David Leavitt, a wealthy Utah politician, shares his controversial adoption story, revealing how he leveraged connections to secure custody of a Native child. The discussion uncovers the emotional complexities of the adoption process and highlights the fraught implications of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Investigators explore the ethical dilemmas and the pain felt by the child's Native family due to federal oversight failures. Tensions surrounding tribal sovereignty and historical injustices further complicate the narrative, shedding light on the deep scars left by such adoptions.
David Leavitt's controversial adoption of a Native American child highlights significant flaws in the enforcement of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
The emotional impact on the Northern Cheyenne community emphasizes the ongoing struggle for Native rights in child welfare and cultural preservation.
Deep dives
The Complexity of Adoption Procedures
The episode explores the intricacies of the adoption process involving a Native American child and a prominent Utah attorney, David Levitt. Despite the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) designed to protect Native children from being removed from their communities, Levitt's adoption of a child from a Northern Cheyenne reservation raises critical questions about compliance with this law. The ICWA stipulates that priority in adoption should go to the child's extended family and community members, rather than non-Native families, yet flaws in the enforcement of this law are highlighted as Levitt bypassed traditional procedures. This case underscores the ongoing challenges faced by Native communities in safeguarding their children within a flawed adoption system.
Generational Trauma and Cultural Displacement
The discussion includes the historical context of generational trauma experienced by Native communities due to past practices of child removal and forced assimilation. Legal expert Judge Bill Thorne describes how ICWA emerged to address the alarming rates of Native children adopted by non-Native families, which inflicted deep socio-cultural wounds. This case exemplifies a troubling continuation of such practices, where a Native child was adopted away from her tribe, erasing her connection to her heritage and community. The emotional ramifications, including feelings of loss and isolation, are palpable among the relatives and tribal members concerned for the child's future.
Conflicting Narratives of Support and Control
Throughout the episode, different perspectives on Levitt's motivations for the adoption emerge, particularly concerning his claims of altruism. Despite asserting that his actions were in the best interest of the child, the biological family's representatives express their outrage and confusion about the loss of access to the child. Levitt's insistence that he sought the support of the tribe, further compounded by dubious claims regarding tribal blessings, raises ethical concerns about the true intentions behind his adoption efforts. This dichotomy between Levitt’s narrative and the family's stance highlights the complexities of power dynamics within familial and cultural contexts in adoption scenarios.
Community Response and Legal Implications
The response from the Northern Cheyenne community sheds light on broader implications of this adoption case and its connection to tribal sovereignty and law. Tribal members emphasize the need for adherence to cultural practices and legal frameworks that prioritize the child’s ties to their biological family and community. The episode reveals an ongoing struggle for Native communities to reclaim their rights in child welfare cases, advocating for better oversight and reporting mechanisms regarding ICWA compliance. As the Northern Cheyenne seek reassessment of the adoption, they illustrate the importance of community involvement in decision-making processes that affect their children’s futures.
In 2017, David Leavitt drove to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana to adopt a baby girl. A few years later, during an interview with a documentary filmmaker, Leavitt, a wealthy Utah politician, told a startling story about how he went about getting physical custody of that child.
He describes going to the tribe’s president and offering to use his connections to broker an international sale of the tribe’s buffalo. At the same time, he was asking the president for his blessing to adopt the child.
That video eventually leaked to a local TV station, and the adoption became the subject of a federal investigation into bribery. To others, the adoption story seemed to run afoul of a federal law meant to protect Native children from being removed from their tribes’ care in favor of non-Native families.
This week on Reveal, reporters Andrew Becker and Bernice Yeung dig into the story of this complicated and controversial adoption, how it circumvented the mission of the Indian Child Welfare Act, and why some of the baby’s Native family and tribe were left feeling that a child was taken from them.
This episode was produced in collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
