Healing from Indian child ‘takings’ is in the telling

 

Gabor Degre | BDN

Gov. Joseph Socobasin (from left), Chief Reuben Cleaves, Gov. Paul LePage and Chief Kirk Francis sign a declaration of intent on Indian Island to begin a truth and reconciliation process between the tribes and the state child welfare system. Buy Photo

Bangor Daily News EDITORIAL Posted Sept. 14, 2012 http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/14/opinion/healing-from-indian-child-takings-is-in-the-telling/

Related stories

• Stolen from home as a child, tortured, now ending the silence

There is no way to take back the past. But if Maine wants to ensure that it never, ever repeats its racist, oppressive treatment of American Indian families and communities, it must know what it did. Under the first truth and reconciliation commission in the United States to be jointly agreed upon by state and tribal leaders, Mainers will have the opportunity to listen to mothers whose children were taken to be assimilated into white culture, and to those children — now adults — who were forced to live with foster families that were sometimes emotionally, physically and sexually abusive.
In order for the members of Maine’s five tribes to achieve some level of healing, it’s important for everyone who had a relevant experience with the child welfare system over the past few decades to participate in the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sharing what happened is essential if the commission is to comprehensively investigate and make suggestions for improvements. Also important is the willingness of Mainers not connected to the child welfare system to listen and learn.
The formation of the truth and reconciliation commission is the result of years of work on the part of a convening group comprising people from the state, several organizations and each of the Wabanaki communities: Aroostook Band of Micmacs, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkmikuk, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik and the Penobscot Indian Nation. The convening group helped draft a mandate, which the chiefs and Gov. Paul LePage signed on June 29, to lay out the three-year-long truth and reconciliation process.
A selection panel is accepting nominations for commissioners until Oct. 1, when it will choose five who “are trusted by both tribal and state governments and their respective citizens,” according to the mandate. The commissioners then will travel several days per month to reservations to listen to people’s experiences, seek to understand why the experiences occurred and determine what needs to change. The commission cannot pursue criminal or civil claims; its role is to create a written account and make recommendations for child welfare reform.
Historically, efforts to assimilate Indian children into non-native culture, in many cases, devastated tribal communities. In the 1800s, church groups, with government support, took Indian children and sent them to boarding schools, far from their culture, religion, language and families. Many of the children were abused; many died.
In 1958, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America partnered to establish the Indian Adoption Project to place Indian children with adoptive white families. Though the children were taken in many cases from reservations suffering from poverty, their removal resulted in a form of cultural genocide. Surveys by the Association of American Indian Affairs in 1969 and 1974 showed that between 25 percent and 35 percent of all Indian children were separated from their homes and living in foster care, adoptive care or institutions at the time. Though the federal Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 to give Indian children more protection, some problems persisted.
Maine’s truth and reconciliation commission is important because it sets the framework for understanding different perspectives of the state’s history. There is an air of something with national significance being accomplished, too. This commission is set to be the third such undertaking in U.S. history and the first to have this level of joint support from the state and tribes, according to commission Interim Director Carolyn Morrison. The nation will watch.
The aim of the process is not to make people feel guilty or seek reparations but to find a way to heal and build the relationship between the tribes and state. For people who will find it painful to tell their stories, know that those of us listening will be celebrating your strength.


[The new anthology TWO WORLDS, narratives by Native American and First Nations Adoptees will be out this week... tell your friends...Trace]

Healing from Indian child ‘takings’ is in the telling

 

Gabor Degre | BDN

Gov. Joseph Socobasin (from left), Chief Reuben Cleaves, Gov. Paul LePage and Chief Kirk Francis sign a declaration of intent on Indian Island to begin a truth and reconciliation process between the tribes and the state child welfare system. Buy Photo

Bangor Daily News EDITORIAL Posted Sept. 14, 2012 http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/14/opinion/healing-from-indian-child-takings-is-in-the-telling/

Related stories

• Stolen from home as a child, tortured, now ending the silence

There is no way to take back the past. But if Maine wants to ensure that it never, ever repeats its racist, oppressive treatment of American Indian families and communities, it must know what it did. Under the first truth and reconciliation commission in the United States to be jointly agreed upon by state and tribal leaders, Mainers will have the opportunity to listen to mothers whose children were taken to be assimilated into white culture, and to those children — now adults — who were forced to live with foster families that were sometimes emotionally, physically and sexually abusive.
In order for the members of Maine’s five tribes to achieve some level of healing, it’s important for everyone who had a relevant experience with the child welfare system over the past few decades to participate in the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sharing what happened is essential if the commission is to comprehensively investigate and make suggestions for improvements. Also important is the willingness of Mainers not connected to the child welfare system to listen and learn.
The formation of the truth and reconciliation commission is the result of years of work on the part of a convening group comprising people from the state, several organizations and each of the Wabanaki communities: Aroostook Band of Micmacs, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkmikuk, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik and the Penobscot Indian Nation. The convening group helped draft a mandate, which the chiefs and Gov. Paul LePage signed on June 29, to lay out the three-year-long truth and reconciliation process.
A selection panel is accepting nominations for commissioners until Oct. 1, when it will choose five who “are trusted by both tribal and state governments and their respective citizens,” according to the mandate. The commissioners then will travel several days per month to reservations to listen to people’s experiences, seek to understand why the experiences occurred and determine what needs to change. The commission cannot pursue criminal or civil claims; its role is to create a written account and make recommendations for child welfare reform.
Historically, efforts to assimilate Indian children into non-native culture, in many cases, devastated tribal communities. In the 1800s, church groups, with government support, took Indian children and sent them to boarding schools, far from their culture, religion, language and families. Many of the children were abused; many died.
In 1958, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America partnered to establish the Indian Adoption Project to place Indian children with adoptive white families. Though the children were taken in many cases from reservations suffering from poverty, their removal resulted in a form of cultural genocide. Surveys by the Association of American Indian Affairs in 1969 and 1974 showed that between 25 percent and 35 percent of all Indian children were separated from their homes and living in foster care, adoptive care or institutions at the time. Though the federal Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 to give Indian children more protection, some problems persisted.
Maine’s truth and reconciliation commission is important because it sets the framework for understanding different perspectives of the state’s history. There is an air of something with national significance being accomplished, too. This commission is set to be the third such undertaking in U.S. history and the first to have this level of joint support from the state and tribes, according to commission Interim Director Carolyn Morrison. The nation will watch.
The aim of the process is not to make people feel guilty or seek reparations but to find a way to heal and build the relationship between the tribes and state. For people who will find it painful to tell their stories, know that those of us listening will be celebrating your strength.


[The new anthology TWO WORLDS, narratives by Native American and First Nations Adoptees will be out this week... tell your friends...Trace]

Healing from Indian child ‘takings’ is in the telling

 

Gabor Degre | BDN

Gov. Joseph Socobasin (from left), Chief Reuben Cleaves, Gov. Paul LePage and Chief Kirk Francis sign a declaration of intent on Indian Island to begin a truth and reconciliation process between the tribes and the state child welfare system. Buy Photo

Bangor Daily News EDITORIAL Posted Sept. 14, 2012 http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/14/opinion/healing-from-indian-child-takings-is-in-the-telling/

Related stories

• Stolen from home as a child, tortured, now ending the silence

There is no way to take back the past. But if Maine wants to ensure that it never, ever repeats its racist, oppressive treatment of American Indian families and communities, it must know what it did. Under the first truth and reconciliation commission in the United States to be jointly agreed upon by state and tribal leaders, Mainers will have the opportunity to listen to mothers whose children were taken to be assimilated into white culture, and to those children — now adults — who were forced to live with foster families that were sometimes emotionally, physically and sexually abusive.
In order for the members of Maine’s five tribes to achieve some level of healing, it’s important for everyone who had a relevant experience with the child welfare system over the past few decades to participate in the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sharing what happened is essential if the commission is to comprehensively investigate and make suggestions for improvements. Also important is the willingness of Mainers not connected to the child welfare system to listen and learn.
The formation of the truth and reconciliation commission is the result of years of work on the part of a convening group comprising people from the state, several organizations and each of the Wabanaki communities: Aroostook Band of Micmacs, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkmikuk, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik and the Penobscot Indian Nation. The convening group helped draft a mandate, which the chiefs and Gov. Paul LePage signed on June 29, to lay out the three-year-long truth and reconciliation process.
A selection panel is accepting nominations for commissioners until Oct. 1, when it will choose five who “are trusted by both tribal and state governments and their respective citizens,” according to the mandate. The commissioners then will travel several days per month to reservations to listen to people’s experiences, seek to understand why the experiences occurred and determine what needs to change. The commission cannot pursue criminal or civil claims; its role is to create a written account and make recommendations for child welfare reform.
Historically, efforts to assimilate Indian children into non-native culture, in many cases, devastated tribal communities. In the 1800s, church groups, with government support, took Indian children and sent them to boarding schools, far from their culture, religion, language and families. Many of the children were abused; many died.
In 1958, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America partnered to establish the Indian Adoption Project to place Indian children with adoptive white families. Though the children were taken in many cases from reservations suffering from poverty, their removal resulted in a form of cultural genocide. Surveys by the Association of American Indian Affairs in 1969 and 1974 showed that between 25 percent and 35 percent of all Indian children were separated from their homes and living in foster care, adoptive care or institutions at the time. Though the federal Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 to give Indian children more protection, some problems persisted.
Maine’s truth and reconciliation commission is important because it sets the framework for understanding different perspectives of the state’s history. There is an air of something with national significance being accomplished, too. This commission is set to be the third such undertaking in U.S. history and the first to have this level of joint support from the state and tribes, according to commission Interim Director Carolyn Morrison. The nation will watch.
The aim of the process is not to make people feel guilty or seek reparations but to find a way to heal and build the relationship between the tribes and state. For people who will find it painful to tell their stories, know that those of us listening will be celebrating your strength.


[The new anthology TWO WORLDS, narratives by Native American and First Nations Adoptees will be out this week... tell your friends...Trace]

Healing from Indian child ‘takings’ is in the telling

 

Gabor Degre | BDN

Gov. Joseph Socobasin (from left), Chief Reuben Cleaves, Gov. Paul LePage and Chief Kirk Francis sign a declaration of intent on Indian Island to begin a truth and reconciliation process between the tribes and the state child welfare system. Buy Photo

Bangor Daily News EDITORIAL Posted Sept. 14, 2012 http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/14/opinion/healing-from-indian-child-takings-is-in-the-telling/

Related stories

• Stolen from home as a child, tortured, now ending the silence

There is no way to take back the past. But if Maine wants to ensure that it never, ever repeats its racist, oppressive treatment of American Indian families and communities, it must know what it did. Under the first truth and reconciliation commission in the United States to be jointly agreed upon by state and tribal leaders, Mainers will have the opportunity to listen to mothers whose children were taken to be assimilated into white culture, and to those children — now adults — who were forced to live with foster families that were sometimes emotionally, physically and sexually abusive.
In order for the members of Maine’s five tribes to achieve some level of healing, it’s important for everyone who had a relevant experience with the child welfare system over the past few decades to participate in the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sharing what happened is essential if the commission is to comprehensively investigate and make suggestions for improvements. Also important is the willingness of Mainers not connected to the child welfare system to listen and learn.
The formation of the truth and reconciliation commission is the result of years of work on the part of a convening group comprising people from the state, several organizations and each of the Wabanaki communities: Aroostook Band of Micmacs, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkmikuk, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik and the Penobscot Indian Nation. The convening group helped draft a mandate, which the chiefs and Gov. Paul LePage signed on June 29, to lay out the three-year-long truth and reconciliation process.
A selection panel is accepting nominations for commissioners until Oct. 1, when it will choose five who “are trusted by both tribal and state governments and their respective citizens,” according to the mandate. The commissioners then will travel several days per month to reservations to listen to people’s experiences, seek to understand why the experiences occurred and determine what needs to change. The commission cannot pursue criminal or civil claims; its role is to create a written account and make recommendations for child welfare reform.
Historically, efforts to assimilate Indian children into non-native culture, in many cases, devastated tribal communities. In the 1800s, church groups, with government support, took Indian children and sent them to boarding schools, far from their culture, religion, language and families. Many of the children were abused; many died.
In 1958, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America partnered to establish the Indian Adoption Project to place Indian children with adoptive white families. Though the children were taken in many cases from reservations suffering from poverty, their removal resulted in a form of cultural genocide. Surveys by the Association of American Indian Affairs in 1969 and 1974 showed that between 25 percent and 35 percent of all Indian children were separated from their homes and living in foster care, adoptive care or institutions at the time. Though the federal Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 to give Indian children more protection, some problems persisted.
Maine’s truth and reconciliation commission is important because it sets the framework for understanding different perspectives of the state’s history. There is an air of something with national significance being accomplished, too. This commission is set to be the third such undertaking in U.S. history and the first to have this level of joint support from the state and tribes, according to commission Interim Director Carolyn Morrison. The nation will watch.
The aim of the process is not to make people feel guilty or seek reparations but to find a way to heal and build the relationship between the tribes and state. For people who will find it painful to tell their stories, know that those of us listening will be celebrating your strength.


[The new anthology TWO WORLDS, narratives by Native American and First Nations Adoptees will be out this week... tell your friends...Trace]

PART FOUR: Victims of Adoption and Lies (#NDN #ADOPTION series)




Archival Photo: Native children attending Residential Boarding School

 

Part 4  ELAINE, ADOPTEE AND FIRST MOTHER

By Trace A. DeMeyer

I woke up with two thoughts: there are two victims of adoption who need help and not necessarily from each other: the adoptee and the first mother. Each has its own burden and neither can heal the other.

I asked my Mi’kmaq-Ojibway sister Elaine Berwald (also known as Myriam) to share how these two thoughts affect her since she is an adoptee and a mother who lost two children to adoption… My thanks for her candor and her poignant story…

ELAINE: I was born Myriam Beth Gallant, to an 18-year-old Mi'kmaq/Acadian woman in 1963. My first father was Metis Ojibway/Scottish from Selkirk, Manitoba.

My first mother was not afraid to mention her First Nations heritage as so many others were at that time. She was bullied and pressured into adopting me out (as many young woman were in those days, and still are to some degree). However, she was strongly warned that if she did not cover up my heritage (or if she tried to keep me) that I would be put in an "orphanage" (not adopted) as that is what happened to Indians and half breeds.

I was adopted out at two months old as a French/Scottish baby with lovely red hair. That is how they passed me off as Celtic. I always knew I was adopted. My second mother was told to tell me right off. She would call me her “wee adopted baby.” My older adopted sister was not able to accept me, in fact she hated me and was jealous of my mother's attention to me, as the new baby. The abuse from the sibling was unbearable and did much damage to my being: it was emotional, spiritual and physical, with no adult stopping it from happening even though they knew it was.

Most of the family like grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. were against the adoption and found it unpleasant to have an "illegitimate" child within the family; none of them knew of my heritage although a few times it was hinted at and was a conversational topic.

I always felt alone. Always. Even after I found my first mother and my thoughts were confirmed about my Mi’kmaq heritage, my second mother refused to believe it and called her a liar and a con-artist.

I have had two birth children, one at age 15 and one at age 17 that my parents forced me to give up for adoption. I have reunited with both of these children. One found me through a birth announcement I placed when I attempted to keep her but gave in after not having food for her or diapers or a home. The other I found through an internet site somewhere in the states that I happened upon one afternoon at work.

I have re-united with both children although the relationships are strained, dysfunctional, and in one case non-existent at the moment. I agree with the two victims of adoption and that neither can heal the other. I do however remain available to answer any questions they may have and I do have some contact with one and we try to heal and love each other as it is. Both of these girls have their own stories to tell, neither one a fairytale.

As for the "adoption industry”: As long as the money does NOT follow the children and continues to flow into the Societies, they will continue to be an industry. Children's Services and Aid Societies are funded according to "children in care” numbers: drop the numbers, they lose the cash. That has always been my main fight against them. It costs a minimum of $38,000 a year to have a child in care: more $ for infants and far more for special needs or ‘disturbed children’. If this money was invested in their first home with their first parents, there would be no more industry.

I am a survivor of the 60s scoop. They did not show up on my reservation and take me from my mother’s arms as so many were. But they took me from her arms just the same. She lost a son the next year the same way. She never recovered and passed early at 60; she suffered horrific depression all of her adult life. I am grateful we had 13 years of contact and that she left me three wonderful but very damaged brothers. Her third son, my brother Christopher, was taken from her for a time, over a year. She fought back that time and won. As far as we can tell he was placed for that time in a Residential School in Alberta. His memories are unclear but the pain is not. She also left me some teachings and a bit of a road map to home. I am one of the fortunate ones.

My First Mother was Proud of her Heritage until the day she died, she never stopped telling us who we were. That gift has made me a strong and proud First Nation Woman. Meegwich Mom & Onen Juanita (Mohawk for until we meet again). 

Elaine is one of the contributors in the new book TWO WORLDS, an anthology of adoptee voices from the US and Canada. Co-authored with Patricia Busbee, we expect it to be published next week and will announce when it’s available for purchase and where.

Part 5 will continue in a week. Please share comments on this blog and share with your friends. We appreciate that!

Part 3: Victims of Adoption and Lies: Control the Message

Part 3
By Trace A. DeMeyer

I woke up with two thoughts: there are two victims of adoption who need help and not necessarily from each other: the adoptee and the first mother. Each has its own burden and neither can heal the other.

CONTROL THE MESSAGE

Since I started this Victimsseries, I've heard from two new adoptees who came across this blog. I'm very happy - not because they are adopted but because we can now connect and relate as members of our own unique band of Native American adoptees. As each week passes, and the more I post about this history, perhaps even more adoptees will contact me.*

"Victim" is a word I don't like to use but in the case of Native adoptees, it fits. The adoption projects and programs in North America (US and Canada) intended to wipe out an entire population of Indian children by assimilating them (making them white) using closed adoptions. It was officially called the Indian Adoption Projects - but Canada and many states had their own programs like New York State's "Our Indian Program" and the Mormon's own Indian Adoption Program. How do you damage or destroy a culture? You abduct and claim their children as your own.

How this was planned and orchestrated is still kept under legal wraps, but the thousands of Indian children who were transracially adopted are certainly "victims" of planned ethnic cleansing. Not telling adoptive parents they were part of this program is quite a significant lie of omission, too. (Someday my hope is America will see an apology and eventually all parents will be informed. In the older days this country tried eugenics and sterilizing undesirables, and it's usually people who are considered minorities who are targets for this treatment.)

In adoption terminology, we are called transracial adoptees because we were raised outside our culture, in our case First Nations and America Indian territories. We're raised by non-Indian parents, far from the reservation. That would certainly destroy any contact and connections to our first families. With a closed adoption, no one would ever be able to find anyone, right?

It failed. My second book Two Worlds (coming out this month) is an anthology filled with adoptees that are living proof that the adoption/assimilation plan backfired. Adoption didn't kill our spirit or destroy our blood. The adoptees in this book did reunite with their relatives and tribes, despite closed adoptions.

Now with the amount of adoptees who've opened their adoption, including me, I'd imagine there would be more news and media coverage, right? No. Somehow the US adoption industry has its reputation and bankrolls to protect, and their jobs to protect, so they must protect their territory, control the message or lose their business.

I see how it works. A young lady doctor from California said to me a few days ago, "I wish to adopt a child and save them from being an orphan." I have heard and read those exact words before. The adoption industry has controlled that message and this mindset from their very beginning. This very nice doctor is young and open-minded so I asked her to consider that a child has its own name and ancestry - and would she consider becoming a legal guardian instead of an adoptive parent? I told her to get children out of the foster care system and if she could, raise as many children as she could afford. She is undoubtedly going to read up and do research, based on our conversation.

In the old mindset and in many adopters’ minds, there are still orphans! Can they imagine each baby has a mother and both are usually from a Third World Country, including Indian reservations in North American still plagued by poverty; and beyond that each baby has a country and relatives - so hardly anyone in the world is a true orphan!

That very old mindset has not been altered since the early 1900s (or 1958 when I was adopted). That is how you control the message. This doctor is among thousands of people planning to adopt in the near future with no clue how adoptees feel about this - even in 2012.

My point here is we have to do the work to change that mindset and control the message ourselves. We have to take to the streets and call lawyers and get lawmakers to open adoption records in every state. Until then, the adoption industry is winning and will still control the message.
*No one had done a blog for American Indian Adoptees like this prior, by the way. I started research in 2005, wrote my memoir on this history, and then created this blog in 2009 with medical studies, ideas, news and updates.

PART FOUR will continue in a week. Please write a comment or contact me. Thanks - Megwetch everyone!!

Adoption Indian-style: Culture, Tribal Ways Still Matter

Commentary: Culture, tribal ways still matter

The New Mexican
Posted: Saturday, September 01, 2012 - 9/1/12

   

By Harlan McKosato

Personally, I love being Native American. It’s different than being an “ordinary” American. I was adopted recently by the Youngbear family from the Meskwaki tribe in Iowa. The Meskwaki (People of the Red Earth) are the Fox within the Sac and Fox. I am Thakiwa (People of the Yellow Earth), or Sac, so we’re close relatives. It was an honor to be chosen, and with it comes certain responsibilities.
This adoption is not a legal matter. It is a matter of the heart. I was put in place of a much respected man within the tribe, the late Dan Youngbear Jr., the grandson of the legendary Fox Chief Pushetonequa. Adoptions are a long-held tradition of many tribes and traditional tribal families, although many families have let this part of the past slip away.
I spent several days in Meskwaki country, getting to know the history of my relatives as well as their modern existence. I stayed at their luxurious resort hotel and casino, visited their settlement (or reservation), their powwow grounds, their museum and the Iowa River, and I visited with my relatives who came up from Oklahoma to witness the occasion.
Here is an excerpt from the book Mesquakie and Proud of It, by author John M. Zielinski, published in 1976: “The [Meskwaki] are a unique tribe of American Indians. They are of the most ancient Algonquin stock — their language, legends and lore show less influence from the white culture than almost any other Indian group.
“When most Indians were being unceremoniously herded from their ancestral lands, the [Meskwaki] refused to give up their beloved forests of Iowa for the open plains of Kansas. They had been called the ‘scourge of the northwest’ by the French who waged a war of annihilation against them for more than 100 years. Yet they chose a peaceful means to fight for their land in Iowa.
“At a time when most of the major Indian battles were yet to be fought the [Meskwaki] turned to diplomacy in the early 1850s and began lobbying for the right to live in Iowa. By 1856 the state legislature passed a law giving them the right to live in Iowa. In the same year Governor Grimes agreed to hold the deed to their land in trust for them. Indians, no more than animals, had any right to own land. They were not made citizens until 1924. [The] land was bought and paid for with [Meskwaki] money … it is a refuge against time and change.”
The adoption ceremony took place Saturday evening and most of Sunday. One of my aunts described it as “pretty.” The setting was scenic and not too hot for July. The Youngbear family was very giving, and the people from the community were generous with their time and energy. It was a refuge against time and change, at least for a day.
The previous weekend, my son and I traveled back home to Oklahoma for a Native American Church ceremony in a tipi along the Cimarron River with my Ioway family and folks who traveled down from Wisconsin from the Ho Chunk Nation. It was held to offer blessings for my younger cousin, who joined the Navy. This has been a family tradition on my mom’s side for generations, and it’s a common practice of many tribes to bless their warriors before they go off to battle. I felt blessed to be part of the ceremony.
I share this with you because these traditions define who I am as a tribal person, as a Native American. You can kick me off the tribal rolls, you can take away my tribal ID card, the government could strip recognition of my tribes, but no one can tell me I don’t love being Indian.
Harlan McKosato is Sauk/Ioway and Director of NDN Productions.

Lakota Child Rescue Project: SD violates ICWA each year

Archive photo

For 100 years, Native American children have been removed from their families. It began in the 1880s under a US government policy of assimilation: children as young as five were taken from their homes, shipped to boarding schools, and instructed in the ways of white culture. Today, a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its traditions. This time, it's through state-run foster care. Every year in South Dakota the state takes nearly 700 Native American children, when some 95% of them are placed in non-Native foster and state-run care—in direct violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Why? Each year the state receives almost $100 million in federal money for foster care services.

Watch The Lakota Child Rescue Project -  on YouTube (Posted by Lakota Law)

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JDMiWmI_ bwE&feature= channel&list= UL

#####

Janice Howe receiving letters of support:
The response to Janice Howe's story on NPR was overwhelming. This video shows her receiving the first 1200 letters of support from around the country. Danny Sheehan, the chief counsel for Lakota People's Law Project personally delivered the letters.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=gji9F23ssUY

Lakota Child Rescue Project: SD violates ICWA each year

Archive photo

For 100 years, Native American children have been removed from their families. It began in the 1880s under a US government policy of assimilation: children as young as five were taken from their homes, shipped to boarding schools, and instructed in the ways of white culture. Today, a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its traditions. This time, it's through state-run foster care. Every year in South Dakota the state takes nearly 700 Native American children, when some 95% of them are placed in non-Native foster and state-run care—in direct violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

Why? Each year the state receives almost $100 million in federal money for foster care services.



Watch The Lakota Child Rescue Project -  on YouTube (Posted by Lakota Law)

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JDMiWmI_
bwE&feature= channel&list= UL

#####

Janice Howe
receiving letters of support:

The response to Janice Howe's story on NPR was overwhelming. This video shows her receiving the first 1200 letters of support from around the country. Danny Sheehan, the chief counsel for Lakota People's Law Project personally delivered the letters.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=gji9F23ssUY

Lakota Child Rescue Project: SD violates ICWA each year

Archive photo

For 100 years, Native American children have been removed from their families. It began in the 1880s under a US government policy of assimilation: children as young as five were taken from their homes, shipped to boarding schools, and instructed in the ways of white culture. Today, a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its traditions. This time, it's through state-run foster care. Every year in South Dakota the state takes nearly 700 Native American children, when some 95% of them are placed in non-Native foster and state-run care—in direct violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Why? Each year the state receives almost $100 million in federal money for foster care services.

Watch The Lakota Child Rescue Project -  on YouTube (Posted by Lakota Law)

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JDMiWmI_ bwE&feature= channel&list= UL

#####

Janice Howe receiving letters of support:
The response to Janice Howe's story on NPR was overwhelming. This video shows her receiving the first 1200 letters of support from around the country. Danny Sheehan, the chief counsel for Lakota People's Law Project personally delivered the letters.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=gji9F23ssUY

Lakota Child Rescue Project: SD violates ICWA each year

Archive photo

For 100 years, Native American children have been removed from their families. It began in the 1880s under a US government policy of assimilation: children as young as five were taken from their homes, shipped to boarding schools, and instructed in the ways of white culture. Today, a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its traditions. This time, it's through state-run foster care. Every year in South Dakota the state takes nearly 700 Native American children, when some 95% of them are placed in non-Native foster and state-run care—in direct violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Why? Each year the state receives almost $100 million in federal money for foster care services.

Watch The Lakota Child Rescue Project -  on YouTube (Posted by Lakota Law)

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JDMiWmI_ bwE&feature= channel&list= UL

#####

Janice Howe receiving letters of support:
The response to Janice Howe's story on NPR was overwhelming. This video shows her receiving the first 1200 letters of support from around the country. Danny Sheehan, the chief counsel for Lakota People's Law Project personally delivered the letters.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=gji9F23ssUY

Lakota Child Rescue Project: SD violates ICWA each year

Archive photo

For 100 years, Native American children have been removed from their families. It began in the 1880s under a US government policy of assimilation: children as young as five were taken from their homes, shipped to boarding schools, and instructed in the ways of white culture. Today, a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its traditions. This time, it's through state-run foster care. Every year in South Dakota the state takes nearly 700 Native American children, when some 95% of them are placed in non-Native foster and state-run care—in direct violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Why? Each year the state receives almost $100 million in federal money for foster care services.

Watch The Lakota Child Rescue Project -  on YouTube (Posted by Lakota Law)

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JDMiWmI_ bwE&feature= channel&list= UL

#####

Janice Howe receiving letters of support:
The response to Janice Howe's story on NPR was overwhelming. This video shows her receiving the first 1200 letters of support from around the country. Danny Sheehan, the chief counsel for Lakota People's Law Project personally delivered the letters.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=gji9F23ssUY

Lakota Child Rescue Project: SD violates ICWA each year

Archive photo

For 100 years, Native American children have been removed from their families. It began in the 1880s under a US government policy of assimilation: children as young as five were taken from their homes, shipped to boarding schools, and instructed in the ways of white culture. Today, a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its traditions. This time, it's through state-run foster care. Every year in South Dakota the state takes nearly 700 Native American children, when some 95% of them are placed in non-Native foster and state-run care—in direct violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Why? Each year the state receives almost $100 million in federal money for foster care services.

Watch The Lakota Child Rescue Project -  on YouTube (Posted by Lakota Law)

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JDMiWmI_ bwE&feature= channel&list= UL

#####

Janice Howe receiving letters of support:
The response to Janice Howe's story on NPR was overwhelming. This video shows her receiving the first 1200 letters of support from around the country. Danny Sheehan, the chief counsel for Lakota People's Law Project personally delivered the letters.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=gji9F23ssUY

Lakota Child Rescue Project: SD violates ICWA each year

Archive photo

For 100 years, Native American children have been removed from their families. It began in the 1880s under a US government policy of assimilation: children as young as five were taken from their homes, shipped to boarding schools, and instructed in the ways of white culture. Today, a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its traditions. This time, it's through state-run foster care. Every year in South Dakota the state takes nearly 700 Native American children, when some 95% of them are placed in non-Native foster and state-run care—in direct violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Why? Each year the state receives almost $100 million in federal money for foster care services.

Watch The Lakota Child Rescue Project -  on YouTube (Posted by Lakota Law)

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=JDMiWmI_ bwE&feature= channel&list= UL

#####

Janice Howe receiving letters of support:
The response to Janice Howe's story on NPR was overwhelming. This video shows her receiving the first 1200 letters of support from around the country. Danny Sheehan, the chief counsel for Lakota People's Law Project personally delivered the letters.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=gji9F23ssUY

Part 2: Victims of Adoption and Lies: Lost Time

image.cangjinglou.com

Part 2: By Trace A. DeMeyer

I woke up with thoughts: there are two victims of adoption who need help and not necessarily from each other: the adoptee and the first mother. Each has its own burden and neither can heal the other.

LOST TIME

One big "adoption problem" first mothers and adoptees have to face is "lost time." If an adoptee is lucky enough to open their adoption and find their natural family, and the reunion happens, there is so much time, perhaps years, you cannot replace or reinvent because you simply weren't there.  You can't get around it, no how - no way!

Transracial Adoptees (children raised outside their culture and country) instinctively know there are stories, culture, history, language and even people you didn't experience in your adoptive family.  Adoptees will try to balance this out by reading up, if you know your country or tribe and if information is in books or on the internet.  Like my friends, I read everything I could get my hands on before I went into my reunion.

And our birth parents must realize they cannot fill in those years in a matter of minutes.  The burden for both is "how do you catch up or make up for lost time?"

These messy details are never discussed by the adoption industry because obviously in their policies, they do not expect there will be reunions since adoptions are closed and records tightly sealed in all but seven states!

One story that hurt to hear was an adoptee friend who found her siblings were very jealous of her and the time she spent with her birth mother, once she'd opened the adoption records and found them, not an easy thing to do.  Her brother and sisters made their mother-daughter reunion very very difficult.  Jealousy can be a big hazard in reunions.  My friend tried to spend time with everyone in her family to calm their fears (she wasn't going to steal their mother away) but nothing could fill in the large gaps of time she was missing from her family, lost through a closed adoption.

After several years passed, her siblings still seemed overly-protective of their mother, acting like they wished my friend had not found them. My friend felt bullied and stepped back.  This is called Reunion PullBack, when you (the adoptee) have to distance yourself from situations you never expected in reuniting with your first family.  No adoptee can predict the emotions you will encounter in meeting new people, even if they are your blood relatives and siblings.

Adoptees are expected to be wise and know how to navigate through all these tensions and somehow put everyone at ease, which is a very difficult thing to do but I have seen adoptees do it.

In story after story I hear, lost time cannot be replaced. Even if you spend a month alone with your birthmother, you cannot catch up on all you missed, adoptees tell me.  You have to start at the day you meet and go from there, and hope your first family will recognize they need to be gentle with you (the adoptee) and not bombard you with negativity and drama.  (I keep reminding myself adoptees did not choose to be adopted - yet we are thrown into these situations and then expected to be OK.)

The time you spent with your adoptive family cannot be erased either and has its own responsibilities since you (the adoptee) are their child, and they put in the time and money and effort to raise you.  Adoptees do feel guilt when they ask questions or start to look into opening their adoption records. That guilt is what I call "the gratitude attitude." I know one adoptee who said he cannot ask his adoptive mother anything about his adoption because she will think he's ungrateful.

In my own experience with reunion, I feel it is up to the adoptee if they share any news of their first family and finding and meeting them.  Most adoptees tell me they do not discuss any reunion details with their adoptive parents! Why? The possibility exists of being dumped and abandoned by your adoptive parents, even left out of the will and inheritance, which has happened to more than one adoptee I know.  In other words, you are punished (emotionally and financially) for looking and god forbid, you actually go meet them!

That is a strange expectation for adoptees: Protecting your adoptive parents from the truth, protecting your relationship with them, then having to lie to protect their feelings and calm their insecurity they might lose you.

This balancing act is expected of adoptees.  Reunions can bring about a whole new set of expections from your "new" first family and ultimately ruin your relationship with your adoptive family.

My point here is the adoption industry created "unreal expectations" for the adoption triad which can lead to lies, deceit and still perpetuate society's belief in their propaganda that adoption creates a "forever family."

PART THREE will continue in a week... Please share your thoughts in the comments... Trace

Part 2: Victims of Adoption and Lies

image.cangjinglou.com

Part 2: By Trace A. DeMeyer

I woke up with thoughts: there are two victims of adoption who need help and not necessarily from each other: the adoptee and the first mother. Each has its own burden and neither can heal the other.

LOST TIME

One big "adoption problem" first mothers and adoptees have to face is "lost time." If an adoptee is lucky enough to open their adoption and find their natural family, and the reunion happens, there is so much time, perhaps years, you cannot replace or reinvent because you simply weren't there.  You can't get around it, no how - no way!

Transracial Adoptees (children raised outside their culture and country) instinctively know there are stories, culture, history, language and even people you didn't experience in your adoptive family.  Adoptees will try to balance this out by reading up, if you know your country or tribe and if information is in books or on the internet.  Like my friends, I read everything I could get my hands on before I went into my reunion.

And our birth parents must realize they cannot fill in those years in a matter of minutes.  The burden for both is "how do you catch up or make up for lost time?"

These messy details are never discussed by the adoption industry because obviously in their policies, they do not expect there will be reunions since adoptions are closed and records tightly sealed in all but seven states!

One story that hurt to hear was an adoptee friend who found her siblings were very jealous of her and the time she spent with her birth mother, once she'd opened the adoption records and found them, not an easy thing to do.  Her brother and sisters made their mother-daughter reunion very very difficult.  Jealousy can be a big hazard in reunions.  My friend tried to spend time with everyone in her family to calm their fears (she wasn't going to steal their mother away) but nothing could fill in the large gaps of time she was missing from her family, lost through a closed adoption.

After several years passed, her siblings still seemed overly-protective of their mother, acting like they wished my friend had not found them. My friend felt bullied and stepped back.  This is called Reunion PullBack, when you (the adoptee) have to distance yourself from situations you never expected in reuniting with your first family.  No adoptee can predict the emotions you will encounter in meeting new people, even if they are your blood relatives and siblings.

Adoptees are expected to be wise and know how to navigate through all these tensions and somehow put everyone at ease, which is a very difficult thing to do but I have seen adoptees do it.

In story after story I hear, lost time cannot be replaced. Even if you spend a month alone with your birthmother, you cannot catch up on all you missed, adoptees tell me.  You have to start at the day you meet and go from there, and hope your first family will recognize they need to be gentle with you (the adoptee) and not bombard you with negativity and drama.  (I keep reminding myself adoptees did not choose to be adopted - yet we are thrown into these situations and then expected to be OK.)

The time you spent with your adoptive family cannot be erased either and has its own responsibilities since you (the adoptee) are their child, and they put in the time and money and effort to raise you.  Adoptees do feel guilt when they ask questions or start to look into opening their adoption records. That guilt is what I call "the gratitude attitude." I know one adoptee who said he cannot ask his adoptive mother anything about his adoption because she will think he's ungrateful.

In my own experience with reunion, I feel it is up to the adoptee if they share any news of their first family and finding and meeting them.  Most adoptees tell me they do not discuss any reunion details with their adoptive parents! Why? The possibility exists of being dumped and abandoned by your adoptive parents, even left out of the will and inheritance, which has happened to more than one adoptee I know.  In other words, you are punished (emotionally and financially) for looking and god forbid, you actually go meet them!

That is a strange expectation for adoptees: Protecting your adoptive parents from the truth, protecting your relationship with them, then having to lie to protect their feelings and calm their insecurity they might lose you.

This balancing act is expected of adoptees.  Reunions can bring about a whole new set of expections from your "new" first family and ultimately ruin your relationship with your adoptive family.

My point here is the adoption industry created "unreal expectations" for the adoption triad which can lead to lies, deceit and still perpetuate society's belief in their propaganda that adoption creates a "forever family."

PART THREE will continue in a week... Please share your thoughts in the comments... Trace

UPDATED Another violation of ICWA in Arizona

NEWS:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/arizona-appeals-court-upholds-placement-of-navajo-boy-with-non-american-indian-family/2012/08/29/213b8d48-f21b-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_story.html   Arizona Court of Appeals Affirms Deviation from ICWA/BIA Placement Preferences by Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the opinion in Navajo Nation v. Arizona Dept. of Economic Security:

Navajo v ADEC

An excerpt:

The Navajo Nation (“the Nation”) appeals the juvenile court’s judgment finding good cause to deviate from the placement preferences set forth in the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (“ICWA”), 25 U.S.C. §§ 1901 to 1963 (2006), and allowing the child (“Z.”) to remain with his current non-relative, non-Indian adoptive placement. We affirm. The juvenile court properly found good cause to deviate from ICWA placement preferences because the placement family provided good care for Z., Z. had attached and bonded with the family, Z. would suffer severe distress if he was removed from that placement, the placement family would expose Z. to his Navajo culture, and the placement family had been approved to adopt Z. While the interest of the Nation and the Congressionally-presumed interest of Z. in maintaining his heritage weighed against a finding of good cause to deviate from ICWA’s preferences, on this record we cannot say the court erred in weighing all these interests.

I am not alone anymore

I am reblogging this post from Land of Gazillion Adoptees...Karl and I just became friends on Facebook! ...Trace

http://landofgazillionadoptees.com/2012/08/29/i-am-not-alone-anymore-a-short-story-by-karl-minzenmayer/

August 29, 2012

“I am Not Alone Anymore” a Short Story by Karl Minzenmayer

by Amandablog

 

I can usually form intelligible sentences. Evidence suggests otherwise as I keep muttering “Damn, Damn” repeatedly. My eyes can’t refrain from staring at John. His piercing blue eyes are mine, his face while stockier is mine too. That jet black hair of his I see every morning in the bathroom mirror. Damn…..

Prior to this moment I was alone in this world. Connected to my Adoptive Parents, wife and son by love and choice. But this is NOT choice. This is the moment that connected me to a full brother I had never met, known of, or dreamed about. In front of me is undeniable physical evidence of a human being I am connected with by BLOOD. I am drowning in the power of my own emotions. Damn…..
I will never be the same.
I was 27 years old that day and John was 23.
I have alway know that my sister and I were not related and both adopted. We were given details regarding my Chippewah heritage, my birthmother being only 15 and unable to care for me. To me this meant I was not wanted before and my Adoptive Parents did want me. No one wondered aloud (near me anyway) why my white parents had these two olive skinned Indian looking kids. Maybe they all knew we were adopted, but I knew I was different.
I felt alone.
As I sit in the Seattle airport across from my brother (who by now is concerned for my vocabulary skills), I am not alone anymore.
————-
Author Karl Minzenmayer was adopted in Washington State by a military family, and has lived in Alaska, Texas, Taiwan, and Colorado. As an adult, Karl found his birth parents and discovered an entire biological family. Being part Ojibwe, he has reconnected with his Native roots. Karl calls Colorado Springs home where he has been a self-employed optician for 29 years. He is a single father of four amazing kids and one great dog. As an Eagle Scout and brother of a special needs sister, Karl is passionate about community service. He is active in non-profit eyewear for kids through the Lions Club and Native Vision, and a volunteer at the Colorado Springs Indian Center. He has been a Camp Counselor and a Special Olympics volunteer. Karl is also an active supporter and member of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA).

NICWA's September training institutes

Archive photo

This is the last chance to register for National Indian Child Welfare Association's (NICWA) September training institutes.
There is just a little over a week left to prepare for the September training institutes in Portland, Oregon.  Register now for either "Promoting Youth and Family Involvement" or "Promoting Best Practices in Engagement and Recruitment of Tribal Foster Homes." 

NICWA is looking for dynamic and powerful American Indian and Alaska Native artwork.
The deadline in our annual Call for Artists is September 28, 2012, which means that there is just a month for Native artists to put their inspiration to work and send in a piece that they feel will best represent the spirit of "Protecting Our Children".
Information is available online http://www.nicwa.org/ for NICWA's annual competition for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) artists. The winner gets $1,500 and the exposure of having their work incorporated into conference materials reaching thousands!

NICWA's Call for Presentations information is now available online at http://www.nicwa.org/.
The 31st Annual Protecting Our Children National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect is being held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, April 7-10, 2013. NICWA's annual call for workshop presentations is officially underway, and we are looking for people hoping to share their research, stories, successes, and lessons learned in their work as champions and advocates for American Indian and Alaska Native children and families.

Want to Know More?  To learn more about this training institute, please visit the September training institute page of the NICWA website. If you have any questions about course content or travel logistics, check out our Frequently Asked Questions page, or you may contact Event Manager Laurie Evans at laurie@nicwa. org or by calling (503) 222-4044, ext. 124.

Information on the 2013 Protecting Our Children conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is available on the conference page of the NICWA website.

The deadline for workshop content is October 19, 2012.  Save the Date!

Other Upcoming NICWA Events

December 4-6, 2012
ICW Training Institutes
Portland, Oregon
Information on the next round of ICW training institutes available at www.nicwa.org/ training/ institutes.

April 7-10, 2013
31st Annual Protecting Our Children National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Information on this conference is available online at www.nicwa.org/ conference.

April 13-16, 2014
31st Annual Protecting Our Children National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Information on this conference is available online at www.nicwa.org/ calendar.

Questions?

For answers to questions regarding the upcoming training institutes, the Call for Artists competition, and NICWA's annual "Protecting Our Children" conference, please contact NICWA Event Manager Laurie Evans at laurie@nicwa. org or by calling (503) 222-4044, extension 124. http://www.nicwa.org/

NICWA is a national nonprofit and the most comprehensive source of information on American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) child welfare and works on behalf of AI/AN children and families.

Part One: Victims of Adoption and Lies

Trace was born in 1956 and legally adopted in 1958.

By Trace A. DeMeyer

I woke up with thoughts: there are two victims of adoption who need help and not necessarily from each other: the adoptee and the first mother. Each has its own burden and neither can heal the other.

Speaking with adoptee friends on Facebook, many added their own ideas when I posted my thoughts.

One friend injected: what about the mother who made the choice (freely) to give her up as a baby.
Well, that is true - she was free to decide - but also consider she had the adoption industry, churches, family and society telling her (insisting) that was her only option: Give up her baby to new parents.
Had this mother known her child would suffer emotionally from being adopted, would she have made the same choice?
(No one imagined a child was injured or hurt being adopted - not until recently.)
We know this mother had to live with her choice and live with the loss of her child. That was obviously a burden.
Finding and meeting her child again in reunion - after many years - will not and cannot reverse or ease or erase that pain and loss.  Each mother who relinquished a baby will have to deal with this on her own terms, and hopefully receive counselling, and find support from other mothers who also lost their child to adoption.
Some mothers are adopting their child back, what I call "adoption in reverse."

One adoptee friend found out the social workers told her natural mother that she was being placed with a doctor's family - so I guess that would have put her mother's mind at ease - thinking of the prosperity and safety her baby girl would have had growing up. But the truth was my friend was not placed with a doctor's family.
If her mother had found out this was a lie, how would she have reacted? Wouldn't she worry about her baby and carry that burden for years?
In my friend's case, her birthmother never told the man (the birthfather) she was expecting his child. It's possible my friend's dad would not have allowed this adoption to take place. He loved kids and would have raised his daughter on his reservation in Michigan. Why? The Ojibwe used kinship adoption (babies are adopted by relatives). 

[Since the 1900s, governments swept up children with their Indian Adoption Projects (which were closed adoptions with non-Indian parents). Adoption meant assimilation. It was meant to make the child "white."]

Even though her mother did tell the social workers her baby was also Indian, did it matter? Back then, no. This was in the 1960s. The social workers would prefer not to mention a child had some Indian blood.  Even social workers displayed overt racism and wrote lies in the paperwork. They practiced "matching" which meant a "mixed race child" who looked white would not have to be told their ancestry was American Indian. 

My friend's adoption (like my own) was before the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.
If it happened after 1978, and social workers knew my friend was also Indian, the tribe and her father would have been notified. The tribes would've handled the baby and her placement. That's federal law in every state now (and sadly it is not always upheld, even now in 2012.) Last year, it was reported 32 states are in violation of the ICWA.

Each story like this gets complicated with lies and omissions of what is truth. My friend's mother was a victim of lies and so was her Ojibwe father - who was never told.

My point here is the adoption industry created "lies" for everyone to believe. 

PART TWO will continue in a week... Please share your thoughts in the comments... Trace