Jad Abumrad (host) / main Radiolab host voice

So anyway, I asked Marcia what she thought about it.

Why do you think they started it off that way?

And as you just heard, there were sort of two categories of lingering questions, one about what would happen to Veronica and the other about the Indian Child Welfare Act.

So ultimately, Veronica's case wound up in family court, which found that without the application of ICWA, Dustin could not intervene.

One week after her fourth birthday, Veronica was returned to the Capo Biancos in South Carolina.

And a few months after that, Dustin and the Cherokee Nation announced that they would not continue pursuing the case.

And Veronica's life became much more private after that, away from all the attention of the courts.

She's now 16 years old.

As for the Indian Child Welfare Act, ICWA, it's faced repeated challenges in the past 12 years.

The biggest one was in 2023.

But at that time, the Supreme Court upheld ICWA 7 to 2.

So for now, it is alive and affirmed at the national level.

But not without continued challenges, including a case brought before the Minnesota Supreme Court just this year challenging ICWA again.

That case has not been decided.