In re M.G. CA4/2

BACKGROUND

Defendant and appellant M.G. is the mother of the two children in this dependency

matter, one born in February 2006, the other in July 2013, both of whom share mother’s

initials. Plaintiff and respondent San Bernardino County Children and Family Services

(CFS) filed section 300 petitions regarding the children in February 2019. The children’s

father initially participated in the dependency proceedings, but he died in May 2019.

In advance of the February 2019 detention hearing, both mother and father

responded “No” on a CFS form inquiring if they “have/may have Native American

Ancestry.” At the disposition hearing in February 2019, both mother and father

confirmed they had “no known Indian ancestry.” On CFS forms, the children’s maternal

grandmother and maternal aunt also denied any Indian ancestry. Both the maternal

grandmother and maternal aunt attended the detention hearing, and both confirmed their

earlier responses.

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…