Remembering

I've lived on this planet long enough to have gone on the trip around the sun very nearly 62 1/2 times (just a couple of weeks shy). I remember the days when Indian groups were decrying the seizure of Indian children from homes where they were being neglected and abused and placing them in foster homes. White foster homes, that is. The hew and cry was that Indians could do a better job of protecting their own children than any do-gooder Whiteman agency ... so ... over a very short space of time, the care of abused and neglected children was transferred to First Nations themselves.

Since then we have been hearing stories like this one:

Manitoba Appeal Court quashes union bid to scuttle inquiry into girl's death

"The young girl was in and out of foster care before dying in 2005 from prolonged abuse at the hands of her mother and stepfather. Her death went unnoticed for nine months and her mother continued to collect child benefit cheques."

[---]

"Phoenix was five when she was killed by her mother, Samantha Kematch, and stepfather, Karl McKay, after years of abuse. Both were convicted of first-degree murder in 2008 and have exhausted their appeals.

The pair neglected, confined and repeatedly beat the little girl. Court was told she was shot with a BB gun and forced to eat her own vomit. She died from her extensive injuries on a cold basement floor on the Fisher River reserve in 2005. Her body was concealed in a shallow grave near the community dump.

The girl was taken by Child and Family Services at least twice during her short life -- once at birth and again three years later -- but she was returned to her mother each time."

So, I ask you. What, if anything, has changed?