[embed]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/reader-center/adoption-cross-cultural.html[/embed]
'Although My Indian Identity Isn't Simple, It's Mine': Readers on Adoption That Crosses Cultural Lines
The New York Times
In the more than 700 comments posted on our site, we heard from adoptive parents and
adoptees, Native Americans, foster parents, child welfare experts ...
The stories from adoptive parents and children are touching and raise many important issues. Many (both adoptive parents and children) point out the advantages of being raised in a loving home that is safe and secure in which they are also able to pursue and celebrate their tribal/cultural identity. This is a strong argument which however does not apply to the case in question, in which the adoptive parents show no interest in affirming or celebrating their children's native ancestry and culture AND there is a healthy and loving family of relatives that wants to adopt the two siblings in a home with other biological siblings. Therefore, as much as the arguments provided in the NYT article may merit discussion, they do NOT apply to this case, which represents a modern form of the legalized kidnapping that the dominant culture has perpetuated on Native peoples, notwithstanding the the adoptive parents claims of 'love' and 'religiosity.
I was born in Canada to a Metis woman whose husband died just before the birth.
I was adopted during the "Sixties Scoop" where thousands of indigenous children were taken from their home communities. An adoption to a white middle class family with an engineer father was seen as a big step up from the working class environment I came from.
I had very conscientious adoptive parents, who were loving and did their best to help me be a part of a family of 6. They never lied to me.
Unfortunately, that was not enough. I was taken from my mother. And my indigenous roots. Trauma. Period. This was never addressed, I muddled through life with an underlying sense of not being ok, faked alot and used various means of escaping.
When I eventually found my birth mother, she had died two years previous. I have connected with cousins, but I have siblings i have not been able to locate.
This kind of trauma and it's lifelong impact needs to be accounted for. It's a systemic issue. Not all, but many adoptive parents are entitled, short sighted, and will be dealing with the fallout when the children grow up and reject them outright for their hubris and folly. Children are not accessories to complete your magazine lifestyle.
The cousins I have spoken to who knew my biological mother speak fondly of her; I think she must have hidden alot of pain, as she never spoke of children.
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