Foster Parents of Part-Native American Child on Custody Battle
Six-year-old Lexi, who is 1.5% Choctaw Native American Indian, has been ripped from her foster parents -- who were trying to adopt her -- and placed with relatives in Utah because of a law called the Indian Child Welfare Act. The parents of this child, Rusty and Summer Page, joined the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney to share their side of the story.
“Our role is to love that child, in this case Lexi, to be her daddy to be her mommy and to not have any other distraction or thoughts that would prohibit us that. She is a child. She needs to be cared for and loved and that’s exactly what we did every day,” said Summer.
While Rusty and Summer knew Lexi had some Native American blood in her, they argued that it’s irrelevant.
“These children don’t know that they have Native American blood. They don’t know that they are a foster child, they just need love and consistency and that’s all that’s relevant,” said Rusty.
Summer and Rusty said Lexi’s biological parents have been out of the picture for years and that the little girl was moved to a step second cousin in Utah that’s non-Native.
“We’ve known about them for a while but we’ve been fighting for her to stay because of what she wants. What she wants and who she sees as mommy and daddy and her siblings and to have a law dictate that despite what she wants, she should move away from all she’s ever had,” said Rusty.
Summer and Rusty say they are currently not allowed to speak to Lexi right now.