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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA No. 50 / 05-0179 Filed May 19, 2006 IN THE INTEREST OF M.T., M.T., AND T.B., Minor Children.

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, Brian L. Michaelson, Judge.

Appeal from district court order allowing tribe to intervene pursuant to the Iowa Indian Child Welfare Act in child-in-need-of-assistance action. APPEAL DISMISSED.

Michelle M. Dreibelbis, Sioux City, for appellants, minor children.

Thomas S. Mullin, County Attorney, and David A. Dawson, Assistant County Attorney, for appellants, State of Iowa and Woodbury County Attorney.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Bruce Kempkes, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee, Iowa Department of Human Services.

Martha M. McMinn, Sioux City, for appellee, The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

Jeffrey S. Rasmussen of Olson, Allen & Rasmussen, L.L.C., Bloomington, Minnesota, Thomas D. Grabinski of Grinnell, and Wilford Stone of Lynch Dallas, P.C., Cedar Rapids, for amicus curiae, The Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa.

Molly Vakulskas-Joly, Sioux City, for the father of M.T. and M.T.

H. Allan Sturgeon, Sioux City, for the mother of the minor children.

3 TERNUS, Justice. The district court allowed The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska to intervene in this child-in-need-of-assistance action. The children's attorney and the Woodbury County Attorney challenge this ruling, claiming the Iowa Indian Child Welfare Act, under which the court authorized the tribe's intervention, is unconstitutional. We do not reach this issue, however, because we are compelled to conclude the appeal must be dismissed on jurisdictional grounds. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. The county attorney commenced this proceeding under Iowa Code chapter 232, alleging the minor children, M.T., M.T., and T.B., were children in need of assistance and asking that their care, custody, and control be transferred to DHS for placement in family foster care. More than twelve months after The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska was notified of this action, it sought to intervene pursuant to the Iowa Indian Child Welfare Act ("Iowa ICWA"). See Iowa Code

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