Navajo Nation v. District Court for Utah County

• Decision Date: 30 September 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. No. C85-317G.
• Citation: 624 F. Supp. 130
• Parties: NAVAJO NATION; Navajo Nation, as parens patriae for Jeremiah Halloway, Cecelia Saunders, Bessie Begay, Plaintiffs, v. DISTRICT COURT FOR UTAH COUNTY, FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, STATE OF UTAH; Honorable David Sam; Dan and Patricia Carter, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Utah

624 F. Supp. 130

NAVAJO NATION; Navajo Nation, as parens patriae for Jeremiah Halloway, Cecelia Saunders, Bessie Begay, Plaintiffs, v. DISTRICT COURT FOR UTAH COUNTY, FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, STATE OF UTAH; Honorable David Sam; Dan and Patricia Carter, Defendants.

Civ. No. C85-317G.

United States District Court, D. Utah, C.D.

September 30, 1985.

Craig J. Dorsay, Window Rock, Ariz., for plaintiffs.

Stephen J. Sorenson, Utah Atty. Gen. Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Richard B. Johnson, Howard, Lewis & Sorenson, Provo, Utah, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM DECISION IN FURTHERANCE OF ORDER GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT

J. THOMAS GREENE, District Judge.

This matter came on regularly for hearing on August 29, 1985, on plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment, the Motion for Summary Judgment of defendants District Court for Utah County, Fourth Judicial District, State of Utah, and Honorable David Sam; and the Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative, for Summary Judgment of defendants Dan and Patricia Carter. Craig J. Dorsay of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice appeared on behalf of the plaintiffs, Stephen J. Sorenson of the Utah Attorney General's office appeared on behalf of defendants District Court for Utah County, Fourth Judicial District, State of Utah and Honorable David Sam, and Richard B. Johnson of Howard, Lewis & Sorenson appeared on behalf of defendants Dan and Patricia Carter. Having reviewed extensive memoranda of law and exhibits which were filed with the Court, and having heard extensive oral arguments of all counsel, the Court granted the defendants' Motions for Summary Judgment and denied the plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment. Having further reviewed all matters and being fully advised, the Court now sets forth its Memorandum Decision as was contemplated at the time the oral orders were rendered. This Memorandum Decision is incorporated into the orders made on August 29, 1985.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

This action arose out of an adoption proceeding in the District Court for Utah County, Fourth Judicial District, State of Utah. Jeremiah Halloway, the subject of the proceeding, was born on May 14, 1977, to plaintiff, Cecilia Saunders, a full-blooded Navajo, a member of the Navajo Tribe and a domiciliary of the Navajo Reservation. Jeremiah lived the first six months of his life with his mother, after which he was under the care of his maternal grandmother, Bessie Begay. In March of 1980, a maternal aunt removed Jeremiah from the reservation with the oral consent of the mother and took him to Utah for adoptive placement with defendants Dan and Patricia Carter. In May of 1980, the natural mother appeared in the District Court for Utah County and executed a Consent to Adoption after which defendants Dan and Patricia Carter then filed a petition for adoption. Defendant Judge David Sam ordered counsel for defendants Dan and Patricia Carter to give notice seeking the consent of the Navajo Tribe before proceeding with the adoption, and notification was given approximately five months later to plaintiff Navajo Nation. Some two years after the petition for adoption was filed, in May of 1982, the Navajo Nation appeared in the lawsuit as intervenor and filed a motion to dismiss the proceeding and transfer jurisdiction to the tribe on the basis of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), Pub.L. No. 95-608 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq.). After a hearing on the matter, on July 14, 1982, defendant Judge David Sam awarded temporary custody to Dan and Patricia Carter, and ruled that the domicile of the child was that of the adoptive parents, that good cause existed for the State Court to retain jurisdiction, and that the requirements of the ICWA had been satisfied. The State Court gave the parties additional opportunity to present further evidence on the domicile issue, and after receiving that evidence, entered an order dated October 6, 1983, reaffirming its finding that the child's domicile was that of the adoptive parents and that good cause existed under the ICWA for the State Court to retain jurisdiction. The Court also ruled that there had been an abandonment of the child.

On October 12, 1984, the District Court of the Navajo Nation for Window Rock found that, pursuant to Navajo common law and statute, the domicile of Jeremiah had at all times remained within the boundaries of the Navajo Reservation and that the Navajo Tribe had exclusive jurisdiction under tribal statutes, common law and the ICWA to determine the custody of Jeremiah Halloway. Just prior to the date set for trial on termination of the parental rights, the Navajo Nation filed a Motion for Full Faith and Credit and to Dismiss in the state court proceedings, based upon the ruling of the Navajo District Court that it had exclusive jurisdiction over the adoption proceedings and that the Fourth District Court was without jurisdiction. At the beginning of the trial on October 22, 1984, the State Court denied the motion as untimely, and went ahead with the trial on the termination of parental rights. On January 28, 1985, defendant Judge David Sam entered his decision, finding:

(1) That the evidence (including expert testimony) established beyond a reasonable doubt that to return Jeremiah to his Indian custodians would result in serious emotional or physical damage to him;

(2) That active efforts have been undertaken to attempt the rehabilitation of the Indian family and have failed; and

(3) That the biological mother knowingly and voluntarily abandoned the child as defined in Utah Code Annotated 78-3a-48(1).

The State Court therefore granted the petition for adoption, and on February 28, 1985, the Navajo Nation filed a Notice of Appeal of Judge David Sam's decision to the Utah Supreme Court. That appeal presently is pending and being pursued by all parties. On March 15, 1985, plaintiffs filed the instant action in the United States District Court for the District of Utah.

The action before this Court contains fifteen separate claims for relief based on alleged violation by the defendants of the ICWA and the United States Constitution. Six claims seek recovery under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging violation of civil rights; eight claims seek declaratory relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2201, alleging that the exercise of state jurisdiction was void; and one pendent claim alleges that the placement of Jeremiah with the adoptive parents violated the Interstate Compact on Placement of Children, Utah Code Ann. § 55-8b-1, et seq. The plaintiffs also seek monetary relief against all defendants for violation of civil rights, and declaration of their rights under the ICWA, the United States Constitution and state law.

INDIAN CHILD WELFARE ACT

The Indian Child Welfare Act was enacted in 1978 to remedy perceived inequities in adoption standards for Indian children. The Act represents congressional recognition of the interest of Indian Tribes in the preservation of their valuable heritage. Background and cultural differences between society generally and the Indian nations had greatly influenced social and adoptive agencies to increase the numbers of Indian children being placed in foster and adoptive homes. A general misunderstanding of Indian culture compounded the numbers of Indian children being separated from their families. In 1978, after recognizing that greater than one-fourth of all Indian children were separated from their families and placed in foster homes, adoptive homes or institutions, Congress declared that "the wholesale separation of Indian children from their families is perhaps the most tragic and destructive aspect of American Indian life today." H.Rep. No. 1386, 95th Cong., 2d Sess., 9, reprinted in 1978 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 7530, 7531. Therefore, in 1978, Congress enacted ICWA, the purpose of which was

to protect the best interest of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families by establishing minimum Federal standards for the removal of Indian children from their families and the placement of such children in foster or adoptive homes or institutions which will reflect the unique values of Indian culture and by providing for assistance to Indian tribes and organizations in the operation of child and family service programs.

Id. at 1. This Court is aware of and shares that concern. As one court stated:

Each individual is an amalgam of the predominant religious, linguistic, ancestral and educational influences existent in his or her surroundings. Indian people, whether residing on a reservation or not, are immersed in an environment which is in most respects antithetical to their traditions. Furthermore, the cultural diversity among Indian tribes is unquestionably profound yet often not fully appreciated in our society

. . . .

Preservation of Indian culture is undoubtedly threatened and thereby thwarted as the size of any tribal community dwindles. In addition to its artifacts, language and history, the members of a tribe are its culture. Absent the next generation, any culture is lost and necessarily relegated, at best, to anthropological examination and categorization.

Matter of M.E.M., 195 Mont. 329, 635 P.2d 1313, 1317 (1981). This Court is cognizant of the responsibility to promote and protect the unique Indian cultures of this and other states. This Court also is aware, however, that the ICWA and principles of equity require that the interests of the individual also must be protected, not in derogation of the Act but in compliance with its specific provisions.

In order to further Congress' desire to promote the welfare of Indian children, families and culture, the ICWA lays jurisdiction over Indian child adoption proceedings in the tribe or the state respectively, depending on the domicile of the child. The Indian tribe has exclusive jurisdiction over any child custody proceeding involving an Indian child who resides or is domiciled within the reservation. 25 U.S.C. § 1911...