Court rejects Seminoles' effort to raise boy

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

Breaking new ground for Florida courts in cases involving the welfare of American Indian children, an appeals court ruled Wednesday that the ''best interests'' of a seriously ill half-Seminole child outweigh the Seminoles' desire to raise him within the tribe's culture and traditions.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach ruled that the 4-year-old boy, identified only as K.D., must remain with a non-Indian family that has cared for him since birth in a medical foster home. The eight-page decision affirmed a 2006 ruling by Broward Circuit Judge Hope Bristol.

The ruling allows Bristol to set aside provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law that gives American Indians great preference over non-Indians when deciding who should raise a Native American child taken into custody by state child-welfare administrators.

In K.D.'s case judges had to weigh two competing interests: the state's desire to protect a child whose medical needs are so great that child-protection workers said he needs to live with a family specially trained and equipped to care for him, versus the Seminoles' desire -- and right -- to raise him as a member of their tribe.

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