Dept. of Human Services v. T. G.

342 Or. App. 548
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided August 13, 2025·No. A186627·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

548 August 13, 2025 No. 721

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF OREGON

In the Matter of T. A. G. II, a Child.

DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, Petitioner-Respondent,

and K. C.

and Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Respondents,

v. T. G., aka T. J. G., Appellant.

Multnomah County Circuit Court 19JU05952; Petition Number

113766;

A186627 (Control), A186628

Linda Hughes, Judge pro tempore. Argued and submitted June 18, 2025. Tiffany Keast, Deputy Public Defender, argued the cause for appellant. Also on the briefs was Shannon Storey, Chief Defender, Juvenile Appellate Section, Oregon Public Defense Commission.

Inge D. Wells, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent Department of Human Services. Also on the brief were Dan Rayfield, Attorney General, and Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General.

Justin Derhammer argued the cause for respondent Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Also on the brief was Alana Martin, Cowlitz Indian Tribe.

Erica Hayne Friedman and Youth, Rights & Justice filed the brief for respondent K. C.

Cite as 342 Or App 548 (2025) 549

Before Ortega, Presiding Judge, Lagesen, Chief Judge, and Joyce, Judge.

ORTEGA, P. J. Affirmed.

550 Dept. of Human Services v. T. G.

ORTEGA, P. J. In this juvenile dependency case, father appeals from the juvenile court’s order accepting the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s order of a tribal customary adoption of child, ORS 419B.656, and the juvenile court’s judgment of adoption, ORS 419B.656 and ORS 109.350. On appeal, father argues that the juvenile court’s actions were in violation of the Oregon Indian Child Welfare Act (ORICWA), the federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. See Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, 25 USC §§ 1901 - 1963; Oregon Indian Child Welfare Act, Or Laws 2020, ch 14, §§ 1 - 66 (Spec Sess 1) (codifying new provisions at ORS chapter 419B.600 to ORS 419B.665 and amending portions of ORS chapters 350, 418, 419A, and 419B). Essentially, father asserts that the juvenile court was required to hold a contested evidentiary hearing on the criteria in ORS 419B.656, which governs acceptance of a tribe’s order for tribal customary adoption, and to also require the proponents of the tribal customary adoption to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that conduct or circumstances existed that warrant termination of father’s parental rights.1 We conclude that neither state nor federal law required the evidentiary hearing that father argues for on appeal. Accordingly, we affirm.

Father’s child, T, was born in August 2019 and is affiliated with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe via his maternal lineage . The Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) removed T from his parents shortly after his birth and petitioned for the juvenile court to take jurisdiction. In September 2020, the court entered a judgment establishing jurisdiction over T. As to father, the court based its jurisdiction on father’s admissions that his “pattern of using controlled substances interferes with his ability to safely parent the child,” and his “pattern of involvement in criminal activity and current incarceration interfere with his ability to safely parent and be a custodial resource for his child.” The court granted the tribe’s request to intervene as a party in September 2021.

1 Substantially the same issue is currently pending before the Supreme Court in Dept. of Human Services v. M. G. J., 329 Or App 101 (2023) (nonprecedential memorandum opinion), rev allowed, 372 Or 63 (2024).

Cite as 342 Or App 548 (2025) 551

In July 2022, the juvenile court changed T’s plan from reunification to guardianship, and then, in January 2024, changed T’s plan from guardianship to tribal customary adoption, a plan supported by the tribe, T’s mother, and T. The court found that father “has not followed through with ODHS.” The court continued the plan at review hearings in June and September of that year.

On the same date as the September review hearing, the tribe filed with the court a copy of the tribe’s Indian Child Welfare Committee’s Tribal Customary Adoption Process, which was also circulated to the parties. And, on November 14, 2024, the tribe filed with the court the notice it provided to the parties on November 7, notifying them that the Cowlitz Indian Child Welfare Committee had set a meeting for December 6, 2024, to consider T’s tribal customary adoption. The notice stated, “Legal parties in the underlying case may send documents to the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s Indian Child Welfare Committee to consider during the Customary Adoption Process. Please review Section 1-6 of the Indian Child Welfare Committee’s Tribal Customary Adoption Process for information and limitations pertaining to the submission of documents.” Father submitted documents for the committee to consider.

On December 6, 2024, the committee adhered to the Indian Child Welfare Committee’s Tribal Customary Adoption Process, considered all the submitted information, and voted unanimously to order that T’s resource parents “shall have the physical, legal, and financial responsibility” for T. In issuing its order of tribal customary adoption for T, the committee determined that returning T to his parents “would likely result in serious detriment” and that customary adoption was in T’s best interests. The order “suspended/ modified” both parents’ parental rights by transferring the physical, legal, and financial responsibility for T to his tribal customary adoption parents (TCA parents). However, the order also recognized “the vital importance of the connection between tribal children and tribal family” and outlined other rights, which included that TCA parents have the discretion to allow visitation with T’s birth parents consistent with T’s best interest, that TCA parents and birth parents 552 Dept. of Human Services v. T. G.

are to annually confirm or update the means to communicate with each other, that TCA parents are to provide annual updates to birth parents about T, and that T retains all rights of inheritance of birth parents. On December 19, the tribe filed the order of tribal customary adoption with the juvenile court.

On January 2, 2025, the day before the scheduled hearing in the juvenile court, father filed an objection to the acceptance of the tribal customary adoption. He argued that the court was required to hold a contested evidentiary hearing such as would be required to establish a permanent guardianship under ORS 419B.365, ICWA, and the Due Process Clause. Father asserted that the tribal customary adoption takes away his parental rights, akin to a permanent guardianship, without a meaningful opportunity to confront the information provided to the tribe and at a lower standard of proof than required by Oregon law or ICWA.

At the hearing the next day, the court remarked that it had received father’s objections filed on January 2, “which was very untimely, might I just say, because this has been a plan for quite some time, and you were aware of that.” After arguments on the merits of father’s request for a contested hearing “that meets the standards required for Indian children for a permanent guardianship before the Court can put in place the Tribal Customary Adoption,” the court again expressed frustration that father’s objection was filed the day prior, when the plan had been set an entire year earlier, in January 2024, with an intervening review hearing in September 2024 at which time the January 2025 hearing had been set. Moving to the merits, the court ruled that Oregon law states that the court shall accept the tribal customary adoption order and that it would move forward with finalizing it. Father did not argue that any of the criteria enumerated in the statute for accepting a tribal customary adoption had not been met.

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Dept. of Human Services v. T. G., 342 Or. App. 548 (Or. Ct. App. 2025).

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Dept. of Human Services v. T. G.
342 Or. App. 548 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)