Mpls. mother in center of adoption battle talks

Family surrenders child to Leech Lake tribe [12.16]

A Utah family was ordered to surrender a baby this week that they adopted six months ago after a court battle.

Clint and Heather Larson carefully buckled the baby boy named Talon into a minivan Sunday night in South Jordan, Utah.

Talon was born in June in Salt Lake City, Utah. Talon's birth mother, who is a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Indian tribe in Minnesota, came to Salt Lake City to have the baby.

Natasha Roybal put Talon up for adoption through an agency but changed her mind when she returned home to the reservation.

"I see my baby. He looks at me, looks like my other kids," Roybal said.

Roybal cried several times during her first interview about the incident. She told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS what while she’s had a rough past, that it doesn’t disqualify her as a mother.

"Have you made mistakes in your life? Who hasn't?" she said.

Roybal lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two other sons. She felt she had to speak out after the national news has picked up the story and seemingly made her out to be a bad person.

"I just wanted them to have a better life," Roybal explained.

The Larsons had fought in court to keep Talon. Last week, a Utah judge ruled in favor of Roybal, citing federal law. The Indian Child Welfare Act states that the tribe has a legal right to claim the child.

The tribe says the adoption agency never received the birth father's approval and acquired the mom's signature while she was still drugged after the birth.

"They knew it. I told them then I didn't want to do it. I told the hospital nurses to keep them away from me and my baby and they didn't," Roybal said.

Roybal said she wasn’t even allowed to hold her son and only was able to see him for 40 minutes before she left Utah for Minneapolis.

"I knew it. I knew it then that I would never see my baby again. I cried. What could I do? They knew I came from a poor family that couldn't send for me and bring me home," said Roybal.

While the boy was born with drugs in his system, Roybal said those drugs were prescribed medication to help her get off street drugs.

Larson's attorney had tried to argue that the child isn’t a quarter or more Native American, so the tribe cannot claim him.

The Heart and Soul adoption agency says they did everything according to the law.