State Ex Rel. Children, Youth & Families Department v. Marlene C.

OPINION

DANIELS, Chief Justice.

{1} This case addresses the relationship between the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), 25 U.S.C. §§ 1901-1963 (2006), which sets “minimum Federal standards for the removal of Indian children from their families,” § 1902, and the New Mexico Abuse and Neglect Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 32A-4-1 to -34 (1993, as amended through 2009), which governs the State’s transfer of custody of a child in eases of abuse or neglect. More specifically, we are asked to determine when and how a district court in an abuse and neglect proceeding must make the two factual findings…