Bob,
Under ICWA , the State has been required to notify Tribes when Alaska Native/Native Americans children are removed from their homes. Under ICWA, kids are to be: 1) placed with a relative, 2) Placed in a Tribal home, 3) in a Native foster home before being placed in non-Native foster care. 
Tribes have had their own ICWA workers to represent the tribe and what the tribe felt was the best interest of the Tribe. They go into state court and have stranding.
The other time that ICWA has come up is regarding adoptions. The tribe has to be notified, give their permission and the adoption placement should follow the 1-3 "rule". 
The idea of the ICWA was to keep Native children within the tribe, not taken out and adopted to people in New York City. It was to address what had happened to Native families for years. The children were taken, never to return to their families and tribes. 
But, for many years after the passage of ICWA, most of the states just skipped notice.