Eighth Circuit Court weighing tribal authority in child custody case from Cheyenne River

A custody dispute over the children of a South Dakota Sioux woman who took them to a reservation brought a test of tribal sovereignty to the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday, Feb. 15.

That test involved the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, enacted in 1980 in an effort to prevent parents from countering adverse custody decisions by fleeing across state lines and seeking a better result from an…