Miccosukee tribe seizes non-native dad's newborn in hospital

MIAMI (AP) - A major clash between the authority of a sovereign Indian nation and non-native officials is shaping up in Florida, where a baby just born in a Miami hospital was taken from her parents, a Miccosukee mother and a white father.

Two days after the girl was born, tribal detectives accompanied by Miami-Dade police removed the child at Baptist Hospital in Kendall, which is outside the tribe's reservation in the Everglades.

The Miami Herald reports that Miccosukee police had a tribal court order to take Ingrid Ronan Johnson from her parents, Rebecca Sanders and Justin Johnson.

The girl's parents are complaining to police, prosecutors and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, saying the tribal order was concocted by the baby's grandmother, Betty Osceola to keep Johnson out of the girl's life.