Fentanyl is a leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 40.

But even when people survive, opioid addiction is breaking up families, as parents lose custody

of their children.

And that means a lot of kids around the country are growing up without their biological parents

because of the opioid crisis.

Children like Mazi Walker, a nine-year-old living on a farm near Talekwa, Oklahoma,

capital of the Cherokee Nation.

Cows are walking, turkeys, a dog.

How do I know it?

Mazi and her younger brother, Ransom, are Cherokee, and they were adopted by Gary Walker,

who is also Cherokee and his wife, Cassie Walker.

The children's biological parents had gotten caught up in opioid addiction.

The walkers have seen that scenario play out multiple times.

They've fostered or adopted nine Cherokee children.

You being in foster care and going to court cases, and sometimes I would sit there for four

to five or six hours, and I would not only watch one court case, but I would watch 30

or 40 at the same time, and it really hit me then just how big the problem was.

Struggles with addiction and Cherokee Nation are growing so intense that the principal

chief, Chuck Hoskin, worries it's threatening his people's way of life, their language,

and their culture.

Family's not only being broken up, but children being removed from tribal lands.

This is an additional pressure, and so anything we can do to keep families whole means we

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