Opinion ID: 1872823
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Pro se representation.

Text: The tribe complains the juvenile court erred by preventing Steele to act as a nonlawyer representative of the tribe at the November 1 hearing. The federal and state ICWA are silent on whether the tribe may appear in court through a nonlawyer representative. As a general rule, Iowa requires businesses to appear only by lawyer, while a natural person may appear for himself. Hawkeye Bank & Trust v. Baugh, 463 N.W.2d 22, 25 (Iowa 1990). Whether a tribe may represent itself in court is an issue of first impression. For the reasons that follow, we believe a tribe should be permitted to represent itself in ICWA proceedings. We need not determine whether such a right should extend to other types of cases. The court of appeals of Oregon addressed this issue in State ex rel. Juvenile Department of Lane County v. Shuey, 119 Or.App. 185, 850 P.2d 378 (1993). There, the court found Oregon's statute requiring groups and associations be represented by a lawyer was incompatible with the tribe's right to intervene in ICWA cases. Shuey, 850 P.2d at 381. It stated [t]ribal participation in state custody proceedings involving tribal children is essential to effecting the purposes of the ICWA. Id. Because [t]he state's interest in adequate representation and compliance with procedure and protocol in general cannot compare with a tribe's interests in its children and its own future existence, the court found the tribe may represent itself in ICWA proceedings. Id. We agree. Moreover, tribes are inherently different than business organizations. Fraass Survival Sys. Inc. v. Absentee Shawnee Econ. Dev. Auth., 817 F.Supp. 7, 10 (S.D.N.Y.1993). [A]n Indian tribe's status is a distinctive combination of sovereignty and dependency  it is at once an independent nation and a ward of the state. Id. The tribe's status as a partially sovereign nation merits respect based on an expectation of responsible interaction with other sovereigns. Id. We must also be sensitive to the economic hardship that would occur if we were to require tribes to hire lawyers in ICWA matters. Id. at 11. Many tribes lack the resources for legal representation. Therefore, we hold a non-lawyer tribal member may represent the tribe in ICWA proceedings as long as the representative can demonstrate he or she is authorized to speak on behalf of the tribe. Steele presented the juvenile court with a tribal resolution authorizing her to represent the tribe in the custody proceedings involving Nairobi. Thus, on remand Steele shall be allowed to fully participate in further proceedings.