‘Deeply, deeply disappointed’ is how Cherokee Chief Bill John Baker describes tribal reaction to the Supreme Court decision in the Baby Veronica case. The court decided in favor of the adoptive parents in a custody battle with Veronica’s biological father, Dusten Brown, a Cherokee tribal member. The decision has far reaching implications for the Indian Child Welfare Act, which gives tribes and relatives a say in decisions affecting children with Native American heritage…but the Supreme Court ruled the act doesn’t apply in this case.
Chief Baker made only a brief statement on the Court ruling, and took no questions. A tribal spokesperson says Veronica will remain in her father’s care while the case returns to South Carolina courts, the state where the adoptive parents live.