Source: https://www.narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/state/oklahoma/case/qgm.html
Timestamp: 2019-05-21 21:47:45
Document Index: 466545283

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1902', '§ 40', '§ 1903', '§ 1915', '§ 40', '§ 1912', '§ 40', '§ 1901', '§ 1902']

ICWA Guide Online | Oklahoma Cases
(Cite as: 808 P.2d 684)
No. 74370.
FN2. It is in the Indian child's best interest that its relationship to its tribe be protected. In re Appeal in Pima County Juvenile Action No. S-903, 130 Ariz. 202, 635 P.2d 187, 189 (App.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1007, 102 S.Ct. 1644, 71 L.Ed.2d 875 (1982). The Indian Child Welfare Act, 25 U.S.C.1901(3) (1978) provides that Indian tribes are to play a central role in custody proceedings involving Indian Children. If Indian tribes and nations are to protect the values Congress recognized, they must be allowed to participate in hearings in which those values are significantly implicated. Village of Chalkyitsik v. M.S.F. & J.J.G., 690 P.2d 10, 15 (Alaska 1984).
In his dissent, Justice Simms relies on Application of Bertleson, 189 Mont. 524, 617 P.2d 121, 125-26 (1980), for the proposition that the ICWA does not apply to intra-family custody disputes. The custody dispute in Bertleson arose between the non-Indian mother and the child's Indian grandparents. At the time the dispute arose, the child was living on the Chippewa Cree Reservation with the grandparents. The facts in Bertleson are not clear; however, it appears that the grandparents may not have spoken English. Although the Montana court did find in Bertleson that the dispute did not fall within the ambit of the ICWA, it did not hold that the tribal court lacked jurisdiction to hear the child custody matter. Instead, it remanded the cause for the trial court to determine whether it should assume jurisdiction. Factors to be considered in this determination included the contacts of the child; the contacts of the parties to the state and to the tribe; the best interest of the child; the physical presence of the child; the domicile and in personam jurisdiction over the parties; the existence of tribal law or tribal customs relating to child care and custody; the nature of the child's relationship with her grandparents and with her mother; the child's assimilation into and adjustment to life in the tribe and on the reservation; the mother's ethnic and cultural background and membership in or ties to the Chippewa Cree Tribe; the length of the child's residence both on and off the reservation; the domicile and residence of the child's father and the child's personal relationship with her father. While holding that the ICWA was not applicable, the Montana court remanded the cause for consideration of some of the same factors the ICWA was enacted to insure--that an Indian child not be removed from the Indian community and consequently lose touch with Indian traditions and heritage. See, Mississippi Band v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30, 36, 109 S.Ct. 1597, 1602, 104 L.Ed.2d 29, 39 (1989).
The Bertleson decision has been sharply criticized on the ground that its interpretation is contrary to the express provisions of the ICWA. A.B.M. v. M.H. & A.H., 651 P.2d 1170, 1173 (Alaska 1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 914, 103 S.Ct. 1893, 77 L.Ed.2d 283 (1983); In re Custody of S.B.R., 43 Wash.App. 622, 719 P.2d 154, 156 (1986).
For other cases in which Bertleson has met with opposition, see In re Adoption of T.N.F., 781 P.2d 973, 977 (Alaska 1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1030, 110 S.Ct. 1480, 108 L.Ed.2d 616 (1990) and In re Junious M., 144 Cal.App.3d 786, 193 Cal.Rptr. 40, 46 (1983).
FN4. Title 25 U.S.C. § 1902 (1978) provides:
Title 10 O.S.Supp.1982 § 40.1 provides:
"The purpose of the Oklahoma Indian Child Welfare Act is the clarification of state policies and procedures regarding the implementation by the State of Oklahoma of the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act, P.L. 95-608. It shall be the policy of the state to cooperate fully with the Indian tribes in Oklahoma in order to ensure that the intent and provisions of the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act are enforced."
FN5. Title 25 U.S.C. § 1903(1) (1978) provides:
"For the purposes of this chapter, except as may be specifically provided otherwise, the term--
(1) 'child custody proceeding' shall mean and include-- (i) 'foster care placement' which shall mean any action removing an Indian child from its parent or Indian custodian for temporary placement in a foster home or institution or the home of a guardian or conservator where the parent or Indian custodian cannot have the child returned upon demand, but where parental rights have not been terminated;
(ii) 'termination of parental rights' which shall mean any action resulting in the termination of the parent-child relationship;
(iii) 'preadoptive placement' which shall mean the temporary placement of the Indian child in a foster home or institution after the termination of parental rights, but prior to or in lieu of adoptive placement; and
FN8. Title 25 U.S.C. § 1915(a), (b), (c) (1978) provides:
(b) Any child accepted for foster care or preadoptive placement shall be placed in the least restrictive setting which most approximates a family and in which his special needs, if any, may be met. The child shall also be placed within reasonable proximity to his or her home, taking into account any special needs of the child. In any foster care or preadoptive placement, a preference shall be given, in the absence of good cause to the contrary, to a placement with--
Title 10 O.S.Supp.1982 § 40.6 provides:
FN10. Title 25 U.S.C. § 1912(a) (1978) provides in pertinent part:
"In any involuntary proceeding in a State court ... No foster care placement ... proceeding shall be held until at least ten days after receipt of notice by the parent or Indian custodian and the tribe or the Secretary: Provided, That the parent or Indian custodian or the tribe shall, upon request, be granted up to twenty additional days to prepare for such proceeding."
Title 10 O.S.Supp.1982 § 40.4 provides in pertinent part: "In any involuntary Indian child custody proceeding ... The notice shall be written in clear and understandable language and include the following information: ...
3. A statement of the rights of the biological parents or Indian custodians, and the Indian tribe: ...
"In any State court proceeding for the foster care placement of, or termination of parental rights to, an Indian child, the Indian custodian of the child and the Indian child's tribe shall have a right to intervene at any point in the proceeding." (Emphasis added). [FN11]
As noted by the Supreme Court in Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30, 109 S.Ct. 1597, 1600, 104 L.Ed.2d 29 (1989), the Act was the "product of rising concern in the mid-1970's over the consequences to Indian children, Indian families, and Indian tribes of abusive child welfare practices that result in the separation of large numbers of Indian children from their families and tribes through adoption or foster care placement usually in non-Indian homes." The Court noted that findings of Congress incorporated into the Act reflect the concern:
"(4) that an alarmingly high percentage of Indian families are broken up by the removal, often unwarranted, of their children from them by non-tribal public and private agencies and that an alarmingly high percentage of such children are placed in non-Indian foster and adoptive homes and institutions ... 25 U.S.C. § 1901."
The express declaration of Congressional policy in the enactment of the Act is:
"... that it is the policy of this Nation to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families by the establishment of minimum Federal standards for the removal of Indian children from their families and the placement of such children in foster or adoptive homes which will reflect the unique values of Indian culture, and by providing for assistance as Indian tribes in the operation of child and family service programs." 25 U.S.C. § 1902.
The Supreme Court of Montana addressed the issue of this intra-family limitation of the scope of the Act in Application of Bertleson, 617 P.2d 121 (Mont.1980), an internal family custody dispute which involved a non-Indian mother and Indian paternal grandparents. I am persuaded that the Court reached the correct result in holding that the Indian Child Welfare Act did not apply to such a situation. That Court held:
"[This] dispute does not fall within the ambit of the Indian Child Welfare Act. The Act is not directed at disputes between Indian families regarding custody of Indian children; rather, its intent is to preserve Indian culture values under circumstances in which an Indian child is placed in a foster home or other protective *691 institution. The House Report sets forth the essential thrust of the act:
'... to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families by establishing minimum Federal Standards for the removal of Indian children from their families and the placement of such children in foster or adoptive homes or institutions which will reflect the unique values of Indian culture ...' H.R.Rep. No. 95-1386, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 21, reprinted in [1978] U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 7530.
"The issue here is not which foster or adoptive home or institution will best 'reflect the unique values of Indian culture ...' Rather, the present case involves an internal family dispute between the mother and the paternal grandparents over the custody of the child." Id., at 125.