Adopting a child is one of the most life-changing and gratifying things a person can do. The bond that adoptive parents form is no different from the parental bond inherent in having a biological child.

However, there is sometimes a small chance that an adopted child's biological parent will challenge the adoption and seek to regain custody of the child.

A South Carolina couple is facing this very scenario, as a result of a little-known federal law called the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Birth Father Asserted Tribal Rights

The couple adopted their child, Veronica, right after she was born. At that time the birth father signed a waiver allowing the child to be adopted.

However, four months later the father contested the waiver and went to court to seek custody of the child. Eventually, he won. When Veronica was approximately two years old, her birth father went to South Carolina to pick her up and take her back to Oklahoma.

The birth father is a member of the Cherokee Nation. Much of his success was due to his reliance on the Indian Child Welfare Act. The law was passed in 1978, in response to the high number of American Indian children who had been taken from their birth parents and placed in non-Indian homes. The law gives tribal governments an official role in nearly all child custody proceedings involving American Indian children.

As a federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act takes precedence over most state family law.

At this point, Veronica's future remains unknown. Her adoptive parents are working with adoption attorneys in an attempt to regain custody.

Source: The Augusta Chronicle, "Emotional South Carolina Adoption Case May Weigh State, Federal Law," Bruce Smith, Feb. 5, 2012.