Bring baby Chanel home: Petition amasses nearly 50,000 signatures to protect native child 'legally kidnapped' by racist foster parents

A petition, which was started on COMMUNITYx to bring baby Chanel, a Native American child back to her maternal grandmother, has amassed 49,629 signatures. Adam Pilarski created the petition on June 22 to send it to the Tribal Court in the Native Village of Selawik, Alaska.

The petition stated that Chanel's mother, Kristen Ballot-Huntington, was killed by Eric Rustad, her partner. Regrettably, Chanel's paternal grandparents refused to take responsibility for the child, landing her in the care of foster parents, Nikki Richman and Joseph Jurco.

Chanel's foster parents have been labeled as racists by people on social media after they uploaded several photos of the child with seemingly racist captions, referring to her as a "little native baby."

Adam's petition further claimed that Chanel's foster parents deliberately separated her from her brother and grandmother, depriving her of the nurturing relationships crucial for her overall well-being and development. Popular Twitter account @TizzyEnt shared a video on July 9, featuring a woman speaking about how the European-American couple "legally kidnapped" baby Chanel.

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Petition requests immediate action to help baby Chanel return to her grandmother

The petition on COMMUNITYx claimed that baby Chanel's foster parents Nikki and Joseph are unfit to care for the child who belongs to a Native American tribe. They reportedly called her derogatory names such as "Mowgli" and the petition stated:

"Chanel’s foster parents have proven themselves to be unfit to care for Chanel as a Native child, subjected her to derogatory terms such as 'native baby' and 'Mowgli,' along with comments suggesting exploitation for labor and even remunerating her in muktuk when she was only 9 months old. Such remarks perpetuate harmful stereotypes and demonstrate a profound lack of understanding and respect-attitudes that put Chanel’s entire identity as a Native child at risk of erasure."

The petition urged for immediate action to be taken so that Baby Chanel could be reunited with her maternal grandmother Aana Arlene.

Adam claimed that Chanel deserves the opportunity to grow up with a firm sense of pride and contentment in her cultural heritage and should also feel a strong connection with her community. The petition requested that people prioritize the child's best interests and emotional well-being.

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How was Nikki Richman able to keep Baby Chanel?

In the video shared by @TizzyEnt, it was stated that Alaskan child protective services refused to take away Chanel's incarcerated father, Eric Rustad's parental rights. He issued power of attorney to a random couple, despite the fact that his wife's side of the family wanted to care for baby Chanel.

When Alaska's child protective service was contacted they said that it was a Tribal matter. However, Chanel's father is not technically a tribal member. So, it would have been well within the child protective service's jurisdiction to remove his parental right, as per @TizzyEnt's video.

However, since Eric's family used to work on ICWA cases, they were able to discourage the child protective services from removing his parental rights, meaning that Chanel was always outside of state custody. Being outside of state custody means no ICWA case could be opened.

Chanel's mother's family was aware of Eric's abusive nature for a long time before this case came to light. In February 2023, Chanel's father was sentenced after his first-degree murder conviction, which he received three years earlier.

He was still able to keep his parental rights even after his sentencing. The native village of Selawik issued an order that Chanel be returned to her maternal family. However, Joseph and Nikki filed a Habeas Corpus petition and said that they were refused due process by the tribal court.

The petition also mentioned that Nikki Richman alleged that the Selawik court violated her due process rights during the custody proceedings. She said that she wasn't given the right to appeal or bring forth witnesses. The individual explaining the matter in @TizzyEnt's video said that Nikki was in fact given the rights but alleged otherwise to the State court.

The video further stated that Tribes have the inherent power to make their own laws in internal matters and to enforce the law in their own forums. Since Nikki's petition invites the Court to venture far outside its jurisdictional bounds, the federal court is not the right medium to challenge Selawik's child custody decisions. The petition was dismissed without prejudice stating that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction.

Baby Chanel's maternal side of the family had to file a writ of assistance with the Fairbanks Superior Court. However, Judge Earl A. Peterson denied the same after seeing Nikki Richman's petition.

The video pointed out how Peterson denied the writ assistance despite having his ICWA training, concluding that this was how Nikki Richman was able to "legally kidnap" a Native baby. However, from the perspective of the Native village of Selawik, this is still illegal.