A Glendive woman who claims the Bureau of Indian Affairs violated a tribal order when it handcuffed her and removed her two grandsons from the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in which she is seeking $1 million in damages.
BIA agents used an “invalid Minnesota warrant” to seize Patsy Fercho’s grandchildren, according to the lawsuit, Patsy Fercho v. United States of America, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Billings.
“The BIA gave the Tribal Court the middle finger when it knowingly violated the court’s order,” the 64-year-old plaintiff’s attorney, Matthew Monforton said in announcing the lawsuit.