In re I.C. CA4/2

FACTS

The five children at issue are N.C. (born Oct. 2013), I.C. (born Nov. 2016), R.P. 2 (born Feb. 2019), Ry.P. (born Feb. 2020) and Re.P. (Aug. 2021). The two oldest have

the same father, as do the youngest three. The department filed dependency petitions for

the children in October 2022.

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code. “In addition, because ICWA uses the term ‘Indian,’ we do the same for consistency, even though we recognize that other terms, such as ‘Native American’ or ‘indigenous,’ are preferred by many.” (In re Benjamin M. (2021) 70 Cal.App.5th 735, 739, fn. 1, disapproved on other grounds in In re Dezi C. (2024) 16 Cal.5th 1112 (Dezi C.).) 2 Mother has three other, older children who are not part of this appeal, one of whom was already an adult when the dependency started.

2 The three youngest children have Indian ancestry through their father; they are

enrolled members of the Great Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and may have ancestral ties

to other tribes. Mother denied having any Indian ancestry, as did the maternal

grandmother, the father of the two oldest children, and the oldest child. Although a

number of other…