Native American Children in Maine Five Times as Likely to be Placed in Foster Care as non-Native Children
A commission has found that Native American children in Maine are five times as likely to be placed in foster care as non-Native children. The Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) presented its preliminary findings and recommendations recently at the first in a series of public forums in Maine. TRC Executive Director Charlotte Bacon told a group of a few hundred Maine residents gathered at Husson University in Bangor that the higher rate of foster care for Wabanaki children stems, in part, from racism and cultural differences in childrearing.