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• The BIA said it was planning a summit to address the allegations, but due to various issues, including the resignation of one Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs and the confirmation of another, it never occurred last year.
• That's when the coalition of ICWA directors came together and created their own report and started planning the summit with the help of the BIA.
• "You know, it's been a long time coming," said Raymond Cournoyer, ICWA director on the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation and co-chair of the ICWA directors' coalition.
• Cournoyer said the summit will include testimony from grandmothers who have worked unsuccessfully to get their grandchildren back from foster care, discussions on tribal codes, best practices and funding strategies, among other things.
• Diane Garreau, ICWA director from the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, said it has been frustrating for the ICWA directors that the summit didn't happen by the original date, but she said she is glad it is happening now because there are issues that need to be addressed.
• "One of the feelings I've always had in dealing with the state of South Dakota is they see Native children as different. That they're not children of South Dakota. They're identified as Indian children, and that's really sad, too, because it seems like we're separate," she said.
• A big part of an ICWA director's job includes legal work and working with attorneys, which costs money -- money that the tribe's aren't getting, Garreau said.
• One case the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is currently pursuing surrounds a 5-year-old girl attempting to be adopted in Virginia. The girl is the daughter of a man living in Alabama who is enrolled with the tribe. The tribe has been battling to have a say in the adoption, Garreau said, and will go to court in Virginia in May to make their case.
• "If we are not on top of it, this is what happens, you know, they try to slip these kids through the cracks," she said.
• Kristin Kellar, spokeswoman for the South Dakota Department of Social Services, said the agency had not yet heard about the ICWA summit and have not yet determined whether the agency will participate.
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• SPEARFISH, S.D. (AP) -- A ticket sold in Spearfish is worth $10,000 in the latest Powerball drawing.
• South Dakota lottery officials say the ticket matched four of five white balls and

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