Navajos fighting for custodial rights

The Navajo Nation has asked a federal judge to decide whether it has custodial rights of a 20-month-old girl who was born to a Caucasian mother and a Navajo father and placed for adoption immediately after her birth.

In a petition filed this week in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, the nation claims that LDS Family Services, which facilitated the adoption, failed to notify tribal officials and allow them to oversee adoption proceedings as required under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.

"To allow the agency to circumvent the act in placing the child with a family without undertaking the required placement procedures dictated in the act is to allow a violation of rights specifically vested in the nation," the petition states.

The petition asks the federal court to enjoin the state adoption proceedings while it determines what the nation's rights are in the face of "the natural Indian parent's frustrated efforts to establish paternity under the laws of the state of Utah."

In a statement Wednesday, Dale Bills, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the agency for 25 years has placed numerous children of Native American ancestry in adoptive homes and enjoys good relationships with Native American tribes.

"(LDS Family Services) placed this baby for adoption with a family selected by the birth mother. The agency complied with all applicable state and federal laws. The baby is doing very well with her adoptive parents."

A state court judge has already ruled the father is not entitled to any of his parental rights because he failed to comply with state laws to establish paternity, which require a man to act before a birth mother signs a consent to adoption. A signed copy of that form, included as an exhibit to Tuesday's filing, shows it was filed in state court on Feb. 28, 2005.

According to the nation's petition, the man did not learn about his daughter until sometime in March 2005, a month after her Feb. 14, 2005, birth. The man filed a petition for paternity and custody on May 31, 2005. A Nov. 11, 2005, test affirmed the man's paternity.

In addition to filing a paternity petition with the court, Utah law also requires potential birth fathers to register with the Utah Putative Father Registry through the Utah Department of Health, said Larry Jenkins, an adoption attorney with the Salt Lake law firm Wood Crapo and member of the Utah Adoption Council.

"Our statute says that if you have sex, then you're on notice that you might be a father, and you're on notice that there may be an adoption proceeding," said Jenkins, chairman of the council's legislative committee.