Turtle Talk

Kathryn E. Fort has posted her paper, “The Cherokee Conundrum: California Courts and the Indian Child Welfare Act,” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This article was prepared for presentation at the American Indian Identity Conference held at Michigan State University, October 16-17, 2008. After classifying a year of Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) cases in state courts, it became apparent that California had both the highest number of ICWA cases and that most of these cases were because of noncompliance with the notice provision of ICWA. In addition, it became clear that the majority of California cases involved parents claiming Cherokee affiliation. This article concludes there could be many reasons for this, including an informal exercise of the Existing Indian Family doctrine at the social worker level.

And Matthew Fletcher posted “The Indian Child Welfare Act: A Survey of the Legislative History” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This paper is prepared for the University of Michigan Law School Native American Law Students Association’s annual Indian Law Day, April 10, 2009. The materials in this paper derive from an early draft of an amicus brief filed by the American Indian Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan in the Michigan Supreme Court case, In re Lee. The paper focuses on the legislative history of the Indian Child Welfare Act, with particular emphasis on Michigan.