Birth parents lose newborn, claim there was no grounds

June 23, 2004

To whom it may concern: ….My girlfriend is 1/8 siletz indian and my newborn son is 1/16 siletz indian.  Then problem is that i have a misdemeaner sex crime and because of this the tribe took my son from the hospital when he was born for “neglect”.  Other then my charge they had no reason to take my son.  I have since been living on my own away from my girlfriend to make attempts to get our son back.  The tribe still doesnt give our son back to my girlfriend and now they have no reason.  I dont understand how they can hold him with no reason.  He never lived with us so how can there be neglect?  It seems like the tribe is doing more bullying then anything else.  My family(aunt, grandparents) who one of them is a lawyer and neither have criminal records, have wrote and faxed multiple letter to these people requesting visits and to see how my son is doing and the tribe completely ignores our requests.  they refuse to respond. I really feel what their doing to our family is wrong.  I really cant afford an attorney in tribal law to do anything about this and the tribe had given me a spokesperson to help who was a member of the tribe and the person did absolutely nothing to help.  I really pray for help in these hard times.

UPDATE July 14, 2004

lisa
thank you so much.  there is so much more that the tribe has done as of recent.  they are neglecting our son. he was in the hospital and they refused to say what was going on for several hours and then we finally got which hospital he was at and they refused to give info on what was wrong with him.  I think the tribe is breaking some kind of law.  I cant believe
they can do something like this.  Its scary that they get away with stuff like this and whats worse is that they probably do this all the time to others as well.  Thanks you so much for your response. I am always praying   thank you so much