Los Angeles, UNITED STATES
Native American Morrill, a member of the Navajo nation, poses for Reuters in his home in Los Angeles,...
Native American Leland Morrill, a member of the Navajo nation, poses for Reuters in his home in Los Angeles, California September 12, 2013. When a 4-year-old Cherokee girl was reunited with her adoptive parents on Monday night, it potentially signaled the conclusion of a custody battle that entangled governors from two states and worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. But for many Native Americans, the questions raised by the case over tribal adoptions, heritage and child welfare, remain unresolved. Morrill, 46, said his Mormon adoptive parents did a good job raising him after he was removed from a hospital at age 2 by a caseworker who didn't believe his life on a poor Navajo reservation with elderly relatives was safe for a child. But he regrets that he and his cousin, both adopted by Stanley and Gwena Morrill of Utah, were "separated from anything that we would have known if we had stayed around our culture." The Morrills said they never witnessed any coercive adoption practices and that Leland came to them with scars, injuries and other signs that pointed to an unhealthy environment. To match Story USA-SOUTHCAROLINA/ADOPTION-NATIVEAMERICANS Picture taken September 12, 2013. REUTERS/Pamela Peters (UNITED STATES - Tags: SOCIETY HEADSHOT)