Girl, 6, taken from longtime California foster home for being part Native American
Rusty Page carries Lexi while Summer Page, in the background, cries as members of family services, left, arrive to take Lexi away from her foster family in Santa Clarita, Calif., today. Lexi, who spent most of her life with California foster parents, was removed from her home on Monday under a court order that concluded her native American blood requires her placement with relatives in Utah. (David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News via AP)
Graham, center, and Lena Kelly, rear, Lexi’s foster aunt and uncle, break down on the street after family services came to take Lexi away from her foster family in Santa Clarita, Calif., today. Lexi, who spent most of her life with California foster parents, was removed from her home on Monday under a court order that concluded her native American blood requires her placement with relatives in Utah. (David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News via AP)
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. » A 6-year-old girl who spent most of her life with California foster parents was removed from her home today under a court order that concluded her Native American blood requires her placement with relatives in Utah.
Lexi, who is part Choctaw, cried and clutched a stuffed bear as Rusty Page carried her out of his home north of Los Angeles to a waiting car. Los Angeles County social workers whisked her away.
“How is it that a screaming child, saying ‘I want to stay, I’m scared,’ how is in her best interest to pull her from the girl she was before that doorbell rang?” he told KNX-AM radio.
His wife, Summer Page, screamed “Lexi, I love you!” and a crowd of friends and neighbors cried, prayed or sang hymns.
The Pages had fought efforts under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act to place Lexi with relatives of her father, who is a Native American. The Pages argued that Lexi had lived with them since the age of 2 and knew no other life.
However, a court found that the Page family “had not proven by clear and convincing evidence that it was a certainty the child would suffer emotional harm by the transfer.”
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The Pages have three children and want to adopt Lexi. The family is appealing and will go to the California Supreme Court if necessary, said their attorney, Lori Alvino McGill.
Lexi was 17 months old when she was removed from her birth parents’ custody. Her mother had substance abuse problems, and her father had an extensive criminal history, according to court records cited by the Los Angeles Daily News.
She will live with a Utah couple who are not Native Americans but are related by marriage to her father. The girl’s sister is living with the couple, and another sister will be living down the street, said Leslie Heimov of the Children’s Law Center of California, Lexi’s court-appointed legal representatives.
“The law is very clear that siblings should be kept together whenever they can be, and they should be placed together even if they were not initially together,” Heimov told the Daily News.
She said the girl and the Utah family had traded messages and monthly visits over the past three years.
“She has a loving relationship with them,” Heimov said. “They are not strangers in any way, shape or form.”
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.”
In a statement, the Choctaw Nation said it “desires the best for this Choctaw child.”
“The tribe’s values of faith, family and culture are what makes our tribal identity so important to us. Therefore we will continue to work to maintain these values and work toward the long-term best interest of this child,” the statement said.
15 responses to “Girl, 6, taken from longtime California foster home for being part Native American”
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Too young to be allie.
I disagree with the courts. Her foster parents seem like ideal parents. This decision is a mistake for all concerned.
I was raised a Caucasian and an indigenous Mandan. I had no problem living in both cultures. The little girl can have the best of both worlds if the matter is or was handled correctly.
I think he was just giving you a hard time. I am glad you think the way you do on this situation. This is sad and should not be done.
People come to live in many lands and it’s not at all unusual that different cultures mingle. It just turned out that white people were the dominant people. It is not too good that we still have these tensions in our day and age. Of course I was just mentioning allie, because we have known her to be a Mandan native who is studying to become a teacher, and most likely stay in these islands after she graduates with a Master of Education.
If the child was happy and healthy with the Page family, this is disgusting. I’m sure there are many disenfranchised Choctaw people that the tribe can help- they shouldn’t take this child away just because they think they own her.
In a statement, the Choctaw Nation said it “desires the best for this Choctaw child.” “The tribe’s values of faith, family and culture are what makes our tribal identity so important to us.” I suppose that explains why the child’s mother had substance abuse problems, and her father had an extensive criminal history. That does not say much for the tribe’s values.
They will take a child out of a loving home that is the only one she knows, yet they return children to biological parents that do drug or beat their kids over and over again!
choctaw must have great values since her mom was a druggie and dad a criminal
silly, illogical statement
The problem with being just six years old is that your opinion about what’s best for you doesn’t count. Though it likely won’t happen, it would be interesting to revisit Lexi in ten or so years to ask how well being reunited with her tribe – so to speak – turned out in the end. Perhaps like Elian Gonzalez, she’ll have successfully adapted. In general, children are pretty resilient.
Yet another case of political correctness gone berserk.
This is dreadfully wrong on so many levels. One can only imagine the angst that this poor child is going through, being torn from the only family she has ever known. The court is DEAD WRONG on this one. My heart goes out to this innocent child and her adoptive family. We can only hope that common sense prevails and she is returned soon to her loving family.
The worst thing is, is not the first time. The poor child already changed parent once, now they are being ripped from the only family she has known, just to be put in another temporary arrangement, and destined to be moved again. How on earth can anyone in their right mind, or with half a brain, pretend “this is in the child’s best interest”?
What a class act.
“The tribe’s values of faith, family and culture are what makes our tribal identity so important to us. Therefore we will continue to work to maintain these values and work toward the long-term best interest of this child,” the statement said.
If the premise of this statement is true, then how is it that the Choctaw nation cannot/could not ensure against the waywardnesss of Lexi’s natural parents? is there any guarantee that Lexi’s natural blood family will be able to provide as much as or equal to the loving care she has been receiving in this foster home? in this case, black and white interpretation of the law may very well be blind to more rational, sensible, balanced interpretation! hope the California Supreme Court sees more clearly. could there be another motive for this pressing by the Choctaw nation, in the form of increased beneficial welfare manipulation.