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In re Adoption of Sara J.11/10/2005
bind the court to accept expert testimony telling it how to apply a community's standards to a particular case. Instead, the provision simply directs the court to take a hard look at issues of suitability and good cause through the lens of the Indian community's basic values - not so the community can override the court's choice of suitable placements, but simply to balance the scales more fairly toward Indian custody by ensuring that judges applying state law will use the Indian community's perspective instead of their own to realistically assess all issues relating to the child's - not the community's - best interests.
In this case, compelling evidence was presented to support a finding of good cause to deviate from the placement preference. The superior court also heard abundant evidence, including both lay and expert testimony, concerning prevailing Yup'ik cultural and social standards. In considering this evidence, the court rejected testimony that simply refused to accept any possibility that a non-preferred adoptive placement would ever be suitable under prevailing Yup'ik norms. The court also rejected the case-specific conclusions reached by the tribe's main expert witness, Dr. Samuel Roll; it declined to credit them because Dr. Roll had never actually worked in Alaska Native villages or with Alaska Native children and because the court found his conclusions unpersuasive in light of other testimony presented at trial and the court's own accumulated experience. But despite rejecting Dr. Roll's case-specific views, the court accepted and considered other important aspects of his testimony, emphasizing that it found Dr. Roll's theories and information to be generally credible, and only disagreed with his application of his knowledge to the case at hand.
The court also carefully considered and balanced all of the other evidence bearing on the issue of Yup'ik social and cultural standards. And with this evidence in mind, in a thoughtful and comprehensive decision spanning forty pages, the court thoroughly evaluated all relevant aspects of good cause, including the suitability of Frank and Tonya B. to become the children's adoptive parents, the availability of other suitable preferred placements, Matilda's suitability as an adoptive parent for the children, her ability to meet the children's special needs, and her ability to meet their Yup'ik cultural needs. The court ultimately found good cause to deviate from the placement preferences and concluded that a non-preferred placement would serve the children's best interests. The court essentially concluded that Matilda was the only available placement capable of providing a home for the children without subjecting them to a risk of serious physical and emotional harm; in stating its conclusion, it specifically found that the risk of harm from any other placement would be clearly unacceptable "in either the Western or Yup'ik tradition."
Based on my own understanding of ICWA's placement preference requirements, as explained above, I would conclude that the superior court's decision relied on a correct understanding of the applicable law. I agree with today's opinion in concluding that, on appeal, the tribe has not shown that any of the trial court's central factual findings are clearly erroneous or that the conclusions the trial court reached from those findings amount to an abuse of discretion. On this basis, despite disagreeing with the opinion's view of the law, I concur in affirming the superior court's judgment.
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