Tribe Decides Couple Can Keep Navajo Child but Without a Formal Adoption

A white couple from Northern California will get to keep the 9-month-old Navajo baby they have been trying to adopt but won’t be able to formally adopt the girl under an agreement reached Friday with the child’s tribal family.

The agreement between Rick and Cheryl Pitts of San Jose; Patricia Keetso, the baby’s natural mother, and members of the baby’s extended Navajo family was accepted Friday by the Navajo Tribal Children’s Court.

The pact grants the Pittses temporary custody pending final disposition of their request for permanent guardianship.

Attorney Michael C. Nelson, who represented the Pitts couple, said permanent guardianship means the Pittses’ relationship with Allyssa Keetso’s mother would not have to end as it would under adoption.

However, Nelson said, once the permanent guardianship is granted, probably within four months, Patricia Keetso would not be able to come back and claim custody of the child.

The agreement grants liberal visitation rights to the natural mother and other members of the baby’s extended Indian family.

The Pittses, both 33, were in the process of adopting Allyssa with the approval of Keetso when the Navajo Tribal Court intervened. Federal law gives tribal courts jurisdiction over the adoption of Indian children by non-Indians in certain instances.

Nelson said the couple wanted to adopt Allyssa and give her mother visitation rights, but tribal officials say adoption would sever the child’s link with the tribe. Navajo law places strong emphasis on extended family.

Under a guardianship, parental rights would remain with the biological mother, even though the Pittses would raise the child. The couple would be legally considered the parents if they adopt the child.

Keetso, 21, was pregnant and single when she contacted the Pittses through a newspaper ad. She lived with the couple for two months before and one month after Allyssa was born and has said she wants the couple to adopt her daughter.

The child’s maternal grandmother, Susie Keetso, also has said she wants the child to be turned over to the San Jose couple.

Tribal officials have said they intervened after Susie Keetso expressed “strong interest” in having the child raised at the reservation. But earlier this week, Susie Keetso said she had been threatened with jail if she did not allow the tribe to intervene in the case.