Jennifer Gapetz, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, has a message for the media in light of the U.S. Supreme Court
decision in Adoptive
Couple v. Baby Girl, an Indian Child
Welfare Act case:
Baby Veronica is Cherokee. Whether her father wanted custody or not is irrelevant. Every American Indian tribe sets their own requirement for how to become a citizen. Some tribes have narrow requirements (such as blood quantum) to become a citizen. It is possible a person does not meet tribal requirements but can meet the Bureau of Indian Affairs requirements in order to be recognized. Baby Veronica is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma because, like all citizens of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, her family lineage is traceable and dates to the Dawes Rolls. (The Dawes Rolls is a census of sorts ordered by the U.S. Congress in 1893.) Present-day citizenship is not based on blood quantum, race, geographic location, or anything else, but in having a document-able relative on the Dawes. Like Americans in general, there are Cherokees of all “races,” and are diverse in culture and appearance.
Get the Story:
Jennifer Gapetz:
Attention Media: Baby Veronica Is Cherokee
(Indian Country Today 6/25)
Supreme Court Decision:
Adoptive
Couple v. Baby Girl (June 25, 2013)
Oral Argument Transcript:
Adoptive
Couple v. Cherokee Nation (April 16, 2013)
South Carolina Supreme Court Decision:
Adoptive
Couple v. Cherokee Nation (July 26, 2012)
Related Stories:
Supreme Court rules
against Cherokee father in ICWA dispute (6/25)
Cherokee Chief: Baby girl should remain with
biological father (6/25)
NCAI remains hopeful after ruling in Supreme Court
ICWA case (6/25)
Turtle Talk: Initial
impressions of Supreme Court's ICWA ruling (6/25)
Opinion: We fought the Cherokee Nation to keep
adopted child (6/25)
Supreme Court set
to rule in Indian Child Welfare Act case (6/24)
NPR: Supreme Court to rule in Indian Child Welfare
Act case (6/24)
|
Subscribe