9.04.140 Effect of Petition and Decree of Adoption

(a) A final decree of adoption and an interlocutory decree of adoption, which has become final, whether issued by a Court of this Tribe or any other place, has the following effect;

(1) To relieve the natural parents of the adopted individual of all parental rights and responsibilities and to terminate all legal relationships between the adopted individual and his relatives, including his natural parents, so that the adopted individual thereafter is a stranger to his former relatives for all purposes including inheritance and the interpretation or construction of documents, statutes, and instruments, whether executed before or after the adoption is decreed, which do not expressly include the individual by name or by some designation not based on a parent and child or blood relationship; and

(2) To create the relationship of parent and child between petitioner and the adopted individual, as if the adopted individual were a legitimate blood descendent of the petitioner, for all purposes including inheritance and applicability of statutes, documents, and instruments, whether executed before or after the adoption is decreed; which do not expressly exclude an adopted individual from their operation or effect.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection (a), if a parent of a child dies without the relationship of parent and child having been previously terminated and a spouse of the living parent thereafter adopts the child, the child's right of inheritance from or through the deceased parent is unaffected by the adoption.

(c) An interlocutory decree of adoption, while it is in force, has the same legal effect as a final decree of adoption. If an interlocutory decree of adoption is vacated, it shall be as though void from its issuance.

(d) An adopted child's right to tribal enrollment membership shall remain unaffected by the decree of adoption.