In re C.B

In In re C.B. (2010) 190 Cal.App.4th 102, the county DFCS submitted a membership application but was unable to comply with the tribe requirement that state certified birth/death certificates be provided to establish lineage to the enrolled tribal member. The children's paternal grandmother refused to provide the required documents because she did not want the children enrolled in the tribe and had withdrawn her own enrollment. (Id. at p. 137.) The children's paternal great-aunt, however, obtained certified copies of birth and death certificates to support the children's Cherokee Nation application. (Ibid.) The juvenile court concluded the paternal great-aunt, not DFCS, was required to send the certificates to the tribe, and the DFCS was to assist her by providing needed information and a cover letter. (Ibid.) After this was done, the tribe sent another application and requested the original state certified birth/death certificates. The DFCS social worker completed the membership application and provided the great-aunt with a cover letter to include with the certificates. The court in C.B. found that "The Department's ongoing efforts to work with family members to obtain the supporting documentation and its provision of the cover letter to a cooperative and willing extended family member were consistent with taking the 'steps necessary to secure tribal membership' for eligible children and attempting to use 'the available resources of extended family members' as stated in rule 5.484(c)(2). The Department was not required to do more under the circumstances." (C.B., supra, 190 Cal.App.4th at p. 139.) The Court questioned "whether rule 5.482(c) and rule 5.484(c) are consistent with the controlling statute." (C.B., at p. 135.) Without deciding the issue or elaborating, the C.B. court concluded that, regardless, the record supported the conclusion the Department of Family and Children's Services (DFCS) made active efforts to secure tribal membership for the child. (Id. at p. 136.)