‘Lexi’ To Stay With Utah Family

Choctaw child will be placed with relatives

Bottom Line: Unlike the ‘Baby Veronica’ case, another Native child custody battle has had a happy ending.

THE 6-year-old Choctaw girl known as “Lexi,” whose custody battle became a cause célèbre earlier this year, will be staying in Utah with her family.

In a scathing 38-page decision issued on July 8, a three-judge panel of the California Second District Court of Appeals ruled against the claims of Lexi’s foster parents, Summer and Russell Page. The panel cited the couple’s “self interest,” their pattern of interference with and resistance to Lexi’s visits with her extended family, and their inability to facilitate an ongoing relationship with her siblings.

These factors constituted “substantial evidence” that there was no good cause to depart from the placement preferences of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the judges ruled.

Last March, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services removed Lexi from the Pages’ home in Santa Clarita, California after the couple initially refused to hand her over to social workers. With their refusal, they defied a court order that Lexi be placed with family in Utah, which includes two biological sisters.

The transfer, carefully planned for months and intended to proceed smoothly, deteriorated into chaos after protesters and media descended on the house in an effort to prevent it.

The case began in 2010, when Lexi’s father went to jail for selling stolen auto parts, her mother having disappeared shortly after her birth. After being assigned to several foster homes, the girl was placed with the Pages while her father worked to complete a “reunification plan.” Authorities told the Pages numerous times that Lexi would eventually be reunified with her father or sent to live with relatives.

Nonetheless, the couple began indicating that they wished to adopt the girl. As a result, their relationship with Lexi’s father became strained. The Pages were “interfering” with his visitations and attempting to dictate the terms and length of his visits, Lexi’s father told ICTMN.

According to court documents, the increasingly despondent father—who has a criminal record and history of drug use—decided to cease reunification efforts with Lexi after 18 months of failed attempts. He asked that she be placed with relatives in Utah. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the child’s attorney and the child’s guardian ad litem supported the move.

Thus began a five-year legal battle by the Pages to retain custody of Lexi. Heading their legal team was Lori Alvino McGill, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who represented birth mother Christy Maldonado as a pro bono spokesperson during Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. The 2013 case involved a Cherokee Nation tribal member losing custody of his daughter after a legal battle that went to the Supreme Court.

McGill, who represented the Pages as a pro hac vice counsel in California, has tried unsuccessfully to overturn the ICWA in various jurisdictions across the country, including Virginia and South Carolina.

Addressing the primary issue―whether the Pages could show “good cause” to depart from ICWA’s placement preferences―Justice Sandy R. Kriegler wrote for the majority in the July 8 decision that the determination should not “devolve into a standardless, free-ranging best interests inquiry.” Kriegler noted that Lexi’s lengthy stay with her foster parents was borne solely out of ongoing litigation.

“The United States Supreme Court has cautioned that courts should not ‘reward those who obtain custody, whether lawfully or otherwise, and maintain it during any ensuing (and protracted) litigation,’” the panel concluded.

Morever, “A holding that the facts before us constituted good cause as a matter of law would circumvent the policies favoring relatives and siblings, and it would incentivize families who knowingly accept temporary foster placements to delay an Indian child’s ultimate adoptive placement in the hope that as time passes, the family will reach a ‘safe zone’ where harm to a child from disrupting his or her primary attachment is presumed as a matter of law. It is unwise and unnecessary to stretch the bounds of California law in that manner.”

In dismissing the Pages’ legal arguments, the California court took the couple to task on several points. They criticized the Pages for being unwilling and unable to provide Lexi with a continuing relationship with her Utah family; for insisting that they monitor visitations; and for demanding that individual therapy sessions meant for Lexi should include the entire Page family.

Regarding Lexi’s cultural ties, the justices also pointed out that the Pages were reluctant to engage in any of the suggested activities and had made only half-hearted attempts at incorporating Native American heritage into their lives. Summer Page, they specifically noted, had testified that a dreamcatcher made by Lexi had “ended up in the trash.”

The Pages pointed out that they had joined the Autry Museum and had painted a wall in their kitchen “Navajo Blue.” In the end, however, the panel wholly rejected the Pages’ argument that their efforts represented Lexi’s best interest.

“The Pages also do not—and in our view cannot—provide an adequate response to an issue raised most effectively by minor’s appellate counsel. Even though they appear before the court by virtue of their status as de facto parents, the Page’s efforts to show good cause are motivated by their own interests,” wrote Kriegler.

“Minor’s counsel, not the Pages, has a legal and ethical obligation to represent Alexandria’s interests. The Pages lack the right to assert Alexandria’s interests because Alexandria has her own counsel, who represents her interests and also acts as her guardian ad litem.”

After the decision, Lexi’s Utah family issued the following statement:

“We respect the unanimous decision by the court of appeal justices. All who have been appointed to seek Lexi’s best interests—her court-appointed attorneys, guardian ad litem, social worker, the Department of Children and Family Services, and the dependency court judges—have unanimously echoed that Lexi should be raised by her family.

“More than simply sharing a familial relation with us, Lexi has been a real part of our family since the moment her grandmother—our aunt—expressed her desire that we bring Lexi into our home. The determination we felt since then, when Lexi had just been placed in her first foster home, has provided vital strength for our family as we have waited for the courts to untangle the details.

“We hope the appellate court’s ruling brings closure and finality to everyone involved, and Lexi is at last allowed to live a peaceful childhood in our home.”

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, an active party in the case from the beginning, supported the placement with the Utah relatives.

“The Choctaw Nation is pleased that the California District Court of Appeals has upheld the lower court’s decision to place Lexi with her extended family and sisters in Utah,” the tribe said in a statement. “This has been the tribe’s objective under the Indian Child Welfare Act for more than three years.

“We hope this puts an end to this needless litigation so Lexi can get on with her life.” http://bit.ly/29wsZUX

Major Blow For Northern Gateway

Inadequate Indigenous input on Canadian oil project

Bottom Line: First Nations said they required more consultation on a $6.5 billion pipeline. A high court has agreed with them.

Indigenous leaders are hailing the judicial revocation of permits for Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway oil pipeline through British Columbia as a victory for adequate consultation.

Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal overturned approval of the massive $6.5 billion pipeline project on June 30, ruling that Ottawa had not properly communicated with First Nations that would be affected by its progress.

“We find that Canada offered only a brief, hurried and inadequate opportunity . . . to exchange and discuss information and to dialogue,” wrote two of the three judges on the Appeal Court panel. “It would have taken Canada little time and little organizational effort to engage in meaningful dialogue on these and other subjects of prime importance to Aboriginal Peoples. But this did not happen.”

While the project could continue in theory, it cannot do so without thorough consultation with the First Nations who have opposed it as an environmental menace.

“This decision reinforces, yet again, that First Nations have rights as peoples that are recognized in the Constitution and that full and meaningful consultations with affected First Nations must be undertaken and respected by all, including the Federal Cabinet,” said Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde.

Other indigenous leaders concurred.

“For years First Nations have called for meaningful and comprehensive consultations to ensure First Nation interests and concerns with respect to the environment are met when government and industry are planning projects that cross through our traditional Treaty territories,” said Federation of Sovereign Indian Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron. “When will governments realize and accept that First Nations must be included especially in the area of natural resources and its development?”

As conceived by Enbridge, Northern Gateway would carry bitumen 730 miles from Bruderheim, Alberta to the deep-water port of Kitimat, British Columbia. Ottawa first approved the project in 2014; it was required to meet 209 conditions, including that construction begin by the end of 2016.

But a massive opposition effort, backed by both aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities, created major obstacles for the proponents. Perhaps chief among these was the current court case, which was brought last October by the Gitxaala Nation, the Gita’at First Nation, the Haida Nation, the Kitasoo Xai’Xais Band, the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, and the Nadleh Whut’en and Nak’az-dli Whut’en.

“For years First Nations have called for meaningful and comprehensive consultations to ensure First Nation interests and concerns with respect to the environment are met when government and industry are planning projects that cross through our traditional Treaty territories,” said Federation of Sovereign Indian Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron. “Last week’s Federal Court of Appeal ruling is another legal example of the affirmation of our Inherent and Treaty Rights to the land.”

The aggrieved groups, concerned about the impact that a potential crude oil spill would have on sensitive areas of British Columbia’s environment, had managed to delay construction enough that it may not begin before the deadline. The court challenge launched by the Gitga’at and Coastal First Nations was just one of many tying up the project since the federal government’s pipeline approval.

In May, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered the provincial government and Enbridge to pay First Nations’ legal costs of more than $230,000. The ruling, said Kelly Russ, Chair of Coastal First Nation (CFN), validated the communities’ dedication to their environmental cause.

“We are very pleased,” Russ said. “The decision is a victory for the tireless work of our leaders and our Gitga’at community in the fight to protect the waters, lands and resources in the Great Bear Rainforest.”

In that ruling, Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg found that the provincial government failed to fulfill its statutory duty to properly consult with coastal First Nation communities after signing an Equivalency Agreement with the federal Conservatives, granting the NEB full jurisdiction over the project’s environmental assessment.

Northern Gateway President John Carruthers subsequently acknowledged Enbridge’s failure to properly consult all relevant parties.

“Northern Gateway should have done a better job of building relationships with First Nations and Métis communities, particularly on the west coast of British Columbia,” Carruthers said. “While we had the right intentions, we should have done a better job of listening and fostering these critical relationships and developing our plans together as true partners.” http://bit.ly/29XaiPM

Congressional Run, Tribal Outreach

‘We want to live a better life’

Editor’s Note: Paula Hawks, a Democratic representative in the South Dakota legislature, is challenging incumbent Republican Kristi Noem for the state’s at-large seat in Congress. As part of her campaign, she is visiting every South Dakota tribe. In this interview with ICTMN, she explains her goals:

***

Could you tell us a little about yourself and why are you running for the House?

I am a South Dakota girl, born and raised. I was born outside of Flandreau on the family farm. I went to SDSU [South Dakota State University], where I met my husband. We have three kids

I taught high school science for 10 years, then I ran for the legislature in South Dakota because I was very frustrated with the way education was being handled at the state level, and … it became apparent to me that South Dakota needed a strong voice in its one U.S. House seat. We need somebody who’s going to represent all of the people of South Dakota and work to make life better for the average South Dakotan.

Could you talk about your relationship with American Indian communities?

I went to school in Flandreau public schools. We also had an Indian school in Flandreau and there were good relationships between the Indian school and the public school. We had a lot of Native American kids in the public school.

Growing up in that community, you couldn’t help but be aware of what was going on with all aspects of reservation life, and particularly for me as I watched economic developments ebb and flow with the Santee Sioux Tribe in Flandreau. You get a very strong feeling of what it is that they’re trying to do to improve their economic standing as well as maintain care for the people who live on the reservation.

That’s not just economic development, it’s health care, education, housing and law enforcement. And having been in the state legislature for the last four years I also developed a very strong relationship with Native American representatives like state senators Troy Heinert (Rosebud Sioux), Shawn Bordeaux (Rosebud Sioux), Jim Bradford (Oglala Sioux), folks having a very close relationship with Indians there because they live there.

They live on the reservation and they live and breathe it every day. Developing those relationships strengthened my understanding of what’s going on even further.

Hawks recently paid a visit to the Sisseton Wahpeton Wacipi. Courtesy Hawks for U.S. House campaign

Have you had any meetings with tribal leaders in regard to your candidacy?

I’ve been to six of the reservations in South Dakota and we will be finishing up our tour of reservations in July and August. I have had an opportunity to meet not just with the chairman of each reservation but also with the tribal leaders on the reservations. I’ve had a chance to talk with them about what their concerns are.

Topping their list is not just healthcare but law enforcement and education, housing opportunities, things that are really important not just to folks on the reservations but people everywhere. We all have the same concerns and all have the same desires. We want to live a better life and make sure that we have healthcare and jobs.

What are tribes telling you they would need you to do if you win?

They would need me to be willing to form partnerships with them. At the beginning of that is providing the funding to bring resources into the reservations. We need to prioritize that. It is not just our moral obligation. It is our treaty obligation and it’s something that we need to live up to. That starts with a good partnership between reservations and tribal leaders and their representative.

Money in Indian country is an ongoing problem. What are some of the specific strategies you would use to bring more dollars to Indian communities?

The first thing we need to do is look at what [resources] we have and then prioritize based on what our obligations are. And in this case our obligations are the treaty obligation to provide health care for Native Americans on their own reservation lands.

What are some of the specific priorities for Indian health care in South Dakota?

Number one: When we are in such a crisis situation that we’ve closed down emergency rooms and hospitals, our number one priority is to get those back open. That starts with providing resources, particularly funding. [IHS] is such a severely underfunded agency already that the small increases we’ve seen over the last few years don’t even begin to fill in the [gap].

Would you keep the same basic structure for running those hospitals?

There’s obviously some room for improvement in terms of administrative oversight. There are some things that need to be [changed] in terms of how IHS is run, but that again needs to be a partnership with the reservations.

How about education, what needs to happen and how would you get it done?

Again we’re looking at partnerships and being ready to open up those avenues of communication and allowing some of the things that have worked off of reservations to come on to the reservations and work for them. Again, it is all about building relationships and being willing to have those conversations with the people who are most intimately involved.

What are some of the major problems in education in tribal communities?

They have a really difficult time attracting and retaining educators and staff. When you are looking at a system where they are relying heavily on Teach for America where they bring in a teacher for a couple of years and then that teacher leaves, you have no continuity. And you don’t have the relationships that are so important to a good educational situation. So we have to find ways to attract and retain good quality educators on reservations.

You mentioned law enforcement as another area where work is needed. Could you talk about some specifics there?

We have a situation in several of our reservations in South Dakota where they have half of the manpower that they need for good quality law enforcement. We have a reservation, the Rosebud reservation, where they have [more than 1 million acres] of land to cover and they have [about] 20 law enforcement agents where they need 40.

That’s not acceptable. They can’t do a quality job of law enforcement when they’re spread so thin that they can’t even cover half of the territory. Again, it comes down to resources and being able to provide not only the monetary resources, but the appropriate training for them to handle the situations that they’re facing on reservations.

What else would you want people to know?

What I want people to know is that South Dakota and the reservations in South Dakota deserve a representative who’s going to be there for them, who’s going to be speaking for them, who is going to be standing up and making sure that their voices are heard. http://bit.ly/29EhThG

How Did I Miss That?

Death in the bullring, the chocolate upshot of Brexit
 and the last of D.B. Cooper

SPLC Report brought the news that Steve Smith, 45, has won election to the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Republican Committee for a second time. He immediately shared the happy news on Stormfront, home of white supremacy on the World Wide Web.

Smith is co-founder of Keystone United, formerly known as Keystone State Skinheads. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Smith has been active in an array of white nationalist, skinhead, and neo-Nazi groups.” The Skinhead leader won 69 out of 73 votes cast.

My cousin Ray Sixkiller asked me if Smith got the bad news. I had to ask, “What bad news? Donald Trump already picked a running mate.”

* * *

The economic and political fallout continued over the U.K. vote for Brexit. Fast Company reported that an unintended consequence is that the collapse of the pound has caused the price of chocolate to spike, substantially raising expenses for chocoholic Brits. Because the pound is dropping so radically against the dollar, U.S. exports to the U.K. are going to be hurt.

After seeing the impact of Brexit just days afterward, support for the E.U. is rising in the very countries that were feared to be the next dominoes in the fall of the entire alliance. Denmark is up 9.8 percent, Finland up 12 percent and Sweden up 3 percent.

Cousin Ray reminded me that we still don’t know whether Brexit will cause Scotland and Northern Ireland to withdraw from the United Kingdom. That would leave only Wales. So the U.K. would be only one withdrawal from being called England again.

* * *

Victor Barrio, 29, has become the first Spanish matador to die in the ring since two years before he was born. That was when José Cubero, 21—whose fighting name was “Yiyo”—messed with the bull and got the horn. About 7,000 bulls die by ceremonial sword every year after being weakened by the picadors and toyed with by the matador.

This is justified because it is “traditional.” Cousin Ray suggested that a better way to uphold “tradition” would be to reinstate the auto-da-fé. That “tradition” involved burning heretics, and the Spanish and Portuguese introduced it to the Indians of Brazil, Peru and Mexico.

“They called us cannibals,” Cousin Ray reminded me. So why wasn’t the auto-da-fé the first BBQ?

* * *

In a cheap imitation of that kind of BBQ, KXAN reported on a case of “burnin’ love,” when Joshua Collins, 26, attempted to set his fiancée on fire. He doused her with lighter fluid but was unable to fire her up with a cigarette. She escaped when he went to get a lighter. He followed her and dragged her back by her hair. She escaped a second time and he was charged with aggravated assault. At press time, no wedding date had been set.

* * *

In a somewhat delayed happy ending, KXTV reported that a German Shepherd fell out of a vehicle on California Highway 99 and spent five weeks living on the highway median because of a combination of fear and a broken leg.

After many 911 calls that reported an injured dog in the median, and several unsuccessful attempts to locate her, she was finally picked up by police officers from the city of Galt with help from the California Highway Patrol. Authorities had no luck finding the dog’s owners. But they put her in Bradshaw Animal Hospital for surgery on the broken leg.

She now has a name, Frida, and a home with Galt Police Officer Sylvia Coelho.

* * *

The FBI has closed the book on the only unsolved skyjacking in American history. On November 24, 1971, a passenger on Northwest Orient Airlines who signed in as “Dan Cooper” stepped off the aft airstair of a Boeing 727 and fell about 10,000 feet wearing a parachute and $200,000 in ransom money.

Forty-five years later, the case is closed unless new evidence turns up. Should that happen, there is no problem reopening the case, because the hijacker was indicted as “John Doe AKA D.B. Cooper.” The indictment tolls the statute of limitations.

The only evidence found outside the aircraft was a placard with instructions for lowering the aft door, which was recovered in 1978, and, in February 1980, three packets of $20 bills with serial numbers proving they were part of the ransom money. Some theorize that the eruption of Mt. Helens on May 18, 1980 destroyed the rest of the evidence and buried D.B. Cooper’s body.

“Or,” Cousin Ray snickered, “Cooper might be living in a palapa on a Caribbean beach where his biggest problem is dodging Zika mosquitoes.”
http://bit.ly/29OEtai