The girl, who is 1/64th Native American, was removed from her longtime foster home in California and sent to live with extended family under the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Rusty Page carries Lexi while Summer Page, in the background, cries as members of family services, left, arrive to take Lexi away from her foster family in Santa Clarita, Calif.
David Crane / Los Angeles Daily News via AP
A crying 6-year-old girl was removed from her longtime California foster family Monday and sent to live with relatives in Utah – despite resistance from her foster parents and thousands of supporters — because she is part Native American.
Lexi, who is 1.5% Choctaw, was seized from her foster parents Rusty and Summer Page in Santa Clarita, California, by social workers under rules dictated by the Indian Welfare Act, a 1978 federal law that is intended to protect rights of Native American children who were disproportionally removed from their homes by the government and placed in non-Native American families.
Supporters of the Page family have been surrounding the home for days holding a vigil, KABC-TV reported. A campaign to keep the girl with her foster family, called "Save Lexi," has gained momentum with an online petition and Facebook page.
On Sunday, demonstrators initially stopped the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services agents from removing Lexi by blocking passage to the house, but on Monday social workers came again and were successful.
Lexi was seen begging to stay with her foster parents, clinging to Rusty as her foster mother yelled she loved her and held onto her other children.
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