Terminating Parental Rights When Tribal Law is Involved

My question involves a child custody case from the States of: Tennessee and North Carolina. My brother was not married to a Native American woman and had two children. The children have lived, for the past two years, with their father in Tennessee and not seen their mother in over two years. She is also living somewhere in middle Tennessee. The children and their mother are on the Eastern Band of Cherokee register. I understand they have their own judicial system and we are so confused on how to go about things. The reservation is in North Carolina. Where do we start? The reservation has failed to contact me after numerous emails.

Why should the Tribe respond to you? This is not your legal matter.

This is for what? A stepparent adoption?

No, it is my brother's legal matter. Good point.

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No, he is their dad. His name is on their birth certificates.