Western New Mexico University Professor of History, Andy Hernandez, Ph.D., presented at the Children’s Law Institute conference as part of the New Mexico multidisciplinary summit earlier this year. By mapping the historical continuum from early state-sponsored practices and the Indian Slave Trade to the residential boarding school era, Hernandez challenged legal practitioners, caseworkers and advocates to view contemporary child welfare through a structural lens.
Hernandez’s session, Genocide and the Road to ICWA, underscored that laws like the federal Indian Child Welfare Act and the New Mexico Indian Family Protection Act are not arbitrary regulations, but essential, hard-fought safeguards against generations of systemic disruption.
Hernandez demonstrated how public-facing academic research can directly inform front-line legal and social work. A core takeaway from his workshop was that the harms inflicted by historical child removal policies are not confined to history books. For many Indigenous families and younger Native attendees at the summit, these impacts remain part of living memory.
During his presentation, Hernandez illustrated the historical continuum between past atrocities and modern child welfare systems by analyzing archival data from the residential boarding school era alongside contemporary statistics concerning children placed in foster care and adoptive services. As his research has expanded, Hernandez has increasingly incorporated oral histories, noting that he has been approached by individuals who lived through these systems firsthand and wish to share their testimonies.
Hernandez emphasized that the most vital lesson is recognizing that these systemic harms are not confined to a distant history. Instead, they remain part of the living memory of nearly everyone navigating these systems today—a reality reinforced during the summit through humbling conversations with younger attendees who described experiencing these very disruptions within their own lifetimes.
Reflecting on the broader implications of his work, Hernandez underscored the value of bridging academia with state-level policy and advocacy. Many university faculty strive to develop public-facing dimensions to their research, and Hernandez views his involvement as a practical bridge to support the practitioners executing New Mexico’s laws.
“Many faculty work to develop a public-facing element to their research,” Hernandez said. “In this particular case, my research is public facing, has potential application to public policy and resonates with the elements of the university’s identity that emphasize teaching by offering an example of material that applies to public policy and that I am grateful to have the opportunity to share with those who execute these laws and policies in New Mexico.”
While New Mexico has made strides, regional community needs in Southwest New Mexico and statewide mirror a broader national trend: Native American children continue to be represented in foster care systems at disproportionate rates. Sessions at the summit heavily emphasized how statutes like the IFPA continue to provide vital, non-negotiable safeguards to protect familial and tribal bonds.
Hernandez anticipates that as the direct pain of historical policies recede from public consciousness over the next two to three decades, skepticism regarding the necessity of these legal protections may surface. He intends for his ongoing academic research to anchor a permanent historical record, demonstrating the enduring nature of these multi-generational harms and reinforcing the perpetual need for robust legal shields.