A powerful Utah family is at the center of a new investigative report about a controversial Native American adoption.
In 2017, David and Chelom Leavitt adopted a child from the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. The mother of the adopted child, Tonah Fishinghawk, was struggling with alcohol abuse and taking care of the newborn and a toddler without a job. David Leavitt said they were just trying to help.
The Leavitt name carries weight in Utah. David is the former Utah County Attorney and he ran for Attorney General. His brother is former Gov. Mike Leavitt and the family created a multi-million dollar insurance company.
Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting looked into how the Leavitts’ influence made this adoption even more complicated. Their investigation found this case went against the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law for Native American adoptions.
Leavitt got a letter from the tribe’s president giving his blessing for the adoption. The letter was later used in Utah court to show the Leavitts should be given priority for adopting the child.
“The problem is that when we spoke to tribal leadership and members, they all view that letter as deeply problematic and ultimately meaningless,” said reporter Bernice Yeung. “They explain that that's not how tribal process works.”
The biggest issue in this case, she said, was that it was tried in Utah.
“ICWA is very clear that when a Native child is living on the reservation on their land, they [the tribe] should have the ability to decide how these custody cases go,” Yeung said.
“It should have remained on the Northern Cheyenne nation. It should have remained in tribal court.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ciara Hulet: What was the Indian Child Welfare Act created to do?
Bernice Yeung: It's a federal law passed in 1978, and it protects Native children who are going to be adopted or who are going to be placed in foster care. And it's really there to ensure that Native children in particular are given due process before they're taken away from their reservations, their tribes or their families. And it's really a response to what was really a tragic, 150-year-plus legacy of Native children being forcibly removed from reservations, from their families, from their tribes. Before ICWA was passed, there was some really compelling data that was put before Congress that between a quarter and a third of Indian children in the United States were being removed from their families, really without good cause.
CH: This story isn't as simple as white strangers adopting a Native child. How is the child's grandmother associated with Chalom Leavitt's family?
BY: There is a deep family connection there that goes back to when the child's grandmother, a woman named Mary Grace Medicine Top, was placed in what is known as the Indian Student Placement Program through [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]. So starting at about 8 years old, she'd get picked up from the reservation and go and live with Chelom Leavitt’s family in Washington for the school year. You know, it's the promise of a better education, more resources. She did that at least a couple years. And that relationship [has] remained very strong.
CH: David Leavitt went to Montana after the grandmother reached out to Chelom’s family for advice about her granddaughter. Tonah Fishinghawk, the baby's mother, gave her permission for the adoption. What about the father, Gary Valenzuela?
BY: The biological father who really wanted to parent this child wasn't able to fully obtain the protections and benefits of the Indian Child Welfare Act. And in this instance, the Utah court agreed with the Leavitt argument that ICWA shouldn't apply to the father. And we've since spoken to legal experts who disagree with that assessment.
CH: What does this case reveal about the state of the Indian Child Welfare Act?
BY: What was really interesting for us to learn was that there was deep disparity in how ICWA is applied, and this is something that the federal government has acknowledged in written documentation, that the way that ICWA is applied varies from state to state, from courtroom to courtroom. There's at the moment, no way to really know how ICWA is being applied, whether it's being applied correctly or not.
CH: Leavitt told you he only has the best interest of the child in mind, and people who have seen her say she's healthy and doing well. The mother still thinks adoption was the right choice, but the Northern Cheyenne are still trying to bring attention to this matter. Where do things stand now?
BY: Well in terms of the big picture, the Biden administration has proposed a rule that is expected to be final in November, that would improve how data is collected related to ICWA compliance. And the Biden administration and Health and Human Services, which is behind this rule, would then use that data to inform any policy changes it would propose going forward.
In addition, the tribe, they're very interested in trying to connect with the child when it's appropriate, and they have asked the federal government to take a look at this case. A former tribal council member that we spoke with expressed to us that, you know, the loss of a child from the reservation is really a collective loss for them.
And for the mother, it was absolutely her choice to place the child for adoption, and it sounded like she had a really clear idea of who she wanted to place the child with. I think at the end of the day, we're asking whether there are processes, federal law, that ought to be followed. That there's federal law in place in order to make sure that Native children get the due process and have their best interests put at the forefront of any adoption or child custody case.
