Native Solidarity Interview with Trace Hentz #StolenGenerations

Listen to an interview about the new book STOLEN GENERATIONS

Canada to reposition itself on UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Kristy Kirkup, The Canadian Press

May 10, 2016

Chief Bruce Shisheesh, left, Minister of Indigenous Affairs Carolyn Bennett, centre, and Federal NDP MPP Charlie Angus, right, meet in the northern Ontario First Nations reserve of Attawapiskat, Ont., in an April 16, 2016, file photo. Two cabinet ministers will speak at the United Nations in New York City today about the government's approach to indigenous affairs, but grave conditions on a northern Ontario reserve have prompted the NDP's indigenous affairs critic to cancel his attendance as part of the Canadian delegation.  THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said Monday that Canada will be changing its position on the declaration, removing its status as a permanent objector and becoming a full supporter of the document. Keep Reading 

60s Scoop Resources

If you have links that you’d like to share or suggestions for more information please send us a message at info@indigenousadoptee.com

First Nations Canada: Eugenics

 

Seven facts about eugenics in Canada

• Of the more than 3000 eugenic sterilizations in Canada, the vast majority were performed in Alberta under the direction of a Eugenics Board.
• While eugenic sterilization waned across the world following the end of the Second World War in 1945, Alberta’s sterilization program continued until the repeal of the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta in 1972.
• Leilani Muir won a landmark lawsuit against the province of Alberta in 1996 for wrongful confinement and sterilization; two documentaries, The Sterilization of Leilani Muir (1996) and Surviving Eugenics (2015) engage general audiences with issues that the case and its aftermath raise, and their significance for Canadians today.
• The explicit or implicit grounds for eugenic sterilization were typically that a person’s undesirable mental or physical disabilities were thought to be heritable, and that such a person was thus unsuitable to parent.
• Although central amongst those targeted by eugenic practices were people with a variety of disabilities, many children institutionalized, sterilized, and otherwise subject to eugenic practices in Canada did not in fact have disabilities.
• Members of other marginalized groups–single mothers, First Nations and Métis people, eastern Europeans, and poor people—were disproportionately represented amongst those subjected to eugenic ideas and practices, such as sterilization.
• The legacy of eugenics, expressed in sterilization laws and in social policies concerning immigration, schooling, and prenatal screening, remains with us today.

 SEE MORE

Many American Indians view what took place at Carlisle as genocide, 186 graves

US Army is open to returning Remains of American Indian Children buried in Carlisle 

Buildings at the Carlisle War College that once were the Carlisle Indian School, March 22, 2016. James Robinson, PennLive.com

By Red Power Media, Staff | May 6, 2016

Nearly 200 American Indian children perished at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School

For more than 100 years, American Indian
children have been buried at Carlisle, the school that sought to cleanse
their “savage nature” by erasing their names, language, customs,
religions, and family ties.

Between 1879 and 1918, more than 10,000 American Indian children were housed at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the federal government’s flagship boarding school based on a strict military model.

The children were
stripped of all tribal traditions. Their native names were changed to
European names and they were forced to adopt the traditions of white
America.

Nearly 200 of the children perished at the
school, most from diseases like tuberculosis or consumption. Their
remains were never returned to their families. The children’s final
resting place is on the grounds of what used to be the boarding school
and is now part of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.

Grave-sites at Carlisle cemetery are often decorated by visitors with small stuffed animals, dreamcatchers and toys.

Now there’s a chance that some will be sent home to their tribes.

Patrick Hallinan, the head of Army cemeteries said in an interview
that he’s open to meeting American Indian demands to repatriate
children’s remains, provided talks on the matter prove fruitful and all
regulations are met.

This marks a reversal for the Army, which in winter denied a Rosebud Sioux request to return 10 tribal children to South Dakota.

Now the Army confirms it will send two
officials to Rosebud on May 10, to begin formal government-to-government
consultations with the Sioux, the Northern Arapaho of Wyoming, and a
third tribe that now seeks the return of its people, the Northern
Cheyenne of Montana.

“I think things are going to happen,” said
Russell Eagle Bear, the Rosebud historic-preservation officer. “I’m
hoping they’re going to tell us they’re ready to work with us and let
our relatives go.”

If that occurs, he said, an intended summer
tribal pilgrimage to Carlisle could become an advance party to plan the
return of Sioux remains.

The nearly 200 children that lie in the
Carlisle cemetery were among thousands taken from native families in the
West, spirited a thousand miles to the East, and forced through a
wrenching experiment in assimilation.

Today many American Indians view what took place at Carlisle as genocide.

American Indian children upon arrival at Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

American Indian children four months after their arrival at Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Hallinan says, the decision to return remains from Carlisle to Rosebud or elsewhere, rests with him.

“If the tribes are interested and this is
something they want to do, we would be supportive to see that
accomplished,” Hallinan said. “We look forward to working with the
tribes, and we think that once we sit down and consult with them, there
should be a positive outcome for all involved.”

He plans to send staff to two American
Indian conferences this year, to see if other tribes wish to discuss the
status of their ancestors’ remains.

While the Army plans to send two people on
May 10, dozens could attend from Indian nations. Leaders of the Rosebud
Sioux, Northern Arapaho, Cheyenne River Sioux, Northern Cheyenne,
Standing Rock Sioux and Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribes will meet on
Tuesday, in Rosebud, South Dakota with representatives from the federal
government and the U.S. Army to begin negotiations over the repatriation
of the children’s remains.

All six tribes intend to have people there,
and the Rosebud Sioux will bring lawyers, political leaders, and tribal
staff. South Dakota’s senators and congresswoman will send
representatives.

This month’s meeting in Rosebud could
portend a major step forward on an issue that torments many native
peoples. It comes amid an outpouring of interest and awareness that
followed a March 20 story in the Inquirer.

Carlisle opened in 1879 as the first federal
Indian boarding school, spawning a fleet of successors that embraced
the motto, “Kill the Indian, save the man.”

At Carlisle, children who spoke their native
language could be beaten, while overcrowding and malnourishment
weakened students, making them vulnerable to epidemics that swept the
school.

Today many Indian researchers and activists
refer to those who attended Carlisle and similar institutions as
“boarding school survivors.” They say collective trauma and grief
contributes to the devastating social ills that plague tribal
communities.

Carlisle cemetery grave marked “Unknown.”

Officially the Carlisle cemetery contains
186 graves. Thirteen are marked “Unknown.” Many of the headstones bear
names but no birth or death dates.

For approximately three decades
beginning in the latter part of the 19th century, the federal
government, in an effort to “tame the savage” and assimilate them into
the dominant white culture, uprooted close to a million American Indian
children from their reservation tribal homes, transporting them
thousands of miles across the country to boarding schools.

Many American Indians view what took place at Carlisle as genocide, 186 graves

US Army is open to returning Remains of American Indian Children buried in Carlisle 

Buildings at the Carlisle War College that once were the Carlisle Indian School, March 22, 2016. James Robinson, PennLive.com

By Red Power Media, Staff | May 6, 2016

Nearly 200 American Indian children perished at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School

For more than 100 years, American Indian children have been buried at Carlisle, the school that sought to cleanse their “savage nature” by erasing their names, language, customs, religions, and family ties.

Between 1879 and 1918, more than 10,000 American Indian children were housed at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the federal government’s flagship boarding school based on a strict military model.

The children were stripped of all tribal traditions. Their native names were changed to European names and they were forced to adopt the traditions of white America.

Nearly 200 of the children perished at the school, most from diseases like tuberculosis or consumption. Their remains were never returned to their families. The children’s final resting place is on the grounds of what used to be the boarding school and is now part of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.

Grave-sites at Carlisle cemetery are often decorated by visitors with small stuffed animals, dreamcatchers and toys.

Now there’s a chance that some will be sent home to their tribes.

Patrick Hallinan, the head of Army cemeteries said in an interview that he’s open to meeting American Indian demands to repatriate children’s remains, provided talks on the matter prove fruitful and all regulations are met.

This marks a reversal for the Army, which in winter denied a Rosebud Sioux request to return 10 tribal children to South Dakota.

Now the Army confirms it will send two officials to Rosebud on May 10, to begin formal government-to-government consultations with the Sioux, the Northern Arapaho of Wyoming, and a third tribe that now seeks the return of its people, the Northern Cheyenne of Montana.

“I think things are going to happen,” said Russell Eagle Bear, the Rosebud historic-preservation officer. “I’m hoping they’re going to tell us they’re ready to work with us and let our relatives go.”

If that occurs, he said, an intended summer tribal pilgrimage to Carlisle could become an advance party to plan the return of Sioux remains.

The nearly 200 children that lie in the Carlisle cemetery were among thousands taken from native families in the West, spirited a thousand miles to the East, and forced through a wrenching experiment in assimilation.

Today many American Indians view what took place at Carlisle as genocide.

American Indian children upon arrival at Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

American Indian children four months after their arrival at Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Hallinan says, the decision to return remains from Carlisle to Rosebud or elsewhere, rests with him.

“If the tribes are interested and this is something they want to do, we would be supportive to see that accomplished,” Hallinan said. “We look forward to working with the tribes, and we think that once we sit down and consult with them, there should be a positive outcome for all involved.”

He plans to send staff to two American Indian conferences this year, to see if other tribes wish to discuss the status of their ancestors’ remains.

While the Army plans to send two people on May 10, dozens could attend from Indian nations. Leaders of the Rosebud Sioux, Northern Arapaho, Cheyenne River Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Standing Rock Sioux and Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribes will meet on Tuesday, in Rosebud, South Dakota with representatives from the federal government and the U.S. Army to begin negotiations over the repatriation of the children’s remains.

All six tribes intend to have people there, and the Rosebud Sioux will bring lawyers, political leaders, and tribal staff. South Dakota’s senators and congresswoman will send representatives.

This month’s meeting in Rosebud could portend a major step forward on an issue that torments many native peoples. It comes amid an outpouring of interest and awareness that followed a March 20 story in the Inquirer.

Carlisle opened in 1879 as the first federal Indian boarding school, spawning a fleet of successors that embraced the motto, “Kill the Indian, save the man.”

At Carlisle, children who spoke their native language could be beaten, while overcrowding and malnourishment weakened students, making them vulnerable to epidemics that swept the school.

Today many Indian researchers and activists refer to those who attended Carlisle and similar institutions as “boarding school survivors.” They say collective trauma and grief contributes to the devastating social ills that plague tribal communities.

Carlisle cemetery grave marked “Unknown.”

Officially the Carlisle cemetery contains 186 graves. Thirteen are marked “Unknown.” Many of the headstones bear names but no birth or death dates.

For approximately three decades beginning in the latter part of the 19th century, the federal government, in an effort to “tame the savage” and assimilate them into the dominant white culture, uprooted close to a million American Indian children from their reservation tribal homes, transporting them thousands of miles across the country to boarding schools.

Many American Indians view what took place at Carlisle as genocide, 186 graves

US Army is open to returning Remains of American Indian Children buried in Carlisle 

Buildings at the Carlisle War College that once were the Carlisle Indian School, March 22, 2016. James Robinson, PennLive.com

By Red Power Media, Staff | May 6, 2016

Nearly 200 American Indian children perished at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School

For more than 100 years, American Indian children have been buried at Carlisle, the school that sought to cleanse their “savage nature” by erasing their names, language, customs, religions, and family ties.

Between 1879 and 1918, more than 10,000 American Indian children were housed at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the federal government’s flagship boarding school based on a strict military model.

The children were stripped of all tribal traditions. Their native names were changed to European names and they were forced to adopt the traditions of white America.

Nearly 200 of the children perished at the school, most from diseases like tuberculosis or consumption. Their remains were never returned to their families. The children’s final resting place is on the grounds of what used to be the boarding school and is now part of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.

Grave-sites at Carlisle cemetery are often decorated by visitors with small stuffed animals, dreamcatchers and toys.

Now there’s a chance that some will be sent home to their tribes.

Patrick Hallinan, the head of Army cemeteries said in an interview that he’s open to meeting American Indian demands to repatriate children’s remains, provided talks on the matter prove fruitful and all regulations are met.

This marks a reversal for the Army, which in winter denied a Rosebud Sioux request to return 10 tribal children to South Dakota.

Now the Army confirms it will send two officials to Rosebud on May 10, to begin formal government-to-government consultations with the Sioux, the Northern Arapaho of Wyoming, and a third tribe that now seeks the return of its people, the Northern Cheyenne of Montana.

“I think things are going to happen,” said Russell Eagle Bear, the Rosebud historic-preservation officer. “I’m hoping they’re going to tell us they’re ready to work with us and let our relatives go.”

If that occurs, he said, an intended summer tribal pilgrimage to Carlisle could become an advance party to plan the return of Sioux remains.

The nearly 200 children that lie in the Carlisle cemetery were among thousands taken from native families in the West, spirited a thousand miles to the East, and forced through a wrenching experiment in assimilation.

Today many American Indians view what took place at Carlisle as genocide.

American Indian children upon arrival at Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

American Indian children four months after their arrival at Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Hallinan says, the decision to return remains from Carlisle to Rosebud or elsewhere, rests with him.

“If the tribes are interested and this is something they want to do, we would be supportive to see that accomplished,” Hallinan said. “We look forward to working with the tribes, and we think that once we sit down and consult with them, there should be a positive outcome for all involved.”

He plans to send staff to two American Indian conferences this year, to see if other tribes wish to discuss the status of their ancestors’ remains.

While the Army plans to send two people on May 10, dozens could attend from Indian nations. Leaders of the Rosebud Sioux, Northern Arapaho, Cheyenne River Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Standing Rock Sioux and Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribes will meet on Tuesday, in Rosebud, South Dakota with representatives from the federal government and the U.S. Army to begin negotiations over the repatriation of the children’s remains.

All six tribes intend to have people there, and the Rosebud Sioux will bring lawyers, political leaders, and tribal staff. South Dakota’s senators and congresswoman will send representatives.

This month’s meeting in Rosebud could portend a major step forward on an issue that torments many native peoples. It comes amid an outpouring of interest and awareness that followed a March 20 story in the Inquirer.

Carlisle opened in 1879 as the first federal Indian boarding school, spawning a fleet of successors that embraced the motto, “Kill the Indian, save the man.”

At Carlisle, children who spoke their native language could be beaten, while overcrowding and malnourishment weakened students, making them vulnerable to epidemics that swept the school.

Today many Indian researchers and activists refer to those who attended Carlisle and similar institutions as “boarding school survivors.” They say collective trauma and grief contributes to the devastating social ills that plague tribal communities.

Carlisle cemetery grave marked “Unknown.”

Officially the Carlisle cemetery contains 186 graves. Thirteen are marked “Unknown.” Many of the headstones bear names but no birth or death dates.

For approximately three decades beginning in the latter part of the 19th century, the federal government, in an effort to “tame the savage” and assimilate them into the dominant white culture, uprooted close to a million American Indian children from their reservation tribal homes, transporting them thousands of miles across the country to boarding schools.

Murray Sinclair #TRC

Murray Sinclair on tragedy, respect and the lessons of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Sarah M Donnelly

Link to CBC radio segment and article by Shelagh Rogers here.

Shelagh Rogers shares stories from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at TEDxGabriolaIsland

Murray Sinclair #TRC

Murray Sinclair on tragedy, respect and the lessons of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Sarah M Donnelly

Link to CBC radio segment and article by Shelagh Rogers here.

Shelagh Rogers shares stories from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at TEDxGabriolaIsland

Murray Sinclair #TRC

Murray Sinclair on tragedy, respect and the lessons of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Sarah M Donnelly

Link to CBC radio segment and article by Shelagh Rogers here.

Shelagh Rogers shares stories from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at TEDxGabriolaIsland

About the Film: Dawnland #MaineTRC

When most people hear about children ripped from their families, they think of faraway places or of centuries past. The reality is it's been happening in the U.S. for centuries—and is still happening today. Native American children are more than twice as likely as non-Native children to be taken from their families and put into foster care, according to a 2013 study.
In Maine, a group of Native and non-Native leaders came together to acknowledge and address the abuses suffered by Native children in the hands of the child welfare system. Thanks to their commitment, the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was formed in 2012 to seek the truth and bring healing to those affected.

Dawnland is the only feature-length documentary to tell the inside story of this historic, first of its kind commission and the individuals—both Native and non-Native—who boldly and publicly came forward to share their stories of survival, guilt and loss, in order to illuminate the ongoing crisis of indigenous child removal.
The film follows key participants through the truth and reconciliation process: a survivor of foster care, a child welfare worker, a TRC commissioner, and the co-founder of the commission. Their intersecting journeys reveal buried trauma and intergroup disagreements that threaten to derail the whole process. Dawnland also provides essential historical context showing how these present-day conflicts are the result of 500 years of colonial domination of Native peoples.

Co-director Ben at Split Rock in Sipayik, Maine

 

 

NOTE: We do have information about the MAINE TRC in the new anthology STOLEN GENERATIONS  - LINK

#60s Scoop adoptees rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

More than 20,000 Indigenous children removed from their families from 1960s to 1980s

By Waubgeshig Rice, CBC News | Posted: Apr 29, 2016 

60s Scoop adoptees gathered for a rally on Parliament Hill on Friday. (Waubgeshig Rice/CBC)

Indigenous people who were adopted during the Sixties Scoop rallied on Parliament Hill Friday in solidarity with other adoptees across Canada, and to put pressure on the federal government to reform the Indigenous child welfare system.
"We are here to celebrate our survival of the child welfare (system), and to raise those issues," said organizer Duane Morrisseau-Beck. "The message to those survivors is that you're not alone, and that we're really working hard to find some answers."

• Indigenous Sixties Scoop adoptees want meeting with Canada's new government
  

From the 1960s to the 1980s, an estimated 20,000 Indigenous children were removed from their families and placed with non-Indigenous families — often far from their home communities — during what's known as the Sixties Scoop.

Duane Morrisseau-Beck reconnected with his birth mother, Geraldine Beck, in 1997. (Waubgeshig Rice/CBC)

Morrisseau-Beck was apprehended by child welfare authorities in Manitoba at birth in 1968. In 1977 he reconnected with his birth mother, Geraldine Beck, who joined him at the Ottawa rally.
"It's almost like I was away for a long time, and then I returned home," he said. "It was a seamless process, it just took time to get to know who I was and who my community is, and just sort of go through that validation. And some days I continue to do that."
KEEP READING

Related Stories

• Indigenous Sixties Scoop adoptees want meeting with Canada's new government
• Sixties Scoop still not well-recognized, aboriginal adoptees say
• Sixties Scoop adoptees come together for Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival
• Sixties Scoop shapes Hamilton's aboriginal demography
• Sixties Scoop adoptees gather at University of Winnipeg to share, heal

External Links

• Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare

Andrew Jackson’s Adopted Indian Son

Lyncoya was a living argument for the supremacy of the white way of life. Jackson killed Creek people, took Creek land, and raised their children as his own—a primal act of domination.

The soldiers took 84 captives, including Lyncoya.

Was bringing home an Indian boy—after slaughtering his family—an act of compassion or of political expedience?

By Trace Hentz

I know the answer - psychopaths and politics for land theft!
A few days ago, my friend John Hopkins told me about the infamous "Indian Killer" Andrew Jackson, yes that guy famous for the Trail of Tears, adopting an Indian child.  I never knew about this.
We do know that Lost Bird (below) was taken from her massacred dead mother and adopted by a military man. She only lived to age 29.
Lyncoya died at the Hermitage in 1828, at age 16, of tuberculosis.
Andrew Jackson named all his kids Andrew Jackson? That's a very special kind of egomania right there.

Read this astounding article at SLATE.

 In case you didn't know, adoption was genocide.

Lost Bird Story

#ICWA under attack

ThinkProgress Article on the Goldwater Institute’s ICWA Challenge

Kate Fort | Turtle Talk

Why a Conservative Legal Organization is Trying to Kill the Indian Child Welfare Act.

A long article with lots of great sources (Shannon Smith of the ICWA Law Center is quoted extensively, for example) and solid research.

Despite what the URL might indicate, the video and site do not belong to an organization with a long history of pushing to expand civil rights protections to minority groups. Rather, they are part of a campaign by the Goldwater Institute — a conservative legal organization mostly known for its anti-government and pro-property rights work — aimed at eliminating ICWA, a 1978 federal law designed to protect Native American kids from more than 100 years of government-mandated assimilation. That legislation established tougher requirements for removing Native American children from their biological families and gave federally recognized tribes control over the adoption and custody processes for their citizens’ kids.

***
Matthew L.M. Fletcher, who directs the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at the Michigan State University College of Law says the key function of ICWA is that it “gives tribes a chance to have a say in what happens to their kids.” He notes that the due process requirements it provides have been held up by child welfare advocacy groups as “the gold standard for child welfare decisions for all children.”

***
Kathryn E. Fort, who works with Fletcher at MSU’s Indigenous Law and Policy Center, agrees. “I think what ICWA has done is given a backstop, in many ways, to the worst abuses,” she said. But recent problems in South Dakota, for instance, are proof that there are “still counties where they’re just not following the law.” Last March, a federal judge found that state officials had improperly removed scores of Native American children in one county from their parents’ custody, failing to follow ICWA’s procedure.
If the Goldwater Institute’s challenge is successful, not only will the strongest tool to stop those kinds of discrimination be taken away — so might a whole host of other laws.

Minneapolis ICWA Law Center Video

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Kate Fort

One of our very favorite groups we get to work with has a beautiful new video up:
Password: icwa
The Minneapolis ICWA Law Center represents parents in ICWA cases, among other things.


Two Worlds, Called Home, Stolen Generations: Telling Our Stories

CLICK: Two Worlds, Called Home, Stolen Generations: Telling Our Stories

Challenges to ICWA based on legally and historically false assumptions

archive photo

Fletcher & Singel on the Historical Basis for the Trust Relationship between the US and Indian Children

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Matthew L.M. Fletcher | Turtle Talk

Fletcher & Singel have posted “Indian Children and the Federal Tribal Trust Relationship” on SSRN. (click title to download the free pdf)

Here is the abstract:

This article develops the history of the role of Indian children in the formation of the federal-tribal trust relationship and comes as constitutional challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) are now pending. We conclude the historical record demonstrates the core of the federal-tribal trust relationship is the welfare of Indian children and their relationship to Indian nations. The challenges to ICWA are based on legally and historically false assumptions about federal and state powers in relation to Indian children and the federal government’s trust relationship with Indian children.
Indian children have been a focus of federal Indian affairs at least since the Framing of the Constitution. The Founding Generation initially used Indian children as military and diplomatic pawns, and later undertook a duty of protection to Indian nations and, especially, Indian children. Dozens of Indian treaties memorialize and implement the federal government’s duty to Indian children. Sadly, the United States then catastrophically distorted that duty of protection by deviating from its constitution-based obligations well into the 20th century. It was during this Coercive Period that federal Indian law and policy largely became unmoored from the constitution.
The modern duty of protection, now characterized as a federal general trust relationship, is manifested in federal statutes such as ICWA and various self-determination acts that return self-governance to tribes and acknowledge the United States’ duty of protection to Indian children. The federal duty of protection of internal tribal sovereignty, which has been strongly linked to the welfare of Indian children since the Founding, is now as closely realized as it ever has been throughout American history. In the Self-Determination Era, modern federal laws, including ICWA, constitute a return of federal Indian law and policy to constitutional fidelity.

Very important history!

Challenges to ICWA based on legally and historically false assumptions

archive photo

Fletcher & Singel on the Historical Basis for the Trust Relationship between the US and Indian Children

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Matthew L.M. Fletcher | Turtle Talk

Fletcher & Singel have posted “Indian Children and the Federal Tribal Trust Relationship” on SSRN. (click title to download the free pdf)



Here is the abstract:

This article develops the history of the role of
Indian children in the formation of the federal-tribal trust
relationship and comes as constitutional challenges to the Indian Child
Welfare Act (ICWA) are now pending. We conclude the historical record
demonstrates the core of the federal-tribal trust relationship is the
welfare of Indian children and their relationship to Indian nations. The
challenges to ICWA are based on legally and historically false
assumptions about federal and state powers in relation to Indian
children and the federal government’s trust relationship with Indian
children.

Indian children have been a focus of federal Indian affairs at
least since the Framing of the Constitution. The Founding Generation
initially used Indian children as military and diplomatic pawns, and
later undertook a duty of protection to Indian nations and, especially,
Indian children. Dozens of Indian treaties memorialize and implement the
federal government’s duty to Indian children. Sadly, the United States
then catastrophically distorted that duty of protection by deviating
from its constitution-based obligations well into the 20th century. It
was during this Coercive Period that federal Indian law and policy
largely became unmoored from the constitution.

The modern duty of protection, now characterized as a federal
general trust relationship, is manifested in federal statutes such as
ICWA and various self-determination acts that return self-governance to
tribes and acknowledge the United States’ duty of protection to Indian
children. The federal duty of protection of internal tribal sovereignty,
which has been strongly linked to the welfare of Indian children since
the Founding, is now as closely realized as it ever has been throughout
American history. In the Self-Determination Era, modern federal laws,
including ICWA, constitute a return of federal Indian law and policy to
constitutional fidelity.

Very important history!

Challenges to ICWA based on legally and historically false assumptions

archive photo

Fletcher & Singel on the Historical Basis for the Trust Relationship between the US and Indian Children

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Matthew L.M. Fletcher | Turtle Talk

Fletcher & Singel have posted “Indian Children and the Federal Tribal Trust Relationship” on SSRN. (click title to download the free pdf)

Here is the abstract:

This article develops the history of the role of Indian children in the formation of the federal-tribal trust relationship and comes as constitutional challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) are now pending. We conclude the historical record demonstrates the core of the federal-tribal trust relationship is the welfare of Indian children and their relationship to Indian nations. The challenges to ICWA are based on legally and historically false assumptions about federal and state powers in relation to Indian children and the federal government’s trust relationship with Indian children.
Indian children have been a focus of federal Indian affairs at least since the Framing of the Constitution. The Founding Generation initially used Indian children as military and diplomatic pawns, and later undertook a duty of protection to Indian nations and, especially, Indian children. Dozens of Indian treaties memorialize and implement the federal government’s duty to Indian children. Sadly, the United States then catastrophically distorted that duty of protection by deviating from its constitution-based obligations well into the 20th century. It was during this Coercive Period that federal Indian law and policy largely became unmoored from the constitution.
The modern duty of protection, now characterized as a federal general trust relationship, is manifested in federal statutes such as ICWA and various self-determination acts that return self-governance to tribes and acknowledge the United States’ duty of protection to Indian children. The federal duty of protection of internal tribal sovereignty, which has been strongly linked to the welfare of Indian children since the Founding, is now as closely realized as it ever has been throughout American history. In the Self-Determination Era, modern federal laws, including ICWA, constitute a return of federal Indian law and policy to constitutional fidelity.

Very important history!

Challenges to ICWA based on legally and historically false assumptions

archive photo

Fletcher & Singel on the Historical Basis for the Trust Relationship between the US and Indian Children

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Matthew L.M. Fletcher | Turtle Talk

Fletcher & Singel have posted “Indian Children and the Federal Tribal Trust Relationship” on SSRN. (click title to download the free pdf)

Here is the abstract:

This article develops the history of the role of Indian children in the formation of the federal-tribal trust relationship and comes as constitutional challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) are now pending. We conclude the historical record demonstrates the core of the federal-tribal trust relationship is the welfare of Indian children and their relationship to Indian nations. The challenges to ICWA are based on legally and historically false assumptions about federal and state powers in relation to Indian children and the federal government’s trust relationship with Indian children.
Indian children have been a focus of federal Indian affairs at least since the Framing of the Constitution. The Founding Generation initially used Indian children as military and diplomatic pawns, and later undertook a duty of protection to Indian nations and, especially, Indian children. Dozens of Indian treaties memorialize and implement the federal government’s duty to Indian children. Sadly, the United States then catastrophically distorted that duty of protection by deviating from its constitution-based obligations well into the 20th century. It was during this Coercive Period that federal Indian law and policy largely became unmoored from the constitution.
The modern duty of protection, now characterized as a federal general trust relationship, is manifested in federal statutes such as ICWA and various self-determination acts that return self-governance to tribes and acknowledge the United States’ duty of protection to Indian children. The federal duty of protection of internal tribal sovereignty, which has been strongly linked to the welfare of Indian children since the Founding, is now as closely realized as it ever has been throughout American history. In the Self-Determination Era, modern federal laws, including ICWA, constitute a return of federal Indian law and policy to constitutional fidelity.

Very important history!

Destruction of Victim Statements #60sScoop #ForcedRemovals #StolenGenerations

Working Link To Canada Court Decision Included – In 15 Years Destroy TRC-Canada Victim Statements Of Canada Scoops Victims, Doesn’t Refer To USA & West Europe-placed Victims

April 25, 2016 [Originally published April 19, 2016]

Whether the decision of Canada Court mandates or allows destruction of recently concluded Canada – Truth & Reconciliation Commission victim statements, nowhere in the opinion of the Canada Court are the victim statements collected and certified by Truth & Reconciliation Commission – Canada  of USA Placed Victims – Survivors of Canada Scoops referred to.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/stories-of-residential-school-abuse-can-be-shredded-after-15years-1.3520210

Link to full text of court decision, http://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions/2016/2016ONCA0241.htm

SOURCE : USA Placed Victims-Survivors of The Canadian Scoops blog

Archive photos (Trace Hentz) Yale 2014

CBC:

Survivors of Canada's notorious residential school system have the right to see their stories archived if they wish, but their accounts must otherwise be destroyed  in 15 years, Ontario's top court ruled in a split decision (April 4).
 

At issue are documents related to compensation claims made by as many as 30,000 survivors of Indian residential schools — many heart-rending accounts of sexual, physical and psychological abuse. 

******************** and also from their blog

USA’s 1st Lady On The Forcible Removal Of North American Indian Children

June 26, 2015

The First Lady Michelle Obama says it well, “given this history, we shouldn’t be surprised at the challenges that kids in (North American) Indian Country are facing today.  And we should never forget that we played a role in this.  Make no mistake about it – we own this.” 

“For more than a century, the governments of Canada and the United States pursued a policy of forcible removal of indigenous children from their homes and communities.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recently released a report on these removal practices, recognizing them to be part of a policy of “cultural genocide.”

It could not have happened without the complicity of the elites of the Canadian Indian Bands themselves.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/245996-if-truth-be-told

Related Stories

• Talks back on to reach out-of-court settlement for N.L. residential schools
• St. Anne's residential school survivor seeks reopening of claims case
• Indian residential schools: 5,300 alleged abusers located by Ottawa
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report: By the numbers

[Editor Note: This is the new HOLOCAUST - destroying records won't erase the past but some judges want to wipe it off the face of the earth? Really? The Jews build shrines and museums and make films about their own, right?...Trace]

Why it's so important? #ICWA #adoption #stolengenerations

If you thought that ethnic cleansing was something for the history books, think again...

Book One

By Trace Hentz, editor of the new book STOLEN GENERATIONS

In the last few days, I checked the book reviews in the UK (England) and was so happy to read this great honest review for Two Worlds by Yassmin. She gets it! (read her quote above and the review below)

The writers in the first anthology Two Worlds (Book 1) broke new ground. They told their story in their own way in their own words. (I like to tease them and call them rock stars.)  We are the pre-ICWA adoptees - before the federal law was signed, preventing adoption to non-Indian parents and thereby supporting kinship adoption when children remain in their tribal community.

For these adoptees, it takes real courage to think about the past and try to make sense of it.  Many of us adoptees thought we were the only one...  I know I did.

Many of us felt alone, isolated, confused.

Then we have to look at the reunion aspects of our journey with relatives and parents, and doing that we reconnect to our sovereign nations again.  Maybe we were already enrolled, maybe not.  Maybe we have land to inherit, maybe not.  (The purpose of these adoptions was to erase us, end our rights, take our land and erase "the Indian" us off the BIA books.)

Book 2 (40 adoptees +)

Now in 2016 I find that we have more than one generation who was affected by the various Indian Adoption Projects.  We have adult children of adoptees who are living their own identity issues... and they have questions.  Two of these men wrote in the new book Stolen Generations. Their parent was adopted out.

Can you see how widespread this is (in Canada and the US) and how it's a growing  problem?  The problem is exasperated by states with sealed adoption records and the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is not actively helping us adoptees rejoin our tribes. 
The deception is obvious - their point was to not have any of us be Indian and enrolled!

 

Yassmin Sanders reviewed Two Worlds: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects

1 of 1 people found the following helpful

Thought-provoking and moving 11 October 2012

Two Worlds - Lost children of the Indian Adoption Projects

If you thought that ethnic cleansing was something for the history books, think again. This work tells the stories of Native American Indian adoptees "The Lost Birds" who continue to suffer the effects of successive US and Canadian government policies on adoption; policies that were in force as recently as the 1970's. Many of the contributors still bear the scars of their separation from their ancestral roots. What becomes apparent to the reader is the reality of a racial memory that lives in the DNA of adoptees and calls to them from the past.
The editors have let the contributors tell their own stories of their childhood and search for their blood relatives, allowing the reader to gain a true impression of their personalities. What becomes apparent is that nothing is straightforward; re-assimilation brings its own cultural and emotional problems. Not all of the stories are harrowing or sad; there are a number of heart-warming successes, and not all placements amongst white families had negative consequences. But with whom should the ultimate decision of adoption reside? Government authorities or the Indian people themselves? Read Two Worlds and decide for yourself.

LINK

 What is significant about this new book? Everything. 10 years ago there were no books. Now we have more than one generation who experienced the Indian Adoption Projects and 60s Scoop.

We have documented new history in our own words in Three Books!

For me, that is all I hoped for, prayed for... I have been reunited with my own family over 20 years.

...and because I feel as I do doesn't mean adoption will ever change... it probably won't.

I am a voice in the wind... I just want to spare a child the pain of secrecy, lies, hurt, loss...

AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: STOLEN GENERATIONS! Survivors of the Indian Adopti...

AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: STOLEN GENERATIONS! Survivors of the Indian Adopti...: cover art by Ojibwe adoptee Terry Niska Watson

NEW BOOK NOTICE: April 24, 2016

STOLEN GENERATIONS! Survivors of the Indian Adoption Projects and 60s Scoop ON SALE tomorrow

cover art by Ojibwe adoptee Terry Niska Watson

NEW BOOK NOTICE: April 20, 2016

A highly anticipated follow up to the history-making anthologies TWO WORLDS (Book One) and CALLED HOME (Book Two): Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects series, STOLEN GENERATIONS: Survivors of the Indian Adoption Projects and 60s Scoop offers more narratives on the history of land-taking and child theft/adoption projects in the name of Manifest Destiny in North America. These narratives make clear that Lost Children are not only survivors but resilient.

A collection of adoptees’ firsthand accounts and the historical background of the Indian Adoption Projects and 60s Scoop, along with pertinent news, history, documentaries, quotes and bibliography, this stunning new anthology has been edited by award winning journalist, adoptee-author Trace L Hentz (formerly DeMeyer).



"Stolen Generations" is available now in the Kindle Store. It is available here.
BUY LINK  PAPERBACK HERE: https://www.createspace.com/5982643

By Trace Hentz (Shawnee-Cherokee-French Canadian mix)


I am honored to be editor of this new anthology, to know these adoptees (or their relative who wrote an essay) and to work with them. Their stories will amaze you, make you cry, make you proud and best of all, this collection writes new truth, new history, blazing new ground!

After doing two earlier anthologies, WE are survivors and WE are resilient. That I know.

Ebook proceeds will benefit the IronEagleFeather Project for adoptees. Levi and I are creating a safe haven and workshops for adoptees...

Contributors:

INTRO: Johnathan Brooks (Northern Cheyenne)
Preface: Trace Hentz (Shawnee-Cherokee mix)

Joseph Henning (Cree)

Leland Pacheco Kirk Morrill (Navajo)

Nakuset (Cree)

Debra Newman (Choctaw Cherokee)

Belinda Mastalski Smith (Oneida New York)

Janelle Black Owl (Mandan, Hidatasa, Turtle Mountain Chippewa, Lakota)

Susan Devan Harness (Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes)

Dana LoneHill (Oglala Lakota)

Joy Meness (Iroquois)

Levi William EagleFeather Sr. (Sicangu Lakota)

Patricia Busbee (Cherokee)

Karl Mizenmayer (Minnesota Ojibwe)

MITZI LIPSCOMB/ROSEMARY BLACKBIRD (Walpole Bkejwanong First Nations)

Rebecca Larsen (Quinault Indian Nation)

Joseph M. Pierce (Cherokee)

Mary St. Martin (Koyukon Athabascan)

Joshua Whitehead (Peguis First Nation Manitoba)

 

COVER ART: Terry Niska Watson (White Earth) 

This illustration I painted years ago when I was in a very dark place in my life.  This is a painting of a subject matter that has always drawn my interest, that is the Native life and the beauty of tradition, family and nature.  As my sister, Elizabeth Blake, said about this painting that still hangs on my wall, “the most interesting part is that the face is not visible.  That is how it is when you do not know your birth family.”

PREVIEW:  Once Upon A Time

Stolen Generations (Book 3)

Survivor Narratives of 60s Scoop and First Nations adoptees

An anthology of adoptees’ firsthand accounts and the historical background of the Indian Adoption Projects and 60s Scoop in North America

ISBN-13: 978-0692615560 (Blue Hand Books) 

Paperback $12.96 

Kindle ebook $3.96

Email for more information: larahentz@yahoo.com
On Kindle: US UK DE FR ES IT NL JP BR Canada MX AU IN  

click bird to post tweet

will post to your twitter account