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- Abourezk, James
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James George Abourezk (born February 24, 1931) is an American attorney and Democratic politician who served as a United States senator and United States representative from South Dakota. He did not seek re-election to the US Senate in 1978. He was the first Greek Orthodox Christian of Lebanese-Antiochite descent to serve in the US Senate. He was generally viewed as critical of US foreign policy in the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) area, particularly regarding Palestine and Israel.
Abourezk represented South Dakota in the United States Senate from 1973 until 1979. He was the author of the Indian Child Welfare Act, passed by Congress in 1978 to try to preserve Indian families and tribal culture, by arranging for the placement of Indian children in homes of their cultures, as well as to reunite them with families. It gives preference to tribal courts with custody of Indian children domiciled on reservations and concurrent but presumptive jurisdiction in cases of children outside the reservation.