Federal Court Rules In Favor Of Indian Families In ICWA Case

By Laurel Morales
March 31, 2015

A federal court ruled Monday in favor of Indian families saying South Dakota violated the Indian Child Welfare Act when it didn’t allow families their day in court. This case could affect similar cases throughout the United States.

Two South Dakota tribes, with the help of ACLU, sued over the state’s child custody proceedings. Over the past four years, state social workers have removed hundreds of American Indian children from their homes. Stephen Pevar is an attorney with ACLU’s racial justice program. He said the custody hearings were short and one-sided.

“These hearings often lasted less than 60 seconds,” Pevar said. “Parents went in there. They couldn’t say anything and their kids were taken.”

Eighty percent of the children were placed with non-native families. The chief judge in the case wrote, “Indian children, parents and tribes deserve better," and ordered the state to appoint attorneys to parents and allow them to testify and present their own evidence in court.