Foster parents continue legal fight for Native American girl
LOS ANGELES — Rusty and Summer Page say they miss tucking their foster child into bed and giving her kisses months after the part-Native American girl was removed from their care. On Friday, the couple continued their legal battle to return 6-year-old Lexi to California.
Lexi, who is 1/64th Choctaw, was taken from her foster home near Los Angeles in March and placed with distant relatives in Utah under a federal law designed to keep Native American families together.
An attorney for the Pages asked a state appeals court to reverse a lowercourt ruling that ordered the family to surrender the girl. The lower court made “fundamental legal errors” and failed to take into account the girl’s bond with her foster parents and siblings, said attorney Lori Alvino McGill.
A representative for Lexi argued it was the right decision to reconnect Lexi with her tribal roots.
“She’s doing well. She’s adjusting,” attorney Christopher Blake told a threejudge panel.
The appellate court also heard from a lawyer for Lexi’s biological father, who asked the judges to take his point of view into consideration. Two of the judges balked.
“His conduct is reprehensible,” said presiding Justice Paul Turner.
The case is one of dozens brought by foster families since the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the 1970s. Lawmakers found that Native American families were broken up at disproportionately high rates, and cultural ignorance and biases within the child welfare system were largely to blame.
Lexi was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her mother, who had drugabuse problems. Her father has a criminal history, according to court records.
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 is now living in Utah with relatives of her father who are not Native Americans.