Here.
Previous coverage of the case here.
Author: Kate E. Fort
EPA Letter Review of the State Department’s Final SEIS on the Keystone Pipeline
Job Opening: Office of Legal Counsel for Nez Perce Tribe
Staff Attorney position at the Lapwai, Idaho office. Announcement here.
Two Articles from Canada This Past Week
The Macleans article on racism in Winnipeg.
For decades, the friendly Prairie city has been known for its smiling, lefty premiers, pacifist, Mennonite writers and a love affair with the Jets. Licence plates here bear the tag “Friendly Manitoba.” But events of last fall served to expose a darker reality. The Manitoba capital is deeply divided along ethnic lines. It manifestly does not provide equal opportunity for Aboriginals. And it is quickly becoming known for the subhuman treatment of its First Nations citizens, who suffer daily indignities and appalling violence. Winnipeg is arguably becoming Canada’s most racist city.
And a palate cleanser–
Young Indigenous Leaders to Watch (CBC)
We’re just a couple weeks into 2015 and already we’re catching wind of some young indigenous folks making great strides this year. They’re community organizers, big thinkers and creative types. We’ll be watching these movers and shakers and others just like them in the coming year.
So if you’re wavering on New Year’s resolutions, looking for some inspiration, or seeking some dynamic people to follow on Twitter, read on.
National Council for Adoption ICWA Webinar
Here. Addie Smith of NICWA will be doing the presentation, which is a very good thing.
via A.H.
Materials in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl
In response to a request, we’ve created a page to collect law review articles, bar journal articles, and cases after Adoptive Couple. It is a work in progress.
If you’re interested, bookmark this link.
Morning Edition on Access to Water at Navajo Nation
Here.
Law Professors Amicus Brief in Stockbridge-Munsee Community v. New York
Contested ICWA Adoption Case out of Alaska Supreme Court
An example of how state law is going to determine how potential Baby Girl cases are decided:
A married couple sought to adopt an Indian child over the objection of the biological father, who wished to maintain visitation rights. The couple and the biological mother appeal the superior court’s denial of the adoption, claiming that the biological father’s consent to the adoption was unnecessary. Under AS 25.23.050(a)(2)(B), the consent of a noncustodial parent is not required for adoption if that parent unjustifiably fails to support the child. But the superior court did not clearly err by concluding that the biological father had justifiable cause for his failure to support the child. We affirm.
See also FN 33.
Side note–it seems (non-Native) father might also be a veteran, given this quick line in the case, “And in the summer of 2008, he took college classes, paid for with student loans and GI Bill benefits.”
Previous AK Supreme Court decision in the case here.
Existing Indian Family Case out of the Kentucky Court of Appeals
Here, from the state that gave us Rye v. Weasel.
In the present case, the testimony of Ms. C[] indicates that the mother and father abandoned the child, with the mother ceasing all contact with the child after a short period of sporadic visitation following the child’s removal from her custody on May 1, 2012, by emergency contact order, only days after the child’s birth on April 28, 2012. The record further reflects that The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe had communicated to Cabinet officials that it was unable to provide any placement or assistance to the child in this case and thus would not intervene in the termination proceedings.
We agree that in the instant case, the child was not in any way raised in an Indian home or environment and then removed, which is what Congress intended to prevent with the creation of the ICWA. Thus, under the Existing Indian Family Doctrine, which the highest court in this state adopted in Rye, the ICWA is not triggered and the beyond a reasonable doubt standard was not appropriate.
Turtle Talk 
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