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christa ruiz- Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl (Participatory Democracy (Rule…
christa ruiz- Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl
Case Precedent
Locate relevant cases that lead to this one throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries
In one of the Marshall Trilogy cases, Johnson vs. M'ntosh (1823) is about the Piankeshaw Indian tribe and Thomas Johnson and other British people. Thomas Johnson bought land in Virgina which was Indian territory in 1775 which was passed down when he died. However, Congress obtained this land and it was not passed down. In 1818 Congress sold 11,000 acres of that land to William M'Intosh. The Johnsons then sued William M'Intosh in order to recover their land. Since the Piankeshaw tribe did not have the right to sell the land, the court ruled in favor of M'Intosh. Also John Marshall established a law saying that Native Americans cannot sell their land to private companies.
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1789-1850/21us543
Mississippi Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield (1989) is a SC case where native american twins' born in Harrison County, 200 miles from the reservation they are from, were adopted by the Holyfields, who were non-Indian. The Choctaw Indians decided that they wanted the twins back and filed a law suit against the Holyfields. In the end, the court subsequently overruled appellant's motion to vacate the adoption decree. This is because the rules of ICWA were ignored in this adoption. The twins should have gone to Native Americans first before people who were not Natives, although it is clear that the mom went through a lot of trouble to make sure that her children were adopted into a different culture by moving 200 miles away from the reserve.
https://dphhs.mt.gov/CFSD/ICWA/icwahistory
Participatory Democracy (Rule of Law, Separation of Powers, Federalism)
Applicable Constitutional Amendments & Justifications
The 6th Amendment applies to this trial because Dustin had the right to a speedy and public trial because he felt what was happening was unjust.
The 14th Amendment applies to this because if Native American people have ICWA, then people of different races should also have a program like this to be equal, according to the 14th.
Branches of Government? Departments and Agencies? State govt?
The Executive branch is relevant to this case because the Department of Health and Human Services deals with Indian Reserves
Dept of Interior. - protects what Native Americans still have
BIA (bureau of Indian affairs)- Gives Native Americans an equal chance to economic opportunity and to ensure they are living a stable life.
Administration for Native Americans (ANA)- serves all Native Americans, promotes self-sufficiency for Native Americans by providing discretionary grant funding for community based projects, and training and technical assistance to eligible tribes and native organizations.
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ana/about/what-we-do
ICWA & Its history
ICWA was passed in 1978 because of a high number of Indian children that were being removed from their families by public and private agencies and put into non-Indian families. Before ICWA was passed, approx. 75-80% of Indian families living on reservations lost at least one child to these agencies.
https://dphhs.mt.gov/CFSD/ICWA/icwahistory
ICWA was also passed because Indian leaders felt that Indian children would start losing their culture being placed into these families. As said by Choctaw tribal chief, Calvin Isaac, "Many of the individuals who decide the fate of our children are, at best, ignorant of our cultural values and, at worst, have contempt for the Indian way and convinced that removal, usually to a non-Indian household or institution can only benefit an Indian child.”
https://dphhs.mt.gov/CFSD/ICWA/icwahistory
Mixed Economy
Explore the Public, Private, and non-profit dimensions of the economic life of a Native American reservation
Private- "There are 474 American Indian gaming operations in the United States. These are owned by 243 of the nation's 566 federally-recognized tribes. These gaming tribes operate in 29 of the 50 states. The annual revenue from all Indian gaming exceeds $32 billion and represents 43% of all casino gaming revenue in the U.S. "
https://www.nigc.gov/
Public- Association of Ameican Indian Affairs,"We work in close cooperation with Native Americans and other organizations that have similar missions in determining which issues will be pursued and the amount of emphasis to be placed on each issue. The focus of AAIA's work is on areas that are vitally important but not adequately addressed by government or other organizations. AAIA is unique in that, in addition to providing assistance in the area of national policy, we also work on a grass roots level as well as being the oldest policy/advocacy Native non-profit in the country."
https://www.indian-affairs.org/what-we-do.html
Nonprofit- The Indian Health Service helps to "raise the physical, mental, social and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level.... to uphold the Federal Government's obligation to promote healthy American Indian and Alaska Native people, communities, and cultures and to honor and protect the inherent sovereign rights of Tribes." level.
https://www.ihs.gov/aboutihs/
Cultural
Family values- I think that people determine their own outcome of this case based on their values because if someone believes that a family should stay together and doesn't like adoption they will vote for the father to keep custody of Veronica
Media Depiction- I believe people see this case to be very out of the ordinary because it involves the adoption of a child who's parents were never together into a family that wants to have kids. The media depicts an average family to have a husband, wife, and biological children, but because this case has so many unordinary factors, people view this case to be very different
Attitudes about race, gender, and/or social class- People may have felt that because Dustin was only 2% Native American that he is only taking advantage of ICWA to get his daughter back.