But Lexi’s heritage has been a factor in separating her from the Pages: she’s 1.5% Choctaw, which puts her case under the jurisdiction of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law passed in the 1970s.
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Now, Summer and Rusty are fighting to keep the child they have tried for more than two years to adopt with them. The Indian Child Welfare Act aims to prevent against separating Native American children from their biological parents.
But Rusty disputed these claims, telling KTLA, “They’re moving her to a family that’s not Native American; my wife is Native American”.
In a statement, the National Indian Child Welfare Association said the Pages were aware for years that the girl was an American Indian but chose to “drag out litigation as long as possible, creating instability for the child”.
“She’s a very happy girl and she’s a part of our family and we love her dearly”, Summer told local ABC affiliate 7 News.
She was supposed to have been removed from the Page home Sunday at 10 a.m., but a large group of neighbors demonstrating outside the home prevented that from happening.
“The goal of foster care is to provide temporary care for children while families get services and support to reunite with their children, not to fast-track the creation of new families when there is extended family available who want to care for the child”, the association said. The Page family has made a plea to let Lexi stay with them at least until they can take the case to the California Supreme Court to file a stay of the removal order, which they planned on doing Monday. It’s ripping me apart to see Lexi has been a part of our family for nearly five years, and she’s not going to understand what’s going on. They have a Facebook page and a Twitter account dedicated to the fight to “Save Lexi”.
They have not told Lexi or their other children that she may be leaving, because they were placed under a court order not to do so.
The tribe agreed to place the girl with a non-Indian foster family “to facilitate efforts to reunify the girl with her father”.
Another statement from the Choctaw Nation read, “The Choctaw Nation desires the best for this Choctaw child”. “She finally knows what mom and dad means and they want to take that away from her. We can’t stand idly by while that happens”. “This is going to destroy these children”. Therefore, during the court case, the Pages were reminded numerous times that they had taken in Lexi knowing one day she would be removed.
It was ultimately determined that the child was best suited to live with the distant relatives so that she could have a relationship with her father and siblings in the future.
Rusty said Lexi “will come home”, but not on the accord of Child Protective Services.
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“There are two families that love her”, she said. “Hence, they found, ‘Even if we were to conclude the [Pages] had standing to challenge the ICWA’s constitutionality, we find their arguments unpersuasive”.
