Opinion ID: 1787175
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Qualification of the State's ICWA Expert

Text: [¶ 10.] Mother contends on appeal that the trial court did not have before it the necessary foundational evidence to qualify the State's witness, Sarah Trimble, as an ICWA expert. Relying on our recent opinion in People ex rel. M.H., 2005 SD 4, 691 N.W.2d 622, Mother claims that Trimble did not exhibit sufficient knowledge of the customs and culture specific to the child's tribe, CRST. [1] Although challenging Trimble's qualifications, Mother does not argue that Trimble lacked an understanding of Native American culture nor that Trimble's description of CRST's childrearing practices was inaccurate. Rather, she argues that the State had not sufficiently established a foundation for Trimble's expertise because Trimble lacked experience with and knowledge of CRST specifically. [¶ 11.] A trial court's qualification of an expert depends on the foundational evidence presented at trial. We determined in People ex rel. M.H. that based on the evidence, the trial court had abused its discretion in qualifying the proposed expert. In that case, we emphasized the importance of the expert's foundational knowledge of the child's tribe and its childrearing practices. Specifically, we determined that the expert was unable to articulate the cultural or religious differences between the tribes he worked with and the CRST, was unable to identify the Lakota kinship structure or who was primarily responsible for raising the children in that structure and was unable to identify any services offered by the CRST. Id. ¶ 13, 691 N.W.2d at 626-27. Additionally, the expert's knowledge was called into question by evidence and testimony offered by the tribe disputing the accuracy and reliability of the proposed expert's opinion and the underlying knowledge upon which that opinion was based. Id. ¶ 15 n. 7, 691 N.W.2d at 627 n. 7. [¶ 12.] In contrast, a review of the record in the case before us shows that the State's expert had substantial knowledge of Indian culture and childrearing practices. She had gained the knowledge through a variety of experiences throughout her career. Her experiences included participation in various ICWA training courses, some of which were conducted by Native American persons. She also had extensive experience working with Native American families. Part of the experience with Native American families was gained during the last four years in her employment as a social caseworker for DSS. Half of her cases involved Native Americans. She explained that she worked with both parents and children on voluntary case management, as well as reunification of children in the home, connecting them up with resources and ensuring that the kids knew about their culture. She testified that this training and experience had made her familiar with the key elements of Native American parenting techniques and childrearing practices, which she described in detail. She also had worked with Native Americans at two of her previous jobs. One of the jobs was with the Black Hills Workshop, where she worked for four years. As part of her duties at the workshop, she took clients to various powwows, hoop dances and other cultural activities. The other job was with Violence Against Women Incorporated as a sexual assault advocate for over two years. Again, approximately half of her clients were Native Americans. Her duties included supporting and advocating for the clients at the criminal proceedings and also connect[ing] them up in the community if they wanted to access cultural resources. Most of her work was with the Oglala Sioux Tribes. In addition to the familiarity with Native American culture gained from her work, she was personally familiar with the culture because she had family members who were Native American. [¶ 13.] In preparation for her testimony in this case, she contacted the child's Tribe to verify that her understanding of Native American childrearing practices was consistent with CRST's practices. Trimble testified that she had contacted the Tribe via telephone and was eventually transferred to someone willing to speak to her about the childrearing practices. She verified from this conversation that CRST's childrearing practices were similar to those with which she was familiar. [¶ 14.] As we have consistently held, the trial court has discretion in determining the qualifications of an expert witness. Here there was substantial evidence of Trimble's expertise in Native American culture and the childrearing practices of Native Americans. There was also evidence that her understanding of general Native American childrearing practices was in accord with CRST's specific practices. Conversely, there was little evidence before the trial court that questioned the knowledge and accuracy of Trimble's expertise. Considering the foundation laid by the State and the lack of any specific challenge to this expertise by Mother, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in qualifying the expert.