A California appeals court affirmed in July a lower courts decision to remove the girl. "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. The California Court of Appeals originally ruled in August of 2014 that Lexi could stay with the Pages and they could continue to fight the Utah family for custody of the child. They do not get the same best-interest-of-the-child standard that applies to all other children. Lexi can remain where she belongs, with extended family that will raise her and a sister in the Choctaw tradition. Lexi is a 6-year-old girl from California who has spent the the majority of her life in a loving home - a home that she wanted to be her forever home. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Placement with family is the gold-standard of any child-custody case, not just a case involving tribal children. 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Magazines, Digital David Crane / Los Angeles Daily News via AP, had been camped out in the street singing and praying since Sunday. Although foster care is supposed to be temporary, the Pages want to adopt Lexi and for years have fought efforts under the federal act to place the girl with relatives of her father, who is part Choctaw. Lexi was taken from the Page home on Monday afternoon, Armand Montiel, a public affairs director with LA DCFS, told NBC News. Since then, Lexi has celebrated four birthdays with the Page family. Hernandez is a plaintiff in the case. 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. "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 California court appointed a marriage and family therapist to perform a child custody evaluation to assess the mental health and parenting practices of both parties. what happened to lexi choctaw 2021. "They are not strangers in any way, shape or form. Rusty Page told KNX-AM radio. Opinion. "The Pages were always aware that the goal was to place Lexi with her family, and her permanent placement has been delayed due to the Pages opposition to the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Choctaw Nation echoed in a statement. She has a broken nose, a cheekbone and also a hole in her jaw. 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. But he believes that shouldnt matter here. DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES, refused to intervene in their battle over Lexi. The case brought dozens of people to the Pages' Santa Clarita neighborhood to demonstrate against plans to move Lexi. Congress did not intend ICWA's placement preferences to be used to remove a child from a loving home in these circumstances. Theyre using this to attack tribal sovereignty, attack Indian people, and attack the Indian Child Welfare act, he says. Lexi is now with her extended family and her biological sister in Utah. Under the transfer, Lexi will live with a Utah couple who are not Native Americans but are related by marriage to her father. "To say we are heartbroken is an understatement.". 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. Tribes also have a say in foster care placements. Attorneys general in Texas, Indiana and Louisiana joined in suing the federal government over the Indian Child Welfare Act in 2017. Santa Clarita, Calif., March 21, 2016, PEZ Cancels Easter Egg Hunt After Parents Cause Huge 'Mess', How We Can Learn to Live with COVID-19 After Vaccinations. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. What happened yesterday should never happen, to any child. Her father has a criminal history, according to court records. Lexi's safety and wellbeing are the Choctaw Nation's paramount concern. Although foster care is supposed to be temporary, the Pages wanted to adopt Lexi and for years fought efforts under the federal act to place the girl with relatives of her father, who is part Choctaw. Singel is a member of a tribe in Michigan. Lexi's safety and wellbeing are the Choctaw Nation's paramount concern. 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. She did make the mat for Daytona 2020 but unfortunately never got to perform one final time as the . The Pages said they will keep fighting for changes to the law 'and the rights of other children unnecessarily hurt by the Indian Child Welfare Act.'. What happened yesterday should never happen . Lexi was ripped away from the only family she has ever known because of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Because Lexi is 1.5% Native American, the Choctaw Tribe was able to completely tear apart Lexi's life due to an egregious misapplication of the Indian Child Welfare Act. A happy, thriving six-year-old girl was forcibly removed from the people she knows as her parents because of a terribly misguided interpretation of a federal law that was designed to keep families together, not tear them apart. The Removal Act affects Choctaw first. Lexi is now living with relatives of her father who are not Native American. The expansion of Anglo-American settlement into the Trans-Appalachian west led to the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, forcing all eastern tribal nations to move to new homelands west of the Mississippi River in the Indian Territory. But thats not an absolute. "Our family is so incredibly devastated. The Pages and their attorneys believe the ICWA forced the countys hand, requiring them to take Lexi away from a loving home with foster parents and siblings she considers family. The Pages had cared for the girl, known in court as Lexi, for four years and wanted to adopt her. They are not strangers. Page says he has met the Utah relatives and they seem like well-meaning people who would be great parents. Her father has a criminal history, according to court records. The Choctaw Nation has advocated for Lexi to live with her family since 2011. Elisha Fieldstadt is a breaking news reporter for NBC News. She is watching them drive off. The state Supreme Court declined to review the case, clearing the way for the family to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The Pages' case to get Lexi back went all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear it. The boy is now 3, and the couple is seeking to adopt his younger half-sister. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The following statement reflects the Choctaw Nation's position on the case of Lexi. 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. The Pages argued that Lexi has lived with them since the age of 2 and considers them her family. Many in tears @NBCLA pic.twitter.com/lM1iWZiChk, The Pages lawyer said in a statement Sunday that they had been willing to offer the Utah family visitation rights, but they never responded to offers of compromise.. Lexi cried and clutched a stuffed bear on Monday, March 21, 2016 as Rusty Page carried her out of his Santa Clarita home and social workers whisked her away. Distraught and weeping, Page shared his foster daughter's parting words with CBS Los Angeles: "Don't let them take me. Rusty and Summer Page of Santa Clarita, California, had asked the Supreme Court to reconsider a Los Angeles juvenile courts ruling that there was no good cause to depart from the placement preferences in the Indian Child Welfare Act. A federal judge in Texas ruled the Indian Child Welfare Act is unconstitutional, saying it is racially motivated and violates the equal protection clause. They were also designed to give state courts flexibility to depart from the placement preferences where there is "good cause" to do so. A federal law that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings involving Native American children is facing the most significant legal challenge since it was enacted more than 40 years ago. The Goldwater Institute, a conservative legal organization, brought a proposed class-action lawsuit challenging ICWA directly in 2015. Lexi is part Native American and was given . Where is Lexi page now? 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. Copyright 2023 KABC Television, LLC. "The issue is not what degree of Choctaw ancestry a child has," Singel said. 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. McGill also requested that custody of the child named Lexi be returned to Rusty and Summer Page until the appeal is decided. But new hope is on the horizon for the Choctaw Nation. That case, Carter v. Washburn, is pending in Arizona federal court. Hernandez isn't Native American, but the biological father is from Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in El Paso, Texas. The LA DCFS said in a statement that the department always seeks to act in the best interest of the children it serves. Our clients have been the only consistent source of love, nurturing, parenting, and protection she has received her entire life. If the good-cause exception isn't satisfied in this case, it is difficult to imagine when it ever would be. Her . Like many of her teammates, Lexi had left Navarro College by the time Daytona 2021 took place. 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.". One of her biological sisters lives with the family in Utah, and another lives down the street. These relatives have been a part of Lexi's life for almost five years. But placement with family is always our priority. ###. Lexi is a 6-year-old girl from California who has spent the the majority of her life in a loving home a home that she wanted to be her forever home. Circuit Court of Appeals. AccuWeather: AM showers before a mild afternoon, Teammate facing charges in crash that killed local UGA player, Teens in stolen car crash into school bus on way to field trip in NJ. Lexi clutched a teddy bear and cried as she was taken from the Pages' home on March 21 as neighbors prayed and sang hymns in support of the family. One of Lexis biological sisters, who is Choctaw, lives with the Utah family, and another lives nearby. The child ultimately was placed with her maternal grandmother, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. Forrest Hanson For Dailymail.com Dozens of supporters also surrounded the Pages home Monday in an attempt to block LA DCFS officers. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. A crowd of friends and neighbors wept, prayed or sang hymns. 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. Fletcher contends the Pages lawyers are using Lexis case as a legal weapon to challenge ICWA. The California court appointed a marriage and family therapist to perform a child custody evaluation to assess the mental health and parenting practices of both parties. Still, Lexis story is reigniting tensions over the purpose of the ICWA and thorny questions over its role in determining the best interests of Indian children. Lower courts found the Pages had not proven Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. They said they wanted to adopt the girl. Regardless of tribal membership, Lexi should be allowed to live with her family, just as all children in any deprived case should.. "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 ). Lexi, who is 1/64 Choctaw, was taken from her foster home north of Los Angeles in a tearful parting in March and placed with extended family in Utah under a decades-old federal law designed to. Many of those gathered had been camped out in the street singing and praying since Sunday, when the officers were originally expected to arrive. A happy, thriving six-year-old girl was forcibly removed from the people she knows as her parents because of a terribly misguided interpretation of a federal law that was designed to keep families together, not tear them apart. 19:37 GMT 09 Jan 2017 The Pages argued that Lexi has lived with them since the age of 2 and considers them her family. Images of foster father Rusty Page clutching 6-year-old Lexi left an indelible mark when the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services arrived to take her away from Page and his wife's Valencia home in March. The girl, Lexi, was taken away from foster parents Rusty and Summer Page on March 21, 2015, after about four years living with the family. Associated Press, Parents whose foster daughter, six, was ripped from them because she is part Native American and they are white, appeal case to Californias Supreme Court as they hit out at 'an outrageous abuse of power', EXCLUSIVE: Biological father of six-year-old girl torn from foster parents because she is part Native American is a violent drug criminal who bragged of 'white supremacist friends', EXCLUSIVE - 'Please do the right thing and send our daughter home': Heartbroken white foster parents of girl, six, seized for being 1/64th Native American plead with new 'family' to return her to the only home she's ever known, 'Food isn't worth eating. If the good-cause exception isn't satisfied in this case, it is difficult to imagine when it ever would be. They have maintained a relationship with her, visiting her in California, making regular SKYPE calls, and Lexi has also been on extended visits to Utah. The Choctaw Nation issued a press release saying it was "pleased that this lengthy and unnecessary litigation has been brought to an end by the U.S. Supreme Court. While it is unclear what she is up to now in terms of her career, Lexi has enjoyed traveling quite a bit in the meantime. They also agreed that the Pages did not prove with clear and convincing evidence that Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. This button displays the currently selected search type. That case has key differences from the fight over Lexi: Baby Veronica was legally adopted through a private agency, while foster care is a more limited form of guardianship. The legal fight has gone on for years. Her name is Lexi," the petition said. Lexi is now living with relatives of her father who are not Native American. ABC7 New York 24/7 Eyewitness News Stream. She said unlike her, 11-year-old Riley is growing up on the reservation and learning about traditional medicine and a culture that includes hunting and fishing. 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. She was taken by the Department of Children and Families in Santa Clarita and placed with relatives of her father in Utah. The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the 1970s to reunite Native American families broken up at disproportionately high rates due to cultural ignorance and biases within the child welfare system. 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The Indian Child Welfare Act defines Indian children as enrollees or potential enrollees who have a biological parent who is a member of any of the country's 573 federally recognized tribes. 2019 The Associated Press. She says she's an apple, red on the outside, white on the inside.". The documents said that Lexi is related to the Utah couple, who are not Native American, through her step-grandfather. Read More "But nobody could possibly be more devastated than our 6-year-old daughter who found herself restrained in a car and driven away to go and live in a foreign place hundreds of miles from her family, friends, teachers, home and life," the statement said. Chris Evans doxxed his own dick Tweet may have been deleted By accidentally leaking his own nude, Chris Evans gave us one of the only relatable celebrity moments of 2020. Lexi, who is 1/64 Choctaw, was taken from her foster home north of Los Angeles in a tearful parting in March and placed with extended family in Utah under a decades-old federal law designed to keep Native American families together. We, as a tribe, are required to follow federal law. Often there are no easy solutions, but when a court makes an order, we must follow it, said the departments director, Philip Browning. 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. 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. All rights reserved. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, Inside the Agonizing Custody Fight Over Six-Year-Old Lexi. The Pages issued a press release saying To say we are heartbroken is an understatement While this is certainly a crushing blow, it will not stop us from fighting for Lexis rights and the rights of other children unnecessarily hurt by the Indian Child Welfare Act., The Choctaw Nation issued a press release saying it was pleased that this lengthy and unnecessary litigation has been brought to an end by the U.S. Supreme Court. The placement preferences are just that -- preferences-- and they apply only when a child is in need of a placement. That figure means that Lexi's home placement is dictated by the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. Therefore we will continue to work to maintain these values and work toward the long-term best interest of this child.". Maldonado and her husband have an adopted son from a neighboring tribe. The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a foster familys challenge to the adoption of their former foster daughter under the Indian Child Welfare Act. Allie Greenleaf Maldonado said her grandmother and uncles were placed in boarding schools, forced to cut their hair and beaten if they practiced their religion. Lexi is also one sixty-fourth Choctaw, and last week she became the latest flash point in a long-running dispute over child welfare and Native American tribal identity. 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. Here are the world's 25 best beaches and top 10 in the U.S. Elizabeth Holmes has second child, seeks to delay prison, remove a six-year-old girl with Native American ancestry from her foster family, asked the appeals court to reverse a lower court ruling. 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.. The Pages have appealed the case to the California Supreme Court. The Pages argued that changing the girls placement after four years would be difficult for her, given her rocky emotional adjustment when she first came to them, but the lower court ultimately disagreed. "It was important to halt that removal, to correct state behavior, to put in minimum standards," she said. The family's lawyer, Lori Alvino McGill, filed the request for the California Supreme Court to hear the appeal. The foster family filed appeals three times to keep Lexi, delaying the reuniting of Lexi with her 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. They say tribes are a political classification, not a racial one, and overturning the Indian Child Welfare Act would lead to untold damage in tribal communities. Copyright 2023 by The Associated Press. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A California appeals court affirmed in July a lower court's decision to remove the girl. Lexi was placed with the Pages who have three other children in December 2011 after two unsuccessful foster homes, including one where she was taken out of because of a black eye and a scrape on her face, the court documents said. 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. "Despite the news from the California Supreme Court yesterday, we remain hopeful that the very court we stand in front of this morning will do the right thing just as it has done twice already.". There is still considerable disagreement over the application of the law and whether it serves children's best interest, said Ralph Richard Banks, a professor at Stanford Law School. They are taking her! Many Native American families have stories about loved ones who disappeared and never returned. Official Statement from Lori Alvino-McGill representing The Page Family's Legal Team. Lexi is now with her extended family and her biological sister in Utah. We will continue to expeditiously pursue our appeal through the state courts in California, and, if necessary, to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court made no comment when it denied certiorari in the case Monday (PDF). Lexis only parent with Choctaw blood is her birth father, who never had custody of her. But officials determined that Lexi is 1/64th Choctaw based on his ancestry. However, a court found that the Pages have not proven Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. That figure means that Lexi is related to the California Supreme court made no comment when it certiorari! Of Lexis biological sisters lives with the Page family 's legal Team it! 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