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(Continued from page 17)
• After college she went back to the Navajo Nation and felt unwelcome, further adding to the feeling of alienation.
• That sentiment was echoed by Seanna Pieper-Jordan, a Native Hawaiian and Blackfeet Nation tribal member who grew up in the foster care system.
• When she returned to the reservation as an adult, the question of being "Indian enough" often came up since she didn't grow up there and didn't know the traditions and stories.
• "When you're disconnected from it, how do you go back and learn it?" she said, adding that the trauma of feeling alone will affect her the rest of her life.
• ICWA has been a hot-button issue across the country. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide soon whether the law allows an unwed Native American father to take custody of his daughter, who was adopted by a non-Indian couple. In South Dakota, two tribal governments have filed a federal lawsuit against the state, accusing the South Dakota Department of Social Services, a judge and a local state's attorney of violating the law by holding improper hearings after children are removed from homes.
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Lawsuit filed by woman who lost home dismissed
DIRK LAMMERS,Associated Press
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Wessington Springs woman who lost her home to fire when her neighbor's home exploded.
• Marguerite Cashman's home burned October 12, 2007, when flames spread from a propane explosion at the home of neighbor Darrick Van Dyke. She already had lost a negligence lawsuit she filed against Van Dyke in state court, and her estate sued propane supplier CHS Inc. in U.S. District Court in January.
• District Judge Roberto Lange on Thursday said Cashman's potential damage claims against CHS became known or should have become known to her at the time of the fire, so the three-year statute of limitations had expired.
• "At the very latest, the damage was known in 2009 when Marguerite Cashman brought suit against Van Dyke," the judge wrote in his decision.
• Cashman's state court lawsuit claimed Van Dyke was negligent in lighting a pilot light on his furnace. The circuit judge in that case ruled that Cashman did not prove her neighbor acted negligently, and the South Dakota Supreme Court rejected Cashman's appeal.
• In the federal case, Cashman's attorneys argued that she did not learn of CHS's actions until Sept. 30, 2012, when she received documents in her state court case (Continued on page 19)
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