Preserving cultural identity in the face of institutionalized white supremacy: Another Home-going -- Pt. 1d -- This human and sovereign rights violation is not about Veronica at all

When I read Michael Overall's, Baby Veronica's adoptive parents come to Oklahoma, I thought there might be some breathing room for Dusten Brown and his family.  But as I read through the comments and again came across D. Hammond from Pheonix, AR -- I not only knew his chances were slim to none, I knew my initial ruminations about the assault on the ICWA was confirmed:

D. Hammond - Phoenix, AR
.... But many are also questioning what's really behind all this fuss. One blogger showed how conservative Christian lobby groups are propelling this issue. Their purpose is to get rid of ICWA. Here's what's posted:

"Melanie (Duncan) Capobianco, Mark Fiddler, and their publicist Jessica Munday of Trio Solutions' "Save Veronica" campaign, are all founding members of The Coalition to Protect Indian Tribes and Families (CPIC). CPIC, whose mission is to "amend" ICWA, orchestrated guests Troy Dunn and Johnston Moore (both members of CPIC) on Dr. Phil in 2012 and has an online petition of some 23,700 signatures to reform or get rid of ICWA.

CPIC works closely with the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare (CAICW) for Indian families "at risk" with ICWA along with the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) which, according to their website, declares Federal Indian policy racist and unconstitutional.

Melanie (Duncan) Capobianco has also participated in CAICW events and panels.

These organizations are all part of the "Tea Party Community" that meets regularly in Washington, D.C." (emphasis mine)

Yeah, their "Christian God" condones what they're doing. {smdh}

Family, this is how white supremacy worms its way into positions of complete control -- by pretending they're there to "help" or "protect" (can anyone say NAACP?).  How in the world does the The Coalition to Protect Indian Tribes and Families (CPIC), have anything to do with protecting Veronica?!  It doesn't.  It, through the disrespect of the white gaze -- as Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville) writes here -- enables the same trafficking of Native American children that the ICWA was created to stop.

For a minute there, things were looking pretty good for the Browns once the balance shifted to Oklahoma.  From the afore-linked piece:

Matt and Melanie Capobianco arrived in Tulsa late Tuesday and called a press conference for Wednesday morning. They had threatened earlier this week to come find the 3-year-old girl themselves if law enforcement didn't take physical custody away from her Cherokee family.

Meanwhile, Fallin and the Cherokee Nation expressed hope that a compromise could be reached to end the custody battle, which has been raging for nearly four years now.

Fallin urged the biological father, Dusten Brown, and the adoptive parents "to reconcile and to come to an agreement that best serves their child."

"To be clear, the legal system cannot deliver a happy ending in this case," Fallin said in a prepared statement. "Only Mr. Brown and the Capobianco family can do that."

She will not approve the warrant until Dusten Brown has a chance to fight extradition in court, starting with a hearing Sept. 12 in Sequoyah County, Fallin said.

South Carolina's governor, Nikki Haley, called Fallin personally this week to support the adoptive parents, the Capobiancos.

Fallin's office receives more than 100 extradition warrants a year and routinely approves them, officials said. But it's unusual for the legality of a warrant to be challenged in court, as Brown is doing.

Her office will have 90 days to review the warrant. And if it follows "the letter and spirit of the law," she will sign it, Fallin said.

"My hope, however," she said, "continues to be that sending Mr. Brown to face criminal charges in South Carolina is unnecessary." (emphasis mine)

That the governor and the Cherokee Nation hope for some compromise is troubling to me -- I can't say this enough, this child's mother sold her for money and a car because she didn't want her, but this man wants his flesh and blood!  I don't know anything about Gov. Mary Fallin, but it seemed, based on the above, she was willing to follow the laws of her state.  As I perused the comment section, though, it appears some Oklahomans are not nearly as confident in that observation as I. Here are a few comments:

Dana Asher - Bixby
Mary(no back bone)Fallin,will have to ask the tea party members,what to do.

Joe Doty - TULSA
When it comes to issues of morality, She is a very poor example.

Sean Campbell - Oklahoma City
Fallin taking care of Oklahomans....?

You must not read the news much.

Seems they know her -- Opposing sides in 'Baby Veronica' case talk compromise:

Putting pressure on Brown, Gov. Mary Fallin threatened to speed up the extradition process to South Carolina if he didn't compromise and allow the Capobiancos to visit Veronica.

Brown faces a South Carolina charge of "custodial interference," which can carry a sentence of up to five years in prison upon conviction.

"Mr. and Mrs. Capobianco deserve an opportunity to meet with their adopted daughter," the governor said Wednesday.

"They also deserve the chance to meet with Mr. Brown and put an end to this conflict."

A day earlier, the governor had promised not to send Brown to South Carolina until after a court hearing Sept. 12, when he plans to challenge the extradition request.

"If both parties are meeting in good faith," said Fallin's spokesman, Alex Weintz, "the governor has said she will wait until the September court date to review the extradition request."

Brown's defense attorney told the Tulsa World that the governor shouldn't mix the criminal case with the civil dispute over custody.

"They're two completely separate legal issues," said Clark Brewster, adding that he had been in contact with the Governor's Office. "One involves a criminal allegation, and one involves what is in the best interests of Veronica."

Brown has committed no crime and won't let the criminal case affect any decisions over his daughter's future, Brewster said.

But Brewster was waiting Wednesday night to hear back from the Capobianco camp after "a lengthy conversation" with one of their attorneys.

Earlier in the day, he had suggested that a possible compromise might involve having a "best interest" hearing in Oklahoma, where Veronica has lived with her biological family for nearly 20 months.

"That's the real issue," Brewster said. "What's best for Veronica?"

Now I'm no lawyer, nor am I well-versed in the rules of extraordinary rendition extradition -- but can somebody explain to me how on the one hand,  she said he has a right to a hearing to fight the warrant September 12, and she has 90 says to review it, then turn right around and threaten to speed up the process if he does not do what she says?  Does she have that kind of gubernatorial discretion?  I'm telling you, these folk are experts at talking out of both sides of their mouths!

And their madness continues: Baby Veronica adoptive parents file motion to bring her to court:

After talking compromise in recent days, Veronica's adoptive parents filed a motion Thursday in Cherokee County District Court to have her brought to the courthouse Friday morning, officials said.

The child must appear before a judge in downtown Tahlequah at 9 a.m., according to the court order as officials described it.

The order names not only the biological father, Dusten Brown, but also his wife, Robin Brown, and his parents, Alice and Tommy Brown, who have guardianship of the little girl under Cherokee Nation court orders.

Citing an Oklahoma law that gives him until next Friday to challenge an out-of-state custody order, Brown's attorneys will fight any effort to force him to turn over the girl, officials told the Tulsa World.

The attorneys will also argue that pending motions in tribal court should prevent the girl from being taken away, the officials said.

A reality TV personality, traveling to Tulsa this week with the adoptive parents, discovered where the Brown family has been staying and tried earlier in the day to go there.

Cherokee marshals turned him away. And the order was filed a few hours later at roughly 5:30 p.m., officials said.

Really?? "A reality TV personality" --  and they want you to believe this is all about this child. {smdh}  Troy "The Locator" Dunn has been on this case with the Capobiancos since they showed up on the Dr. Phil Show.  This has never been about Veronica and according to the piece -- he's said as much:

In June, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered South Carolina to reconsider its earlier decision to take custody of Veronica away from the Capobiancos, Dunn posted "VICTORY!!!!!!!!" on his Facebook page.

"This is a victory for little Veronica, a victory for adoption and a great step forward for the REAL welfare of Indian children everywhere," the Facebook post said. (emphasis mine)

Uttered by a paternalistic opportunist, that last sentence is "White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy" writ large.  I am so-o-o tired of white folk believing they always know what's better for non-white folk -- we don't need parenting, especially from those who've done nothing but oppress us all.

The two scheduled hearings have now ended.  Hopefully the Brown family will have a little peace this weekend.  It's hard to know though, based on this -- Baby Veronica case: Court hearings end, mediation agreement filed:

The biological and adoptive parents for Baby Veronica met in two Tahlequah courthouses today for more than five hours in their continuing custody battle.

After the first court hearing, the Cherokee County District Court filed a mediation agreement, although details are unavailable and a judge has ordered that files be sealed.

Both families then went a few blocks to the Cherokee Nation tribal court for a second closed hearing that ended about 2:50 p.m. and left some members of the 3-year-old girl's biological family subdued.

Veronica didn't attend either hearing, although the state court required her biological family to bring her. Her location has not been disclosed.

The Brown family -- which includes Veronica's biological father, Dusten Brown -- left the tribal courthouse first and had no comment. Veronica's grandmother was in tears, and the child's grandfather shook his head no when asked if there was any good news.

(Note: Original article above removed -- seems to have been incorporated into this one: Baby Veronica case goes to mediation; gag order in effect after Friday's hearings)

Despite the gag order in place, the Capobianco's PR mouthpiece, Munday is still being her "Chatty Cathy" self, making statements all over the place -- another example of how white privilege still trumps all.  If it didn't, Ms. Maldonado would be in jail by now for collusion, intent to defraud and/or obstruction with her attorney and the adoption agency about Mr. Brown's Cherokee Nation status (those FACTS are sitting right there on Page 4 of the S.C. Family Court's initial ruling!), and the head of The Christian Nightlight Adoption agency and the Capobiancos would be cooling their heels in cells on either side of her for at least:  falsification of documents/obstruction of justice, perjury, child trafficking/abduction and malicious prosecution.  But they're not, because white privilege + white supremacy = no accountability.

The rights of a child to be raised in her culture with her biological father, as well as the sovereignty of a Nation hang precariously in the balance as we wait.  While I've got nothing for organized, Christian religions, I will offer up a prayer to the spirits that I do believe guide our lives for this child, the Browns and yes, the Cherokee Nation.  Because, IMHO, a ruling in favor of the child traffickers will cause irreparable harm to them all and go a very long way to realizing the aims of Glenn Beck's "Restoring America" event few years ago.

UPDATE: I serendipitously came across the following video -- American Holocaust: The Destruction of America's Native Peoples -- in a link provided by commenter "jefe" over on Abagond's, Was Hitler evil? post.  It's long, but you can skip the introductions if you wish and go to the 7:40 click where the presentation begins. I'm posting it here because it gives great background for what "Restoring America" means to Native Americans in this country and is a perfect example of what the Capobiancos and their cadre of white supremacists are trying to achieve with this case.  Be educated, Family:




Continued -- Preserving cultural identity in the face of institutionalized white supremacy: Another Home-going -- Pt. 1e -- And the mirror cracks

Related:
- Agreement reached in Oklahoma court custody hearing regarding Veronica, but results remain under wraps
- Baby Veronica's appearance demanded in Cherokee County court Friday
- Veronica's adoptive parents to hold press conference in Oklahoma
- Why Feminists Should Care About the Baby Veronica Case
- Baby Veronica Is a Victim of Colonial Domination
- What Baby Veronica's Adopters Should Know About Her Cherokee Roots