§1918 Reassumption of Jurisdiction Over Child Cus­tody Proceedings

Summary

An Indian tribe that was put under State control by the Act of August 15, 1953 (67 Stat. 588), as amended by title IV of the Act of April 11, 1968 (82 Stat. 73, 78), or by another Federal law, may take back control of child custody cases. To do this the tribe must send the Secretary a petition with a plan explaining how it will run those cases. The Secretary will look at factors like whether the tribe has a membership list or other way to identify people affected, the size of the reservation or former reservation area, how the population is spread out, and whether more than one tribe uses the same area. If the Secretary approves, the decision will be published in the Federal Register and the State or States will be told. The tribe will take back jurisdiction 60 days after that publication. If the petition is denied, the Secretary must help the tribe fix the problems. Taking back jurisdiction does not change any case a court already has, unless there is an agreement under section 1919.