Native Village of Tununak, Appellant v. State of Alaska, Department of Health & Social Services, Office Of…

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court held that the governing federal decision makes the Indian Child Welfare Act's adoptive-placement preferences inapplicable when no eligible alternative party has formally sought to adopt the child. Because Dawn's grandmother never filed an adoption petition or equivalent formal request, the preferences did not apply, and the court affirmed the Smiths' adoption while vacating the prior remand for a renewed placement hearing. Justice Winfree, dissenting, would have treated the grandmother's participation in the child-protection placement proceeding as sufficient to trigger the preferences and would have remanded for a new hearing.