Search Results: marriage records

Recently in California, a custody battle has ensued where 6-year old Lexi was removed from her foster home on the grounds that she is 1/64 Choctaw which is enough for her to fall under the Indian Child Welfare Act, which was passed in 1970 to reunite Native American families broken up at disproportionately high rates do to cultural ignorance and biases within the child welfare system and was sent to live with non blood relatives who were only related through marriage. They also have custody of her biological sister. However Lexi was removed from her birth parents care at 17 months because her mother suffered from substance abuse problems and her father had a criminal record and was arrested for illegally selling auto parts, not because of biases and ignorance in the foster care system which was why the law was put there in the first place. However the Choctaw Nation have used the ICWA as an easy excuse to have Lexi removed from.

The question of Lexi’s placement can be argued in a future question or mytake but im asking if whether the ICWA is relevant and needed in the present day where biases and ignorance isn’t present as much as it was back in the day.