Opinion ID: 2109253
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: dispositional and review hearings

Text: On April 2, 1984, K.M. appeared before the court with her attorney for a dispositional hearing. Also present were the guardian ad litem for the children, a representative of DSS, and a court service officer. Also, P.M.'s attorney appeared at the dispositional hearing. P.M. is the father of three of K.M.'s children. K.M. was living with her husband, who is not the father of any of K.M.'s children, in a one-bedroom unit at a downtown hotel with no kitchen facilities. For over 10 years K.M. had been unemployed, but at the time of the hearing derived income by supplying her blood biweekly to a blood bank. K.M.'s husband, also unemployed, supplied a blood bank with his blood as a source of income. K.M. had been married to, but was divorced from, P.M., the father of K.M.'s three oldest children. Through his lawyer, P.M. indicated an intention to seek custody of his three children. The two youngest of K.M.'s children have different fathers, who never married K.M. and who are not parties to these proceedings. At the conclusion of the dispositional hearing, the court ordered that the children remain in the custody of DSS, subject to K.M.'s reasonable visitation. The court also ordered a home study regarding P.M.'s residence. The court further ordered K.M. to obtain suitable and stable employment and to participate in psychological and psychiatric evaluations. Also, the court ordered that K.M. undergo a chemical dependency evaluation, adhere to any recommendations based on the evaluation, and obtain a permanent residence. The court required interim reports before a review hearing concerning the rehabilitative program ordered at the dispositional hearing. Although notified of the review hearing set for July 30, 1984, K.M. failed to appear at the hearing. The State's evidence established that K.M. had missed several scheduled visitations with her children, that she and her husband remained unemployed, and that the couple still relied on income from selling their plasma. K.M. had completed psychological and psychiatric evaluations, but had failed to undergo a chemical dependency evaluation. K.M. and her husband were residing in a studio apartment suitable only for two adults. Meanwhile, K.M.'s children were in three separate foster homes and, with the exception of J.L.M., were doing fairly well in foster care. J.L.M., the oldest child of the five, exhibited emotional problems and, after treatment at St. Joseph Center for Mental Health, was placed in a group home. A lawyer for the Yankton Sioux Tribe and Judge Albert Joseph, chief judge of the Yankton Sioux tribal court, appeared at the July 30 review hearing. Through Judge Joseph, the tribe indicated its intention to request that jurisdiction over K.M.'s children be transferred to the tribal court of the Yankton Sioux Tribe. See 25 U.S.C. § 1911(b) and § 43-1504(2). Apparently, the tribe and Judge Joseph believed that K.M.'s children were Indian children under the federal and state acts. However, at the time of the review hearing, no pleadings had been filed for transfer of the proceedings to the Yankton Sioux Tribe and its tribal court. As a result of the July 30 review hearing, the court reaffirmed its previous order for DSS' custody of K.M.'s children, again ordered that K.M. maintain consistent visitation with her children, and retained its order that K.M. undergo evaluation for chemical dependency and obtain a stable source of income and suitable housing. On August 15, the Yankton Sioux Tribe filed a petition in the juvenile court and alleged that K.M.'s children were Indian children under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act and that the tribe accepted jurisdiction over the children. The Yankton Sioux Tribe requested that the juvenile court transfer the proceedings to the tribe's jurisdiction pursuant to the Indian Child Welfare Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1911(b). On October 15 and through his attorney, P.M. objected to any transfer of proceedings to the Yankton Sioux Tribe. On February 21, 1985, the juvenile court held another review hearing, at which evidence disclosed that K.M. had successfully completed a 60-day alcoholism treatment program in Omaha, but had moved to Lincoln despite an assigned social worker's admonitions against such move. Although K.M. had not visited her children since September 1984, she did eventually see her children three times in February 1985. K.M. planned to divorce her husband, from whom she had separated. At the conclusion of the review hearing, the court renewed its previous orders and further ordered K.M. to attend biweekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and notify the court of any significant changes in her lifestyle. Shortly after the review hearing and against the advice of DSS, K.M. moved to South Dakota to live with her mother. On November 14, 1985, K.M. filed a motion for transfer of the proceedings to the jurisdiction of the Yankton Sioux Tribe pursuant to ICWA, the federal act. Regarding the requests to transfer jurisdiction to the Yankton Sioux Tribe, the juvenile court held a hearing on November 25, 1985, and hearings on March 3, April 30, September 16, and October 29 during 1986. Evidence at those hearings showed that K.M.'s father was a fullblooded Ponca and that her mother was one-half Yankton Sioux and one-half Caucasian. Although the method of calculating K.M.'s Indian blood degree is unclear, K.M. maintained that she was five-eighths Yankton Sioux. Each father of K.M.'s five children had no Indian blood. Although K.M. was an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, her children were not enrolled with the tribe. None of K.M.'s children have been raised in the traditional Indian culture of the Yankton Sioux or have ever resided on a reservation. When K.M. applied for her children's enrollment with the Yankton Sioux Tribe, the tribe rejected the applications. Judge Joseph testified that to qualify for membership in the Yankton Sioux Tribe, the applicant must be one fourth Indian. Of that one fourth, [one] must be one eighth Yankton Sioux. Judge Joseph acknowledged that K.M.'s children must be eligible for membership in the Yankton Sioux Tribe before the tribal court could accept jurisdiction. In May 1986, the juvenile court declined to transfer the proceedings to the Yankton Sioux Tribe. Later, after a hearing on K.M.'s motion that the federal Indian Child Welfare Act govern the proceedings, the juvenile court, on December 3, 1986, determined that the children that are the subject of this action are in fact eligible for membership in the Yankton Sioux Tribe and the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act and its State counterpart, the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Act should be the controlling statutory law for the hearings and proceedings involving these children. After additional review hearings in March and July of 1987, the State, in September 1987, filed a motion to terminate K.M.'s parental rights. At the hearing in December 1987 concerning the termination motion, the State presented evidence that K.M. had failed to comply with the court-ordered program for K.M.'s rehabilitation, although DSS personnel had fully explained the plan to K.M., who understood the plan and had agreed to comply with the court's directives. In particular, K.M. failed to comply with rehabilitative recommendations received at the alcohol treatment center and did not inform the court whether she was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Also, K.M. failed to achieve the following: obtain employment; maintain contact with court service officers, who had made several attempts to contact her; attend parenting classes as recommended by a court service officer; and acquire adequate and stable housing. Although DSS made special efforts for K.M.'s visitation of her children, such as supplying bus tickets for K.M.'s travel from Lincoln to Omaha for visitation and making special arrangements with the American Indian Center of Omaha for K.M.'s child visitation at the center, the special efforts were of no avail for K.M.'s visitation of her children. Notwithstanding the order to maintain consistent visitation with her children, K.M.'s last contact with any of her children was in March 1986, when she visited her two oldest children. After March 1986, K.M. made no attempts to contact the children at all, whether through letters, telephone calls, or personal visits. A report on K.M.'s home in South Dakota reflected that K.M. was unable to provide a stable and adequate home for her children in view of her unstable financial condition, unsatisfactory housing, and unresolved alcohol problems. On the basis of the evidence adduced at the termination hearing, the court found that reasonable efforts had been made to reunite K.M. with her family, but that return of the children to K.M. would not be in the children's best interests. Further, the court found that, by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, K.M. had abandoned her children for more than 6 months before the State filed its termination motion. See § 43-292(1) (termination of parental rights; abandonment for 6 months before filing of petition to terminate parental rights). Also, by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, the court found that K.M. had failed to comply with the court-ordered rehabilitative program to correct the conditions which led to the determination that K.M.'s children were juveniles under the Nebraska Juvenile Code. See § 43-292(6) (termination of parental rights; failure to correct conditions resulting in adjudication that a child is a juvenile within § 43-247(3)(a) of the Nebraska Juvenile Code). For those reasons, on December 10, 1987, the juvenile court terminated K.M.'s parental rights in her children. K.M. appealed to this court. During pendency of K.M.'s appeal, the State filed a motion in this court for remand on the limited question of applicability of the U.S. Indian Child Welfare Act and the Nebraska Indian Child Welfare Act, since documentation obtained showed that none of K.M.'s children was an Indian child within the state or federal act. Without written opinion, this court ordered a remand of the proceedings to the juvenile court for additional evidence on the issue concerning applicability of ICWA and NICWA to the proceedings. On September 7, 1988, this court's mandate was issued concerning the order for remand of proceedings in the juvenile court. Pursuant to the remanding order and the mandate from this court, the juvenile court held a hearing on March 13, 1989. Applicable to that hearing are federal statutes, Pub.L. No. 87-629, 76 Stat. 429, enacted in 1962 and later codified as 25 U.S.C. §§ 971 to 980 (1982), which related to the Ponca Tribe of Native Americans of Nebraska and in part provided: When the distribution of tribal assets in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter has been completed, the Secretary of the Interior shall publish in the Federal Register a proclamation declaring that the Federal trust relationship to such tribe and its members has terminated. Thereafter, the tribe and its members shall not be entitled to any of the special services performed by the United States for Indians or Indian tribes because of their Indian status, all statutes of the United States that affect Indians or Indian tribes because of their Indian status shall be inapplicable to them, and the laws of the several States shall apply to them in the same manner they apply to other persons or citizens within their jurisdiction. Nothing in this subchapter, however, shall affect the status of any Indian as a citizen of the United States. 25 U.S.C. § 980. At the March 13 hearing, the State presented documentary evidencea letter from the Yankton Sioux Tribe and a letter from the Tribal Government Services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. The letter from the Yankton Sioux Tribe contained a statement that [a]ll of [K.M.'s] children are not eligible for membership [in the Yankton Sioux Tribe] because they do not meet the membership criteria contained in the Enrollment Ordinance of the Yankton Sioux Tribe's constitution.... Also, the letter stated that the Yankton Sioux Tribe would not consider the Indian blood of K.M.'s father because the Ponca Tribe had been dissolved pursuant to federal law, namely, 76 Stat. 429. Consequently, none of the former Ponca Tribe was recognized as a member of an Indian tribe. The Yankton Sioux Tribe concluded that K.M.'s children do not meet the total Indian blood requirement for membership in the tribe. The letter from Tribal Government Services also referred to federal law, namely, P.L. 87-629, 76 Stat. 429, which established termination of the Federal trust relationship to the Ponca Tribe of Native Americans of Nebraska and its members. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' enrollment manual: The tribe may decide for itself that it is permissible to count the blood of a terminated Indian tribe in fulfilling requirements for membership for tribal purposes only. The letter from Tribal Government Services also stated that the Yankton Sioux Tribe chose not to include the Ponca blood in calculating the degrees of Indian blood for [K.M.'s] children, thus resulting in the rejection of their applications for membership in the Yankton Sioux Tribe. After the hearing on applicability of ICWA and NICWA, the court, on March 20, 1989, determined that the federal Indian Child Welfare Act and its Nebraska counterpart were inapplicable to the juvenile proceedings and left intact the previous order which terminated K.M.'s parental rights in her children.