Author: Matthew L.M. Fletcher – Page 764

Three Indian parents, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe filed a class-action lawsuit to challenge the continued removal of Indian children in Pennington County, South Dakota from their homes based on insufficient evidence and without proper hearings, in violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 and the constitutional right to due process.

Congress enacted ICWA to put in place federal safeguards for the removal of Indian children from their homes to both protect the interests of Indian children and give Indian tribes a voice in the process, because of an alarming number of Indian children who were removed from their homes and their tribes. Family separation can be particularly difficult for Indian children because not only are children separated from their parents, but because they are often placed with non-Indian families, they also experience separation from their culture.

When children are removed from their parents based on an allegation of neglect or abuse, a substantive hearing should normally be held in order to determine whether their children should continue to be separated from them. Instead, the lawsuit contends, Pennington County officials hold a cursory hearing in 48 hours that sometimes lasts no more than a minute, where all of the documents are kept a secret from the parents and they are not permitted to introduce any evidence, and their children are then removed for a minimum of 60 days and usually 90 days, according to the complaint. Most parents are also unfairly coerced by the court to “work with” the state Department of Social Services (DSS), which essentially authorizes the department to hold the children for at least two months under whatever terms DSS wants. DSS rarely seeks to assist the family.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit along with the ACLU of South Dakota and Dana Hanna of the Hanna Law Office in Rapid City. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three parents in Pennington County, as well as the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, which are federally recognized Indian tribes with reservations in South Dakota.

Oglala Sioux Tribe v. Van Hunnik et al.: Class Action Suit to Force South Dakota Judges to Comply with Indian Child Welfare Act

March 21, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher6 Comments

Here is the complaint, to be filed today:

OST1 Complaint with Exhibits 3 4 6

From the complaint:

Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) in part because officials in South Dakota and other states were removing scores of Indian children from their homes based on insufficient evidence, and in perfunctory and inadequate hearings, in violation of federal law. Yet today, despite the added protections of ICWA, officials in Pennington County, South Dakota are removing scores of Indian children from their homes based on insufficient evidence, and in perfunctory and inadequate hearings, in violation of federal law.

Attached to this complaint as “Exhibit 1” is the transcript of one such Pennington County hearing. This hearing, involving Plaintiff Madonna Pappan, her husband, and their two children, lasted little more than sixty seconds. The court did not permit the Pappans to see the petition that had been filed against them by state officials. When Mr. Pappan asked what he was permitted to discuss, the court changed the subject and, a few seconds later, terminated the hearing. The court immediately entered an order (attached as “Exhibit 2”) which found that “active efforts have been made to provide remedial services and rehabilitative programs” to the Pappans, and that taking the Pappan children away from their parents “is the least restrictive alternative available,” even though no evidence was introduced during the hearing on those issues. The order stripped the Pappans of custody over their children for at least sixty days and gave that custody to the officials who had filed the secret petition. As discussed below, Plaintiffs Rochelle Walking Eagle and Lisa Young, like many other Indian parents in Pennington County, were treated similarly during their hearings, and their children were removed from their custody. This lawsuit seeks a speedy end to such a disgraceful process.

Colville Tribal Prosecutor Article on Practicing in Tribal Court

March 21, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the March 2013 edition of the Washington State Bar’s “NW Lawyer“:

nwlaywer201303

Former Mich. Rep. Kildee Joins Akin Gump

March 21, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

WaPo: Lawmakers Offer Bill to Ban Redskins Trademark

March 21, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

NYTs Op-Ed: “The Sequester Hits the Reservation”

March 21, 2013March 21, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

Here.

An excerpt:

The sequester will impose cuts of 5 percent across the Indian Health Service, the modestly financed agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides basic health care to two million American Indians and native Alaskans. It is underfinanced for its mission and cannot tolerate more deprivation.

Here lies a little-noticed example of moral abdication. The biggest federal health and safety-net programs — Social Security, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, and veterans’ compensation and health benefits — are all exempt from sequestration. But the Indian Health Service is not.