Racial Misclassification of American Indians & Suicide

"Race is important to identity and when your race is not recognized by others it is stressful." I found this study important since people are often judged by how one looks. That includes some long-held ideas of what American Indians should look like; then I thought about adoptees who are Native American by blood but have no connection to family and tribal culture. It's known adoptees do commit suicide at higher rates, obviously stress-related. Understanding how we fit into this world of humans, then how we can reconnect to culture has become my mission - Trace

Mistaken Racial Identification Causes Emotional Strain in American Indians

[Oct 3, 2007] Iowa City, IA — Research from the University of Iowa suggest that people who are routinely misidentified as members of a racial group to which they do not belong experience high levels of emotional distress and are more likely to contemplate or attempt suicide. "The Implications of Racial Misclassification by Observers," by sociologists Lisa Troyer and Mary Campbell, appeared in the October 2007 issue of the American Sociological Review.

     Troyer and Campbell analyzed data collected between 1994 and 2002 for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which included both the self-reported racial identification of Native American young adults in the study and the racial identity assigned by an observer.

     They found that more than a third of the American Indian youth were mis-labeled by an observer as members of another racial group.

     Among the American Indians in the study who were misidentified, 13 percent reported thinking about suicide, compared to only 6 percent of those who were identified correctly. Three percent of the misidentified young people had attempted suicide, while 1 percent who were identified correctly had done so. The misidentified young people were also more likely to be seeing a counselor or therapist (8 percent to 5 percent). They also found that mis-classified American Indians were more likely to participate in organizations that emphasize racial and ethnic identity, perhaps creating connections that help deal with the stress.

     "Previous studies of multi-racial Americans have given us anecdotal evidence that constantly having to explain your racial background is stressful for people," Campbell said. "People say, 'I'm constantly being asked what I am, and I don't fit any of the boxes.' They talk about it as if it is stressful, but until now we didn't have data to support these observations."

     This study is the first to document empirical evidence of the stress associated with not being recognized as a member of the racial group with which one identifies.

     "According to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young American Indians, age 25-34 years, and the third leading cause of death among young American Indians age 10-24 years," Troyer said. "Standard explanations of suicide do not fully explain the racial gap. Our study offers a new window to understanding this disturbing disparity.

     "Adolescence is a critical time in human development, a time when identity becomes crystallized," she continued. "Race is important to identity and when your race is not recognized by others it is stressful."

     While the current study is focused on American Indians, Campbell and Troyer note that the increasing multiracial diversity in the United States makes the study potentially applicable to other populations.

Racial Misclassification of American Indians & Suicide

"Race is important to identity and when your race is not recognized by others it is stressful." I found this study important since people are often judged by how one looks. That includes some long-held ideas of what American Indians should look like; then I thought about adoptees who are Native American by blood but have no connection to family and tribal culture. It's known adoptees do commit suicide at higher rates, obviously stress-related. Understanding how we fit into this world of humans, then how we can reconnect to culture has become my mission - Trace

Mistaken Racial Identification Causes Emotional Strain in American Indians

[Oct 3, 2007] Iowa City, IA — Research from the University of Iowa suggest that people who are routinely misidentified as members of a racial group to which they do not belong experience high levels of emotional distress and are more likely to contemplate or attempt suicide. "The Implications of Racial Misclassification by Observers," by sociologists Lisa Troyer and Mary Campbell, appeared in the October 2007 issue of the American Sociological Review.

     Troyer and Campbell analyzed data collected between 1994 and 2002 for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which included both the self-reported racial identification of Native American young adults in the study and the racial identity assigned by an observer.

     They found that more than a third of the American Indian youth were mis-labeled by an observer as members of another racial group.

     Among the American Indians in the study who were misidentified, 13 percent reported thinking about suicide, compared to only 6 percent of those who were identified correctly. Three percent of the misidentified young people had attempted suicide, while 1 percent who were identified correctly had done so. The misidentified young people were also more likely to be seeing a counselor or therapist (8 percent to 5 percent). They also found that mis-classified American Indians were more likely to participate in organizations that emphasize racial and ethnic identity, perhaps creating connections that help deal with the stress.

     "Previous studies of multi-racial Americans have given us anecdotal evidence that constantly having to explain your racial background is stressful for people," Campbell said. "People say, 'I'm constantly being asked what I am, and I don't fit any of the boxes.' They talk about it as if it is stressful, but until now we didn't have data to support these observations."

     This study is the first to document empirical evidence of the stress associated with not being recognized as a member of the racial group with which one identifies.

     "According to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young American Indians, age 25-34 years, and the third leading cause of death among young American Indians age 10-24 years," Troyer said. "Standard explanations of suicide do not fully explain the racial gap. Our study offers a new window to understanding this disturbing disparity.

     "Adolescence is a critical time in human development, a time when identity becomes crystallized," she continued. "Race is important to identity and when your race is not recognized by others it is stressful."

     While the current study is focused on American Indians, Campbell and Troyer note that the increasing multiracial diversity in the United States makes the study potentially applicable to other populations.

Ghost Shell

I dream of this, the weight,

a tortoise shell on my back, a heavy hull.
Did I choose its protection? I was asleep.
No one ever said, “You can drop it now” or
“It’s safe to drop that, you’ll be ok.”
Maybe the shell did protect me at one time
when I needed armor.
Maybe it isolated me for reasons
I do not know or understand.
It was heavy and hard to balance.
When I woke up, I could feel its weight.
I can still feel it, like a ghost,
like an arm or leg amputated.
Somehow it still signals my brain,
“Protect yourself.”
Maybe my mother put this shell on me before she left me.
Maybe I inherited it, like a talisman.
Maybe the shell was what women in my family wore to survive.


All I know is I was born with it.

© 2010 Trace A. DeMeyer

Ghost Shell

I dream of this, the weight,

a tortoise shell on my back, a heavy hull.
Did I choose its protection? I was asleep.
No one ever said, “You can drop it now” or
“It’s safe to drop that, you’ll be ok.”
Maybe the shell did protect me at one time
when I needed armor.
Maybe it isolated me for reasons
I do not know or understand.
It was heavy and hard to balance.
When I woke up, I could feel its weight.
I can still feel it, like a ghost,
like an arm or leg amputated.
Somehow it still signals my brain,
“Protect yourself.”
Maybe my mother put this shell on me before she left me.
Maybe I inherited it, like a talisman.
Maybe the shell was what women in my family wore to survive.


All I know is I was born with it.

© 2010 Trace A. DeMeyer

Ghost Shell

I dream of this, the weight,

a tortoise shell on my back, a heavy hull.
Did I choose its protection? I was asleep.
No one ever said, “You can drop it now” or
“It’s safe to drop that, you’ll be ok.”
Maybe the shell did protect me at one time
when I needed armor.
Maybe it isolated me for reasons
I do not know or understand.
It was heavy and hard to balance.
When I woke up, I could feel its weight.
I can still feel it, like a ghost,
like an arm or leg amputated.
Somehow it still signals my brain,
“Protect yourself.”
Maybe my mother put this shell on me before she left me.
Maybe I inherited it, like a talisman.
Maybe the shell was what women in my family wore to survive.


All I know is I was born with it.

© 2010 Trace A. DeMeyer

Ghost Shell

I dream of this, the weight,

a tortoise shell on my back, a heavy hull.
Did I choose its protection? I was asleep.
No one ever said, “You can drop it now” or
“It’s safe to drop that, you’ll be ok.”
Maybe the shell did protect me at one time
when I needed armor.
Maybe it isolated me for reasons
I do not know or understand.
It was heavy and hard to balance.
When I woke up, I could feel its weight.
I can still feel it, like a ghost,
like an arm or leg amputated.
Somehow it still signals my brain,
“Protect yourself.”
Maybe my mother put this shell on me before she left me.
Maybe I inherited it, like a talisman.
Maybe the shell was what women in my family wore to survive.


All I know is I was born with it.

© 2010 Trace A. DeMeyer

Ghost Shell

I dream of this, the weight,

a tortoise shell on my back, a heavy hull.
Did I choose its protection? I was asleep.
No one ever said, “You can drop it now” or
“It’s safe to drop that, you’ll be ok.”
Maybe the shell did protect me at one time
when I needed armor.
Maybe it isolated me for reasons
I do not know or understand.
It was heavy and hard to balance.
When I woke up, I could feel its weight.
I can still feel it, like a ghost,
like an arm or leg amputated.
Somehow it still signals my brain,
“Protect yourself.”
Maybe my mother put this shell on me before she left me.
Maybe I inherited it, like a talisman.
Maybe the shell was what women in my family wore to survive.


All I know is I was born with it.

© 2010 Trace A. DeMeyer

Intercountry Adoptees: Heard any Arizona Travel warnings?

"Protesters held signs at a rally at the Arizona Capitol prior to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signing a tough immigration bill – S.B. 1070 – into law on April 23, in Phoenix. The sweeping measure would make it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally, and would require local law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally." (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

My adoptive family had lots of immigrants. My one grandma actually remembered when her Belgian ship entered the New York harbor; the very young Romaine didn’t speak English so the immigration officers wrote her name down as Rose. That always bothered her.


If Arizona’s new immigration bill [H.B. 1070] plans to stop people who don’t look American, we ought to post travel warnings for intercountry adoptees headed to Arizona. These adoptees will need something more than their fake birth certificate. You read that right. Adoptees are always given falsified birth certificates. Adoptees are told they are real when really, they are not. This obviously bothers me.

Why? One in 6 adopted children is a different race than their adopters. The “Rainbow Family” from anywhere, including Massachusetts, could now get nabbed at the Grand Canyon. Arizona’s “Identity Cops” could pull over any decidedly-white couple to ask: “Where did you get those brown kids in the backseat?”

It’ll be tough for Arizona cops to determine who is really American with 200,000 adoptees foreign-born in 2002. Sure enough, Americans adopted 47,555 kids from Korea; 21,053 kids from China; 19,631 kids from Russia; 18,000 kids from Mexico; and 7,793 kids from India.

These days 95% of all intercountry adoptions are done by Americans. “Intercountry” simply means adoptees are not American-born. The 2002 adoptee list also includes: Guatemala, 2,219; Vietnam, 766; Colombia, 334; Cambodia, 254; Philippines, 221; Haiti, 197; Thailand, 67; and Peru, 65. [Even more numbers were reported in National Review Online, by William L. Pierce, Oct. 24, 2002.]

Will adoptive parents have to prove their kids are legal? Yes. If intercountry adoptees are caught without “believable” legal papers, they could be sent back to their country of origin when Arizona catches them. It’s not like these 8-year-olds had any choice where they were adopted. They didn’t even know they were immigrating to America when they were babies. New federal laws gives these kids full American citizenship but they still have fake birth certificates.

Could an adult adoptee get deported because of a fake birth certificate? Yes. It’s already happened. One adult adoptee in Illinois found out her adopters forgot to apply for her to be an American citizen. This adoptee is fighting extradition right now.

Thankfully I was born in Minnesota but my birth certificate is still an obvious fake. That alone could send up red flags.

I hear there are lots of snowbirds in Arizona. My godparents Pete and Colleen are snowbirds who winter in Scottsdale but summer at their Wisconsin cabin. Retirees who bounce state to state are obviously not the targets of this new immigration law, unless they are brown snowbirds.

So who are these brilliant lawmakers in Arizona? Was Senator John McCain born in Arizona? There’s bound to be a few intercountry adoptees in Arizona. That’s right - John McCain adopted a dark-skinned daughter from some impoverished place. So when did John’s immigrant parents settle in American or Arizona? Which tribe did his forebears displace so he could become a landowner then a politician? Do the people of Arizona even know their own history?

My friend Sara is Dine (Navajo) and she lives on her reservation (rez) with her husband John, a Narragansett from Rhode Island. They often go “off rez” for dinner in Flagstaff. Could they get stopped? Sure. Indians say it happens all the time. “DWI really means Driving While Indian.”

So who really is American?

“White settlers, from the time of their arrival, removed Indians from historic territories,” Daniel C. Maguire writes in AMERICAN INDIANS AS A DISEMPOWERED GROUP. “Indians were an obstacle to Manifest Destiny, so the official policy became removal. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the President to negotiate “treaties,” and when Indians refused to negotiate, the army effected their removal.”

“Manifest Destiny could not be stopped by a river, even lands in the West were engulfed,” Maguire writes. “By 1887, the entire Indian land base west of the Mississippi shrunk to under 140 million acres. By 1934, their land shrunk to 48 million acres, and almost half was unusable.”

Maguire contends, “The Indian problem was different from that of any other group because of the strong Indian desire to keep separate from white society, to hold onto their land base, and maintain self-rule.”

So Arizona is ready to deport Arizona immigrants? This should be called the Brown-Skin Removal Act. Weren’t the settlers who invaded Arizona and forced Indians onto reservations really the immigrants?

If Arizona Identity Cops target skin color, will Indians have to show a tribal identification card? It should be the other way around – the Navajo, Pima, Apache and Hopi in Arizona should require every non-Indian to show their family tree and know exactly when their grandparents immigrated to America – then Arizona – and be able to say when they made a land claim – then prove it wasn’t stolen land.

It’s time for the Navajo, Pima, Apache, and Hopi to decide who stays AND who leaves Arizona.


[Photo source: //newspaperrock.bluecorncomics.com/2010/05/natives-protest-arizona-immigration-law.html]

One Small Sacrifice book review by John C. Hopkins

By John Christian Hopkins
Tuba City, Arizona (NFIC) May 2010

     The Beatles sang of a long and winding road, but they never set foot on the long, treacherous path of a Native American adoptee that is strewn with potholes, deadends and disappointment.
     Award-winning Native journalist Trace A. DeMeyer (Hentz) shares the heartfelt journey of loss, loneliness and finding love in her powerful, new memoir “One Small Sacrifice: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects,” an exposé on generations of American Indian children adopted by non-Indian families.
     One reader told DeMeyer it was like being “punched in the gut.”
     Pulling no punches, DeMeyer, who now lives in Greenfield, Mass., with her husband, Herb, rips away the illusion that adoption ends happily ever after as soon as the documents are signed and finalized.
     She delves into the dark world of doubts – “Why didn’t my mom want me?” – and the fear that asking too many questions would cause her adoptive parents to throw her away all over again.
     She suffered years of abuse – emotionally, sexually and physically – as pain became her constant companion and a pretend happy smile her childhood defense against the torrent of doubts in her life.
     DeMeyer has spent years meeting and talking with other “Split Feathers,” Native American children taken from their homes and placed in non-Indian families; she discovered that her experiences weren’t new or unique, that many other adoptees, just like her, had unanswered questions, mountains of sadness and, often, shattered lives.
     Conquering that tumultuous beginning felt like the easy part as DeMeyer attempted to find her birth family. Her first obstacle was that her adoption was “closed,” meaning sealed and she had no legal right to view her own file!
     A sympathetic judge in her Wisconsin hometown allowed DeMeyer to look at her file when she was 22; she found tantalizing clues about her birth family, and even more questions to haunt her as sought to come full circle and discover who she really was.
     “I read this powerful book cover to cover, Trace tells her story with such compassion and truthfulness;” Alutiiq-Cherokee adoptee and author Anecia O’Carroll wrote. “Her memories, feelings and facts are written with such unflinching truth, in my mind and heart she is a warrior and a hero.”
     Known for her exceptional print interviews with famous Native Americans, DeMeyer started research on adoptees in 2004, which led to this fact-filled, 227-page biography that includes congressional testimony, evidence of Indian Adoption Projects and how the Indian Child Welfare Act came to exist.
     Available as a download (e-book, $3.00) or in book form ($15.95) at: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/one-small-sacrifice/6242298, her jaw-dropping narrative of living as an adoptee, her search, meeting birth relatives, will surely raise eyebrows and question the validity of sealed records and the billion dollar adoption industry.
     Her journey takes her to Illinois to meet her birthfather in 1996 where she learns about her Cherokee-Shawnee ancestry.
     DeMeyer is former editor of tribal newspapers the Pequot Times and Ojibwe Akiing. She freelances for News From Indian Country, a national independent native newspaper.
     DeMeyer’s chapter on Sac and Fox Olympian Jim Thorpe won critical praise in the 2001 book Olympics at the Millennium (published by Rutgers Press). Her poetry was published in the spring 2009 edition of Yellow Medicine Review; and she has an essay in the upcoming Foothills Press book, “I Was Indian Before It Was Cool,” edited by Susan Deer Cloud.
     In the 1870s Ponca Chief Standing Bear had to take his case to court to prove he was a human being; but DeMeyer’s journey took her so much further as she tried to prove to herself that she was somebody, too.

Link: http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9191&Itemid=1

Trace at the Jackson Hole Wyoming airport in 1983 with actor twins

PTSD: Toxic Stress (read this!)

By Trace L Hentz



Adoptees are a unique and diverse group. Some say as babies they were traumatized and now are plagued with emotional and physical problems while others feel downright happy and show little interest in being an adoptee.



Some adoptees I know were adopted as small children so they spent time with the natural mother, and perhaps were breastfed.



I did not spend any time with my natural mother and went directly to an orphanage. By the time I was adopted, I was a wreck. How do I know this? My parent’s memories and home movies. My immune system struggled continuously, and I struggle now with adult allergies. You name it: weeds, grass, molds, dust, trees, and some foods. I'm sick of being sick.



I admit I was running on high speed as a kid and taxed my adrenals to the max. When you’re in a heightened state of fear, in my case, this is called the fight or flight response.



In an earlier blog I posted information about the ACE STUDY and how childhood stress becomes an adult health problem.



Now this:

"Could your flight-or-fight response be giving you cancer?"



That question is answered by Alice Wessendorf on the Healthier Talk website this week.



Alice: "When you find yourself in a difficult situation, hormones are released that up your heart rate, quicken your breathing, narrow your vision and, in general, prepare your body to clash or dash.



"This process, known as the fight-or-flight response, is supposed to save your life. But it turns out that it may also be giving you cancer.



"We already knew that this stress response could increase the risk for illnesses like heart disease. But now, new research out of the University of Texas points to stress hormones directly supporting tumor growth and spread.



"They do this by flipping the switch on the stress- activated protein known as focal adhesion kinase (FAK). FAK protects the detached cancer cells from dying. Allowing them to spread through your blood system finding places to re-attach and grow new tumors.



"And, as you may have already guessed, the higher your stress hormones are the higher your FAK levels become and the quicker tumors can grow and spread.



"So what can be done to stop the spread? Reducing the stress hormones circulating in your system is critical. You can't rid yourself of your natural fight-or-flight response. But what you can do is manage your stress levels."



BLOGGER NOTE: I suggest adoptees find treatment for stress as quick as you can!

PTSD: Toxic Stress (read this!)

By Trace L Hentz

Adoptees are a unique and diverse group. Some say as babies they were traumatized and now are plagued with emotional and physical problems while others feel downright happy and show little interest in being an adoptee.

Some adoptees I know were adopted as small children so they spent time with the natural mother, and perhaps were breastfed.

I did not spend any time with my natural mother and went directly to an orphanage. By the time I was adopted, I was a wreck. How do I know this? My parent’s memories and home movies. My immune system struggled continuously, and I struggle now with adult allergies. You name it: weeds, grass, molds, dust, trees, and some foods. I'm sick of being sick.

I admit I was running on high speed as a kid and taxed my adrenals to the max. When you’re in a heightened state of fear, in my case, this is called the fight or flight response.

In an earlier blog I posted information about the ACE STUDY and how childhood stress becomes an adult health problem.

Now this:
"Could your flight-or-fight response be giving you cancer?"

That question is answered by Alice Wessendorf on the Healthier Talk website this week.

Alice: "When you find yourself in a difficult situation, hormones are released that up your heart rate, quicken your breathing, narrow your vision and, in general, prepare your body to clash or dash.

"This process, known as the fight-or-flight response, is supposed to save your life. But it turns out that it may also be giving you cancer.

"We already knew that this stress response could increase the risk for illnesses like heart disease. But now, new research out of the University of Texas points to stress hormones directly supporting tumor growth and spread.

"They do this by flipping the switch on the stress- activated protein known as focal adhesion kinase (FAK). FAK protects the detached cancer cells from dying. Allowing them to spread through your blood system finding places to re-attach and grow new tumors.

"And, as you may have already guessed, the higher your stress hormones are the higher your FAK levels become and the quicker tumors can grow and spread.

"So what can be done to stop the spread? Reducing the stress hormones circulating in your system is critical. You can't rid yourself of your natural fight-or-flight response. But what you can do is manage your stress levels."

BLOGGER NOTE: I suggest adoptees find treatment for stress as quick as you can!

ADOPTEE HEALTH (read this!)

Adoptees are a unique and diverse group. Some say as babies they were traumatized and now are plagued with emotional and physical problems while others feel downright happy and show little interest in being an adoptee.

Some adoptees I know were adopted as small children so they spent time with the natural mother, and perhaps were breastfed.

I did not spend any time with my natural mother and went directly to an orphanage. By the time I was adopted, I was a wreck. How do I know this? My parent’s memories and home movies. My immune system struggled continuously, and I struggle now with adult allergies. You name it: weeds, grass, molds, dust, trees, and some foods. I'm sick of being sick.

I admit I was running on high speed as a kid and taxed my adrenals to the max. When you’re in a heightened state of fear, in my case, this is called the fight or flight response.

In an earlier blog I posted information about the ACE STUDY and how childhood stress becomes an adult health problem.

Now this:
"Could your flight-or-fight response be giving you cancer?"

That question is answered by Alice Wessendorf on the Healthier Talk website this week.

Alice: "When you find yourself in a difficult situation, hormones are released that up your heart rate, quicken your breathing, narrow your vision and, in general, prepare your body to clash or dash.

"This process, known as the fight-or-flight response, is supposed to save your life. But it turns out that it may also be giving you cancer.

"We already knew that this stress response could increase the risk for illnesses like heart disease. But now, new research out of the University of Texas points to stress hormones directly supporting tumor growth and spread.

"They do this by flipping the switch on the stress- activated protein known as focal adhesion kinase (FAK). FAK protects the detached cancer cells from dying. Allowing them to spread through your blood system finding places to re-attach and grow new tumors.

"And, as you may have already guessed, the higher your stress hormones are the higher your FAK levels become and the quicker tumors can grow and spread.

"So what can be done to stop the spread? Reducing the stress hormones circulating in your system is critical. You can't rid yourself of your natural fight-or-flight response. But what you can do is manage your stress levels."

BLOGGER NOTE: I suggest adoptees find treatment for stress as quick as you can!

ADOPTEE HEALTH (read this!)

Adoptees are a unique and diverse group. Some say as babies they were traumatized and now are plagued with emotional and physical problems while others feel downright happy and show little interest in being an adoptee.

Some adoptees I know were adopted as small children so they spent time with the natural mother, and perhaps were breastfed.

I did not spend any time with my natural mother and went directly to an orphanage. By the time I was adopted, I was a wreck. How do I know this? My parent’s memories and home movies. My immune system struggled continuously, and I struggle now with adult allergies. You name it: weeds, grass, molds, dust, trees, and some foods. I'm sick of being sick.

I admit I was running on high speed as a kid and taxed my adrenals to the max. When you’re in a heightened state of fear, in my case, this is called the fight or flight response.

In an earlier blog I posted information about the ACE STUDY and how childhood stress becomes an adult health problem.

Now this:
"Could your flight-or-fight response be giving you cancer?"

That question is answered by Alice Wessendorf on the Healthier Talk website this week.

Alice: "When you find yourself in a difficult situation, hormones are released that up your heart rate, quicken your breathing, narrow your vision and, in general, prepare your body to clash or dash.

"This process, known as the fight-or-flight response, is supposed to save your life. But it turns out that it may also be giving you cancer.

"We already knew that this stress response could increase the risk for illnesses like heart disease. But now, new research out of the University of Texas points to stress hormones directly supporting tumor growth and spread.

"They do this by flipping the switch on the stress- activated protein known as focal adhesion kinase (FAK). FAK protects the detached cancer cells from dying. Allowing them to spread through your blood system finding places to re-attach and grow new tumors.

"And, as you may have already guessed, the higher your stress hormones are the higher your FAK levels become and the quicker tumors can grow and spread.

"So what can be done to stop the spread? Reducing the stress hormones circulating in your system is critical. You can't rid yourself of your natural fight-or-flight response. But what you can do is manage your stress levels."

BLOGGER NOTE: I suggest adoptees find treatment for stress as quick as you can!

ADOPTEE HEALTH (read this!)

Adoptees are a unique and diverse group. Some say as babies they were traumatized and now are plagued with emotional and physical problems while others feel downright happy and show little interest in being an adoptee.

Some adoptees I know were adopted as small children so they spent time with the natural mother, and perhaps were breastfed.

I did not spend any time with my natural mother and went directly to an orphanage. By the time I was adopted, I was a wreck. How do I know this? My parent’s memories and home movies. My immune system struggled continuously, and I struggle now with adult allergies. You name it: weeds, grass, molds, dust, trees, and some foods. I'm sick of being sick.

I admit I was running on high speed as a kid and taxed my adrenals to the max. When you’re in a heightened state of fear, in my case, this is called the fight or flight response.

In an earlier blog I posted information about the ACE STUDY and how childhood stress becomes an adult health problem.

Now this:
"Could your flight-or-fight response be giving you cancer?"

That question is answered by Alice Wessendorf on the Healthier Talk website this week.

Alice: "When you find yourself in a difficult situation, hormones are released that up your heart rate, quicken your breathing, narrow your vision and, in general, prepare your body to clash or dash.

"This process, known as the fight-or-flight response, is supposed to save your life. But it turns out that it may also be giving you cancer.

"We already knew that this stress response could increase the risk for illnesses like heart disease. But now, new research out of the University of Texas points to stress hormones directly supporting tumor growth and spread.

"They do this by flipping the switch on the stress- activated protein known as focal adhesion kinase (FAK). FAK protects the detached cancer cells from dying. Allowing them to spread through your blood system finding places to re-attach and grow new tumors.

"And, as you may have already guessed, the higher your stress hormones are the higher your FAK levels become and the quicker tumors can grow and spread.

"So what can be done to stop the spread? Reducing the stress hormones circulating in your system is critical. You can't rid yourself of your natural fight-or-flight response. But what you can do is manage your stress levels."

BLOGGER NOTE: I suggest adoptees find treatment for stress as quick as you can!

ADOPTEE HEALTH (read this!)

Adoptees are a unique and diverse group. Some say as babies they were traumatized and now are plagued with emotional and physical problems while others feel downright happy and show little interest in being an adoptee.

Some adoptees I know were adopted as small children so they spent time with the natural mother, and perhaps were breastfed.

I did not spend any time with my natural mother and went directly to an orphanage. By the time I was adopted, I was a wreck. How do I know this? My parent’s memories and home movies. My immune system struggled continuously, and I struggle now with adult allergies. You name it: weeds, grass, molds, dust, trees, and some foods. I'm sick of being sick.

I admit I was running on high speed as a kid and taxed my adrenals to the max. When you’re in a heightened state of fear, in my case, this is called the fight or flight response.

In an earlier blog I posted information about the ACE STUDY and how childhood stress becomes an adult health problem.

Now this:
"Could your flight-or-fight response be giving you cancer?"

That question is answered by Alice Wessendorf on the Healthier Talk website this week.

Alice: "When you find yourself in a difficult situation, hormones are released that up your heart rate, quicken your breathing, narrow your vision and, in general, prepare your body to clash or dash.

"This process, known as the fight-or-flight response, is supposed to save your life. But it turns out that it may also be giving you cancer.

"We already knew that this stress response could increase the risk for illnesses like heart disease. But now, new research out of the University of Texas points to stress hormones directly supporting tumor growth and spread.

"They do this by flipping the switch on the stress- activated protein known as focal adhesion kinase (FAK). FAK protects the detached cancer cells from dying. Allowing them to spread through your blood system finding places to re-attach and grow new tumors.

"And, as you may have already guessed, the higher your stress hormones are the higher your FAK levels become and the quicker tumors can grow and spread.

"So what can be done to stop the spread? Reducing the stress hormones circulating in your system is critical. You can't rid yourself of your natural fight-or-flight response. But what you can do is manage your stress levels."

BLOGGER NOTE: I suggest adoptees find treatment for stress as quick as you can!

ADOPTEE HEALTH (read this!)

Adoptees are a unique and diverse group. Some say as babies they were traumatized and now are plagued with emotional and physical problems while others feel downright happy and show little interest in being an adoptee.

Some adoptees I know were adopted as small children so they spent time with the natural mother, and perhaps were breastfed.

I did not spend any time with my natural mother and went directly to an orphanage. By the time I was adopted, I was a wreck. How do I know this? My parent’s memories and home movies. My immune system struggled continuously, and I struggle now with adult allergies. You name it: weeds, grass, molds, dust, trees, and some foods. I'm sick of being sick.

I admit I was running on high speed as a kid and taxed my adrenals to the max. When you’re in a heightened state of fear, in my case, this is called the fight or flight response.

In an earlier blog I posted information about the ACE STUDY and how childhood stress becomes an adult health problem.

Now this:
"Could your flight-or-fight response be giving you cancer?"

That question is answered by Alice Wessendorf on the Healthier Talk website this week.

Alice: "When you find yourself in a difficult situation, hormones are released that up your heart rate, quicken your breathing, narrow your vision and, in general, prepare your body to clash or dash.

"This process, known as the fight-or-flight response, is supposed to save your life. But it turns out that it may also be giving you cancer.

"We already knew that this stress response could increase the risk for illnesses like heart disease. But now, new research out of the University of Texas points to stress hormones directly supporting tumor growth and spread.

"They do this by flipping the switch on the stress- activated protein known as focal adhesion kinase (FAK). FAK protects the detached cancer cells from dying. Allowing them to spread through your blood system finding places to re-attach and grow new tumors.

"And, as you may have already guessed, the higher your stress hormones are the higher your FAK levels become and the quicker tumors can grow and spread.

"So what can be done to stop the spread? Reducing the stress hormones circulating in your system is critical. You can't rid yourself of your natural fight-or-flight response. But what you can do is manage your stress levels."

BLOGGER NOTE: I suggest adoptees find treatment for stress as quick as you can!

Recent Reviews of ONE SMALL SACRIFICE (with links)

http://ungratefullittlebastard.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-will-never-ever-ever-blog-again.html

AND

http://nsbloodline.blogspot.com/2010/05/one-small-sacrifice-lost-children-of.html

AND

http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9191&Itemid=1

AND Facebook comments:

Paula Benoit, Adoptee Care wrote:  I loved this book from the moment I started reading it. It's well written, painfully honest and bold. Thanks for setting the tone for future memoirs and conversations about secrecy Trace. You hit the nail straight on the head with this book. Thanks.

From Linda Orlandi-Johnson: One Small Sacrifice is a must read for all people. It is a powerfully written book by a woman who is Native American by birth and was adopted out to a white family. It is gut-wrenching at times to learn of what in the not-so-distant past occured to Native children. I laughed and I cried. I savored each and every word the author wrote. Amazing are the facts, research and deep hearted feelings she expresses. Fantastically executed this is one book that should be on everyone's "to read" list. Including Oprah Winfrey's!!

Adrian Archambeau Sr wrote:  Good Book, Insightful even to myself who has his own story, just finished reading it a week ago..If you really want to know Trace,and gain knowledge into The Adoption Project ,Genocide, etc. It's a good informative easy read...Thanks Trace, always in my heart & prayers...."A" April 16

Comments about FIND MY FAMILY TV SERIES and Reunions

I wanted to include this in my blog. I was contacted by the producers of Find My Family last year but I had already done my reunion. No word yet on this series and if it will continue.

New TV Show Highlights Adoption Search-and-Reunion Stories
by Kathie Forward
A new television program on ABC, called Find My Family, focuses on search and reunion, primarily adoption-related. It is hosted by two adult adoptees, including Tim Green, author of A Man and His Mother, the story of his search for his birth mother. By going to abc.com, and then findmyfamily, one can download a 13-page application to be considered for the show.
I am an adult adoptee who, so far, has failed to locate any of my birth family. So when I first heard of this new program, I was excited. The first show aired on Monday, November 23rd. It featured birth parents who had relinquished a baby girl when they were only 14 and 15, then later married and had more children. The hosts went through the usual questions as to why they wanted to search now and how they thought it would make a difference. Next, they explained the steps taken to locate the child. The birth mother had named her daughter Tanya, but the birth records came up blank. Finally, the Find My Family staff went to the hospital and went through all birth records until they found a match by birth date. It turned out the daughter grew up only eight miles away from the birth parents. Then the show featured the reunion, held by a tree in an undisclosed location, one of the show’s “gimmicks.”
The second show aired on November 30th and featured two stories. Story One was an adoptee looking for her full brother who had been raised by the birth parents, who ws only 16 months older than she was. Again, the breakthrough was searching all birth records for her date. When they found her records, they backtracked 16 months to find a boy. Again, the parents were married. When they actually contacted the brother, he informed Find My Family that there was a younger sister, not relinquished. In all cases, once the match is made, Find My Family obtains permission from all parties to set up the reunion.
Story Two of this episode was a daughter searching for her birth mother. Again they searched birth records. This time they had the birth mother’s name. However, this was no help. Finally, Find My Family decided to check marriage records and that was how the birth mother was located.
I realize these reunions are set up for television, but everyone seemed too agreeable and way too happy. They even showed follow-up visits (a few weeks or months later) and everything was “just wonderful.” Realistically, it doesn’t always work out that way. My concern is that it portrays reunion as the answer to everyone’s lifelong problems. However, it may motivate a lot of people to search.
I downloaded the application and found many of the questions helpful in deciding to search and in planning how I might handle a reunion. The program would also be good for starting a discussion about search and reunion between adoptive parents and children, or in families where there has been a relinquishment in the past, or even between parents who were adopted themselves and their own children. Time will tell how popular this program is and how it develops.
Excerpted from the January 2010 edition of the Operation Identity Newsletter
© 2010 Operation Identity

http://www.nmoi.org/articles/FindMyFamily.html

Lona Dell (Harlow) Bland, my grandmother

This is my birthfather Earl W. Bland's mother, Lona Dell Harlow. I write about her in ONE SMALL SACRIFICE - when I saw this photo, I knew this was my family before the DNA test with Earl in 1994.

A bit about me...

Photo Caption: Adoptees Mary Engel and Trace A DeMeyer in Wisconsin in the 1980s.

Award-winning Shawnee-Cherokee author Trace A. DeMeyer self-published her memoir, One Small Sacrifice: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, which includes opening her adoption and little-known history and details on the Indian Adoption Project resulting in the Indian Child Welfare Act. Trace is former editor of the Pequot Times in Connecticut and editor/co-founder of Ojibwe Akiing; she was news reporter and photographer at the national Native newspaper News From Indian Country in Wisconsin (1996-1999).


Her academic writing, “Power, Politics and the Pequot: The world’s Richest Indians” was presented in Munich at the 26th American Indian Workshop. She is also the author of “Honor Restored: The Story of Jim Thorpe” in the book “The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics and the Games 2000, published by Rutgers Press.

Her writing, interviews and poetry has been published in newspapers and journals in the USA, Canada and Europe. Trace, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior, has received numerous news and feature writing awards. Among the many she’s interviewed, her favorites include American Indian Movement’s John Trudell, imprisoned Lakota warrior Leonard Peltier and late movie legend Floyd Red Crow Westerman from Dances with Wolves.

UNIVERSTIY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK AMERICAN NATIVE PRESS ARCHIVES,

SEQUOYAH NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER

TRACE A. DEMEYER COLLECTION

MSS 007-09

EXTENT

Total Boxes: 1

Other Storage Formats: None

Linear Feet: 0.25

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance

Gift from Trace A. DeMeyer, February 2004

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is the physical property of the American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Literary rights, including copyrights, belong to the author or her legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Restrictions on Access

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is open for research.

Citation Format

Trace A. DeMeyer Collection. American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Trace A. DeMeyer is a website designer and author who identifies as an adoptee with Native American ancestry. She has written extensively on the subject of adoption. She has worked as a journalist, contributing to a wide range of Native American journals and newspapers and has served as editor of the Pequot Times.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection contains correspondence, typescript, and printed matter related to DeMeyer's work with the Pequot Times. Materials cover the period 2000-2004.

Box Folder

1 1. Correspondence, 2003-2004

2. Curriculum Vitae--Trace A. DeMeyer

3. Personal Essays--Trace A. DeMeyer

4. Campaign materials designed for Karen Hatcher--Trace A. DeMeyer, November 2002

5. NAJA Presentation--First Contact, June 16 2000

6. "Indictments come in Anna Mae's murder"--Typescript--2003

7. Editorial--November 2002

8. [Historic Eastern Pequot Nation]--Pequot Times, March 2003-- Typescript

9. Center for Creative Leadership," Foxwoods Spirit, March 2003-- Typescript

10. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Typescript--November 13, 2002

11. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Type script Working Draft--November 13 2002

12. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Draft edited for publication--Typescript-- November 13, 2002

13. "Adopted Indians Want to Fill Void," Wisconsin State Journal, May 18 2003--Typescript

14. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)-- Typescript--June 6, 2003

15. "Historic Reconnection held in Bermuda," Pequot Times,--Typescript

--August 2003

16. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--DeMeyer's typescript draft before Williams' revisions--June 6, 2003

17. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- Typescript--June 6 2003

18. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part I-- Typescript--June 6 2003

19. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- June 6 2003

20. Editorial--Trace A. DeMeyer--Typescript--September 2003

21. Young women crowned Miss Eastern Pequot"--Typescript--September 2003

22. "More Milestones for Native Americans"--Typescript--2003

23. "Tlingit legend Kusah Hakwaan takes Jury award in New Haven Film Fest."--Pequot Times--Typescript

A bit about me...

Photo Caption: Adoptees Mary Engel and Trace A DeMeyer in Wisconsin in the 1980s.

Award-winning Shawnee-Cherokee author Trace A. DeMeyer self-published her memoir, One Small Sacrifice: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, which includes opening her adoption and little-known history and details on the Indian Adoption Project resulting in the Indian Child Welfare Act. Trace is former editor of the Pequot Times in Connecticut and editor/co-founder of Ojibwe Akiing; she was news reporter and photographer at the national Native newspaper News From Indian Country in Wisconsin (1996-1999).


Her academic writing, “Power, Politics and the Pequot: The world’s Richest Indians” was presented in Munich at the 26th American Indian Workshop. She is also the author of “Honor Restored: The Story of Jim Thorpe” in the book “The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics and the Games 2000, published by Rutgers Press.

Her writing, interviews and poetry has been published in newspapers and journals in the USA, Canada and Europe. Trace, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior, has received numerous news and feature writing awards. Among the many she’s interviewed, her favorites include American Indian Movement’s John Trudell, imprisoned Lakota warrior Leonard Peltier and late movie legend Floyd Red Crow Westerman from Dances with Wolves.

UNIVERSTIY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK AMERICAN NATIVE PRESS ARCHIVES,

SEQUOYAH NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER

TRACE A. DEMEYER COLLECTION

MSS 007-09

EXTENT

Total Boxes: 1

Other Storage Formats: None

Linear Feet: 0.25

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance

Gift from Trace A. DeMeyer, February 2004

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is the physical property of the American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Literary rights, including copyrights, belong to the author or her legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Restrictions on Access

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is open for research.

Citation Format

Trace A. DeMeyer Collection. American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Trace A. DeMeyer is a website designer and author who identifies as an adoptee with Native American ancestry. She has written extensively on the subject of adoption. She has worked as a journalist, contributing to a wide range of Native American journals and newspapers and has served as editor of the Pequot Times.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection contains correspondence, typescript, and printed matter related to DeMeyer's work with the Pequot Times. Materials cover the period 2000-2004.

Box Folder

1 1. Correspondence, 2003-2004

2. Curriculum Vitae--Trace A. DeMeyer

3. Personal Essays--Trace A. DeMeyer

4. Campaign materials designed for Karen Hatcher--Trace A. DeMeyer, November 2002

5. NAJA Presentation--First Contact, June 16 2000

6. "Indictments come in Anna Mae's murder"--Typescript--2003

7. Editorial--November 2002

8. [Historic Eastern Pequot Nation]--Pequot Times, March 2003-- Typescript

9. Center for Creative Leadership," Foxwoods Spirit, March 2003-- Typescript

10. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Typescript--November 13, 2002

11. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Type script Working Draft--November 13 2002

12. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Draft edited for publication--Typescript-- November 13, 2002

13. "Adopted Indians Want to Fill Void," Wisconsin State Journal, May 18 2003--Typescript

14. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)-- Typescript--June 6, 2003

15. "Historic Reconnection held in Bermuda," Pequot Times,--Typescript

--August 2003

16. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--DeMeyer's typescript draft before Williams' revisions--June 6, 2003

17. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- Typescript--June 6 2003

18. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part I-- Typescript--June 6 2003

19. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- June 6 2003

20. Editorial--Trace A. DeMeyer--Typescript--September 2003

21. Young women crowned Miss Eastern Pequot"--Typescript--September 2003

22. "More Milestones for Native Americans"--Typescript--2003

23. "Tlingit legend Kusah Hakwaan takes Jury award in New Haven Film Fest."--Pequot Times--Typescript

A bit about me...

Photo Caption: Adoptees Mary Engel and Trace A DeMeyer in Wisconsin in the 1980s.

Award-winning Shawnee-Cherokee author Trace A. DeMeyer self-published her memoir, One Small Sacrifice: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, which includes opening her adoption and little-known history and details on the Indian Adoption Project resulting in the Indian Child Welfare Act. Trace is former editor of the Pequot Times in Connecticut and editor/co-founder of Ojibwe Akiing; she was news reporter and photographer at the national Native newspaper News From Indian Country in Wisconsin (1996-1999).


Her academic writing, “Power, Politics and the Pequot: The world’s Richest Indians” was presented in Munich at the 26th American Indian Workshop. She is also the author of “Honor Restored: The Story of Jim Thorpe” in the book “The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics and the Games 2000, published by Rutgers Press.

Her writing, interviews and poetry has been published in newspapers and journals in the USA, Canada and Europe. Trace, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior, has received numerous news and feature writing awards. Among the many she’s interviewed, her favorites include American Indian Movement’s John Trudell, imprisoned Lakota warrior Leonard Peltier and late movie legend Floyd Red Crow Westerman from Dances with Wolves.

UNIVERSTIY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK AMERICAN NATIVE PRESS ARCHIVES,

SEQUOYAH NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER

TRACE A. DEMEYER COLLECTION

MSS 007-09

EXTENT

Total Boxes: 1

Other Storage Formats: None

Linear Feet: 0.25

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance

Gift from Trace A. DeMeyer, February 2004

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is the physical property of the American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Literary rights, including copyrights, belong to the author or her legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Restrictions on Access

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is open for research.

Citation Format

Trace A. DeMeyer Collection. American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Trace A. DeMeyer is a website designer and author who identifies as an adoptee with Native American ancestry. She has written extensively on the subject of adoption. She has worked as a journalist, contributing to a wide range of Native American journals and newspapers and has served as editor of the Pequot Times.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection contains correspondence, typescript, and printed matter related to DeMeyer's work with the Pequot Times. Materials cover the period 2000-2004.

Box Folder

1 1. Correspondence, 2003-2004

2. Curriculum Vitae--Trace A. DeMeyer

3. Personal Essays--Trace A. DeMeyer

4. Campaign materials designed for Karen Hatcher--Trace A. DeMeyer, November 2002

5. NAJA Presentation--First Contact, June 16 2000

6. "Indictments come in Anna Mae's murder"--Typescript--2003

7. Editorial--November 2002

8. [Historic Eastern Pequot Nation]--Pequot Times, March 2003-- Typescript

9. Center for Creative Leadership," Foxwoods Spirit, March 2003-- Typescript

10. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Typescript--November 13, 2002

11. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Type script Working Draft--November 13 2002

12. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Draft edited for publication--Typescript-- November 13, 2002

13. "Adopted Indians Want to Fill Void," Wisconsin State Journal, May 18 2003--Typescript

14. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)-- Typescript--June 6, 2003

15. "Historic Reconnection held in Bermuda," Pequot Times,--Typescript

--August 2003

16. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--DeMeyer's typescript draft before Williams' revisions--June 6, 2003

17. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- Typescript--June 6 2003

18. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part I-- Typescript--June 6 2003

19. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- June 6 2003

20. Editorial--Trace A. DeMeyer--Typescript--September 2003

21. Young women crowned Miss Eastern Pequot"--Typescript--September 2003

22. "More Milestones for Native Americans"--Typescript--2003

23. "Tlingit legend Kusah Hakwaan takes Jury award in New Haven Film Fest."--Pequot Times--Typescript

A bit about me...

Photo Caption: Adoptees Mary Engel and Trace A DeMeyer in Wisconsin in the 1980s.

Award-winning Shawnee-Cherokee author Trace A. DeMeyer self-published her memoir, One Small Sacrifice: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, which includes opening her adoption and little-known history and details on the Indian Adoption Project resulting in the Indian Child Welfare Act. Trace is former editor of the Pequot Times in Connecticut and editor/co-founder of Ojibwe Akiing; she was news reporter and photographer at the national Native newspaper News From Indian Country in Wisconsin (1996-1999).


Her academic writing, “Power, Politics and the Pequot: The world’s Richest Indians” was presented in Munich at the 26th American Indian Workshop. She is also the author of “Honor Restored: The Story of Jim Thorpe” in the book “The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics and the Games 2000, published by Rutgers Press.

Her writing, interviews and poetry has been published in newspapers and journals in the USA, Canada and Europe. Trace, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior, has received numerous news and feature writing awards. Among the many she’s interviewed, her favorites include American Indian Movement’s John Trudell, imprisoned Lakota warrior Leonard Peltier and late movie legend Floyd Red Crow Westerman from Dances with Wolves.

UNIVERSTIY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK AMERICAN NATIVE PRESS ARCHIVES,

SEQUOYAH NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER

TRACE A. DEMEYER COLLECTION

MSS 007-09

EXTENT

Total Boxes: 1

Other Storage Formats: None

Linear Feet: 0.25

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance

Gift from Trace A. DeMeyer, February 2004

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is the physical property of the American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Literary rights, including copyrights, belong to the author or her legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Restrictions on Access

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is open for research.

Citation Format

Trace A. DeMeyer Collection. American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Trace A. DeMeyer is a website designer and author who identifies as an adoptee with Native American ancestry. She has written extensively on the subject of adoption. She has worked as a journalist, contributing to a wide range of Native American journals and newspapers and has served as editor of the Pequot Times.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection contains correspondence, typescript, and printed matter related to DeMeyer's work with the Pequot Times. Materials cover the period 2000-2004.

Box Folder

1 1. Correspondence, 2003-2004

2. Curriculum Vitae--Trace A. DeMeyer

3. Personal Essays--Trace A. DeMeyer

4. Campaign materials designed for Karen Hatcher--Trace A. DeMeyer, November 2002

5. NAJA Presentation--First Contact, June 16 2000

6. "Indictments come in Anna Mae's murder"--Typescript--2003

7. Editorial--November 2002

8. [Historic Eastern Pequot Nation]--Pequot Times, March 2003-- Typescript

9. Center for Creative Leadership," Foxwoods Spirit, March 2003-- Typescript

10. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Typescript--November 13, 2002

11. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Type script Working Draft--November 13 2002

12. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Draft edited for publication--Typescript-- November 13, 2002

13. "Adopted Indians Want to Fill Void," Wisconsin State Journal, May 18 2003--Typescript

14. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)-- Typescript--June 6, 2003

15. "Historic Reconnection held in Bermuda," Pequot Times,--Typescript

--August 2003

16. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--DeMeyer's typescript draft before Williams' revisions--June 6, 2003

17. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- Typescript--June 6 2003

18. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part I-- Typescript--June 6 2003

19. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- June 6 2003

20. Editorial--Trace A. DeMeyer--Typescript--September 2003

21. Young women crowned Miss Eastern Pequot"--Typescript--September 2003

22. "More Milestones for Native Americans"--Typescript--2003

23. "Tlingit legend Kusah Hakwaan takes Jury award in New Haven Film Fest."--Pequot Times--Typescript

A bit about me...

Photo Caption: Adoptees Mary Engel and Trace A DeMeyer in Wisconsin in the 1980s.

Award-winning Shawnee-Cherokee author Trace A. DeMeyer self-published her memoir, One Small Sacrifice: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, which includes opening her adoption and little-known history and details on the Indian Adoption Project resulting in the Indian Child Welfare Act. Trace is former editor of the Pequot Times in Connecticut and editor/co-founder of Ojibwe Akiing; she was news reporter and photographer at the national Native newspaper News From Indian Country in Wisconsin (1996-1999).


Her academic writing, “Power, Politics and the Pequot: The world’s Richest Indians” was presented in Munich at the 26th American Indian Workshop. She is also the author of “Honor Restored: The Story of Jim Thorpe” in the book “The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics and the Games 2000, published by Rutgers Press.

Her writing, interviews and poetry has been published in newspapers and journals in the USA, Canada and Europe. Trace, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Superior, has received numerous news and feature writing awards. Among the many she’s interviewed, her favorites include American Indian Movement’s John Trudell, imprisoned Lakota warrior Leonard Peltier and late movie legend Floyd Red Crow Westerman from Dances with Wolves.

UNIVERSTIY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK AMERICAN NATIVE PRESS ARCHIVES,

SEQUOYAH NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER

TRACE A. DEMEYER COLLECTION

MSS 007-09

EXTENT

Total Boxes: 1

Other Storage Formats: None

Linear Feet: 0.25

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance

Gift from Trace A. DeMeyer, February 2004

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is the physical property of the American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Literary rights, including copyrights, belong to the author or her legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Restrictions on Access

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection is open for research.

Citation Format

Trace A. DeMeyer Collection. American Native Press Archives of the Sequoyah National Research Center.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Trace A. DeMeyer is a website designer and author who identifies as an adoptee with Native American ancestry. She has written extensively on the subject of adoption. She has worked as a journalist, contributing to a wide range of Native American journals and newspapers and has served as editor of the Pequot Times.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

The Trace A. DeMeyer Collection contains correspondence, typescript, and printed matter related to DeMeyer's work with the Pequot Times. Materials cover the period 2000-2004.

Box Folder

1 1. Correspondence, 2003-2004

2. Curriculum Vitae--Trace A. DeMeyer

3. Personal Essays--Trace A. DeMeyer

4. Campaign materials designed for Karen Hatcher--Trace A. DeMeyer, November 2002

5. NAJA Presentation--First Contact, June 16 2000

6. "Indictments come in Anna Mae's murder"--Typescript--2003

7. Editorial--November 2002

8. [Historic Eastern Pequot Nation]--Pequot Times, March 2003-- Typescript

9. Center for Creative Leadership," Foxwoods Spirit, March 2003-- Typescript

10. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Typescript--November 13, 2002

11. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Type script Working Draft--November 13 2002

12. Interview with Marcia Jones Flowers and James Chuna (Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation)--Draft edited for publication--Typescript-- November 13, 2002

13. "Adopted Indians Want to Fill Void," Wisconsin State Journal, May 18 2003--Typescript

14. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)-- Typescript--June 6, 2003

15. "Historic Reconnection held in Bermuda," Pequot Times,--Typescript

--August 2003

16. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--DeMeyer's typescript draft before Williams' revisions--June 6, 2003

17. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- Typescript--June 6 2003

18. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part I-- Typescript--June 6 2003

19. Interview with Penny Gamble Williams (Chappaquiddick)--Part II-- June 6 2003

20. Editorial--Trace A. DeMeyer--Typescript--September 2003

21. Young women crowned Miss Eastern Pequot"--Typescript--September 2003

22. "More Milestones for Native Americans"--Typescript--2003

23. "Tlingit legend Kusah Hakwaan takes Jury award in New Haven Film Fest."--Pequot Times--Typescript

The Un-Adopted (another Russian orphan story)

In 2002 alone, U.S. families adopted over 20,000 children, from far-away places like China, Russia and Guatemala.

We rarely hear about adoptive parents who notice the signs of a mental disorder, despair or disease in their adopted child, then abandon the adoptee/orphan.  Abandon them? Un-Adopt them? Yes, this happens far more than we realize…

One mother in Texas blogged openly about her experience adopting a little girl from a Russian orphanage in 2005-2006. (She shall remain anonymous.)

How generous it was for her to open her heart and home to an orphan, we read. How expensive these international adoptions are, we read. When the child showed signs of distress and disrupted her home and biological children, we read her “Russian” child was “unadopted,” sent away to someone who could deal with her problems in Wisconsin.

This Texan had her illusions dashed about “saving this baby” and apparently had no idea about orphan trauma, though she read “everything” about raising children. Day after day, she blogged her difficulties - then once the girl “P” was gone, the blogging stopped. Apparently she went back to raising her biological sons.

This is an excerpt from her blog:

“I think being more informed about the probable emotional expectation possibilities for these children would have been all it took for me to know international adoption was not for us. So many professionals have NOW told me... despite any care she receives she will quite probably never be like your other children. The affects of institutional care on a baby is many times lifelong and you can never expect them to be like your other children. Why didn’t they tell me this BEFORE we adopted? I was searching for the kind of relationship I have with my boys, the kind my mom and I have. If I had known I could never even expect this child to feel close to me or identify with me, I feel I certainly would have never adopted.

"So, truth to be known- we should never have adopted any institutionalized child!

"My personal experience goes on to be complicated by a truly adored referral that we lost before we got to travel and perhaps, did not allow ourselves to grieve enough for. We traveled to meet a child who we found obviously had a major neurological problems and we had to turn down - in this country (this was traumatic and extremely hard to get through as well).

"Then the ridiculous circumstance of getting to spend one day with “P” before we made our decision and flew home to await our second trip.

"This was surely not the best way to decide on such a huge factor in your life yet we did. In order to adopt internationally YOU HAVE TO make rash decisions based on pictures and sketchy information. You have to give it to God and pray you are doing right. Didn’t you at some point too?

"Due to flight change unavailability, expenses, red tape, time factors, children waiting for us at home, orphanage visiting rules, and emotional upset, we made decisions we SHOULD NOT HAVE MADE. I DO accept responsibility for making a decision with all those factors in place but also point back to Russia’s laws on adoption and all the problematic Russian ways and secretiveness that are SO not helpful to the futures of these children or the people trying to make the best decisions for bringing them home into new families.

"As a mother I tried to base my decisions on emotional intuitiveness and gut feelings. In retrospect a more logical approach and lots of caution would have been more productive. I needed to feel right... but I mostly felt confused, afraid, lost.

"Then there was the “twinning.” Bringing home a child who was so close in age to my biological son was a HUGE folly. Again, this is mostly our fault of course. We, being bullet proof and invincible, thought we could make this work. We thought we would have it rough for a while but would pull through and live happily ever after. NOT SO. Throwing this on top of the attachment issues was just too much. We never even thought about our bio sons mental health... sure there would be some normal sibling rivalry, but what manifested was so magnified to the norm that we were shocked and scared out of our minds at the long term effects this would have on EVERYONE! Neither he, nor “P” could get the emotional support they needed because it was just too much for one Mom to be able to do. It was unfair and unhealthy for both children and “P” needed focus and diligent emotional support FULL TIME in light of her issues.

"Upon bringing “P” home, the problems continued as we found a huge deficit in the help and support we needed in our area. We found all the help we thought we had behind us turned into incompetent therapists not versed in RAD and doctors with little or no experience with post adoption issues, money-hungry therapists, and a lack of coverage for the issues “P” had from our insurance company, then perhaps the most damaging... we found RAD.

"So, obviously I have no crystal ball here but I think these bits of information, truths, and circumstantial situations and bad and hasty decisions might have created extra issues and a much different outcome for us.... They say hindsight is 20/20 but I am still putting the pieces together here. Here are some things I do believe hindered our success but perhaps there is far more I have not realized.... First, gain more perspective and educate yourselves. There is a list of disruption sites that may help many people to understand, avoid, and support this process when it is necessary. There are many common factors in an adoption that end people up in disruption. These factors should be on a neon sign at every agency!!!!”