“A panel discussed the history and impact of the Indian Child Welfare Act — which faces a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court — at a Harvard Institute of Politics Forum on Monday evening.

The Supreme Court is set to hear a case Wednesday against the ICWA, a 1978 law regulating the foster care and adoption systems for Native American children to prioritize placement with relatives or other Native American households. The challenge to the law originated from a Texas adoption case and questions the constitutionality of the ICWA.

Ryan H. Doan-Nguyen ’25 began the event with a land acknowledgment, recognizing that Harvard University was built on the ancestral land of the Massachusett people and neighbors the lands of the Wampanoag and Nipmuc peoples.”