Turtle Talk

Here is the opinion in In re the Matter of the Guardianship of T.S.E.J.

Here is the court’s syllabus:

In this matter in which a putative father appealed the family court’s order for genetic testing and requirement that the parties reimburse the expenses of a guardian ad litem, the Court reverses the family court and provides a summary of the Navajo Nation paternity, custody and visitation law.

An excerpt:

It is in the best interest of children to have knowledge of their father and to be able to point to him as someone who desired to be their father without needless raising of questions of paternity that serve only to shake the stability of the family. Our courts must ensure a child does not consider himself or herself wótashke’ (fatherless child). In this case, where only one man has stood up to be the children’s father and, furthermore, has been taken to be the father by the mother and family, the Court has no business investigating further if the result would be to render that child fatherless.