WEBVTT - 4. Supply And Demand 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.680 The stories we're sharing the season touch on different kinds 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:06.760 of trauma. Please take care of yourself while you listen. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.360 In the past few episodes, we've met some of the 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:13.680 foster parents and states who make up the federal lawsuit 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:18.599 Rakkeen v. Holland, and that lawsuit wouldn't exist without them, 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.960 but it also wouldn't exist without the special interest groups 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:27.479 that are working behind the scenes. Our investigation followed the 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.840 money and found three main groups behind the attack on IQUA, 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:38.600 corporate lawyers, right wing funding, and private adoption attorneys. This episode, 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:42.200 we're starting with the adoption attorneys because they've been fighting 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:49.280 IQUA longer than anyone else. For decades, Native leaders have 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:54.080 accused the adoption industry of not following IQUA, of not 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:59.160 following the law, but most adoption cases are private, so 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.480 it's hard to know what's really going on. We were 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:06.160 trying to find a way inside when a background source 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.240 told me about this couple, an adoptive couple who were 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:11.440 willing to talk. 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.480 If you were to rewind to two years ago, we 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.319 probably also were thinking that it's like a parent who 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.520 doesn't doesn't want to raise the child, and then you 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:23.840 have a family that wants to have a child, and 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.959 it feels like that's the win win that they're describing. 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.440 But you know, I think now we feel a lot more. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:33.759 We feel like it's a lot more complicated than that. 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.360 This couple, who will call Jamie and Todd, really wanted 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.639 their first child to have a sibling, But a year 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.840 and a half after their son was born, Jamie was 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.880 still recovering from birth injuries, so they decided to grow 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.200 their family through adoption. Once they got through the paperwork, 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.639 the home study, and the upfront fees, they started getting 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:02.360 emails with profiles of pregnant people. Notice something strange. Jamie 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.520 and Todd live in New Hampshire. 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.600 But almost all of the profiles of moms we are 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:08.919 sent were from Arizona. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.040 Through word of mouth. They had hired an adoption attorney 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.600 in New Hampshire and he worked with a lawyer in 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:21.399 Arizona who helped find and represent birth moms. Every other 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.880 family they know who went through that New Hampshire lawyer, 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:26.360 their child has. 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.440 Come from Arizona, and that's like at least a dozen 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:31.200 families I'd say that we know of. 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.760 The Other thing Jamie and Todd noticed was that the 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.920 majority of the babies were children of color. Jamie and 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:40.040 Todd are white. 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.560 I don't remember anyone except maybe the Hampshire one having 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.080 a white mom, white dad. End of story. 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:51.360 And in those emails, Jamie and Todd saw something else, 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.720 native babies being listed with no mention of the Indian 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.760 Child Welfare Act. And when you guys like we're learning 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.040 about the adoption process and went to seminars and stuff 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:08.880 like that, did you learn about the Indian Child Welfare Act? No? 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:13.840 No, we We were told if there's a Native child, 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.840 there's a law called IQUA and it will be more expensive. 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.160 But those children are so beautiful, that's what they said. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:27.120 Yes, that's true. 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:33.040 You're listening to This Land, a podcast about the present 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:37.280 day struggle for Native rights from Cricket Media. I'm your host, 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:43.800 Rebecca Nagel Goheen dal lacae ge La, citizen of Cherokee Nation. 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.200 This season, we're following how a string of custody battles 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:53.240 over Native children became a federal lawsuit that threatens everything 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:59.200 from tribal sovereignty to civil rights. Big organizations that represent 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:03.160 the adoption industry, like the National Council for Adoption and 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.200 the American Academy of Adoption attorneys have taken the position 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:11.920 that IQUA shouldn't exist. IQUA is one of the many 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:17.120 laws in this country that regulates adoption, and the adoption industry, 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:22.200 like a lot of other industries, frequently fights regulation. The 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.640 industry wants more children to be available for adoption, not less, 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.040 and that's because it's facing a real problem. It feels 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:36.080 wrong to say this about human children, but it's the truth. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.960 The problem is supply and demand. 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.520 So prior to Roe v. Wade, there were a significantly 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.760 higher number of people who were choosing adoption or in 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.839 some cases, really forced to place their children for adoption. 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.000 This is Susan dusche Geta Lexander, agency director at PACT, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.719 an adoption agency that serves children and families of color. 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.200 By the nineteen eighties, women had access to the pill 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:12.920 and abortion, and it was more acceptable to have a 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:17.160 child outside of marriage. So the number of babies available 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:22.480 for adoption fell by a lot, but demand continued to 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:27.640 go up. One reason was that evangelical Christian churches started 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.840 promoting what they called orphan care as an important ministry. 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.080 You might remember that's how Jennifer brekeeen talked about fostering 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:40.560 on her blog. Adoption agencies fixed the supply and demand 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.880 problem by looking to other countries. By the mid two thousands, 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:49.320 a record number of American families were using international adoption 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.279 and the industry was booming. But after the boom came 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:53.760 the bust. 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.760 Yeah, a number of countries have stopped allowing US citizens 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.440 to adopt their children because of issues of neglect and 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:06.520 abuse of those children. Reports of fraud widespread, you know, bribery, 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.320 and as well as you know, some high profile murders 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.160 and depths of adopted children from other countries. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:18.080 One by one, countries like Guatemala and Ethiopia closed their 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:23.000 borders to American families. Some adoption agencies went out of business, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.320 which is why in their list of adoption expenses, Jamie 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.559 and Todd found an odd item a thirty eight hundred 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.040 dollars advertising fee. 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:36.920 She said, that is money that he then reinvests in 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:41.919 advertising to find more birth mothers. And that felt pretty 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.160 gross to us. But it was like again, it's like 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.080 all baked in, And I asked, like, can we not 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.320 pay that? She's like, if you want to adopt this child, 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:50.240 that's part of the fee. 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:57.840 You know, those advertisements that say something like pregnant need help. 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:04.000 Many of those crisis ignancy centers work directly with adoption agencies, 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.640 so when pregnant people reach out, they're not just told 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.680 why they shouldn't get an abortion, they're told why they 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:16.320 should choose adoption. Lexander has seen a lot of those 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:20.280 ads like this grit. She saw on one adoption website. 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.760 It had two columns. One column was what you can 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.239 give your child if you parent them. 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:29.240 And all that's written on there is love. And then 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.200 here's what I can give my child if I place 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.280 them for adoption, And it's like, you know, a stable, 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:38.200 two parent home, extra money for school, the best of everything, 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.440 vacations and these are like already filled in by the 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:42.480 adoption agency. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.600 Lexander is a transracial adoptee herself and placed her first 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:48.800 child for adoption. 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:52.960 You know, adoption is sort of the transfer of children 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.880 from a family that has less resources to a family 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:56.760 that has more. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.080 And of course, which families have more resources. In the 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:07.680 United States intersects with race. Three quarters of adopted parents 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:09.800 in the United States are white. 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:14.120 The landscape is mostly pre adoptive white parents wanting to 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.840 adopt white newborns, but the. 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:21.679 Majority of adopted kids are children of color. Those racial 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:26.600 dynamics create an awkward hierarchy of which children are most wanted. 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.360 It plays out just as white supremacy plays out, that 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.800 those races that are perceived as being more proximate to 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:36.760 whiteness are seen as more desirable. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:41.880 Every adoption profile I saw listed the race of both parents, 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:47.400 but some of them listed something I wasn't expecting. Those parents' 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:52.480 complexions so people could guess what color the baby would be. 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.320 Most Native Americans are more than one race. We're mixed 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.160 more than any other racial group. 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.520 Bi racial children, especially those where maybe the parent of 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:08.760 color is lighter skinned, and the adoption professional consertive frame 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.120 it is like, oh, like, you know this child is 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.240 going to be biracial, and they might be more likely to, 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.040 you know, kind of blend into your family, or like 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.280 maybe they'll be able to pass as white. 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:24.360 That's one possible reason Native babies are in demand. While 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:28.520 the number of white babies being adopted has declined for decades, 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.400 the number of Native babies being adopted has gone up 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:37.160 even with IQUA in place, and that's because adoption attorneys 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:42.000 have figured out how to get around the law. That 0:09:42.240 --> 0:10:04.160 story after the break. When Jamie and Todd were looking 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:08.280 at profiles for potential adoptive placements, they said yes to 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.559 most of the ones they saw, and eventually one of 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:21.959 those mothers said yes back. She picked them. But when 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.160 that mom filled out her intake form, she checked this 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.560 box that the baby was Native American. You might think 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.200 that meant Jamie and Todd couldn't adopt the baby because 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.319 Iqua says that baby should go to a native home. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.160 But that's not how their lawyer saw it. He told 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:41.080 Jamie and Todd. 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:43.400 Iqua is a thing that means you have to stay 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.080 ten extra days and pay ten thousand extra dollars. 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.600 That extra ten thousand dollars was to pay this man. 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.760 I know some people think I and my Native America. 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.679 Philip J. McCarthy, he's a lawyer in Arizona. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.719 Out to the history of what America has done to 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:08.080 Native Americans is you know, there's no way to even 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.960 give an excuse for it. But when it comes to adoption. 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.600 The collision here is the idea of a parent's individual 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.559 rights and the rights of a tribe. 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.920 We reached out to McCarthy, but he declined to talk 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:26.960 to us. This is from a phone call Todd recorded 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.520 without McCarthy knowing. Once Todd did a little research on McCarthy, 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.000 he learned tribes don't have a good relationship with him. 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:39.360 He is notorious for fighting iqua. But Jamie and Todd 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.720 didn't want to sidestep what felt like an important law 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:45.880 so they told their lawyer in New Hampshire they didn't 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:50.000 want to hire McCarthy. The conversation didn't go over well. 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.360 He told them, I'm representing you here. If you want 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:55.800 to do the safest thing and get this child, you're 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:57.000 going to use McCarthy. 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:58.680 I'm telling you this high risk. 0:11:58.800 --> 0:11:59.680 It's high risk. 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.640 If you don't want to use McCarthy, I would suggest 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.719 that you decide not to adopt this child and you 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:06.880 can look for another match. 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.120 They discussed backing out of the adoption entirely, but. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.320 Like what happens if we just decide to opt out, 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.200 Like what if we just say no, Well then they 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:19.200 find another family and statistically it'll be another white family, 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:24.280 and like which is for me? That was this moment 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.000 where it was like it became very clear to me 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:31.320 that this was a system and like a systematic problem 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:38.480 that isn't solved by our individual choice, so. 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.080 They decided to move forward. Once the wheels were in motion, 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:49.719 they got to see McCarthy at work. Igua requires that 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.120 when a Native child is up for adoption, their tribe 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.559 is notified because the tribe has the right to intervene. 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.400 But McCarthy told Jamie and Todd that didn't need to happen. 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.199 Here he is again from that phone call. 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.520 But when it's a voluntary proceeding like this, tripe doesn't 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.080 have rights that are equal to a parent, And even 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:16.000 forty years now since it's been enacted, that's still not understood. 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.040 It's like a myth that somehow the tribe has the 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.640 upper hand in a voluntary proceeding, and that's just not 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:23.160 the long. 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.719 His argument is that basically a birth parent has a 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.360 right to privacy and that trumps the tribe's right to 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:34.040 be notified. But to make sure there are no issues, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.760 McCarthy goes one step further. 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:42.280 He also told us at that time that you know, 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.640 mom is probably going to sign something asking you not 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:51.640 to contact the tribes for five years. And you may 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:52.880 say why five. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:57.480 Years, Well, there's a statual limitation, and a statualitation says 0:13:58.200 --> 0:13:59.959 you know you don't want to end up with a situation, 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.920 or some tribes are just against adoption. I'll just tell 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.440 you the NAVA hosts like every adoption period. 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.120 McCarthy also picks the venue. 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:12.240 You're probably thinking, why is this likes you like writing. 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.079 In the Yeah, he talked about how he doesn't like 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.400 to go to Phoenix because the judges in Phoenix don't 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:18.679 get it. 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.200 That judge in flag Staff got it. She agreed the 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.680 tribe didn't need to be notified, and they weren't. 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:30.920 I went from thinking that, like they are breaking the 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.520 law to thinking, oh, no, they're creating their whole, a 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.600 whole different alternate legal reality that they're operating under. 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.880 Collectively, Jamie and Podd's adoption attorneys were paid about thirty 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.880 five thousand dollars. And that was just the legal fees. 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.880 Part of me feels really gross even just tabulating it, 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:55.320 it was about fifty thousand dollars. 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.000 I asked Jamie and Todd how they feel about the 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:00.280 adoption now, all. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.240 Ugh, so it's so it's so hard, Like, Okay, we 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.280 have the sweetest little baby girl. 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.800 It doesn't it doesn't take long to start to love 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.000 a baby, right, Like, like a couple hours is all 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:20.280 that it takes and yeah, and and so like you know, 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.720 it's it's a it's I I would just say my 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.560 feelings about it are really complicated. The way things are 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.720 are structured right now are to take advantage of like 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:36.000 families that want to have a child that can't and 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:40.200 are desperate too, and to take advantage of mothers who 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.760 are in like a desperate life situation. And and it's 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:49.440 not it's not a system that like really could exist 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.760 if it weren't for those two ingredients for desperation, right right, 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.760 Like my general fear from now until the rest of 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:00.760 my life is that is that we are not actually 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:06.280 a good family to raise this child, and like that'll 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.280 be that what I spend the rest of my life 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:10.880 trying to make not happen. 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.440 Jamie and Todd did reach out to their child's tribe 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:18.160 and let them know about the adoption. The adoption still 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.680 moved forward and was finalized last June. Over the past 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.640 few decades, the supply chain of adoptable infants has shifted 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:30.480 multiple times from unwed mothers in the United States to 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:35.800 countries like Guatemala, Russia, and Ethiopia, and now the industry 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:40.360 has turned to foster care private adoption agencies have started 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.960 new foster to adopt programs. They're taking people who really 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:49.000 want to adopt and licensing them to be foster parents. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.840 Fostering is routinely presented as a pathway to adoption on 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:59.000 agency websites, but even within foster care there's still a 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.320 supply in problem. There are more people signed up as 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:08.000 foster to adopt parents than available children, and one state 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.600 that gave us data by a ratio of one hundred 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.600 to one. Jamie and Todd were even told that they 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:17.240 should think about it well. 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.280 Also, she kept telling us it's so much cheaper, but 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.879 it didn't feel right. I just don't think I can 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.560 handle the heartbreak of having a child for a year 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.359 and then having them taken away. And I don't feel 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:32.399 like it's fair to go into an adoption thinking like 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.440 a foster situation, thinking like we're gonna get to keep 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.600 this child forever. Because that's working not what the foster 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:45.200 care system's for, right, it's working against the reunification of 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:45.760 the family. 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.720 So far this season, you've heard about two of the 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.399 plaintiffs behind the federal lawsuit, the Brakeenes and the Cliffords. 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.879 When I look at their custody cases. I see the 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:04.359 same problem, and it's not IQUA. It's people using foster 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:09.600 care to adopt. Of course, that resulted in heart wrenching conflict, 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:14.399 because that's not the purpose of foster care. People tried 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.800 to say that IQUA doesn't work because there aren't enough 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.439 Native foster homes, But if you look at the specific 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.800 custody cases behind the federal lawsuit, there's no evidence of 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:31.119 that every Native child had a Native family who wanted 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:34.800 to adopt them. For the majority of those kids, it 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:39.200 was a blood relative. But the white families behind this 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:45.000 lawsuit fought any Native placement that threatened their chances at adoption, 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:52.080 and except for Robin Piper's grandma, every other Native family lost. 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:58.639 These foster parents, Jennifer and Chad Bracken, Danielle and Jason Clifford, 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.879 and their co plaintiff, the Libretties, didn't just fight IQUA. 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.200 They fought to adopt a child over what they're foster 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.879 training told them to expect and do over kinship placements 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.520 that studies and experts say are best for all children, 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.080 over what federal and state laws say should have happened. 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:24.040 But instead of asking what's wrong about what these foster 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:30.320 parents did. We're asking what's wrong with IQUA. The story 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.880 of these custody cases isn't about how EQUA prevented white 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:39.280 families from adopting Native children. It's about how white families 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:46.440 are getting around the law. One question haunted our reporting 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.920 for months. How did the Brakeens find that law firm, 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:56.080 Gibson Done. We spent months looking for any connections. We 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.840 looked up everyone who worked on the case, made lists 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.600 of where they went to laws and all their past jobs. 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.680 We chased down a lot of bad leads. But finally, 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:10.760 one day we got the answer what our investigation found 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:31.040 after the break. After months of trying to find out 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.920 how the Brakins got connected to Gibson Done, one day, 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:39.159 their local Texas lawyer answered the phone. She told us 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.960 that it wasn't her or the Brakiens that found Gibson Done. 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:47.280 It was this other lawyer, an adoption attorney in Minnesota 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:52.160 who specializes in IQUA. He even helps the Brakins find 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:56.080 her on the phone. She couldn't remember his name. She 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:00.000 later confirmed it by email, but we already knew exaus 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.480 exactly who she was talking about, because this Minnesota attorney 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:09.120 has a national reputation for fighting IQUA. He's been part 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:12.960 of more constitutional challenges to the law than anyone else. 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:16.120 And his name is Mark Fiddler. 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.400 I mean, I got tired of Indian people carrying around 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.440 this victim mentality, so that everything that happens with iqua's 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:28.080 like some kind of assault on them. I mean, you 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.640 want to talk about getting out of a self defeating narrative, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:33.960 that's a good one to get rid of the idea 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:35.160 that Indians are victims. 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:38.879 Fiddler declined to speak with me for this podcast, so 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.040 we're using tape from a documentary called Blood Memory based 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.639 on our reporting. Fiddler is how the Brakeenes and the 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:51.720 Cliffords got connected to the big federal lawsuit. He was 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.160 the one who made sure this case to strike down 0:21:54.240 --> 0:22:00.200 IQUA had plaintiffs. Fiddler is native himself, a citizen the 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:04.200 Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. Here he is again 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.040 from the film Blood Memory. 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:08.760 People look at me and see a white lawyer. 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:09.920 I've got blue eyes. 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:15.000 So my mother said, well, don't worry about people thinking 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.840 you're Indian because your blue eyes will save you. And 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:20.600 I thought, well, why do I need to be saved? 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:22.359 What's that about? So there was some. 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:28.480 Shame growing up being identified as Indian. You know, I 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:31.920 really wanted to blend in. And one of the unfortunate 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:36.800 things I know racism on a very very personal level. 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:38.919 Kids at school will call me chief or. 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:43.960 They couldn't figure out what I was. After law school, 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:46.639 Fiddler was trying to figure out what he wanted to do, 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:50.640 and he was concerned with how Native families were being 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:53.080 treated by the child welfare system. 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:56.399 And I was just seeing all these cases where these 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:59.520 Indian families are coming into juvenile court and their kids 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:00.840 are being removed from the home. 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.920 And so in the nineteen nineties, Mark helped start a 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:09.600 nonprofit to provide those families legal services, the Equa Law. 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:15.520 Center, and we serve people for free Indian families throughout 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:19.000 Minnesota and ran that about five years. 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:23.040 As Mark tells it, he eventually left the Equa Law 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:27.000 Center when he became disillusioned with IQUA because of this 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:31.800 theory called attachment. The theory says if you remove a 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.639 child from caregivers they've attached to, you can harm that 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:37.480 child permanently. 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:41.840 Where children are placed in non Indian homes because they 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:44.960 couldn't find family that was ready to take them, and 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:48.720 then after several years the children are removed in that 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:53.240 attachment broken and we damaged children to comply with this 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.359 blanket rule about at always being best a place with family. 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.760 I don't think that's in the tribe's centrists for our 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:06.000 children to be psychologically damaged and then handed over to 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.280 the custody of the tribe or placed in a travel home, 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:12.840 so you can, in a sense, sort of destroy the 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:14.040 child to save the village. 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:18.480 So Fiddler says, because of this change in perspective, he 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:21.879 left the Equalas Center. But when I talked to former 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:25.879 employees and board members, I got a different story. They 0:24:25.920 --> 0:24:29.240 said he left abruptly and on bad terms, after a 0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:32.400 disagreement with the board about how he had used grant money. 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:37.879 Fiddler denies this, but declined to elaborate. It wasn't immediate, 0:24:38.200 --> 0:24:41.760 but after a few years Fiddler started showing up in 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:47.000 EQUA cases again, but this time he was representing white 0:24:47.080 --> 0:24:52.119 families who wanted to adopt Native children. He flipped and 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:55.399 he managed to get some big attention for one of 0:24:55.480 --> 0:25:00.840 his early cases. All new Doctor phil adoptions gone. In 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:04.399 two thousand and five, Fiddler's clients got to tell their 0:25:04.480 --> 0:25:09.439 story on Doctor Phil. Shannon Smith remembers that Doctor Phil segment. 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:13.080 She represented the Native mom in the case, and it's 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:15.560 the director of the EQUA Law Center today. 0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:20.880 Doctor Phil told her story without her voice, without contacting us, 0:25:21.280 --> 0:25:23.760 So it was really a story that was told about 0:25:23.840 --> 0:25:29.359 her instead of anyone letting her tell her story. That 0:25:29.680 --> 0:25:32.600 she was someone who didn't care about her child, didn't 0:25:32.640 --> 0:25:37.000 love her child, and had abandoned her child was really 0:25:37.119 --> 0:25:40.400 the story. As the media took off at the time. 0:25:43.640 --> 0:25:48.560 On Doctor Phil. Fiddler's clients did tell their story about 0:25:48.600 --> 0:25:51.959 how they had taken in a Native child, but because 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:55.680 of an outdated law, that child was being taken from 0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:59.600 the only home he had ever known. The case also 0:25:59.680 --> 0:26:02.840 got a lot of local press. Ultimately, it was settled 0:26:02.880 --> 0:26:06.200 outside of court and the White family adopted the Native child. 0:26:07.040 --> 0:26:11.320 Fiddler continued to represent families fighting IQUA and started to 0:26:11.440 --> 0:26:15.639 gain a national reputation. In the early twenty tens, he 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:20.080 joined the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and got pulled 0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:25.040 into a case that attracted national attention. Seeing Fiddler's name 0:26:25.160 --> 0:26:27.120 pop up worried Smith. 0:26:27.520 --> 0:26:31.040