In Re Jennifer A.

Lawrence A. Aufill for Real Party in Interest and Respondent.

Benjamin P. de Mayo, County Counsel, and Thomas F. Morse, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Paoli & Paoli and Sylvia L. Paoli, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, La Mirada, for the Minor.

MOORE, J.

In this mother appeals from the dispositional order removing her daughter from her custody and awarding custody to the child's father. The mother claims the juvenile court violated the Indian Child Welfare Act ( 25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq.) (ICWA). She argues it erred in going forward with the dependency proceedings when no evidence of service of notice on the appropriate tribes, receipt of notice by the tribes, or any response from the tribes had been filed with the court. The social services agency and the father, on the other hand, contend the ICWA notice provisions are inapplicable because the child ultimately was placed in her father's custody, not in the custody of a foster parent, and the ICWA does not apply to intrafamily disputes.

However, the child was initially removed from her mother and temporarily placed in emergency shelter care and then in foster home care. The fact that the court…