No. 12135 

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA 

1972 

IN THE MATTER OF DECLARING MERLE EARLWIN 

CbNTRELL (also known as Merle Earlwin Savior) 

A DEPENDENT AND NEGLECTED CHILD. 

Appeal from: District Court of the Seventeenth Judicial District, 

Honorable Thomas Dignan, Judge presiding . Counsel of Record: 

For Appellant : 

Robert L. LaRoche argued, Wolf Point, Montana. 

For Respondent : 

Hon. Robert L. Woodahl, Attorney General, Helena, 

Montana. 

Gordon White, County Attorney, Glasgow, Montana. 

Thomas Mahan argued, Helena, Montana. 

Submitted: March 13, 1972 

Decided 'MfiR 2 1 5972 -3 

Filed :JI/LR 2 !!?I-(- 
Mr. Justice Wesley Castles delivered the Opinion of the Court. 

This is an appeal from an order dated May 21, 1971, 

by the district court of the seventeenth judicial district, 

Valley County, the Hon. Thomas Dignan, presiding. The appellant 

is a 22 year old unwed mother of an illegitimate child. 

The order appealed from reads: 

"This matter coming on to be heard January 25, 1971, 

upon the petition of Joseph H. Roe, the duly appointed, 

aualified, and acting Director of the Division of 

Child Welfare Services of the Department of Public 

Welfare of the State of Montana, for and on behalf 

df the above named child, at which time there appeared 

in Court Marveen Savior, mother of said child, with 

Robert LaRoche, her counsel, and Wayne James Cantrell, 

father of said child, to show cause, if any they had, 

why the said Merle Earlwin Cantrell (also known as 

Merle Earlwin Savior) should not be declared a dependent 

and neglected child, and awarded to the care, custody, 

and control of the Division of Child Welfare Services 

of the Department of Public Welfare of the State of 

Montana, as prayed for in said petition; 

"Whereupon, witnesses were duly sworn and examined 

on behalf of the petitioner, and testimony being $iven 

by the parents of said child, the Court took said 

matter under advisement, and continued said matter 

from time to time to determine whether said Marveen 

Savior, mother of said child, could make arrangements 

for a suitable home and adequate care and supervision 

of said child; and upon a further hearing of said 

matter before the Court on May 21, 1971, additional 

testimony was offered in behalf of the Petitioner, 

and the Court being advised in the premises and upon 

due proof finds: 

 hat the said Merle Earlwin Cantrell (also known 

as Merle Earlwin Savior) is a minor child, who was 

born January 26, 1969, at Poplar, Montana, and is a 

dependent and neglected child within the meaning of 

Section 10-501, Revised Codes of Montana, 1947, and 

he is a child of the said Marveen Savior and Wayne 

James Cantrell, and that his best interests will be 

served by declaring him to be a dependent and neglected 

child under the laws of the State of Montana and 

awarding him to the care, custody, and control of the 

Division of Child Welfare Services of the Department 

of Public Welfare of the State of Montana, and the 

Director or any worker thereof, with lawful authority 

to appear in Court and consent to his adoption. 
"WHEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED, 

that the said Merle Earlwin Cantrell (also known as 

Merle Earlwin Savior) is a dependent and neglected 

child and that he be and he is hereby awarded to the 

care, custody, and control of the Division of the 

Child Welfare Services of the Department oi Public 

Welfare ot the State of Montana, or the director or 

any worker thereof; 

"IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, that the said Director 

or any worker of the said Division of Child Welfare 

Services of the Department ot Public Welfare of the 

State of Montana is hereby authorized to appear in 

any court where adoption proceedings are pending, 

and assent to the adoption of the said Merle Earlwin 

Cantrell (also known as Merle Earlwin Savior) ." 

The foregoing order of May 21, 1971, recites some of 

the facts and particularly refers to the period from January 

25, 1971, to May 21, 1971, during which time a further determination of arrangements for care by the mother was examined. 

At the hearing on May 21, 1971, the mother did not appear in 

court, although she had notice, Her counsel did appear. 

A year previous, on May 18, 1970, the same court made an 

order for temporary custody which recited: 

I I It appearing to the Court that Merle Earlwin 

Savior, a male child born January 26, 1969, at 

Poplar, Montana, is a dependent and neglected 

child within the meaning or the Revised Codes of 

Montana, 1947, in that the child was found wandering 

around on the Burlington Northern Empire Builder 

west bound train at Glasgow, Valley County, Montana, 

on May 18, 1970, without any supervision or care, and 

that said child was then and there suffering from 

neglect by the putative father, Wayne James Cantrell, 

in that said Wayne James Cantrell was in a drunken 

stupor ; tha t in consequence whereof, the Department 

of Public Welfare of Valley County, Montana, was 

called to assume the care and control of said minor 

child; that said child has a very serious cleft 

palate, and is suffering from a slight cold; that the 

mother of said child, whose given name is unknown, but 

whose surname is believed to be Savior (or Xavier) and 

is believed to reside at Wolf Point, Montana; that by 

reason of neglect, abuse, and inability on the part of 

the child's parents to care properly and adequately 

for the said child as to warrant the Department of Public 

Welfare of Valley County, Montana, in the interest of 

the said child, to assume immediate temporary care, custody, and control of the said minor child, and it further 
appearing to the Court that a petition to declare 

said child dependent and neglected within the meaning 

of Section 10-501, R.C.M., may be filed shortly herein 

and that the Court deems it to be in the best interest 

of said child that the Department of Public Welfare of 

Va lley County, Montana, take immediate temporary care, 

and custody of said child pending the hearing as provided by law; 

"NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that immediate 

temporary care and custody of said child be given to 

the Department of Public Welfare, Valley County, Montana, 

until the further order of the Court." 

On that same day, May 18, 1970, Wayne James Cantrell, the 

putative father was charged in justice court in Valley County 

with willful neglect of a minor child, a misdemeanor. On May 

19, 1970, Cantrell pleaded guilty and received a suspended sent enc e. 

The child was found abandoned and helpless in Valley 

County, not on an Indian reservation. Section 10-503, R.C.M. 

1947, provides for procedure in this situation. 

The child had been placed by its mother in the care of 

a babysitter on May 15, 1970. Prior to the mother's return, 

the putative father took the child. Some three days later, on 

May 18, 1970, the father took the child from the reservation with 

the intention of going to Idaho by train. The journey was shortlived. The Valley County Welfare Department took the child from 

its helpless position with its intoxicated father and placed it 

in a foster home. 

Prior to these events, in 1969, the same child had been 

taken from the mother's custody by order of the Tribal Court of 

the Fort Peck Indian Reservation on the grounds of parenta 1 neglect, and sometime in early 1970, had been returned to its mother. 

In the period of time from May 1970, to January 1971, and 

on to May 1971, the mother made almost no effort to retrieve, if 
we may use that term, her child. In this'time, she did ask for 

the child but had no home to take him to. The child needed and 

received corrective surgery for cleft palate, arranged for by 

the Welfare Department. In late October 1970, the mother wrote 

to the Valley County authorities to this effect: "* * *'I was 

supposed to have gotten in touch with the Welfare Department in 

Glasgow soon after he was taken from Wayne J. Cantrell. I failed 

to do so. '" 

From a rather dismal record of arrests, living with men 

unmarried, and general inattention, the mother continued her way 

of living on the reservation while the child was being cared for 

off the reservation. 

Appellant here bases her appeal on what she calls the 

1' fact" that there is no evidence of acts of neglect attributable 

to her occurring outside the exterior boundaries of the reservation. Thus, she reasons, the state courts have no jurisdiction 

under the rationale of Williams v. Lee, 358 U.S. 217, 79 S.Ct.269, 

3 L ed 2d 251; Kennerly v. District Court of Montana, 400 U.S. 

423, 91 S.Ct. 480, 27 L ed 2d 507; and, Crow Tribe of Indians v. 

Deernose, Mont , , 487 P.2d 1133, 28 St.Rep. 754. 

However, the '"act1' of neglect, that of abandonment of a 

helpless infant, occurred off the reservation and continued for 

over a year off the reservation. The mother's only effort, to 

all practical purposes, was to remain in the sanctuary of the 

reservation, oblivious to the needs of her child. This fact alone 

removes the case from the heretofore cited Indian jurisdiction 

cases. 

The district court ruled that it had jurisdiction because 

the child was physically in the county and off the reservation 

when the petition was filed. That is the sole issue here. 
Section 10-516, R.C.M. 1947, states in part: 

"This act shall be liberally construed, to 

the end that its purposes may be carried out, 

to-wit : That proper guardianship may be provided 

for in order that the child may be educated and 

cared for * * *." 

Section 10-503, R.C.M. 1947, states in part: 

"Any officer of the state bureau of child and 

animal protection * * * having knowledge of a 

child in his county who appears to be a dependent 

or neglected child, may file with the clerk of 

the district court a petition * * *." 

That is exactly the procedure in this case, and the district 

court had jurisdiction over this child. 

Accordingly, finding no error, the order of the district 

court is affirmed. 

~ssocate Justice 

/fly Chpf Justice c 

Associate Justices.