Sorrow and frustration surrounds brutal death of Indian child
Family believes tribal child custody court needs to be changed
By Richie Richards
Native Sun News Staff Writer
nsweekly.com
PINE RIDGE –– The family of
Kylen T. Shangreaux, 2, whose lifeless body was found battered and bruised in Porcupine on July 28, would like to see changes in the way child custody cases are handled in tribal court.
According to an
August 11 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of South Dakota, Kylen’s birth-mother,
Katrina Shangreaux, has been arrested and charged with First Degree Murder, Felony Child Abuse-Aggravated Battery of an Infant and Felony Child Abuse & Neglect.
Shangreaux appeared and pled not guilty in federal court on August 10 in Rapid City. The press release states, “The charges relate to Shangreaux inflicting blunt trauma to a child, causing his death.” She is currently being held in the Pennington County Jail.
Kylen T. Shangreaux enjoys Easter egg hunting. Photo courtesy Angela Shangreaux
Before Kylen was born, his birth-mother had told her maternal aunt,
Gloria No Neck, that she did not want the unborn boy. Upon birth on Nov. 19, 2013, Kylen left Regional Hospital in the care and custody of No Neck.
“Auntie, I wanna give you my baby. I don’t want him. At the time, I was working at Porcupine School and didn’t know if I could get leave to take a newborn baby home. But she promised me they would sign over the parental rights, but they never did,” No Neck told Native Sun News.
No Neck and her husband maintained custody until Kylen was approximately 14 months old. This time period was hard on the family as James and Katrina were constantly taking Kylen without permission and coming over to visit him while they were high or drunk, according to No Neck.
Finally, Katrina and James regained custody from Gloria, but not without a fight.
“They made up all these lies about us. We did fight for him. She was the bio-mom so there was nothing we could do. That was messed up that the judge (Judge Dominique Alan Fenton) didn’t’ even listen to our side,” she told NSN.
It was not until Kylen was nearly 1 ½ years old, that Katrina Shangreaux filed for and gained custody of Kylen through tribal court. James (Kylen’s father) and Katrina lived with James’ parents in Pine Ridge with Kylen. At this time, Angela Shangreaux (Kylen’s aunt) noticed the young boy was “withdrawn” and possibly in mourning and missing the only parent he knew up until that point, Gloria No Neck.
“Katrina was really not that involved, she was a non-participating parent while living at my parents’ house. She stayed up in her room the whole time. She did not cook, bathe, play with, or even change Kylen’s diapers,” Angela Shangreaux said in an interview with Native Sun News. “James did everything for those kids. He (Kylen) just looked really unhappy with her.”
Read the rest of the story on the
all-new Native Sun News website:
Sorrow and frustration surrounds brutal death of Indian child
(Contact Richie Richards at staffwriter@nsweekly.com)
Copyright permission Native Sun News
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