Lets start with the usal I AM SORRY. Some things I say will piss off some people. If you read this and your pissed.
So lets start.
Over the years I ve bucked the system. I ve pushed my way thur life and played by my own set of rules 80% of the time dancing on the gray areas and a few dips in to the red area. But age caught up with me. I gave up drugs, I gave up Heavy drinking, Got a real job, Cut my hair, Went to school to finely to be leagle. Bought a house. Quit droping my pants at the drop of pair of panties. Got married for my 3rd time. Raised or raising some 9 childen not all where mine or my wifes. Raised 2 others that had nothing to do with me or the wife.
Anyways I degress.
A few years ago we had one of those nights where you have gotten in to bed and the rest of the world dosent want you to sleep. Our 4th Daughter had just moved home. Any ways about 10:30 at night shes busts in to my and the wifes bed room and asks if her freind can stay with us for a few days. I had just really settled in to the fact that I was no long growing a famlie. I tell her no. as I am explaing why. She burst out her freind has a 6 month old baby also. This changes everthing. I have a real soft spot for the little ones. So I ask the wife what see thinks? We have to do somthing was her ancer. So we offer her a place to stay for 15 days! No more. 
The next day she asks if its ok to leave her baby with me wile she runs to town and get some dypers and smokes. I ve taken care of little ones before no issues here. Yea why not. We didnt see her for 3 months after that. When we did see asked us to take care of her daughter till she could get clean of drugs. Nothing new here we had done this before for others\\\\. So just so we could take her to doctors and any other thing that might happen. We asked her to give up her parenting rights. Mind you thinking a few months mabie a year. 2 and 1/2 years latter. We get a visit from the Lilliewa Tribe. It turns out the little girl I had growen so attached to was indian. My responce was big deal. My 2 nd son is Nez Perice Tribe. It was. 
During this time I had my Hart Attack. My own daughter "Trinity Jewels" asked if we where going to lose our little girl. Under the act ICWA we had no rights to even fight for her. {ICWA is the Indina Child Welfair Act} I even hid our little girl for a day with close freinds. I served a day in jail for that little act of defiance. {My **** YOU to the system} I had a juge refuse to convict me of any crime other than to refuse a lawfull order of a policeman. fine was 49.00 bucks. She also in open court said she would have done the same thing. In the end we gave up under the pressure of a system thay built to pull apart a happy famlie JUST BECUSE SHE WAS 10% indian. ICWA is at best a real bull shit pulled to keep numbers in tribes high enuff to keep reciving moneys from the goverment. Its been less than a year sence Little Lilly went to live with the tribe. Weve never heard a word from them as to how things are going for are littlest girl. I still get up in the morning and wonder about for a bit looking for her to get ready for the trip out to the buss to put Trinity Jewels on the bus. The pain runs deep. 
Anyways My son is law Danny is fighting the system for his kids from the EX. 3 kids 2 boys and a girl. Thay spend weekends with Danny and hang out at Pa Pa house becuse Trintiny and Joe have some cool toys and I still cook like the army is still here. So theres always plenty to munch on. 
Not to go to far in to it. But there mom has some personal issuse and is dealing with a system. May end doing some jail time for these issues. 
I feel as thought theres a real need to help. But after this last year I am just about spent not only money but the real feelings. Dannys a great guy. I feel close to him as thought he is one of my own. But I am scared that after years of dealing with this hes dommed to feel as thought hes failed his childen if he should fail in gaing control of the kids. he cant afford a lawyer nor can we. So I get to play lawyer.      

Well ,unfortunately you are here in Wa state and we are unique in that we don't have single custody/joint custody type laws. We have resident parent and you have to set up a parenting agreement etc.
I would first try http://family-law.freeadvice.com/family-law/child_custody/ and see if you can get any useful advice and from there, you will need to hire a lawyer.

Sorry to here about your issues. I know that losing the little girl would tear my heart out.

Dude, my hat is off to you.....anyone who can just take on kids and rear them as their own is some kind of special, I am one of a few that never wanted kids, and even though I ended up with quite a few I was not the guy at home.....


I did however provide for their future by buying each and every one of them an apartment or house for their mom to live in rent free, after 7 years it became half the property of the kid, this made the kid its mom's landlord by right, and at age 18 it belonged entirely to the kid...


Dont get me wrong, I love every single one of them as soon as they were around - but - There is no way I could be a dad to them, it is just not in me...so it was a good thing when the mom's got themselves another guy who was able...


It was the only way I could deal with the situation, Thing is...and without going into any kind of detail...I had a totally sh*t childhood, half starved and beaten daily kind of makes you avoid everything to do with raising kids, so I just stick to small wild animals and birds, I was told by a full blood Cherokee friend of mine who lives in Louisianna (met him and his wife in up-state NY) that I am a "Keeper to the Wild Things" and that I dont go and find them - they find me, and so it has been all of my life.....


Strange things have happened all my life where I would be taking the same route to somewhere at the same time of day every day - but - for no apparent reason I would take a different route and maybe at a different time and there would always be some small thing needing a hand for whatever reason, I like to think that I was 'influenced' in some way to deviate from the usual route, proof is that its just starting baby bird season now and I have just got my 3rd of the year..... I went a different route yesterday...lol...


Kids do seem to gravitate toward me and thats ok as long as I can hand them back...lol...A lot of my friends have me as a Godfather to theirs, that also is fine, though why they wanted me was a mystery until one day I asked, they told me that the kid would benefit from my totally straight from the hip way of saying things, and that I speak to them as if they are just small adults, I dont do any of this kid-talk stuff...lol...say it like it is, if I am not impressed with something that anyone does- I say so- it dont matter if they are an adult or a kid...I speak my mind.....


So like I say, my hat is off to you bud..... I could never do what you do.....

Under the ICWA {Indian Child Welfair Act} I have no rights. 2 real reasons for this. 1 I am not an Indian. 2. I am not a tribal member. Reguradless of the leagle standing. Any thing done without the tribes permission to include Adoption leagly is not consider leagle to the tribe and sence there considered a leagle nation within the boraders of the Good Old USA thay get all the rights.
What the ICWA was to cover was way back in the 1950s and 1960s The feds decied that abondon childen or childen that had no parents on reservation thur out the USA should be adopted ourt to whites to intergrate the indian tribes in to the U.S. population. I.E. The Ong. Child Welfair Act of 1925. That to experdite the adoption of these childen in to white population. The names should be changed and no futher contact be the child and the tribe should be mantained. In other words. Take these kids off tribal lands teach them white ways and intergrate them in as soon as possable. Jump to 1972 the inacting of the present ICWA this allows the freedom for tribes to run down missing native childen from the earlyer CWA. BTW with out a court order you cant acess then same information. Yet the tribes where given the freedom to roam thur court files without hesation. In my case we knew she was Naitve but never knew what tribe??? We had assumed she was local Nesquallie Tribe. But thay had no tribal members of the last name we where given.
Also under Tribe laws no one with less than 20% blood is to recive benfits of the tribe. So in all reality sence Lilly was less than 10% The tribe really has no say in the matter. My question in court was Just How much Indian is INDIAN! Sence ICWA never asks or ancers this question I can only asume that any of us that might have a small amount of indian blood could have the TRIBE show up on your porch and attenpt to hual you back to the resvertion. Sence as adults we more in likely would just retrun home. Thay would just go after your kids. and under ICWA you couldnt do a damned thing about it.
The Revised ICWA of WA Allows the gentic search of lost tribal members. Thur the unlimeted use of the DNA data bank used by law inforcement. All at cost to the tax payers of Washington state. In my own dealings with the tribes. There not above lying to the courts to get what thay want. And when all else fails push it thur there own courts and use the Sorvent Nations Laws....
In my own case the Indians used the CPS file from my second marrage changed the name from my second wife to my presant wifes name. When we showed that there was a mistake made our evdance was throwen out. Even when we showed that the tribe was trying to side step the proper chanels. It was not considered becuse the courts in Thurston County Refused to Hear the standers of bearing to the case.
In the end we lost out. There are a few people we meet with that have had the same issues with in washington with tribes and are own leagle systems. The failure to protect childen is where the ICWA comes from but it allows to much freedom to the Tribes.. And ICWA,WA is even worse... I ve considered gathering together the hole group of us and finding a lawyer to sue the STATE but when we have asked lawyers in the past we meet with some pretty chilly responces.
Also many here in washington suffer in quite becuse of the things that have been done to the indians in the past and are ashamed that thay are now holding a indian child.
In our own case with my son Joe we attempted to Contact the Nes Perice Tribe in our son behafe to see what might be done in teaching him some of the ways of his people. This was meet with hostail responce from the tribe. We did get his regstion numbers. BUT NOTHING MORE! His own indian father NEVER HAS PAYED ANY REAL CHILD SUPORT EVER>>> He gets thousands from the tribe each year. Joe has never recived so much as a dime. The tribe hides all funds payed to the famlie better than the goverment protects Us.

Over the years I have not always been the person that you see here today. Like I said I loved dancing on the hairy edge.
I grew up with 3 brothers when my parents devorced when I was 13. My mother remarried when I was 16. to a man with 3 kids of his own We suddley became 7 brothers Later my father had a son with my step mother. So 8.
I never wanted but a couple. But kids seam to gravate toward me. 2 became 3. 3 became 4 and so on.
I ve been pretty lucky.

Painful to read this.

Can't think of squat I can do for you but can mention that I admire you a lot. - Without respect to how it turned out you did a good thing & she will remember your in her heart-of-hears and pass it forward.

Man, until reading this was just mostly p'd about what the aboriginal residents of WA were doing to the fish.

Mostly the blame lies w/ the beautiful people in the political class that are trying to divide a nation up into tribes. - If I can ever get to WA again hope we can meet up & go hunting.

You were thinking about this all day yesterday, I can tell!

http://www.komonews.com/weather/blogs/scott/Funnel-cloud-spotted-over-Yelm-146371575.html

Sorry to hear about your grandchild getting trapped in the system. It's a terrible thing to have this happen but being raised in Cherokee County and being a member of the Cherokee Tribe I can say that there were "at times" legitimate reasons for placing Native American children with Native American families. Your post is very imformative but is not entirely accurate

"The feds decied that abondon childen or childen that had no parents on reservation thur out the USA should be adopted ourt to whites to intergrate the indian tribes in to the U.S. population. I.E. The Ong. Child Welfair Act of 1925. That to experdite the adoption of these childen in to white population. The names should be changed and no futher contact be the child and the tribe should be mantained. In other words. Take these kids off tribal lands teach them white ways and intergrate them in as soon as possable."

Many of these children were not orphaned as you stated but removed from the families to get "educated" in the white man teachings and way of life. Often times if the children were orphaned it was due to raids upon the settlements of the tribes. I don't know that "adbandoment" is a proper term as Native American's are very family orientated and take care of many children as their own. And yes they did change names, not only of children but of many tribe members as they enlisted on the Dawes Rolls. My grandfather changed his name from his Native name of Rabbit to a "white" name of Chisholm.

I'm not sure that your particular case that the Tribal members are acting on the best behalf of the child, sounds more everyone has their heads up their wazooz in propaganda. However past experiences has shown that neither side at times has made what seems to the the "obvious and best" choice for the children.

I sincerely hope that you can gain custody of your grandchild as I can see you have a deep love and commitment to her. Don't give up and we will keep you in our prayers.