Michigan’s practice of automatically proceeding as if the child is NOT an Indian child unless told otherwise by a tribe will eventually cause problems.

In re Vanostran(pdf)

For our current purpose, what is important
from this Court’s prior decision is that we ultimately conditionally reversed the trial court order terminating respondents’ parental rights to SKV and remanded the case to the trial court only for “resolution of the ICWA-notice issue.” Id.at page 4. On remand, the trial court held several administrative review hearings. The trial court submitted an order dated March 8, 2013, indicating that at the review hearing held on January 23, 2013, the Department of Human Services complied with the statutory notice requirements tothe four Native American Indian tribes mentioned as a possible connection to the biological father of SKV who was later adopted by respondent father. As of February 19, 2013, one of the tribes had responded that there was no evidence to support that SKV was a descendent of that tribe. The order further stated that on February 14, 2013, another of the tribes responded that SKV was neither registered nor eligible to registeras a member of that tribe. The other tribes had not responded. As a result, the trial court ordered that none of the Native American Indian tribes identified as having a possible connection to SKV have responded that the child is eligible for membership in their tribe and/or that they wish to intervene in this matter. The trial court thus ordered, “The Court having previously made findings that there was clear and convincing evidence of statutory grounds to terminate the parental rights of [respondents], and that it was in the best interest of the minor child to terminate their parental rights, reinstates the Order Following hearing to terminate Parental Rights of the parents to [SKV].”