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National congress of american indiansDusten Brown honored by National Congress of American Indians

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/dusten-brown-honored-by-national-congress-of-american-indians/article_b8b6d647-25f9-5037-80da-3202a4c36e83.html

The custody case is viewed as an issue of tribal sovereignty.

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Dusten Brown honored by National Congress of American Indians

Jefferson Keel of the Chickasaw Nation (left), president of the National Congress of American Indians, and Sandy White Hawk wrap Dusten Brown in a prayer quilt Tuesday. MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World

Dusten Brown honored by National Congress of American Indians

Veterans escort Dusten Brown (front row, second from right) and his wife, Robin Brown, to the stage for an honor ceremony at the National Congress of American Indians national meeting in Tulsa on Tuesday. MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World

Posted: Wednesday, October 16, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 3:09 am, Wed Oct 16, 2013.

Dusten Brown honored by National Congress of American IndiansBy MICHAEL OVERALL World Staff WriterTulsaWorld.com

At the end of an open-mic session Tuesday morning, delegates were still lining up to talk about tribal sovereignty when the sergeant at arms interrupted.

“We want to take time to honor somebody,” explained Dan King, a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, who introduced Dusten Brown.

At the National Congress of American Indians, it wasn’t necessary to explain that Brown is the biological father of “Baby Veronica.”

And nobody at the Cox Business Center, where the association is meeting this week, had to be told that 4-year-old Veronica was the subject of an epic custody battle that officially ended only last week.

For tribes nationwide, Brown’s Cherokee family has become a symbol of what the delegates spent all morning talking about sovereignty, and the threats to it.

“All of Indian Country has been on this roller coaster ride of emotions,” said Sandy White Hawk, a member of the Rosebud Sioux who works with Native American adoptees to help reconnect them with their biological families and tribes.

Veronica’s case, White Hawk said, “opened a collective wound. Now we need to begin a collective healing.”

The Cherokee Nation helped Brown win custody of Veronica in 2011, when courts ruled in his favor under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which was designed to keep Native American children with their tribes.

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this summer that Brown didn’t have standing under the act because he didn’t have custody of Veronica at birth.

Tribes nationwide complained that the decision opened a loophole in the Indian Child Welfare Act and eroded tribal sovereignty over custody cases.

“Dusten and Veronica represent many, many families all over the country,” White Hawk said. “There’s a reason all of this is happening.”

Recognizing Brown’s military service in Iraq, more than 50 veterans escorted him to the stage Tuesday.

As the crowd stood up to watch, he received a prayer quilt and an eagle feather for himself, along with a plume of feathers to keep for Veronica.

“Veronica will always be a Cherokee citizen,” the tribe’s deputy principal chief, Joe Crittenden, told the audience. “And we look forward to the day she comes home to Dusten.”

Brown didn’t speak or take questions from the media.

The “honor ceremony” came less than a week after he announced that he would drop all appeals in the case, giving up any hope of getting Veronica back.

Matt and Melanie Capobianco arranged a private adoption with Brown’s former fiancee in 2009.

They regained custody last month, after the Oklahoma Supreme Court lifted an order than had been keeping Veronica in the state while Brown appealed the case.