", The Choctaw Nation said it "desires the best for this Choctaw child.". And Lexi is part Choctaw, a federally recognized American Indian tribe, which means the Indian Child Welfare Acts placement preferences applied. Her father has a criminal history, according to court records. She said Lexi and the Utah family had traded messages and had monthly visits during the past three years. Her relatives said in a statement they hope the ruling brings closure and "Lexi is at last allowed to live a peaceful childhood in our home with her sister.". Her father, who had a criminal history, never lived on a Choctaw reservation and didnt have any social, political, or cultural ties to the tribe, according to the court documents. Placement with family is the gold-standard of any child-custody case, not just a case involving tribal children. The states say the law is discriminatory, and the federal government has no right to tell states how to regulate child welfare cases. The Indian Child Welfare Act is meant to help tribes keep children in tribal homes where they can learn about their culture. Testimony in Congress showed that was due to ignorance of tribes' values and social norms. "The foster family was well aware years ago this girl is an Indian child, whose case is subject to the requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act," the National Indian Child Welfare Association said in a statement. In March, Lexi cried and clutched a stuffed bear as Rusty Page carried her out of his home and Los Angeles County social workers whisked her away in a waiting car. "How is it that a screaming child, saying, 'I want to stay, I'm scared,' how is it in her best interest to pull her from the girl she was before that doorbell rang?" The law is very clear in California that family gets priority, she said. Lawsuits claim it wrecked their teeth. . David Crane / Los Angeles Daily News via AP, had been camped out in the street singing and praying since Sunday. Please respect the privacy of Lexi and her family. But this case shines a bright light on the ways in which the law in its current form is routinely being misinterpreted, with devastating consequences for families and children. Reading ICWA to demand this tragic result is inconsistent with Lexi's constitutional right to stability and permanence-- a right recognized by the California Supreme Court more than twenty years ago. "Fundamentally, the issue here is that the Indian Child Welfare Act subordinates individualized considerations of a child's best interest in favor of a blunt assumption that being placed with a tribe is going to be better for the tribe, and that's just demonstrably untrue," he said. In the days after losing their legal battle, the Pages addressed an online petition called Keep Lexi Home to several California and LA DCFS officials. Remember that LA County placed this little girl in foster care with our clients after she had suffered two years of neglect and abuse. What happened yesterday should never happen . Our clients have been the only consistent source of love, nurturing, parenting, and protection she has received her entire life. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. They said they wanted to adopt the girl. "It would be fairly extraordinary for an appeals court to reverse that," he said. Wenona Singel, a law professor at Michigan State University, said membership requirements vary among tribes, with some being more restrictive than others. The state denied their request after the Navajo Nation identified a potential home with a Navajo family in New Mexico. A California appeals court affirmed in July a lower court's decision to remove the girl. ", The Choctaw Nation said it "desires the best for this Choctaw child.". Her . Lexi entered foster care because her biological parents had substance abuse problems and a criminal record, and the relatives in Utah are related to her through her step-grandfather. There is a 6-year-old little girl who is going to be ripped away from the only family that she has ever known. Lawsuits claim it wrecked their teeth. Family members said Monday they were disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving their former foster daughter, a girl with Native American ancestry, who was ordered removed from their California home and reunited with relatives in Utah. Lawmakers found that Native American families were broken up at disproportionately high rates, and that cultural ignorance and biases within the child welfare system were largely to blame. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the case of a Santa Clarita family fighting to regain custody of a 6-year-old foster girl. The foster parents spoke out Thursday morning during a news conference in front of the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown Los Angeles, just a day after the California Supreme Court refused to intervene in their battle over Lexi, who is part Choctaw. Lexi is now with her extended family and her biological sister in Utah. In 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued guidance on implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act - clarifying that tribes alone are responsible for determining who is a member. Like many of her teammates, Lexi had left Navarro College by the time Daytona 2021 took place. The case was decided in the California court system three separate times, with three different trial court judges ruling in favor of Lexi's relatives in Utah. Maddie cant fathom it, and she asks us why, and the fact of the matter is that I cant tell her why, because I cant fathom it.. Her name is Lexi," the petition said. ICWA gives tribal governments a strong voice concerning child custody proceedings that involve Indian children, by allocating tribes exclusive jurisdiction over the case when a child is a ward of the tribe. ICWA gives a higher preference to family members seeking to adopt, as does California law. The girl, Lexi, was taken away from foster parents. The legal fight has gone on for years. Because Lexi is 1.5% Native American, the Choctaw Tribe was able to completely tear apart Lexis life due to an egregious misapplication of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Once a child is placed with a Native American family, it is highly unlikely that the decision would be reversed, he added. In adoptions of such children, the law requires states to notify tribes and seek placement with the child's extended family, members of the child's tribe or other Native American families. And applying ICWA to children who had no prior connection to any tribe raises grave equal protection concerns, as the US Supreme Court recognized in 2013, in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. LOS ANGELES -- A California family appealed Tuesday to the state's highest court in their fight to keep a 6-year-old foster child who was removed from their home after a lower court said her 1/64th Native American bloodline requires that she live with relatives. The Pages have fought efforts under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act to place Lexi with relatives of her father, who is part Choctaw. "To Lexi this family is her everything . Official Statement from Lori Alvino-McGill representing The Page Family's Legal Team. In a statement to TV Line in June 2012, Leigh revealed . . By George F. Will. The Pages have three children and want to adopt Lexi, who was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her birth parents. (TR Knight) in a December 2020 episode. The following statement reflects the Choctaw Nation's position on the case of Lexi. Bipartisan Senate group unveils rail safety bill in response to Ohio derailment, U.S. officials clashed over asylum restriction before Biden proposed it, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Transcript: CIA director William Burns on "Face the Nation," Feb. 26, 2023. what happened to lexi choctaw 2021. Magazines, Digital When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Copyright 2023 by The Associated Press. "They were ashamed she was Native American, and they made her ashamed she was Native American," Maldonado said. "The law is very clear that siblings should be kept together whenever they can be, and they should be placed together even if they were not initially together," Heimov told the Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/1pYtXlg ). The family's lawyer, Lori Alvino McGill, filed the request for the California Supreme Court to hear the appeal. The Supreme Court ruled that portions of the ICWA did not apply to non-custodial biological fathers, and Veronica was returned to the family that had adopted her. The law has led to some emotional, high-profile cases, including one in 2016 in which a court ordered that a young Choctaw girl named Lexi be removed from a California foster family and placed with her fathers extended family in Utah. Her family will provide her a safe, stable and nurturing home to grow up with her sisters and to have contact with her extensive extended family. In 2011, extended family in Utah became aware that Lexi was with a foster family and expressed interest in adopting her, according to the documents. "The fear is without the statute, Indian children will once again sort of disappear into the child welfare system and be lost to their families and their tribes," said Adam Charnes, who will present arguments on behalf of five intervening tribes before a panel of the 5th U.S. What happened to Lexie Grey? At issue is the Indian . We are appealing the decision, and we have asked the state Supreme Court to step in and halt this hasty change in custody before it causes irreparable harm. The boy is now 3, and the couple is seeking to adopt his younger half-sister. LOS ANGELES -- A California appeals court affirmed on Friday a lower court's decision to remove a six-year-old girl with Native American ancestry from her foster family of four years and reunite her with relatives in Utah. All Rights Reserved. Leslie Starr Heimov, executive director of the Center, told the ABA Journal last year that the Pages would have been unlikely to get custody even if ICWA had not applied to the case. All children, not just Native children, do better with caring relatives. Our hearts are broken and we are trying to make sense of everything that has happened with our three other children who witnessed their sister Lexi forcefully ripped away from our family by strangers," the Page family said in a statement Monday night. May 21, 2022 . We will continue to expeditiously pursue our appeal through the state courts in California, and, if necessary, to the U.S. Supreme Court. I sat them all down on our couch, and said Daddy needs to tell you something, and Lexi turned pale white and started hysterically crying, and our older daughter started screaming at the top of her lungs, he said. Dave Grohl Hauls Big BBQ Smoker to LA Shelter to Feed People Amid Storm, 5 Freeway Closed North of LA Due to Snow and Poor Visibility, Avalanche Blocks Road in Mount Baldy Area After Cold Storm Drops Several Feet of Snow, 2 Arrested in Stabbing Death of Father on Downtown LA Street, March 1983: The Day a Rare Tornado Rampaged Through Los Angeles. "She has a loving relationship with them," Heimov said. They were also designed to give state courts flexibility to depart from the placement preferences where there is "good cause" to do so. Lexi is now living with relatives of her father who are not Native American. The case was one of dozens brought by foster families since the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the late 1970s. More than 20 states have joined hundreds of tribes, advocacy groups and the federal agency that oversees Indian affairs in urging an appellate judge to uphold the law. "There's no doubt in my mind that what happened . But he believes that shouldnt matter here. A federal judge in Texas ruled the Indian Child Welfare Act is unconstitutional, saying it is racially motivated and violates the equal protection clause. Oak Lawn police officer charged after teen's violent arrest, ABC7 Chicago says farewell to Meteorologist Phil Schwarz, Kitchen Possible empowers kids in Chicago. The placement preferences are just that -- preferences-- and they apply only when a child is in need of a placement. She was reunited with her biological sister in the home but none of the family members are Native American. The problem that is that there are so many variables, says Adam Pertman, president of the National Center on Adoption and Permanency, a nonprofit devoted to issues of adoption and child welfare that has not taken a public position on Lexis case. In the meantime, our clients hope that the family in Utah will follow through on their promise to keep Lexi in contact with her family in Los Angeles. Our family is so incredibly devastated, Rusty Page said in a video statement. The National Indian Child Welfare Association argues that the decision to re-place Lexi was the right one because "the purpose of foster care is to provide temporary care for children not to fast-track the creation of new families when there is extended family available who want to care for the child.". DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES. Congress did not intend ICWA's placement preferences to be used to remove a child from a loving home in these circumstances. Singel is a member of a tribe in Michigan. Lexi was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her birth parents. In the meantime, our clients hope that the family in Utah will follow through on their promise to keep Lexi in contact with her family in Los Angeles. The ICWA piece created a vehicle for all of the appeals, she said. Associated Press Official Statement from Lori Alvino-McGill representing The Page Family's Legal Team. We believe that following the Choctaw Nations values is in Lexis best interest.". Lexi cried and clutched a stuffed bear on Monday as Rusty Page carried her out of his home near Los Angeles and Los Angeles County social workers whisked her away in a waiting car. The tribe also has jurisdiction over non-reservation Native Americans foster care placement proceedings. The Choctaw Nation has advocated for Lexi to live with her family since 2011. By. The attorneys who brought this case to the high court made clear from the beginning that their goal was not only to remove Lexi from her [extended] family, but to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act.. Foster care is a much-needed temporary service provided for children until the child can be returned to the care of his or her family. Thomas Blakely, a Choctaw Indian teenager, lives with his family in Idabel, Okla., one of many poor, rural communities within the sprawling . Many steps have been taken by the Choctaw Nation to ensure the best placement of Lexi. The Pages also argued that ICWA singles out Native children for disparate treatment based on race, in violation of the 14th Amendments equal protection clause. They do not get the same best-interest-of-the-child standard that applies to all other children. "Only because of the Indian Child Welfare Act, (and) people following it, he has a community," she said. However, a court found that the Pages have not proven Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. Dozens of supporters also surrounded the Pages home Monday in an attempt to block LA DCFS officers. A California appeals court affirmed in July a lower courts decision to remove the girl. The law has led to some emotional, high-profile cases, including one in 2016 in which a court ordered that a young Choctaw girl named Lexi be removed from a California foster family and placed with her father's extended family in Utah. 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