A 6-year-old girl was removed from the California home of the foster family she has lived with for four years because she has a tiny sliver of Native American heritage — despite resistance from her foster parents and their tens of thousands of supporters. 
 
 Rusty and Summer Page of Santa Clarita, California, have long fought to gain custody of Lexi, 6, who is 1.56 percent Choctaw Native American. That figure means that Lexi's home placement is dictated by the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. 
 
 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., on March 21. David Crane / Los Angeles Daily News via AP 
 
 That law "seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families," according to its own language. 
 
 The child's birth parents struggled with substance abuse, according to court documents. Her father, who had a criminal history, never lived on a Choctaw reservation and didn't have any social, political, or cultural ties to the tribe, according to the court documents. But officials determined that Lexi is 1/64th Choctaw based on his ancestry. 
 
 Lexi was placed with the Pages — who have three other children — in December 2011 after two unsuccessful foster homes, including one where she was taken out of because of a black eye and a scrape on her face, the court documents said. 
 
 In 2011, "extended" family in Utah became aware that Lexi was with a foster family and expressed "interest in adopting" her, according to the documents. The documents said that Lexi is related to the Utah couple, who are not Native American, through her step-grandfather. 
 
 The California Court of Appeals originally ruled in August of 2014 that Lexi could stay with the Pages and they could continue to fight the Utah family for custody of the child. 
 
 But a decision earlier this month ordered the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (LA DCFS) to place Lexi with the Utah family "in accordance with the federal Indian Child Welfare Act," the department said in response to inquiries about Lexi's case. 
 
 In the days after losing their legal battle, the Pages addressed an online petition called "Keep Lexi Home" to several California and LA DCFS officials. 
 
 "There is a 6-year-old little girl who is going to be ripped away from the only family that she has ever known. Her name is Lexi," the petition said. "To Lexi this family is her everything — her mommy, daddy and brother and sisters." By Monday afternoon, more than 40,000 people had signed the petition. 
 
 Dozens of supporters also surrounded the Page's home Monday in an attempt to block LA DCFS officers. Many of those gathered had been camped out in the street — singing and praying — since Sunday, when the officers were originally expected to arrive. 
 
 Their efforts weren't successful. 
 
 Lexi was taken from the Page home on Monday afternoon, Armand Montiel, a public affairs director with LA DCFS, told NBC News. 
 
 The emotional scene played out on a Facebook live stream — watched by more that 1,000 people — which showed a teary child, wearing a pink shirt and grasping a teddy bear while Rusty Page carried her out of the home and loaded into a black sedan as his wife wailed "I love you Lexi" from the driveway. 
 
 They are taking her! Live footage on our Facebook page. — Save Lexi (@SaveOurLexi) March 21, 2016 
 
 "They fought for you," supporters screamed at the car, as officers prepared to pull away. "The Page family loves you." 
 
 "Our family is so incredibly devastated. Our hearts are broken and we are trying to make sense of everything that has happened with our three other children who witnessed their sister Lexi forcefully ripped away from our family by strangers," the Page family said in a statement Monday night. 
 
 "But nobody could possibly be more devastated than our 6-year-old daughter who found herself restrained in a car and driven away to go and live in a foreign place hundreds of miles from her family, friends, teachers, home and life," the statement said. 
 
 The Page's lawyer said in a statement Sunday that they had been willing to offer the Utah family visitation rights, but they "never responded to offers of compromise." 
 
 "They are not interested in anything except full custody, and they are not thinking about this little girl's best interests," the lawyer's statement said. 
 
 The LA DCFS said in a statement that the department always seeks to act in the best interest of the children it serves. "Often there are no easy solutions, but when a court makes an order, we must follow it," said the department's director, Philip Browning. 
 
 The National Indian Child Welfare Association argues that the decision to re-place Lexi was the right one because "the purpose of foster care is to provide temporary care for children ... not to fast-track the creation of new families when there is extended family available who want to care for the child." 
 
 "The foster family was well aware years ago this girl is an Indian child, whose case is subject to the requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act," the National Indian Child Welfare Association said in a statement. 
 
 "The Pages were always aware that the goal was to place Lexi with her family, and her permanent placement has been delayed due to the Pages' opposition to the Indian Child Welfare Act," the Choctaw Nation echoed in a statement. "We believe that following the Choctaw Nation's values is in Lexi's best interest." ||||| 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., Monday, March... (Associated Press) 
 
 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., Monday, March 21, 2016. Lexi, who spent most of her life with California foster parents, was removed from her home... (Associated Press) 
 
 LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California family appealed Tuesday to the state's highest court in their fight to keep a 6-year-old foster child who was removed from their home after a lower court said her 1/64th Native American bloodline requires that she live with relatives. 
 
 The family's lawyer, Lori Alvino McGill, filed the request for the California Supreme Court to hear the appeal. 
 
 McGill also requested that custody of the child named Lexi be returned to Rusty and Summer Page until the appeal is decided. 
 
 The Pages have fought efforts under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act to place Lexi with relatives of her father, who is part Choctaw. The Pages argued that Lexi has lived with them since the age of 2 and considers them her family. 
 
 However, a court found that the Pages have not proven Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. 
 
 The Pages have three children and want to adopt Lexi, who was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her birth parents. Her mother had substance abuse problems, and her father had a criminal history, according to court records. 
 
 Dozens of cases involving foster families have gone to court around the country after the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the late 1970s. 
 
 Lawmakers found that Native American families were broken up at disproportionately high rates, and that cultural ignorance and biases within the child welfare system were largely to blame. 
 
 Lexi cried and clutched a stuffed bear on Monday as Rusty Page carried her out of his home near Los Angeles and Los Angeles County social workers whisked her away in a waiting car. 
 
 "How is it that a screaming child, saying, 'I want to stay, I'm scared,' how is it in her best interest to pull her from the girl she was before that doorbell rang?" Rusty Page told KNX-AM radio. 
 
 A crowd of friends and neighbors wept, prayed or sang hymns. 
 
 Under the transfer, Lexi 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 Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/1pYtXlg ). 
 
 She said Lexi and the Utah family had traded messages and had monthly visits during the past three years. 
 
 "She has a loving relationship with them," Heimov said. "They are not strangers in any way, shape or form." 
 
 The National Indian Child Welfare Association said in a statement that 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." 
 
 The Choctaw Nation said it "desires the best for this Choctaw child." 
 
 In 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued guidance on implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act — clarifying that tribes alone are responsible for determining who is a member. 
 
 Wenona Singel, a law professor at Michigan State University, said membership requirements vary among tribes, with some being more restrictive than others. 
 
 "The issue is not what degree of Choctaw ancestry a child has," Singel said. "Rather the issue is whether the child is a citizen of the tribe in question or eligible for citizenship." 
 
 Singel is a member of a tribe in Michigan. 
 
 There is still considerable disagreement over the application of the law and whether it serves children's best interest, said Ralph Richard Banks, a professor at Stanford Law School. 
 
 Once a child is placed with a Native American family, it is highly unlikely that the decision would be reversed, he added. 
 
 "It would be fairly extraordinary for an appeals court to reverse that," he said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Christine Armario contributed to this report. ||||| By Janna Clark 
 
 A push to enforce current adoption laws could make it more difficult for non-Native American families to adopt Native American children. 
 
 As demonstrated with the court case surrounding the adoption of Baby Veronica, there can be difficulty in adoptions involving Native American children. 
 
 In 2013 after years of custody battles Veronica stayed with her adoptive parents when her biological father, a Native American, dropped his pursuit of custody. 
 
 http://www.fox23.com/news/news/breaking-news/dusten-brown-to-drop-pursuit-of-custody-for-baby-v/ndd29/ 
 
 FOX23’s Janna Clark found there are many cases like that and the Indian Child Welfare Act could make it difficult for non-Native American parents to adopt Native American children. 
 
 The Bureau of Indian Affairs is pushing for the enforcement but some say it's not what's best for the children. 
 
 Legal documents call her S.A.W., she’s a little girl who bonded deeply with (her) foster mother but after one year the court almost removed (her) from the only stable home she had ever known because she's 1/128 Native American. 
 
 It took a battle in court for her to get to stay with her foster family. 
 
 “I don't know what they're trying to accomplish,” said Becki Murphy, an attorney. 
 
 She said it’s one of two scenarios that could happen with a Native American child adoption. 
 
 She said either a child's placed in a non-tribal home and later a tribal family decides to adopt the child or a child is placed in a tribal home and family members later decide they want the child. 
 
 In both situations she said children are torn away. 
 
 “I will always object to a removal, tribal or not, if you're trying to remove a child over 6 months, if the placement is not causing them harm and willing to make it permanent. I will not object I don't care who you are,” said Murphy. 
 
 Murphy says some tribes wait too long intervene after children have stayed in a stable home for months. 
 
 “We should not be revisiting this 10 months, 12 months, 24 months (later.) I have a case 10 years old,” she said. 
 
 The court looks at the Indian Child Welfare Act and to help enforce it and the Bureau of Indian Affairs put out the proposed rule. 
 
 They told FOX23 they didn't want to answer questions about it but we found on their website that says they want to "to protect the best interest of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families." 
 
 “I don't believe ICWA hurts children. I believe the application by certain tribes does cause harm,” said Murphy. 
 
 FOX23 called the Cherokee Nation and they emailed a statement that says in part: 
 
 "Rule changes we are discussing are long overdue and our children and families can't wait any longer. They give greater guidance and clearer instructions to state courts working with tribes. - Cherokee Nation Deputy Chief S. Joe Crittenden.” 
 
 Both tribal and public meetings about this will take place Thursday: 
 
 The public meeting is from 1-4pm at the 
 
 A push to enforce current adoption laws could make it more difficult for non-Native American families to adopt Native American children. 
 
 As demonstrated with the court case surrounding the adoption of Baby Veronica, there can be difficulty in adoptions involving Native American children. 
 
 In 2013 after years of custody battles Veronica stayed with her adoptive parents when her biological father, a Native American, dropped his pursuit of custody. 
 
 FOX23’s Janna Clark found there are many cases like that and the Indian Child Welfare Act could make it difficult for non-Native American parents to adopt Native American children. 
 
 The Bureau of Indian Affairs is pushing for the enforcement but some say it's not what's best for the children. 
 
 
 
 Legal documents call her S.A.W., she’s a little girl who bonded deeply with (her) foster mother but after one year the court almost removed (her) from the only stable home she had ever known because she's 1/128 Native American. 
 
 It took a battle in court for her to get to stay with her foster family. 
 
 “I don't know what they're trying to accomplish,” said Becki Murphy, an attorney. 
 
 She said it’s one of two scenarios that could happen with a Native American child adoption. 
 
 She said either a child's placed in a non-tribal home and later a tribal family decides to adopt the child or a child is placed in a tribal home and family members later decide they want the child. 
 
 In both situations she said children are torn away. 
 
 “I will always object to a removal, tribal or not, if you're trying to remove a child over 6 months, if the placement is not causing them harm and willing to make it permanent. I will not object I don't care who you are,” said Murphy. 
 
 Murphy says some tribes wait too long intervene after children have stayed in a stable home for months. 
 
 “We should not be revisiting this 10 months, 12 months, 24 months (later.) I have a case 10 years old,” she said. 
 
 The court looks at the Indian Child Welfare Act and to help enforce it and the Bureau of Indian Affairs put out the proposed rule. 
 
 They told FOX23 they didn't want to answer questions about it but we found on their website that says they want to "to protect the best interest of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families." 
 
 “I don't believe ICWA hurts children. I believe the application by certain tribes does cause harm,” said Murphy. 
 
 FOX23 called the Cherokee Nation and they emailed a statement that says in part: 
 
 "Rule changes we are discussing are long overdue and our children and families can't wait any longer. They give greater guidance and clearer instructions to state courts working with tribes. - Cherokee Nation Deputy Chief S. Joe Crittenden.” 
 
 Both tribal and public meetings about this will take place Thursday: 
 
 The public meeting is from 1-4pm at the Tulsa Marriott Southern Hills near 71st Street and Lewis. ||||| For months, a Twin Cities couple worked to keep their pregnancy a secret, never telling their friends and family, and most important, their tribes. 
 
 Minnesota law requires a tribe be notified of any adoption involving an American Indian child, but the couple feared that if their tribes learned of their plans to give the baby to a white couple, they would exercise their legal right to intervene and try to place the baby with Indian parents. 
 
 Now the couple are suing the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the Minnesota Attorney General and a commissioner with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe to allow the adoption to go forward. In a federal lawsuit filed last week, the couple, identified only as John and Jane Doe, argue that the requirement to tell the tribe about the baby violates their constitutional right to due process and equal protection. 
 
 Advocates for the law say the couple are putting their own interests above the rights of the child, who would be better served with an Indian family. 
 
 The lawsuit challenges federal and state laws enacted in the 1970s and 1980s that sought to keep Indian children in Indian families. The laws were an attempt to remedy the tradition of breaking up Indian families by sending their children into institutions or to non-Indian adoptive parents. The couple want the court to throw out the state’s requirement to inform a tribe of an adoption. 
 
 “Indian parents are the only parents in the state that have that duty to notify,” said one the couple’s attorneys, Mark Fiddler. “In an adoption, all of that information is private and confidential. If you’re Indian, that has to be surrendered to the tribe.” 
 
 The couple chose a white family, Fiddler said, because “it’s been my experience in these cases that most of the birthparents identify problems with family, alcoholism and other dysfunction, and they don’t want kids placed in that kind of environment.” 
 
 “It’s a sad comment on the Indian community,” said Fiddler, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota. “But the parents have the right to make these choices.” 
 
 Fiddler said this is the first lawsuit he’s aware of that challenges the notification requirements, which were imposed in 1997. Federal law bans discrimination in adoptions on the basis of race, but makes an exception for Indian children. 
 
 If either the couple or the adoption agency chose not to tell the tribe, they would open themselves to fraud charges and risk having the adoption voided if the truth were discovered, Fiddler said. 
 
 He noted that if the parents chose to have an abortion, they would not have to tell the tribe. 
 
 The parents declined to be interviewed for this story. The baby was born in April in Minneapolis and is currently living with the potential adoptive couple, Fiddler said. 
 
 Putting the baby with an Indian family would better serve the child, said Patina Park, an attorney and the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center. A tribe plays a strong role as a parent to adopted Indian children, Park said, helping to connect them to their culture. That can’t be done by a white family, Park said, no matter how caring they are. 
 
 “This is a way to get Indian children adopted into non-Indian families,” she said. 
 
 Sandy White Hawk said she has counseled hundreds of Indians who were adopted into white families as part of the First Nations Repatriation Institute. She said the rates of suicide and depression among those Indians are high. 
 
 “We know that the children who grow up outside of their culture suffer greatly,” she said. “The grief is loss of identity. Nonnative homes cannot give an adopted Indian child their culture.” 
 
 The health commissioner for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe named in the suit, Samuel Moose, did not return a call requesting comment. A spokesman for the band said they have not yet been served with the lawsuit. 
 
 A spokeswoman for Minnesota’s Department of Human Services declined to comment, saying the agency needed to review the lawsuit. A spokesman from the attorney general’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the office was improperly listed as a defendant.
– A 6-year-old California girl whose birth parents were plagued by substance abuse and criminal infractions was taken in at age 2 by a foster family. But Alexandria (aka Lexi) is also 1/64th Choctaw Native American, which means where she ends up is dictated by 1978's Indian Child Welfare Act—a law that "seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families." Rusty and Summer Page had long fought to retain custody of Lexi, but on Monday the girl was removed from their home by the LA Department of Child & Family Services, NBC News reports. "Our family is so incredibly devastated," the Pages said in a statement, "but nobody could possibly be more devastated than our 6-year-old daughter." By court order, the Pages weren't allowed to tell Lexi beforehand she'd be taken, the Los Angeles Times reports. Lexi is now with a Utah couple related by marriage to Lexi's biological dad, who has Choctaw blood but has never lived on a reservation himself. The move came after "reunification efforts" with Lexi's biological dad went south, and he, the tribe, and DCFS recommended Lexi go to Utah—even though that couple is "non-Indian" and Summer Page actually does have "American Indian heritage," per the Pages' Change.org petition. The National Indian Child Welfare Association says in a statement that foster care is meant to be "temporary," not to "fast-track the creation of new families when there is extended family available"; a Choctaw Nation statement says the Pages always knew the goal was to place Lexi with "family." On Tuesday, the Pages appealed to California's highest court to reverse the decision, reports the AP. (This London mom sued NYC after her child was put in foster care.)