ICWA Case Pits Adoptive Parents Against Tribal Rights

By ADAM LIPTAK, New York Times

WASHINGTON — “What has been the toughest decision for you?” Charlie Rose asked Justice Antonin Scalia in a television interview a few weeks ago. He meant the most personally wrenching.

Justice Scalia has served on the Supreme Court for more than a quarter of a century, and he has seen his share of difficult cases. But one stuck out.

“It was pretty early on in my time on this court,” he said. “We had a case in which a very wealthy rancher and his wife had adopted a child of a young man and woman on an Indian reservation who had had the child out of wedlock. And they gave the child to the rancher to raise.”

A state court in Mississippi had approved the arrangement. But a federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, required tribal rather than state courts to decide.

“The kid was, I think, 5 years old or so” by the time the case reached the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia recalled. “And we had to turn that child over to the tribal council. I found that very hard. But that’s what the law said, without a doubt.”

Justice Scalia’s recollection of the case, from 1989, was understandably a little hazy. It involved 3-year-old twins, and their adoptive father had died by the time the case was decided.

But he had the main point right. In various ways, the 1978 law he cited makes it hard to remove American Indian children from their parents, their tribes and their heritage.

Read the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/us/american-indian-adoption-case-comes-to-supreme-court.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

Will the Supreme Court take this case? I wager they won't. ICWA is law. Trace

ICWA Case Pits Adoptive Parents Against Tribal Rights

By ADAM LIPTAK, New York Times

WASHINGTON — “What has been the toughest decision for you?” Charlie Rose asked Justice Antonin Scalia in a television interview a few weeks ago. He meant the most personally wrenching.

Justice Scalia has served on the Supreme Court for more than a quarter of a century, and he has seen his share of difficult cases. But one stuck out.

“It was pretty early on in my time on this court,” he said. “We had a case in which a very wealthy rancher and his wife had adopted a child of a young man and woman on an Indian reservation who had had the child out of wedlock. And they gave the child to the rancher to raise.”

A state court in Mississippi had approved the arrangement. But a federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, required tribal rather than state courts to decide.

“The kid was, I think, 5 years old or so” by the time the case reached the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia recalled. “And we had to turn that child over to the tribal council. I found that very hard. But that’s what the law said, without a doubt.”

Justice Scalia’s recollection of the case, from 1989, was understandably a little hazy. It involved 3-year-old twins, and their adoptive father had died by the time the case was decided.

But he had the main point right. In various ways, the 1978 law he cited makes it hard to remove American Indian children from their parents, their tribes and their heritage.

Read the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/us/american-indian-adoption-case-comes-to-supreme-court.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

Will the Supreme Court take this case? I wager they won't. ICWA is law. Trace

ICWA Case Pits Adoptive Parents Against Tribal Rights

By ADAM LIPTAK, New York Times

WASHINGTON — “What has been the toughest decision for you?” Charlie Rose asked Justice Antonin Scalia in a television interview a few weeks ago. He meant the most personally wrenching.

Justice Scalia has served on the Supreme Court for more than a quarter of a century, and he has seen his share of difficult cases. But one stuck out.

“It was pretty early on in my time on this court,” he said. “We had a case in which a very wealthy rancher and his wife had adopted a child of a young man and woman on an Indian reservation who had had the child out of wedlock. And they gave the child to the rancher to raise.”

A state court in Mississippi had approved the arrangement. But a federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, required tribal rather than state courts to decide.

“The kid was, I think, 5 years old or so” by the time the case reached the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia recalled. “And we had to turn that child over to the tribal council. I found that very hard. But that’s what the law said, without a doubt.”

Justice Scalia’s recollection of the case, from 1989, was understandably a little hazy. It involved 3-year-old twins, and their adoptive father had died by the time the case was decided.

But he had the main point right. In various ways, the 1978 law he cited makes it hard to remove American Indian children from their parents, their tribes and their heritage.

Read the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/us/american-indian-adoption-case-comes-to-supreme-court.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

Will the Supreme Court take this case? I wager they won't. ICWA is law. Trace

The Stealing of Our American Indian Children

Doll by Ellowyn Locke (Oglala Lakota)

By: Donna Ennis (December 22, 2012) Posted with permission

I have been thinking a lot lately about Baby Veronica and how it came to be that this Native child was placed with white adoptive parents. I have been thinking that the dominant culture values of possession and ownership are so strong that it leads to a sense of entitlement even when it comes to a child’s life. In this way of thinking you simply need to want something so badly that you can employ any means available to obtain/possess it.

This is how it was with our lands at the first point of European contact. When the early invaders wanted our land they had just taken it and if there was resistance there were Wars waged and the land was taken from us. Eventually these ways became more streamlined and instead of taking the land through violence they used methods of trickery and deceit. In this way they took advantage of our traditional values of cooperation and sharing. Before long we naively signed treaties in the hopes of retaining our way of life and the ability to live a long life as good neighbors.

It was just a matter of time before they came after our children in this same way. Beginning in the 1870’s they simply began taking our children from us. The methods of taking our children were ones of trickery and deceit. They brought our children to boarding schools to be raised in harsh environments devoid of any nurturing or semblance of our Anishinabe values. These attempts to “civilize the savages” through acculturation have had intergenerational effects on the structure of the Native family. By the time the era of boarding schools came to an end our way of life was almost extinct.

Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 in response to the alarmingly high number of Indian children being removed from their homes. The intent was to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian Tribes and families. Despite state and federal laws designed to decrease the disproportional representation of children by race and ethnicity in the public child welfare system, 30 years later in 2008 Native children continue to experience the greatest disproportionality and the rates of over-representation are expanding.

Collaboration at the state, county, tribal and community level that build upon the strengths of Native families and Native communities will need to be pursued. In other words, we need a foundational change.

If Native people violated federal and state laws in order to adopt or foster a white child the outcry would be deafening. Here again is the double standard that we see across systems. In the book Brother of the Senecas by Walter E. Butts, Jr., a conversation gives us insight into how Native people might deal with this situation. One night in the year 1782 baby Polly was snatched by the Mohawks and her mother spends the next several years trying to locate her daughter…..Tall Chief argued: “This Polly, if she is alive, has grown up among her red brothers and loves them as her own people, for she knows no others. Would it not cause more sorrow than happiness to uproot her now and return her to a mother she has never known?” “An Indian mother’s love is just as great as a white mother’s,” said Slender Fern with a flash of spirit. “To take Polly from the Indian mother, who has raised her as a daughter, would cause her just as much sorrow as the white mother has known. Her sorrow would be a fresh wound. The white mother’s sorrow must have known the healing balm of time. Why cause two mother’s to suffer where it was only one before?” Nate Answered “But Jennifer Harlowe’s sorrow is not healed,” he answered Slender Fern. “It will never be healed until Polly is found.”

American Indian Child Welfare Advisory Councils (AICWAC) are tasked with “strengthening policies and laws that protect Indian children through the sovereignty of tribes with in the State” among other things. Recently there have been renewed efforts to undermine the work that is being done to protect Native children by groups calling themselves names like Coalition for the Protection of Indian Children, and Families and Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare. These groups allege that the ICWA law is destroying loving, stable families and placing children in harmful difficult situations. The groups that are encouraging white families to adopt Native children and proposing amendments that will make it easier for these families to adopt cross-culturally are the ones that are destroying Native families. We are undermined when programs like Dr. Phil portray Native people in a slanted way even when they are provided with the correct information. The message today is the same message we gave 150 years ago: The best setting for a Native child is within one’s own culture and relations.

Donna Ennis is currently the chair of the Minnesota Indian Child Welfare Advisory Council, as well as the eastern regional director and cultural director for North Homes Children and Family Services, a professional foster care agency.

Children's identities were erased

By Alana Rosenbaum

Adoption activists say only a small proportion of adoptees who search for their birth mothers are unable to locate them.

Australia-- THE birth dates of babies who were adopted were often changed to prevent them from ever reuniting with their birth mothers, according to adoption activist and researcher Christine Cole.
Ms Cole said it was common practice to try to erase a child's identity so that the relinquishing mother could not trace or reclaim her infant. ''Anyone involved - adoption agents, parents - were always terrified that the mother and her extended family were going to reclaim the child.''
From the 1950s to the '70s, an estimated 150,000 Australian babies were taken, mostly from unwed mothers, and put up for adoption.
The Gillard government announced this week that it would formally apologise for past adoption practices, following the lead of the Baillieu government, which said sorry in October.

Ultimately, the practice of changing birth dates did not prevent adoptees from reuniting with their birth mothers. New adoption legislation introduced state by state in the '80s opened the way for adoptees to get access to their birth records and their birth mothers' personal details.

Jane Potter, who was adopted in 1963, tracked down her birth mother ''Christine'' when the law changed and learnt she had spent a lifetime celebrating her birthday on the wrong day.
Christine told her that when it came time to sign the adoption papers, she noted that September 23 had been crossed out and September 24 written beside it.
A historian at the Australian Catholic University, Shurlee Swain, said it was considered best practice to attempt to hide the past of an adopted child, who may well have been conceived out of wedlock.
''In adoption, people thought they were erasing the shame so that a child would not know where they came from, and that was a jolly good thing. If you go back to the '20s and '30s, you see people writing in to problem pages saying, 'I am engaged to be married and just found out I was adopted. Should I break off the engagement?' Illegitimacy was a terrible stain.''
Adoption activists say only a small proportion of adoptees who search for their birth mothers are unable to locate them. In some cases the records have been lost or destroyed, or the birth mother simply did not want to be found.
For Peter Dale Raymond, there seemed to be no record of his birth or his adoption into the home in which he grew up. He could not tell you where or when he was born or to whom; his first months of life are shrouded in a mystery that 40 years of investigation have failed to unlock.
Mr Raymond said there was no epiphany: the realisation that he was not who he thought he was dawned on him gradually and reluctantly. But time has not tempered his curiosity. ''I wonder if my father was a famous person or a criminal. I wonder if I am the product of an assault. Am I a hand-me-down or a pass-me-round?''

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/childrens-identities-were-erased-20121219-2bn90.html#ixzz2Fbi7Cwmu

5 picked for group to examine child welfare practices that split Native American families in Maine

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By Nick McCrea, BDN Staff  - Bangor, Maine

           

Kevin Bennett | BDN

Gkisedtanamoogk, a Wampanoag from the Mashpee community on Cape Cod, Mass., was named as a member of the Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Tuesday at a press conference on Indian Island. Buy Photo

Kevin Bennett | BDN

Gail Werrbach of Bangor was named as a member of the Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Tuesday at a press conference on Indian Island. Buy Photo

 

INDIAN ISLAND, Maine — An unsettling piece of Maine’s history will be examined closely during the next three years by five people selected to investigate church and government assimilation practices that tore American Indian children away from their families and culture.

Members of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission were announced Tuesday during a news conference on Indian Island, and their work will begin early next year. The members are:
• Matt Dunlap of Old Town, who on Dec. 4 was tapped to serve as Maine’s secretary of state, a post he also held from 2004 to 2010. He was named Maine Public Administrator of the Year in 2008 and served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives.
• Gkisedtanamoogk, a Wampanoag from the community Mashpee on Cape Cod, Mass. He is a family member of Nkeketonseonqikom, the Longhouse of the Otter, and is married with three children. Now of Orono, gkisedtanamoogk has been an adjunct instructor with the Native American studies and the peace and reconciliation programs at the University of Maine since 2005.
• Gail Werrbach, a 25-year faculty member at the University of Maine School of Social Work. She now is director of that school. She has researched and published articles on child mental health, community mental health training, Indian child welfare services and international social work.
• Sandra White Hawk, a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. She founded the First Nations Repatriation Institute, an organization with the goal of creating resources for First Nations people affected by foster care who want to return home, reconnect and reclaim their identity.
• Carol Wishcamper has an organizational development consulting practice that works primarily with nonprofit organizations in the state. She has served as chairwoman of the state Board of Education and as a member of several gubernatorial and legislative study commissions.
The goal, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission mandate, which Gov. Paul LePage signed in June 2012 alongside Maine tribal leaders, is to “acknowledge the truth, create opportunities to heal and learn from that truth, and collaborate to operate the best child welfare system possible for Wabanaki children.”
Beginning in the late 1800s, the United States government established boarding schools for Native American children who were removed from their families in an attempt to assimilate them into American culture.
In the late 1950s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League of America created the Indian Adoption Project, which removed Native American children from their families and tribes to be adopted by non-native families.
In 1999 the Wabanaki tribal nations joined with state child welfare officials to form the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with the goal of improving Maine’s compliance with 1978’s federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which set higher standards of protection for the rights of native children, their families and their tribal communities.
The five commissioners, who were selected by a 13-member committee, will travel to visit members of Maine tribes affected by these child welfare policies. They will gather documents, recordings and transcripts for preservation and make recommendations for improvements to the child welfare system. The commission will file a report on its final findings.
This is the first truth and reconciliation effort in the United States, according to the commission. Canada has its own under way.
Werrbach said the commission faces difficult, emotional work. It will be asking people to “open their hearts, open their souls, and tell their stories” about welfare policies that separated their families and subjugated their culture, Werrbach said, adding that she felt honored to “bear witness to that.”
Gkisedtanamoogk said he hopes the commission’s work will help to renew and strengthen the relationship between the state of Maine and the sovereign tribes that live within its borders.
“This work represents the possibilities of putting the relationship with the state and Wabanaki Nations on a footing that should have been the relationship all along — as partners,” gkisedtanamoogk said.

Related stories

• A step toward better care for Wabanaki children, community healing

Survey For Adoptees

Survey For Adoptees and Foster Care Alumni

by kostvollmersblog • Tags: adoptees, adoption, foster care

From our friend Sandy White Hawk:

EXPERIENCES OF ADOPTED AND FOSTERED INDIVIDUALSAre you an adoptee?
Have you ever been in foster care?
We need your help!

Courts, service providers, and the public do not know enough about how adoption and foster care affected the individuals who experienced them. It is time for this to change!
First Nations Repatriation Institute (www.wearecominghome.com) and Adoptees Have Answers have partnered with the University of Minnesota, to develop an anonymous survey (https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953) to gather the stories of U.S. born adults who were adopted OR who spent at least 6 months (total) in foster care. If this is you, we hope you will share your stories so that others — professionals, family members and the general public — may better understand how adoption and foster care shape the lives of those most directly involved.
The survey asks some personal questions, but it is completely anonymous and does not collect any identifying information (such as your name, address, or email address). It will take as few as 45 minutes of your time, but your participation will benefit adoptees/fostered individuals, their families and community for years to come!

The anonymous web survey can be found at this link: https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953.

If you would like a paper copy of the survey, please call or email a person listed below. We need many voices, so please pass it on!
If you have any questions about the study, please contact us:
Sandra White Hawk
Director, First Nations Repatriation Institute
651-442-4872
sadoptee@yahoo.com
Kate Ingalls-Maloney
Manager and Co-Founder, Adoptees Have Answers
952-374-7187
katchmedia@earthlink.net
Carolyn Liebler, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota
612-626-7252
liebler@umn.edu
If you would like to talk to someone other than us, please contact the Research Subjects’ Advocate Line for the University of Minnesota, D-528 Mayo, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455; telephone (612) 625-1650 or email irb@umn.edu.

Survey For Adoptees

Survey For Adoptees and Foster Care Alumni

by kostvollmersblog • Tags: adoptees, adoption, foster care

From our friend Sandy White Hawk:

EXPERIENCES OF ADOPTED AND FOSTERED INDIVIDUALSAre you an adoptee?
Have you ever been in foster care?
We need your help!

Courts, service providers, and the public do not know enough about how adoption and foster care affected the individuals who experienced them. It is time for this to change!
First Nations Repatriation Institute (www.wearecominghome.com) and Adoptees Have Answers have partnered with the University of Minnesota, to develop an anonymous survey (https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953) to gather the stories of U.S. born adults who were adopted OR who spent at least 6 months (total) in foster care. If this is you, we hope you will share your stories so that others — professionals, family members and the general public — may better understand how adoption and foster care shape the lives of those most directly involved.
The survey asks some personal questions, but it is completely anonymous and does not collect any identifying information (such as your name, address, or email address). It will take as few as 45 minutes of your time, but your participation will benefit adoptees/fostered individuals, their families and community for years to come!

The anonymous web survey can be found at this link: https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953.

If you would like a paper copy of the survey, please call or email a person listed below. We need many voices, so please pass it on!
If you have any questions about the study, please contact us:
Sandra White Hawk
Director, First Nations Repatriation Institute
651-442-4872
sadoptee@yahoo.com
Kate Ingalls-Maloney
Manager and Co-Founder, Adoptees Have Answers
952-374-7187
katchmedia@earthlink.net
Carolyn Liebler, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota
612-626-7252
liebler@umn.edu
If you would like to talk to someone other than us, please contact the Research Subjects’ Advocate Line for the University of Minnesota, D-528 Mayo, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455; telephone (612) 625-1650 or email irb@umn.edu.

Survey For Adoptees

Survey For Adoptees and Foster Care Alumni

by kostvollmersblog • Tags: adoptees, adoption, foster care

From our friend Sandy White Hawk:

EXPERIENCES OF ADOPTED AND FOSTERED INDIVIDUALSAre you an adoptee?
Have you ever been in foster care?
We need your help!

Courts, service providers, and the public do not know enough about how adoption and foster care affected the individuals who experienced them. It is time for this to change!
First Nations Repatriation Institute (www.wearecominghome.com) and Adoptees Have Answers have partnered with the University of Minnesota, to develop an anonymous survey (https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953) to gather the stories of U.S. born adults who were adopted OR who spent at least 6 months (total) in foster care. If this is you, we hope you will share your stories so that others — professionals, family members and the general public — may better understand how adoption and foster care shape the lives of those most directly involved.
The survey asks some personal questions, but it is completely anonymous and does not collect any identifying information (such as your name, address, or email address). It will take as few as 45 minutes of your time, but your participation will benefit adoptees/fostered individuals, their families and community for years to come!

The anonymous web survey can be found at this link: https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953.

If you would like a paper copy of the survey, please call or email a person listed below. We need many voices, so please pass it on!
If you have any questions about the study, please contact us:
Sandra White Hawk
Director, First Nations Repatriation Institute
651-442-4872
sadoptee@yahoo.com
Kate Ingalls-Maloney
Manager and Co-Founder, Adoptees Have Answers
952-374-7187
katchmedia@earthlink.net
Carolyn Liebler, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota
612-626-7252
liebler@umn.edu
If you would like to talk to someone other than us, please contact the Research Subjects’ Advocate Line for the University of Minnesota, D-528 Mayo, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455; telephone (612) 625-1650 or email irb@umn.edu.

Survey For Adoptees

Survey For Adoptees and Foster Care Alumni

by kostvollmersblog • Tags: adoptees, adoption, foster care

From our friend Sandy White Hawk:

EXPERIENCES OF ADOPTED AND FOSTERED INDIVIDUALSAre you an adoptee?
Have you ever been in foster care?
We need your help!

Courts, service providers, and the public do not know enough about how adoption and foster care affected the individuals who experienced them. It is time for this to change!
First Nations Repatriation Institute (www.wearecominghome.com) and Adoptees Have Answers have partnered with the University of Minnesota, to develop an anonymous survey (https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953) to gather the stories of U.S. born adults who were adopted OR who spent at least 6 months (total) in foster care. If this is you, we hope you will share your stories so that others — professionals, family members and the general public — may better understand how adoption and foster care shape the lives of those most directly involved.
The survey asks some personal questions, but it is completely anonymous and does not collect any identifying information (such as your name, address, or email address). It will take as few as 45 minutes of your time, but your participation will benefit adoptees/fostered individuals, their families and community for years to come!

The anonymous web survey can be found at this link: https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953.

If you would like a paper copy of the survey, please call or email a person listed below. We need many voices, so please pass it on!
If you have any questions about the study, please contact us:
Sandra White Hawk
Director, First Nations Repatriation Institute
651-442-4872
sadoptee@yahoo.com
Kate Ingalls-Maloney
Manager and Co-Founder, Adoptees Have Answers
952-374-7187
katchmedia@earthlink.net
Carolyn Liebler, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota
612-626-7252
liebler@umn.edu
If you would like to talk to someone other than us, please contact the Research Subjects’ Advocate Line for the University of Minnesota, D-528 Mayo, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455; telephone (612) 625-1650 or email irb@umn.edu.

Survey For Adoptees

Survey For Adoptees and Foster Care Alumni

by kostvollmersblog • Tags: adoptees, adoption, foster care

From our friend Sandy White Hawk:

EXPERIENCES OF ADOPTED AND FOSTERED INDIVIDUALSAre you an adoptee?
Have you ever been in foster care?
We need your help!

Courts, service providers, and the public do not know enough about how adoption and foster care affected the individuals who experienced them. It is time for this to change!
First Nations Repatriation Institute (www.wearecominghome.com) and Adoptees Have Answers have partnered with the University of Minnesota, to develop an anonymous survey (https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953) to gather the stories of U.S. born adults who were adopted OR who spent at least 6 months (total) in foster care. If this is you, we hope you will share your stories so that others — professionals, family members and the general public — may better understand how adoption and foster care shape the lives of those most directly involved.
The survey asks some personal questions, but it is completely anonymous and does not collect any identifying information (such as your name, address, or email address). It will take as few as 45 minutes of your time, but your participation will benefit adoptees/fostered individuals, their families and community for years to come!

The anonymous web survey can be found at this link: https://survey.cla.umn.edu/229953.

If you would like a paper copy of the survey, please call or email a person listed below. We need many voices, so please pass it on!
If you have any questions about the study, please contact us:
Sandra White Hawk
Director, First Nations Repatriation Institute
651-442-4872
sadoptee@yahoo.com
Kate Ingalls-Maloney
Manager and Co-Founder, Adoptees Have Answers
952-374-7187
katchmedia@earthlink.net
Carolyn Liebler, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota
612-626-7252
liebler@umn.edu
If you would like to talk to someone other than us, please contact the Research Subjects’ Advocate Line for the University of Minnesota, D-528 Mayo, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455; telephone (612) 625-1650 or email irb@umn.edu.

Closed Adoption: TRIBE UNKNOWN

 By Trace A. DeMeyer

This week I was contacted by a young woman whose mother Amy is an adoptee, born in 1965. They believe Amy is full-blood Hopi and we hope to prove it. Another adoptee Michael and I are trying to figure out what language he spoke as a child to give us some clue as to which tribe is his family. We believe he’s Apache. Another adoptee Tom contacted me in 2011 and asked me to help he and his sister find their tribal relatives in Washington state since they were brought to Connecticut and placed in a closed adoption as young children. Tom and his sister believe they might be Colville. I haven't been able to connect them to relatives even though I wrote a few tribal newspaper editors in Washington and asked for their help.

I’m not giving up on any adoptee.

All of these adoptees come from the time period of the Indian Adoption Programs and Projects - when the US government and the Child Welfare League of America were funding ARENA (Adoption Resource Exchange of North America) and paying churches and agencies to remove Indian children; they purposefully placed babies and children with non-Indian parents in closed adoptions. (Read chapter 39, Indian Placement Program in my anthology TWO WORLDS.)

Since the late 1800s, adoptions happened before, during and after residential boarding schools (in the US and Canada). It's no surprise that the numbers of adopted Indian children are calculated in percentages, not actual statistics, and left purposefully vague. (Ontario has a class action for adoptees in the works now. We know First Nations children were also brought from Canada to the US as part of ARENA.) These two governments decided assimilation was a very good idea and adoptions far from the reservation would erase the Indian blood and a child's memories of home.

Every email I receive and every phone call I make, I want to give adoptees something concrete, something helpful, something that will work. In truth, I can't because it doesn't exist, not with sealed adoption records, no paperwork or proof, and current laws that prevent adoptees from knowing their tribal identities.

There are things I want to happen and my list grows after each email and phone call...

First, I want adoptees and birthfamilies to write their legislators and tell them, "This is wrong," and we finally get someone in the government to hear us and offer their help.

I want an American government agency to help repatriate adoptees to their tribes. (Canada has three repatriation programs for adoptees.)

I want more people to see this history for what it was: a form of mind control using assimilation to kill culture in children, what could be called genocide of the mind. Our loss was the government's gain.

When I get requests from adoptees, I email ideas. If a state (like Kansas or Oregon for example) has open records, I can guide them to the state agency or registry and then tell them about search angels who will help for free or small fees. I can explain how to order their adoption files and get a court order, etc. I can give examples of how adoptees (like me) got around the laws and what worked for us.

For Amy, Arizona sealed her adoption file. For Michael, New York and New Mexico sealed his adoption file. I want to be able to tell Michael he is Apache, what band of Apache and connect him to his relatives. For Tom and his sister, I want to locate their parents so we can find out why they were taken as children but Washington has sealed their adoption. For all of them, truth is a mystery.

I want to be able to tell them, "This is what we'll do and it will work and in about a week you will get a phone call from the tribe and they will help you." But that would be a lie. Now I can only offer them hope and my two books on this history and this issue.

Finally, I want tribes to do something! Tribes could hire lawyers and legally demand the states and agencies who took children to release their names and adoption files. Tribes could create a list of birthdates of children who disappeared so adoptees could match their birthdate on a database.

Tribes could also create some form of welcome ceremony or reunion powwow or something to help the adoptee meet relatives and hear their family stories.

Right now, adoptees have mountains to climb and laws to conquer and no one to turn to... and knowing which tribe can be a huge obstacle when there are 560+ federally recognized tribes. For them it’s still TRIBE UNKNOWN.

What adoption did was conquer and uproot children and hurt generations in tribal nations.  Being adopted ultimately disrupted our rights as sovereign citizens in North America.

Soaring Angels update!

http://angelinstitute.co.za/

I have been telling new adoptees to join the Soaring Angels group on Yahoo. It's a good idea for adoptees to get an angel to help with their search. This message is for any adoptee or birthparent or sibling who is searching. Please join them as soon as you can!
Trace


Message From Babbs:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoaringAngels/
Usually the holiday season is very busy here on Soaring Angels. The magic of the season is upon us. I urge each and everyone of you who are searching for your roots and your answers to post your info on our boards and let the angels help bring you full circle in your search.
We now have over 800 members in which adoption has touched your life in some way. If you are on this group and you are searching for your birth family, mother, father, son, daughter, etc....I urge you to post your information for all the angels to see. Hopefully we will be able to reunite you with your family before this holiday passes.
Post all the info that you have... Don't be shy, if you don't post, our angels can't help.
Go to our website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoaringAngels/ - join up first.
Then, in the left column, choose post, add a subject line (see below), input all your information and click send...
Example:
F iso BF, BM BD 12/17/1957 Columbus Ohio
This translates to FEMALE in search of (iso) Birth family, Birth Mom, Birth DAD, your date of birth, and place of birth. (use this format in the subject line)
Then in the body of the email put in any other pertainent info that you have on your history; NON-ID if you have it... if you do not have it, I highly urge you to obtain it, there could be a wealth of info on your birth family in there.

Happy Holidays,
Babbs and your angels from Soaring Angels

The Last Real Indians website

If you want to read some amazing voices in Indian Country, go to www.lastrealindians.com.

I have posted on their website about adoption and their editor asked me to send an excerpt from Two Worlds on Dec. 7 -- here is the link:
http://www.lastrealindians.com/axCommentDetails.php?postId=2144#

From the Preface:

"We are still here"

Adopting out Indian children would be as destructive as a war but it would last longer: it’d last a lifetime. The adoption program idea was not officially signed like other treaties made in Indian Country. These unique adoption program records were sealed and not made public (it was acknowledged in an apology I heard in 2001- read the Ultimate Indignity in my book). The goal was adoptions would be permanent and closed, therefore adoption was used as the ultimate weapon. Native children adopted by non-Indians would be Americans and unable to open their records; and our tribal parents and grandparents were victims since they would never see us again, or be able to find us.

My close friend Adrian Grey Buffalo, a wise adoptee elder who has returned to his Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (People) calls us adoptees the lost drums and pipes who were locked away from culture, and stored in Americans homes. We are the people who need to be repatriated back to our nations. Adrian believes now is the time. Our People need us back.

I also want you to hear my latest interviews with Jay Winter NightWolf at www.wpfw.org.
Here is the link to their archive: http://www.wpfwfm.org/programming/archived-shows.html -look for my interviews on November 30 and Dec. 7 - under The NightWolf show. They are listed about a week and disappear so be quick! You can download the mp3 on their website!
Trace

MY TOP 5 reasons the adoption industry bugs me!

I wanted to share my top 5 reasons again!

Click here:
AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: BLOG WEEK: MY TOP 5: Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: 

MY TOP 5 reasons the adoption industry bugs me!

I wanted to share my top 5 reasons again!

Click here:

AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: BLOG WEEK: MY TOP 5: Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: 

MY TOP 5 reasons the adoption industry bugs me!

I wanted to share my top 5 reasons again!

Click here:
AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: BLOG WEEK: MY TOP 5: Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: 

MY TOP 5 reasons the adoption industry bugs me!

I wanted to share my top 5 reasons again!

Click here:
AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: BLOG WEEK: MY TOP 5: Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: 

MY TOP 5 reasons the adoption industry bugs me!

I wanted to share my top 5 reasons again!

Click here:
AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: BLOG WEEK: MY TOP 5: Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: 

MY TOP 5 reasons the adoption industry bugs me!

I wanted to share my top 5 reasons again!

Click here:
AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: BLOG WEEK: MY TOP 5: Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: 

MY TOP 5 reasons the adoption industry bugs me!

I wanted to share my top 5 reasons again!

Click here:
AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: BLOG WEEK: MY TOP 5: Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: 

Father is ready to turn page on Utah adoption horror story

      

   

I could on for an hour about this but I won't. Fathers have rights and this time, a father got his daughter back after adoption. Hooray! Trace

Utah courts » Judge orders adoptive parents to return child to father, who is ready for new life with daughter.

By Brooke Adams, Salt Lake Tribune, Dec 03 2012 (Updated 3 hours ago)

   

A 4th District Court judge says he is "astonished and deeply troubled" by a Utah adoption agency’s deliberate move to circumvent the rights of a married man whose daughter was adopted at birth without his knowledge.

The Provo judge, while noting the birth mother had deceived her husband, the adoption agency and the prospective parents, has given the adoptive couple 60 days to give the child back.

A married father’s rights

While unmarried biological fathers must act to preserve their parental rights and have a limited time to do so, married fathers are presumed to have a constitutional, fundamental liberty interest in their children.

A married father “has the exact same parental rights as the mother from the get-go,” said Salt Lake attorney Scott Wiser, who with his father represents Terry Achane. “It is the same reason why any other married parent would not have to worry about filing a paternity petition or jumping through a series of legal hoops to get their kids back if a third-party like a neighbor or day-care provider decided not to return their kids.”

Unless his parental rights have been terminated for cause, the father’s consent to an adoption is required.

In his ruling in the Achane case, 4th District Judge Darold McDade called the situation painful and heartbreaking while noting previous Utah Supreme Court rulings that found that prospective adoptive parents are “legal strangers” who have no rights other than to temporarily care for the child until custody can be returned to a natural parent and that any bonding that may have occurred while they had custody is “legally irrelevant.”

 

In a 48-page ruling, Judge Darold McDade said the Adoption Center of Choice’s policy of refusing to disclose any information to Terry Achane once he learned what had happened to his baby is "utterly indefensible."

Salt Lake City attorneys Mark and Scott Wiser, the father/son team that represented Achane, used even stronger language for what occurred.

"This is a case of human trafficking," said Mark Wiser. "Children are being bought and sold. It is one thing what [adoption agencies] have been doing with unmarried biological fathers. It is in a new area when they are trying to take a child away from a married father who wants to have his child."

Jared and Kristi Frei, the adoptive parents, declined to comment, as did Kasey Wright, their former attorney, and Larry Jenkins, newly hired to represent the couple. James Webb, executive director of the Adoption Center of Choice, based in American Fork, did not return a call from The Salt Lake Tribune. The Tribune attempted to reach Tira Bland, the birth mother who is now divorced from Achane, but was unsuccessful.

On a blog about the case, where the Freis have raised more than $20,000 to help with legal bills, they vow to appeal McDade’s decision, describing the arrival of Achane’s daughter in their lives "a righteous desire blessed to fruition by God."

"We have not lost our conviction that we are in the right!!!!!!" Kristi Frei wrote after McDade’s Nov. 20 ruling dismissed their adoption petition. "We have only ever wanted to do right by Leah, and have always felt we have been acting in her best interest to keep her with our family and raise her as our own. Our hearts have demanded it — there has never been any question to us that she is OURS!!!"

Achane, 31, still finds the position he is in hard to believe and just wants the baby girl he has met just twice and calls Teleah, the name he picked out before her birth, back.

"I am not a very religious person," he said in an interview Friday, "but ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ If they prolong it, that is more time away from my daughter. There are precious moments I can’t get back. ... It has been a year and a half now. There is no court order saying they have the right to my child. I just won the case. I want to get my daughter and raise my daughter."

Texas marriage •

Achane and Bland, both then residents of Texas, married in February 2009 and learned around late June 2010 that Bland was expecting their first child. Achane, who is in the U.S. Army, accompanied his wife to prenatal visits and was there when an ultrasound revealed they were having a girl. They shared a joint bank account and Achane carried Bland and her daughter from a previous relationship on his military health insurance, which he also expected would cover the new baby.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55373764-78/achane-adoption-bland-child.html.csp?page=1

Make Noise: ICWA Directors in South Dakota

Dec 3, 2012 by Lakota Law

 

The Tribal ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) Directors in South Dakota, working with Lakota People's Law Project, prepared a report assessing the facts put forth in Laura Sullivan's NPR expose "Reviewing the Facts: An Assessment of the Accuracy of NPR's 'Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families'". In this meeting, they vote to approve it and send it on to the Tribal Councils, and then on to Congress.

Watch this: http://youtu.be/yqXQ7MiAS1o

It's time to declare ICWA again as a federal law - this video is South Dakota's next step!

What happened in your reunion?

I am posting this comment to ask you the question: What happened in your reunion and would be willing to leave a comment or write me about it?
We are in a place spiritually where answers are as important as reunions. Some of us may find wonderful relatives and others won't.
There is no manual for reunions. There are few options other than go and meet.
Please read this.  I'd like to hear about your reunion with tribal relatives.
Trace


Shadoseer has left a new comment on your post "DNA tests: Finding the Truth and your Family":

I am an adoptee and found my birthmother some 25 years ago (give or take). It went fabulously well to begin with but turned very sour after a while. Why? I don't know. She made things up about me that the rest of the family chose to believe. Not much i could do about it. While she would not tell me a thing about my birthfather, it did get back to me that he is half Cherokee. I have researched the name given me but it is a huge family and I have had no luck. On top of that, he has no knowledge she was even pregnant.

I founded and lead a search and support group and have facilitated in many reunions, some went wonderfully, some not so much, but in the end all were good because answers were given. The amputated roots began to heal as did the gaping holes we all felt inside. I feel I will never know my true heritage or at least half of it and for this I hold her solely responsible. It is the epitome of selfish to intentionally hide a child's heritage from them, especially after a long and protracted search.Mine was particularly difficult.

For all of those searching out there, never give up! The answers you get, no matter how dark on the surface, are much better than one at all. I wish everyone the very best in their quest!

2007: White Earth calling adoptees home

White Earth Nation welcomes adoptees home

by Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio October 5, 2007

Listen to feature audio

This weekend the White Earth Nation is celebrating the return of children lost for years. Hundreds of American Indian children were taken from Minnesota reservations and adopted by non-Indian families in the 1950s and 60s. The White Earth Aniishinabe are the first tribe in the country to formally welcome the adoptees home.

White Earth Nation, Minnesota — It's difficult to know how many American Indian children were adopted by white families in the 1950s and 60s, because records are sketchy at best. White Earth Tribal Chair Erma Vizenor believes about 25 percent of the children on her reservation were adopted by non-Indian parents. Vizenor recently met one of those children when she stopped for gas on the way home from work. A young woman recognized the tribal leader and asked for help finding her family.

"It's about healing and learning how to be in balance and understanding who we are."

- Sandy Whitehawk

"She said, 'Did you know my mom?' I said, 'Of course I did. I knew your mom. She's not living anymore.' 'Oh,' she said, 'What was she like?' I said, 'Your mother was a bubbly happy person.'"
After a reflective pause, Vizenor continues the story.
"I knew her mom. I went to high school with her. She had a baby. The baby was just taken away. (She was told) 'You have no option. This is what's best for your baby.' She couldn't bring her baby home," recalls Vizenor.
Indian babies were put up for adoption for many reasons. Poverty and alcohol caused some mothers to give up their children. But there was also a government policy of assimilation designed to make Indians forget about their culture and history.
Many Indian women were told adoption was the only option. Adoption programs sponsored by church groups were facilitated by local, state, and federal government agencies. It's likely hundreds of American Indian children born in Minnesota were adopted by families across the country. The practice continued until Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, giving tribes more control over adoptions.

Erma Vizenor

Hearing from some of those adoptees prompted White Earth Tribal Chair Erma Vizenor to support a welcome home ceremony for those who want to reconnect with their tribal culture.
The idea came from Sandy Whitehawk, who runs a small non profit in Minneapolis that tries to help American Indian adoptees find their families.
Whitehawk is driven by her own story. Born on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota, she was sent to live with a white family when she 18 months old. Growing up in a mostly white small town, she was encouraged to forget her birthplace.
"Don't grow up to be a good for nothing Indian. You're just going to be a drunken Indian like your mother. Those were things I heard all the time," says Whitehawk.
After struggling for years with substance abuse, Whitehawk realized she needed to understand where she came from, so at age 35, she made her first trip back to the reservation where she was born.
"The very first thing I noticed when I went on the reservation was that I finally looked like someone else," remembers Whitehawk. "I noticed I was more relaxed. There's something you can't put words to, to walk on your homeland where you know your relatives feet have also touched. That's healing, because it's where you began."

Sandy Whitehawk

Sandy Whitehawk learned she was one of nine children. Seven were put up for adoption. She's reunited with some of her siblings, as well as aunts, uncles and cousins.
Many American Indian families were scattered with the wind. Some children were raised in affluent homes, afforded privilege their birth parents could never provide, but others found less charitable situations, essentially becoming indentured servants.
Whatever their adoption experience, in recent years many have found their way back to the reservation. Some have stayed and become enrolled tribal members.
Reclaiming that tribal identity can be a challenge. Adoptees don't have birth certificates in some cases, others have altered adoption documents, making it difficult to prove their family connections.
Sandy Whitehawk says most are following a simple urge to understand who they are.

Joe Bush

"We're not about bashing white parents. We're not about bashing good foster parents," says Whitehawk. "It's about bringing out hard times that we may need to talk about, but more than anything it's about healing and learning how to be in balance and understanding who we are."
Reconnecting with family and culture might not be as easy as a trip to the reservation. White Earth elder Joe Bush gets calls every week from adoptees trying to find their birth family. They call him because he carries generations of family history in his head.
He knows from experience that coming home is the first step down a long path.
"There's going to be a lot of fear, a lot of resentment and a lot of joy. It's going to be hard for some of them, but we're going to welcome these adoptees that went out, adopt them back home, says Bush. "Coming back home. Nigiiwe, I'm going home."
White Earth officials don't know how many people to expect at the welcome home gathering, but they're hopeful the formal recognition of a sad chapter in their history will be a model for other American Indian tribes across the country.

White Earth was the first. Maine has a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission that includes adoptees. When will other tribes convene and do this? It's up to us to ask them... The idea is now spreading we need to write the Senate and Congress as a large group and ask for Congressional Hearings to let them know adoptees are still struggling after the Holocaust of the Indian Adoption Projects.. We need our records open so we can find our families and tribes. Email me if you'd like to add your name to the letters we send...  Trace (tracedemeyer@yahoo.com)