Jad Abumrad (host) / main Radiolab host voice

Fine.

But.

But think about why all the protections of ICWA are there.

These roadblocks are there for a reason.

We went over this earlier, but, you know, basically people are being manipulated out of their kids.

And while you might like to think that that's ancient history.

Now fast forward to 2010.

He says the same thing is happening in this case.

We have a registered member of the Cherokee Nation.

We have his child being given up for adoption without his knowledge and without his consent.

And they kept this adoption from him for months, and then springing on him six days before he leaves the country?

It looks to us like it was engineered to make sure he got served, but not in enough time to where he could put up a fight.

And Shannon suggests that they knew about ICWA, they knew it would apply, and they were trying to sidestep it.

There were so many errors.

You just did a little air quotes on errors, didn't you?

Yeah, I did.

Like, for example, there's this one important form where Shannon says that they went out of their way to make it look like Veronica is not Native American.

That's just, it's a preposterous argument.

Mark and Laurie say the reason that nobody put Cherokee in big, bright, flaming letters is simple.

What?