i didn't get that chance. >> i was so frustrated. i was not happy. i said, i said okay i'll go. i won't put up a fuss, so i just went. at the court hearing for madonna's children, the judge ordered that they be kept in state custody for 60 days. the children were separated from each other and placed in non-native foster homes. dakotah threatened to hurt himself and was moved to a mental health facility. >> when you made that threat were you serious about it or what were you thinking? >> i was serious. i did not like it. i was so scared what was going to happen. i thought i was going to be away forever. >> only 11 years old at the time, dakotah was placed on risperidone, an antipsychotic, and transferred to an institution. south dakota institutionalizes more children under 12 than any other state in the country. >> they say they did it because they were trying to protect my children well they didn't protect my children, they traumatized them. you've got the hiccups? madonna says the department of social services never told her about her rights under icwa. instead, with help from an attorney, her tribe took over her case, and they returned custody of her children. >>if it wasn't for icwa, i don't think i would have gotten my kids back. so where's she at right now? is she with you? jolene abourezk runs the icwa office in rapid city for her tribe, the oglala sioux. she represents parents in court, fights to get cases transferred back to the tribe and places children with native foster families or kin. south dakota removes children from their homes more frequently than almost any other state in the country. >> my clients, they're so scared, anytime they see a social worker it's like seeing an officer, a police officer. it's not like here's some social worker offering to help me and my family improve in some way, the immediate response is they are here to take my kids. joleen believes many of the removals could be avoided. >> we've had grandmas who lived a block down the road who tried to get their grandkids. law enforcement calls dss. if they just place with the relative it can avoid so much. once you get into that system it's just so hard to get out because it's just one thing after another. the crucial moment when a judge decides whether to hold children in custody comes during a hearing held 48 hours after a child is removed. the lawsuit against the state argues that parents aren't given a fair hearing and children are being removed for unjustifiably long periods of time. >> they have to give those parents a chance to present evidence in their own defense. a chance to fight the state's attempt to take their children away from them and to do that in a meaningful fair hearing in front of a judge who has not made up his mind that whatever dss says goes. hanna contends that there is evidence presented at the hearings, but only from one side. mark vargo is the state's attorney for pennington county, and he's one of the officials named in the class action lawsuit. he's the only person from the state who agreed to speak with us. >> so i'm a lay person and i hear a police report or a report from a social worker being admitted into these 48 hour hearings and i think: evidence. can you explain why that doesn't mean evidentiary hearing? >> the 48 hour hearing under icwa according to the state supreme court was designed to ensure that parents are on notice, that they know what's happening to them. and to make sure that they have the availability of council. it is not the place that you try the case. >> they tell us this is not an adversarial proceeding, this is something we're all just supposed to go along with. from the indian perspective, who sees this in terms of history, this is about adversarial as it gets. when the state is trying to take their children, they're just following in a historical tradition that started a long time ago. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> now for full-disclosure, i'm native from the anishinaabe nation. my dad and older relatives were taken from their families and put in residential schools in canada where the expressed intent was to kill the indian in the child. my family here in south dakota have lost children to the child welfare system. the stories in this episode of fault lines hit close to home. this is the pine ridge reservation, home to the oglala lakota. it stretches for over 2 million acres across the southwestern corner of south dakota. this land is home to a rich culture but has also seen some of the darkest parts of native american history. in the 1800s the government began sending native children from across the country to boarding schools, sometimes using armed police to remove them from their families. through the agencies of the government they are being rapidly brought from their state of comparative savagery and barbarism to one of civilization. native american children were stripped of their culture and identity. many suffered abuse in the schools. the assimilation policies continued. in the 1950s came the indian adoption project. native children were taken by social workers and missionaries and placed in white homes. by the time icwa was passed more than 25 percent of native children had been removed from their families. today, what native americans call "historical trauma" still casts a long shadow. we're in kyle, a town on the reservation, and people are walking today against suicide - an all too common occurrence in a place with little industry and where more than 80% of the people are unemployed. the walk is led by the sweetgrass suicide prevention group. >> we're seven times more likely to want to harm ourselves because we feel there's no hope. tiny de cory is the coordinator of the group. she says that struggles with alcohol and drug addiction are common here. >> we've had six suicides from january to a few days ago. six. but we have saved a lot of people's lives, a lot of youth. >> i stopped many suicides just by talking to them. i even went and cut down a person last summer. i caught him just in time. that's why as a grandmother i'm here today to help each and every one of you and many more. at the end of the day, the participants "smudge", passing a bundle of burning sage around the circle to cleanse and purify themselves. >> and if we're going to walk out of the darkness together, we have to help each other, we have to talk about it. >> i'm tiny de cory and this is our regular radio show on kili radio. we have a weekly show from 4 to 5 pm on thursdays. tiny's group teaches young people how lakota culture can help build coping skills. >> we are referring young people to the traditional medicine men, traditional men in the communities for sweat lodges. >> i never feel at peace as much as i do when i'm praying or when i'm inipi'ing, when i'm sweating with my friends and my relatives and my family. and that's what we need. we need to get purified because we carry a lot of baggage. so i think that's a good way of how we could deal with a lot of this, a lot of the hardships that we go through in our lives. >> we are all related. mitakuye oyasin! >> group: mitakuye oyasin. in lakota culture, family encompasses all of a child's relatives by blood, marriage or adoption. every member of this "tiospaye", or "extended family" is a potential foster home. bernice spotted eagle is raising six of her great grandchildren and three grandchildren. >> i wake up praying with them, talking to them, getting them ready, clean them up, send them to school. i do all this by myself - that's what keeps me going. in the "tiospaye", grandparents have the same rights to raise children as parents. the oglala sioux tribe has been able to honor this tradition by taking over child welfare from the state. they created lowo, or lakota people caring for our children. it's the tribes' own child protection agency, and it empowers tribal courts in a unique way. >> lakota people, we've always lived crowded. you know you look at the teepee thing and so you can get four or five girls lying on the floor in the bedroom and as long as they were safe and as long as they were loved and as long as they were protected and fed that's acceptable. dss would not allow that in any placements. using our tradition and culture we were able to find a lot of kids permanency with extended family. bernice's great grandchildren have been able to live here together, go to school and retain their connection to lakota culture. >> say sappa. >> sappa. >> there you go. >> the best thing in life is that we love each other. we share with each other. we care for each other. and our wolakota ways of life is very precious, very sacred way of life for us. for young people who don't have extended family who can take them in, the transitional living program, or tlp, creates a tiospaye for them. it's a home for teenagers aging out of the foster care system. >> our kids would age out of foster care with no skills to survive on their own and a lot of them ended up pregnant or incarcerated or in substance abusing situations and they didn't really have the tools to know what independent living is. >> you want a bite? sari recently arrived at the tlp. she first went into state custody when she was 8 years old, and lived in up to 12 homes, she says she lost track at some point. >> the first time that i went into the system, like all's i wanted was my mom. all i wanted my dad. by the time, i was 13, i finally figured out my parents, they don't want kids. they want to be on their own. you know? so, regardless if they're there or not i shouldn't be there. >> how'd that make you feel when you figured it out? >> i didn't want anything to do with them. because they were just going to continue hurting me emotionally. sari's now back in touch with her parents. and she's studying for her ged. >> transitional living, it's a very big stepping stone in my life. i feel like i'm right where i need to be. i want a career for myself. i want to go into the navy. >> i'm pretty excited about that. >> well, i hope you make it happen. the tlp can be a lifeline for young people like sari. but its future hinges on funding and it's facing severe cuts from sequestration. >> our kids need to laugh. they need to run, they need to play, not worrying about where their next meal is going to come from, if they're going to have school clothes, these are things that we as direct service providers need to help ensure that these kids are getting so that they're able to educate themselves so that they can do what it is i'm doing, what you're doing, what a president of our tribe is trying to do. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. with few job prospects on the reservation, many families migrate in search of work, only to find that conditions are just as tough in rapid city. there are more native americans living in poverty here than any other city in the country. and if their children get taken into custody, they often lack the resources to fight the state. >> my children were taken from me last week. they said my inability to protect them and it wasn't even anything that i have done. i let them go with their dad and their dad took them somewhere they shouldn't have been. angela's children were taken to the home of a family member who's alleged to have abused them on a previous occasion. later, when the children were being interviewed by the police about the incident, an officer asked angela to step into another room with her. >> when i went with her that's when she told me she was taking my kids into custody. she didn't let me say bye or hug them or anything. (crying) she just took them. and when i was leaving the room, my son said, "mom, mom, mom", and i said, "i'll be right back." and then while i was in one room they took my kids out the door. angela's about to find out if she'll be able to see her children today. >> we don't have a whole lot right now, but we have each other, and that's the most important thing in the world to me. >> it feels like i haven't seen my kids in a year. it hasn't even been a week. >> there they are. >> oh look, they are running. >> i missed you so much. >> baby zach! hi baby. >> never again, ok? angela's children are being returned to her under state supervision. >> i missed you guys so much. at a future hearing she'll find out if she will regain full custody. >> did you pray, mom? >> i prayed every minute. >> me, too. later angela tells us about a message a police investigator sent her. >> so tell me about this note. >> investigator boal called and wanted me to let you know that as a parent, you can decline tribal involvement in your custody case. >> so the police were telling you that you can decline having the help of your tribe? >> yes, and this wouldn't be the first time that she wanted to get this message to me. she's also said it to me verbally over the phone. >> why do you think she's telling you that? >> i think she wants to influence me that i'm better off without them. >> i've had so many clients tell me, my social worker said if the tribe takes my case i'll never see my kids again. because you are going to relocate them, and place them with someone i don't know. and that's not true. joleen says she's even had judges challenge her right to intervene. >> and for them not to know the tribe has an absolute right to intervene, and no one can object, that just tells you what kind of state we live in. >> i can see the emotion on your face when you're talking about these things. >> how could you not get emotional when you're native? i think i get upset because it's so obvious. it's not like it's secret, it's not like something that's new. and for people in positions in south dakota to allow it to continue, it's offensive and it hurts. but i think i get emotional thinking of what was lost with kids, you know, how many kids we've lost already. and we can't change the past but no matter how bad it was, you could take something good from it and go forward. >> my name is raymond cournoyer. i'm the icwa director for the yankton sioux tribe, and also the chairman of the coalition of sioux tribes. a group of south dakota icwa directors have come together to meet in rapid city. >> i think today is a, kind of a monumentous day for us because we're here to make changes to move forward, so it's like a new beginning for us. they're trying to come to a new agreement with the state's attorney, mark vargo. >> i am very comfortable that if we go around this table the goal of every person in this room is essentially the same, so the question becomes nuts and bolts, how do we set up processes, or eliminate processes that let us get to our goals better. officials from dss were at the meeting but asked us not to film them. >> i just think so many of these cases could be avoided if law enforcement was more aware or better trained in this whole process. >> it might not be a bad idea to see if we can provide some assistance to law enforcement, because you're right, they can only do what they know. >> we're saying we all want to do something, well why can't we do it? juanita scherich is the icwa director for the oglala sioux tribe. she was placed into foster care when she was 9 years old. >> those children, they become the person that's going to get in trouble all the time. they become the person in the orange suits, in jails, in shackles. somebody tell me i'm wrong. because i know i'm not wrong. i'm tired of seeing our kids hanging themselves when they come home. i hope that we can change that because you can mark. you and your dss workers. now it's up to you, how much you want to work with us. lets start a new beginning. by the end of the meeting, the icwa directors and the state had reached an informal agreement to hold another hearing two weeks after a child is taken into custody. it's a chance for the tribe to push dss to make sure children are placed with native families and are staying connected to their culture. >> at this time we're going to have a prayer song before we begin our little ceremony. at little wound school, a new generation is proudly celebrating lakota tradition. >> our kids need to know who they are, where they come from, and where they're going. they need to know that there is a song and a ceremony for just about everything that we do. for many tribes, the long-term goal is complete independence from the state and the power to control child welfare for all native families. federal dollars are available, if tribes can find the matching funds they need. but with native programs already chronically underfunded, that goal seems further out of reach. >> americans have a very special responsibility to american indians. they were here first. i would say to anybody who has an attitude that this is old news, these are old treaties, i'd just say why don't you go to one of these indian reservations, particularly one that's in a pretty difficult situation, and then ask yourself if you contributed to that by being part of a country and a government that broke all of the promises or virtually all the promises it made. don't you feel some responsibility? you should. >> as a tribe though, we have to be responsible too. we have to stand up and take responsibility. we need to say okay these are our kids and we're out there arguing saying we want them back. but what are we going to do when we bring them home? what are we going to do for our kids? we have to have a plan. we need to make positive permanent change for... all our people, and so, you know, that's what's i'm hoping is going to happen. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> beyond the verdict and on the streets >> there's been another teenager shot and killed by the police >> a fault lines special investigation >> there's a general distrust of this prosecutor >> courageous and in depth... >> it's a target you can't get rid of... >> the untold story... >> who do you protect? >> ...of what's really going on in ferguson >> they were so angry because it could have been them >> fault lines, ferguson: race and justice in the u.s. one hour special only on al jazeera america >> welcome to al jazeera. >> under siege in iraq we report from a town where isil is attacking some three

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