Many Native Americans, Citing History, Angry Over Trump Immigration Policy

Native Americans are no strangers to the break-up of families

Source: Many Native Americans, Citing History, Angry Over Trump Immigration Policy

White liberal friends stop saying that separating children from their parents is “unAmerican.” That is ahistorical & insensitive as hell to the 100ks of Native people who were separated from their children by official US policy from boarding schools & the Indian Adoption Project.

— BigIndianGyasi (@BigIndianGyasi) June 16, 2018





Many Native Americans, Citing History, Angry Over Trump Immigration Policy

Native Americans are no strangers to the break-up of families
Source: Many Native Americans, Citing History, Angry Over Trump Immigration Policy

White liberal friends stop saying that separating children from their parents is “unAmerican.” That is ahistorical & insensitive as hell to the 100ks of Native people who were separated from their children by official US policy from boarding schools & the Indian Adoption Project.

— BigIndianGyasi (@BigIndianGyasi) June 16, 2018

Reflections from the Hogan: Separating Families? It's What the US has Always Done

Wirelesshogan LINK: There is a crisis going on at our borders. Children are being separated from their families. Mothers are being separated from their babies. ...



Throughout our history the United States of America has used the
separation of families as a means of controlling people of color.



Indian Boarding Schools:

"In
1961, when I was six years old, my parents were ordered by the U.S.
government and the BIA to put me in Kinlichee Boarding School. My father
took me there and left me crying after him. I remember crying all the
time. I was in Kinlichee for six years, Toyei Boarding School for two
years, and Fort Wingate Boarding School for one year.  When we arrived
at boarding school, we were assigned a number, were given baths, and
were dressed in identical clothes and shoes. I was stripped of my Navajo
clothes and moccasins, which had been sewn for me by my mother, and
they were thrown away."

"I was always lonely. Every chance I got, I would go to the laundry
room. It had a big window, and if I sat in a certain place, I could see
the road at the top of the canyon or mesa. I would watch the road to see
if my parents were coming to get me. Kinlichee Boarding School was
built near a wash and was surrounded by a fence. I tried many times to
run away as I got older, but I was always caught. One time at Toyei
Boarding School, I crawled through the sagebrush, dirt, trees, and
cactus for miles, but they found me and brought me back for more
punishment."

(Written by Susie Silversmith, a boarding school survivor – quote taken from CRCNA Doctrine of Discovery Task Force – “Creating a New Family: A Circle of Conversation on the Doctrine of Christian Discovery” - pg. 55)

In Canada, hypocrisy is a uniquely potent force

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its final report, with ninety-four calls to action, and Justin Trudeau was elected to great gusts of hope that we might finally confront the horror of our history.

In the time since, the process of reconciliation between Canada and its First Nations has stalled, repeating the cycles of overpromising and underdelivering that have marred their relationship from the beginning. The much-vaunted commitment to “Nation to Nation” negotiation has been summarily abandoned. The National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls—another Trudeau election promise—has been plagued by resignations, inertia, and accusations of general ineffectiveness. Nonetheless, the acknowledgment is spreading. No level of government has mandated the practice; it is spreading of its own accord.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report of 2015 described Canadian colonization as a conquest with two major thrusts: the starvation of indigenous groups, and the attempt to erase indigenous languages and religious practices.

READ: Canada’s Impossible Acknowledgment | The New Yorker

KINSHIP: State Turns to Urgent Placement of Foster Kids with Relatives, Friends

Making matters more urgent are the strict requirements under the Indian Child Welfare Act, which strongly favors placement in tribal households like the Tointighs’. The family said the fact that John Tointigh and their three biological children are members of the Apache tribe increased their appeal in the eyes of DHS. The foster kids they took in come from a different tribe.

Source: State Turns to Urgent Placement of Foster Kids with Relatives, Friends | Oklahoma Watch

Since the latter half of 2016, the percentage of children placed first in a kinship foster home by the state has increased, according to Oklahoma Department of Human Services data. Under DHS' definition, kinship can include not only close blood relatives but also more distant relatives, family friends, community members who have played an important role in the child's life, and others.

Month	Children Placed in Kinship as First Placement	Children Removed from Family Home and Eligible for Placement	Percent of Kinship as First Placement
Baseline: July-December 2016	878	2,540	34.6%
January-June 2017	1,001	2,594	38.6%
July-December 2017	1,009	2,264	44.6%
January-June 2018 (YTD)	664	1,417	46.9%

How Do We Mend The Hoop?

By Trace Hentz (Winyan Ohmanisa Waste La Ke)

This is an essay from the anthology The Lost Daughters: Writing Adoption From a Place of Empowerment and Peace was edited by Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston, Julie Stromberg, Karen Pickell, and Jennifer Anastasi. (published in 2011)

Years ago I was embarrassed to say I was adopted. I did not feel lucky. I did not have a clue that my adoption hurt me so badly, its tentacles reached into every aspect of my life, even as an adult. My hoop, my connection to my ancestors, was broken by my adoption.
I ached to know my own mother, the woman who created me.

One expert wrote, “Loss of the most sacred bond in life, that of a mother and child, is one of the most severe traumas and this loss will require long-term, if not lifelong, therapy.” (now called toxic stress)

Really?  No one helped me with this. I had therapy twice. The counselling I received in my 20s or 30s concerned my dysfunctional childhood and yet all my issues stemmed from my adoption wound and loss. They missed it or didn't inquire or connect the dots. Why is that?

For close to 20 years, on my own I searched and simply wanted to find answers and the truth. I made calls before I showed up anywhere; I did not disrupt anyone’s life.  If I was invited to meet relatives, I went. In 2011 alone, two cousins have filled giant gaps in my ancestry. Prayers are answered, even the unspoken ones.
I can see how adoption loss can last a lifetime. For some friends, they're stalled with sealed adoption records, not knowing which tribe, and suffer greatly with grief and depression.

For them, I wrote my book as a journalist and adoptee and now I write a blog for other American Indian adoptees, raised by non-Indians.
For those who attempt to open their own adoption, or simply want to understand, I explain many stages, steps I had taken: some good, some hard. 

Sharing stories is how we heal, how we mend the hoop.

Even now there is persistent rampant poverty in Indian Country. Even now it isn’t easy being Indian, on and off the reserves. But it is definitely better to know who you are, which tribe, and not live in a mystery. Someone needs to build a bridge for these adoptees. Open records will accomplish this.

It's hard to admit but adoptees with Indian blood find out soon enough their reservations are closed to strangers. Without proof, without documents, you’re suspect.
We don’t always get our proof since state laws prevent it.  Just one Minnesota tribe, White Earth, decided to call out to its lost children/adoptees; this made news in 2007.  Just a few adoptees showed up. Why? Adoption records are still sealed in Minnesota.

America’s Indian Adoption Project was not publicized or well known, just like a few more secrets I found out. Congress heard Indian leaders complain in 1974, “In Minnesota, 90 percent of the adopted Indian children are placed in non-Indian homes.”

I was born in Minnesota.

For any adoptee going back to their tribe, this requires a special kind of courage. Adoptees know this. Rhonda, a Bay Mills Tribal member, an adoptee friend of mine, was told early on – be happy, be white.  Ask yourself, how would you react?

When did Indian Country become such a bad place to be from? When did this happen? How did this happen?

My mission is to find these answers and build new bridges... it is time to mend the hoop for all adoptees.

The Hoop symbolizes the never ending circle of life which starts with birth, then goes to maturity, then to old age and death with the completion of the hoop in rebirth here or in the spiritual world. The individual who has his life in order stands in the center of the hoop to see, to understand, and to be guided by the various paths of life around him. The best compliment one can pay an individual is to say that he stands in the center of the hoop of life or that he lives on the correct path of life. http://www.grandfathersspirit.com/Hoop-of-Life-Buffalo-Skull.html

THE BOOK


MORE

Fighting toxic stress in children is tough but possible | MIT ...

MIT Picower Institute for Learning and Memory symposium speakers say fighting toxic stress in children is tough but possible.

Why Kids Should Be Protected from Toxic Stress | Psychology Today

Why Kids Should Be Protected from Toxic Stress Sustained stress has negative effects on child wellbeing. Posted Dec 17, 2014

MDHHS - Trauma & Toxic Stress

Trauma and Its Impact on Children and Their Families . Information about trauma/toxic stress and their impact; the ACEs study & building resilience

Out of Darkness: 7 Part Series: Indigenous Solutions for Child Welfare

In This Series

How Canada Created a Crisis in Indigenous Child Welfare

Part one of a series: from residential schools to the Sixties Scoop, governments set out to undermine Indigenous families.

By Katie Hyslop, 9 May 2018

How Poverty and Underfunding Land Indigenous Kids in Care

Part two of a series: governments falling short in fixing Indigenous child welfare crisis, say critics.

By Katie Hyslop, 14 May 2018

Lessons from Care: ‘If the Government Hadn’t Done All Those Terrible Things’

Part three in a series. Who better to
ask for solutions than Indigenous youth who have been in government
care. First up, Ashley Bach.

By Katie Hyslop, 16 May 2018

The Kelowna Accord, Racism and the Child Welfare Crisis

Part four in a series. Former PM Paul Martin says an opportunity was lost; Cindy Blackstock isn’t so sure.

By Katie Hyslop, 22 May 2018

Changes Coming — Slowly — to Indigenous Child Welfare in BC

Part five of a series. Now that governments are finally acknowledging the problem, here’s what is changing.

By Katie Hyslop, 24 May 2018

Lessons from Care: ‘The Only Flaw in This System Is that Some of Us Survived’

Part six in a series. Jaye Simpson on lessons from a childhood in care.

By Katie Hyslop, 28 May 2018

Closing the Gap Between White Schools of Social Work and Indigenous Families

Part seven of a series. Indigenizing social work, one school at a time.

By Katie Hyslop, Today

 

Out of Darkness: 7 Part Series: Indigenous Solutions for Child Welfare

In This Series

How Canada Created a Crisis in Indigenous Child Welfare

Part one of a series: from residential schools to the Sixties Scoop, governments set out to undermine Indigenous families.

By Katie Hyslop, 9 May 2018

How Poverty and Underfunding Land Indigenous Kids in Care

Part two of a series: governments falling short in fixing Indigenous child welfare crisis, say critics.

By Katie Hyslop, 14 May 2018

Lessons from Care: ‘If the Government Hadn’t Done All Those Terrible Things’

Part three in a series. Who better to ask for solutions than Indigenous youth who have been in government care. First up, Ashley Bach.

By Katie Hyslop, 16 May 2018

The Kelowna Accord, Racism and the Child Welfare Crisis

Part four in a series. Former PM Paul Martin says an opportunity was lost; Cindy Blackstock isn’t so sure.

By Katie Hyslop, 22 May 2018

Changes Coming — Slowly — to Indigenous Child Welfare in BC

Part five of a series. Now that governments are finally acknowledging the problem, here’s what is changing.

By Katie Hyslop, 24 May 2018

Lessons from Care: ‘The Only Flaw in This System Is that Some of Us Survived’

Part six in a series. Jaye Simpson on lessons from a childhood in care.

By Katie Hyslop, 28 May 2018

Closing the Gap Between White Schools of Social Work and Indigenous Families

Part seven of a series. Indigenizing social work, one school at a time.

By Katie Hyslop, Today

 

Keep Dancing: We are not Victims

THIS IS AN EARLIER POST from this blog

By Trace A. DeMeyer

“I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile I keep dancing.” That is a line in the book “Bird by Bird” by Ann Lamott.  Her comical book offers instructions on writing and life and so far -- I’ve had good belly laughs. Yep, Ann made a funny book!

In part two, Ann was fighting herself over jealousy of another writer friend. She wrote, “Sometimes this human stuff is slimy and pathetic - jealousy especially so - but better to feel it and talk about it and walk through it than to spend a lifetime poisoned by it."

Poison is nothing to mess with.  I spoke with an adoptee friend last night and Levi is sure we adoptees need to create new ceremonies, even some just for us adoptees. I was nodding at every word Levi said.  A lifetime of isolation from what we know to be ours, our blood rights as Indigenous People, our language and culture and the healing offered by participating in ceremony, it was not ours growing up white and adopted and assimilated.

But we adoptees are not victims, Levi said. No, we are changed by adoption but not its victims.

I thought about ceremony, what ceremony I missed growing up, and what other Indian people probably took for granted growing up. That does make me jealous. I didn’t get to meet my grandmothers in flesh, only in dreams.

I am sad I do not how to make my own regalia. I see others dance at powwow and wish someone had time to teach me what I need to know.

I can think of a million things I’d like to know. When I met relatives in Illinois last year, I was over the moon happy.  My Harlow cousins filled many holes in my heart.

I am in reunion. Jealousy is not my poison.

For those not in reunion, their hearts ache.  We need to find a way to heal them.

How Foster Care Has Stripped Native American Children of Their Own Cultures

“Some envision themselves as saviors, maintaining that Native children are better off growing up in white homes.”

Removal didn’t just happen through boarding schools. Native children were also taken from their families and communities and placed with non-Natives. Lost Bird was among the first. She was found as an infant under her mother’s frozen body after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, when more than 150 unarmed Lakota were slaughtered by the U.S. Cavalry. She was adopted by Gen. Leonard Colby. Her life was difficult and marred with rejection and abuse: Her adoptive father was indifferent to her existence, and her adoptive mother attempted to raise her as white, but society would not accept her. No one could erase her desire to learn about her Lakota roots, either.
By the 1970s, research found that approximately 25% to 35% of all Native children in the U.S. were being placed in foster homes, adoptive homes, or institutions, and 85% of these children were being placed outside of their families and communities, even when fit and willing relatives were available to care for them. Research has shown that Native children in foster care who stayed connected to their culture did better, and those who weren’t were at greater risk for behavioral and mental health problems.

MUST READ: The Foster Care System Has Failed Native American Youth

Coming Up: Native America Calling: Tracy Rector

Tuesday, May 15, 2018 - Native in the spotlight: Tracy Rector

Tracy Rector's (Choctaw/Seminole) films have been seen by audiences at the Cannes Film Festival, ImagineNative, the Toronto International Film Festival, and PBS. Her latest work, Dawnland, follows Maine's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the removal of Native children from their homes. The other films she's worked on include Teachings of the Tree People, March Point, and Ch'aak' S'aagi. Rector describes herself as a mixed race urban Indian, filmmaker and activist. We'll talk with her about her passion for filmmaking, social justice and what is next for her career.

 

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Native America Calling is joining ProPublica's Documenting Hate project, working to collect, analyze and report on crimes motivated by hate and bias. The project is building a database of tips for use by journalists, researchers and civil-rights organizations. If you're a victim or a witness to a hate crime, click here to fill out an online form. The information will be shared with partners in the Documenting Hate project, but no one else will see the information you share without your permission.

 

***

 

Native America Calling is a national call-in program that invites guests and listeners to join a dialogue about current events, music, arts, entertainment and culture. The program is hosted by Tara Gatewood (Isleta Pueblo) and airs live each weekday from 1-2 pm Eastern. Join the conversation by calling 1-800-996-2848.  LISTEN

 

 

This blog will be on hiatus until June... email: laratrace@outlook.com

The Navajo Nation is committed to the protection of all its children #ICWA

Texas Attorney General Kenneth Paxton – NPR Photo

Navajo Nation Seeks to Dismiss Texas’ Challenge to Indian Child Welfare Act

Published April 30, 2018

WINDOW ROCK – On April 26, 2018 the Navajo Nation filed its Motion to Intervene and Dismiss with the federal district court in Texas v. Zinke. The case is a constitutional challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) by the states of Texas, Indiana, and Louisiana. It relies on a Texas state ICWA case concerning the placement of a Navajo child with a non-native family. In its motions the Nation argues that a decision for Texas would negatively affect the Nation’s relationship with this child and numerous Navajo children throughout the country. The Nation asks the court to dismiss the case because it is not a party, and it cannot be made a party, due to its sovereign immunity.

ICWA was passed by Congress in 1978 to stop the mass removal of Indian children from Native families and facilitated placement of those children with non-Natives. Congress found ICWA to be necessary because Indian children are the future of their tribes, and so their removal threatens the very existence of tribes. ICWA provides tribes and tribal members rights to protect their interests in their children.

In the Texas case the Nation located a Navajo family to adopt the Navajo child. However, the non-Native foster parents refused to allow the removal of the child, filing multiple court challenges to the placement of the Navajo child with the Navajo family, including the Texas v. Zinke challenge. The actions by the foster parents have prevented the Navajo child from growing up in his Navajo culture, language and community, and has prevented the Nation from maintaining a vital connection to one of its members.

“The Navajo Nation is committed to the protection of all its children, wherever they may live” commented Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye. “We want all Navajo children to have the opportunity to know their people, their traditions, and their language. As this lawsuit shows, we will continue to fight for them. We want them to know they are not forgotten, no matter where they may live.”

“Our children are the future of the Navajo Nation,” noted Vice-President Jonathan Nez. “They are the ones who will take our elders teachings and pass them down for generations to come. I am disappointed by the actions of the plaintiffs in this case who are attempting to sever the connection between Navajo children and our way of life teachings.”

“Keeping our children with Diné families keeps our language and culture with our most valuable children” stated Navajo Nation Council Delegate Nathaniel Brown. “The future of our Nation depends on our children. They are the ones who will carry on our traditions and our ways. The actions taken by the foster parents and the State of Texas have deprived this precious Navajo child of a connection to his Navajo culture and tribe.”

“ICWA was meant to prevent the exact situation in this case: the wresting of an Indian child from his people” noted Attorney General Branch. “ICWA’s entire purpose is to maintain and preserve the connection between an Indian child and her tribe. This year is ICWA’s 40th anniversary; we should be celebrating the success of ICWA, not having to defend ICWA and the basic human right of Navajo families and communities to remain intact.  There should be no question to our right to remain distinctly Navajo through the passage of our culture, language, and treaty and sovereign rights to our children.”

CLICK HERE to read court filing.

Dawnland documentary premier #TRC

We mention this important documentary in the anthology STOLEN GENERATIONS (book 3 in the Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects book series)...

“They tried to kill the Penobscot part of us,’’ Dawn Neptune said. It didn’t work.

By Thomas Farragher Globe Columnist  April 19, 2018

BANGOR — She was a 4-year-old kid named Dawn Neptune, who lived not far from here in a place called Indian Island, a reservation of the Penobscot Nation, a cultural touchstone that shaped — still shapes — who she is.
Her mother, then still a teenager, drank too much in those early days. It was an open family secret, part of an intergenerational trauma that, like her Penobscot heritage, was a critical and governing rhythm to her young life.
And then Dawn Neptune was gone. A baby sitter took her and a younger brother to a grocery store a half-hour away from the reservation. And then abruptly drove away, a cruel abandonment that served as the little girl’s entry into life in foster care, where she promptly learned a hard lesson no kid should be forced to absorb: Forget about your mom. Forget about Indian Island. Forget about being Penobscot.
And then one day she spoke briefly in her native tongue and suffered swift and ugly punishment she has never — can never — forget.
It also echoes through a riveting new documentary film, “Dawnland,’’ which makes its East Coast premiere on April 28 at Independent Film Festival Boston at the Somerville Theatre.
It’s an 86-minute journey of raw and recent history told through the eyes of those who have lived through it. Who have survived it. Who are determined to bear unstinting witness to it.


READ: Reclaiming a culture, reclaiming a life - The Boston Globe

WEBSITE: http://dawnland.org/

When Terrorism is Personal #BabyVeronica

AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: When Terrorism is Personal #BabyVeronica #FlipThe...:

Guest Post by ellecuardaigh

This post needs to read again and again.

So now children are taken for these reasons:

• Poverty, or, just not having as much money as the prospective adoptive family
• Asking for a second opinion after a medical diagnosis is made regarding your child
• Being Native American
• Being short
• Considering adoption then deciding against it
• Going to the ER for any reason
• Using medical marijuana
• Being a single parent
• Disagreeing with anything a teacher or other authority figure says about your child
• Not adhering strictly to the recommended vaccine schedule
• Being exceptionally attractive
• Not putting your child into preschool
• Allowing your child to play in your own yard
• Having an unusual birthmark
• Your neighbor or some awful relative just wants to hurt you
• CPS meeting their “children in care” quotas
• And I’ll say it again, because this is the #1 reason: You don’t have the money to fight back.

CLICK HERE