Native American DNA with Roberta Estes

 SOURCE

Research Like a Pro Podcast

Posted on August 31, 2022

I love to see families working together. Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder are a lovely mother-daughter genealogy team and hostesses of Research Like a Pro, a podcast through their genealogy research company, Family Locket. Their Research Like a Pro podcasts help genealogists “take your research to the next level.”

I was so pleased to be invited to join them for a discussion about my book, DNA for Native American Genealogy.

For those of you who don’t normally listen to podcasts and don’t have a podcast app, you don’t need one. You can just click to listen online, or they have kindly transcribed the session. The transcription is automated, so not exact, but still a great tool.

Interviews are interesting because the back and forth is so revealing and includes information not found in the book. As it turns out, their family had a Native American story too – and it was very similar to mine. That oral history which was accepted as fact in my family is what launched my search many years ago.

They “cheated” and opened by asking me about what drives and inspires me. I’m not interviewed live very often, and don’t think I’ve ever been asked this question before. If you’d like to hear me talk about what motivates me and gets me out of bed every morning, aka, “life’s pennies,” click here.

Of course, most of the hour was spent discussing Native American records and resources, including DNA evidence. We discussed ethnicity and how to actually USE it (yes, you can), vendors, their products and resources, Y and mitochondrial DNA, third-party tools, and how to integrate these resources successfully.

As a bonus, let me give you one of the tips I talked about that’s not in the book. Declined enrollment applications for the Five Civilized Tribes. If your family wasn’t enrolled, they might be found in the declined applications, which often provide a HUGE amount of family information. Here is a list of those resources at FamilySearch. Don’t miss the Cherokee by Blood book series by Jerry Wright Jordan and the Extract of Rejected Applications of the Guion Miller Roll of the Eastern Cherokee series by Jo Ann Curls Page.

Also, as an aside, in some cases, DNA testing has proven using Y or mitochondrial DNA that the declined enrollment was in error and the family did, in fact, have Native ancestors. That’s both heartbreaking and validating.

This was such a fun and informative hour. I swear, we talked about everything. While this podcast is focused on finding Native American ancestors, the DNA tools, tips, and research techniques are certainly relevant and useful for everyone, so please join us and enjoy!

If you don’t have my book yet, you can purchase it here:

• DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
• DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
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• PODCAST
  

History Lesson: The World We Used To Live In

 

This will blow your mind!

Enjoy! TLH, Blog Editor

Still Adoption Warriors: Remember Von Hughes

 REBLOG FROM 2017

Still #Adoption Warriors

Archive photo

By Trace Hentz  (Blog Editor)

Hi everyone. Huge thanks for visiting this blog and reading this blog.  In case you don't know, I started this blog back in Dec. 2009.  I didn't know what I was doing but I had the notion to find more adoptees like me. Well, well, well... it worked.

Even in 2005 when I was writing and doing research for my memoir ONE SMALL SACRIFICE, I had no idea how many adoptees there are or were... not exactly easy to find out.  There could be up to 7 million in the US right now, maybe even more.  That's not counting our relatives in Canada.

Along the way I found others who were blogging their experiences, like Von Coates in Australia.  She educated me, and helped me become a better adoptee-activist-blogger.  We became friends and Von and I emailed, and both of us contributed our writing to the LOST DAUGHTERS blog.

Read this latest update from Von HERE  (she started this blog in 2012)

From her blog:
In the world of adoption, there are many phrases and words for describing adoption, the process of adoption or parts of it, adoptees and other characters appearing with regularity. So called experts write books about acceptable adoption language and there are regularly arguments in various venues around social medias sites on correct useage, offensiveness, unacceptability and who is right/wrong/indifferent....

Von had her Blogger blog that was taken down. Someone complained about her posts and Google shut her down.  But she is a warrior and didn't stop. She moved her writing over to Wordpress.

After time and so much experience, the activism and blogging changed us.  We may not write as often.  We see the same battles, the same ignorance and we see the same propaganda.  We see over and over how the billion dollar adoption industry silences the adoptee.  In many ways we are seen as the commodity - the one they made their money on... today adoptees are still in the SILENT MAJORITY.

In many states in the United States, adoptees still cannot request their original birth certificate (OBC) or their sealed adoption files. See what states have access in 2016 HERE.

For the past 7+ years doing this blog, I saw that other adoptee blogs were firing up fighting this, as more and more adoptees found their voice. 

And they voiced their anger.  And their disappointment.

And they told their stories of reunions with their first families, or if they were not able to meet their mom or dad, because they were too late, because their parent had already died.

Why?  These adoption laws are archaic and ridiculous. They were written to protect the people who adopted us.

I have talked to adoptees about the anguish of not knowing who they are. And some tell me about reunions that started great and went silent.  (If you don't live close to your relatives, travel and jobs can make reunions very difficult to keep going.)

Adoptees know we have two families to find, our mother and our father's people. We may find one side and go into reunion, after we open our adoption records. The other side of our family might wait years to be found.

I was telling my friend Maggie yesterday (February 6, 2017) that I have not met my two half-sisters on my mother's side.  (2022 - still have not met them)

So I am still an adoption warrior but not as vocal as I had been when I started this blog.  It's time for others to FIND THEIR VOICE and write their truths and BLOG too.

If you are an adoptee and you have a blog and you are writing about adoption, please leave a comment here (below.) Tell us the blog address so we can read you and support you.

We have a long way to go... The Indian Adoption Projects took thousands of us... and many adoptees still need to find our way home.

History Lesson: Blood Quantum | Minnesota Tribes

Determining citizenship: Minnesota Chippewa faced historic blood quantum vote

A federally imposed citizenship requirement of possessing 25% Minnesota Chippewa blood dates back 60 years.  

By Jana Hollingsworth Star Tribune  May 28, 2022

Brian Peterson, Star Tribune file

White Earth Nation citizens gather wild rice on a Minnesota lake. Treaty rights, for things like gathering rice and hunting, are part of membership to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Tribal members will be asked next month whether a blood requirement for membership should remain in their Constitution.

DULUTH, Minnesota — Should Native American blood continue to be a tribal citizenship requirement?

That's the question facing the 34,000 adult citizens of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) who are being asked whether to amend a critical piece of the tribe's controversial Constitution. It's a document that dictates its citizenship, rights, elections and governing body that was forced upon them by the federal government more than 60 years ago.

The vote is decades in the making as tribal leaders studied the issue. Ballots are set to be mailed for what's known as a blood quantum vote on June 14. (see update below)

Since 1961, membership in the six-nation tribe requires a minimum of 25% Minnesota Chippewa Indian blood, or blood quantum, stemming back to 1941 membership rolls kept by the federal government. The requirement has had the effect of shrinking the tribe's enrollment, with many children not considered members despite parents who are.

"We need to do something soon, as the end of the line is very near," said Wayne Dupuis, a member of the Fond du Lac band who has worked on Constitution reform for more than 40 years. Dupuis' three children were denied Fond du Lac citizenship nearly two decades ago because of the blood quantum rule. Dupuis said membership to the tribe should reflect its values and customs, not a calculation "determined by a law of diminishing returns.

Not everyone agrees. Some worry already limited federal funds will have to be spread thinner or that more people taking advantage of treaty rights for wild ricing or hunting will make resources scarce.

When the blood rule was adopted in 1961, the Bureau of Indian Affairs equated Native Americans with "horses and dogs," said Melanie Benjamin, chief executive and chair of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

"We as tribal leaders have to make sure we correct all of these terrible policies that were intended to wipe us out as American Indian people," Benjamin said.

Today, just 15% of MCT membership — about 40,000 people — is under age 18, a low figure directly related to the blood quantum rule.

Talk of removing the blood quantum criteria, as the Cherokee, Seminole and many other tribes have done, has swirled for decades. In recent years Minnesota Chippewa Tribe leaders, comprised of those from its six reservations, convened a group of delegates to study constitutional reform. The group recommended an initial vote meant to guide tribal leaders in the reform members want related to blood quantum, its biggest issue. A binding vote could follow.

Another question is on the ballot: Should the six reservations be allowed to determine their own citizenship requirements?

For some, the questions are complicated and wrapped in a history of the federal government's quest to shrink the number of Native Americans while eradicating their cultures, issues of identity and inclusion, and practical matters like services and funding.

The vote signifies reclaiming control of what was "imposed on tribes by the federal government," said Karen Diver, former chair of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa who also worked for the Obama administration on Native American issues.

"The ultimate exercise in tribal sovereignty is how you determine citizenship," she said.

update👇

Minnesota Chippewa Tribe members vote to eliminate blood quantum...

https://www.twincities.com › 2022/07/24 › minnesota-c...

Members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe have voted in a historic advisory referendum to eliminate a requirement that enrolled members must have 25% tribal blood.

Out of nearly 7,800 ballots cast, 64% of voters said the “blood quantum” requirement should be removed from the tribe’s constitution, which was adopted under pressure from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs in the early 1960s.

In a second referendum question, 57% said individual bands or reservations should be able to determine their own membership requirements. The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe is made up of six Ojibwe or Chippewa bands in northern Minnesota, the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs and White Earth reservations. Red Lake Nation is not part of the MCT.  More👇

URGENT REQUEST: Tell the World what Happened to STOLEN GENERATIONS #WHYICWAMATTERS

request the pdf

By Trace L Hentz, Blog Editor

I have a simple request for adoptees who read this blog.  

Starting now and THIS FALL I think we need to use our experience as adoptees and contact MEDIA (GOOGLE: newspapers in your city, state or town)  regarding the 1978 federal law Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and why it is needed.  And we need to do this BEFORE the Supreme Court hearing in November.  

I think it would be a good idea to GET OUR STORIES out there.  

EMAIL or PHONE newspaper and radio stations and say: I'd like to tell you my story and WHY ICWA MATTERS:, mention the year you were born and explain if you are in reunion with your tribal relatives. 

Even if you have done this before, please consider updating your story in a newspaper (including tribal newspapers). I will also post your story on this website if you email me.

We adoptees know how we were affected.   YES, we are called a STOLEN GENERATION for a reason! Maybe the scars are internal but they are still scars. We know they exist, even if we were adopted by decent white people.

If anyone wishes to read TWO WORLDS: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, I will send you the pdf.  Read the testimony of other survivors and let that help you tell your own story.  You can tell the media how you searched and how you went into reunion or not.  This website has lots of adoptee stories posted. [email: tracelara@pm.me]

If you contact a newspaper, for example, you can inform them you are an adoptee pre-ICWA. You may have to send them to this website for background information. 

USE YOUR VOICE to educate others. WE NEED YOU!  You can use your own experience to explain why the INDIAN CHILD WELFARE ACT matters.

It does matter. 

READ THIS: https://blog.americanindianadoptees.com/2018/11/someone-finally-gets-it-why-icwa-matters.html 

READ THIS: https://blog.americanindianadoptees.com/2015/07/shattered.html

STUDY
Entire generations of First Nations people have been separated from their birth families and tribes by historical acts of relocation, boarding schools, and the adoption era.  Reunification is an essential component to rebuilding the First Nations population.  It is echoed across tribes captured by the phrase, “generation after generation we are coming home” (White Hawk, 2014).  The purpose of this study was to investigate personal and social identity indicators that contribute to a satisfactory reunification for 95 First Nations adult adoptees who were separated from their birth families during childhood by foster-care and/or adoption.  First Nations adoptees have not only a biological/birth family to return to, but also a tribe, and ancestral land.   

REFER to THIS:   Finding their way home: The reunification of First Nations adoptees by Ashley L. Landers, Sharon M. Danes, and Sandy White Hawk.

YOU can also refer them to me (Trace Hentz) or other adoptees, by all means do that... Send reporters to the National Indian Child Welfare Association: Terry L. Cross (Seneca) Senior Advisor  (503) 222-4044, Ext. 150 EMAIL: terry@nicwa.org

NICWA:  NICWA is a nonprofit, membership organization based in Portland, Oregon. Our members include tribes, individuals—both Native and non-Native—and private organizations from around the United States concerned with Native child and family issues. Together, our partners, board, and staff work to protect Native children and keep them connected to their family, community, and culture.

"...There is an ICWA because of us, all the American Indian Adoptees, Lost Birds, Stolen Children, 60s Scoop, and Indian Adoption Project adoptees. WE are the reason there is a law. We are still called the Stolen Generations. We are the second phase of atrocities committed against Indian People before during and after the boarding schools. (WE were supposed to permanently disappear in closed adoptions with sealed records, living "happily ever after" with our white parents.) There is a federal law ICWA because of us, because adoption trafficking in Native babies and children was clearly genocide. With ICWA, there will be many less adoptees... We get that; in Indian Country we know this." - Trace Hentz

Adoption was set up so they had an excuse to take children because of the (poor) conditions we had to live in...— Denise Altvater

The forced removal of children to non-Native homes and boarding schools was central to the government’s failed attempts to strip Indigenous people of their culture and languages, in order to indoctrinate them with Western ideals. - IMPRINT NEWS 2022

Before ICWA became federal law, between 75% and 85% of Indigenous families who lived on a reservation had at least one of their children taken into foster care, according to Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services.

“Protecting children in state courts is a fundamental act of external sovereignty for tribes.  Active efforts and qualified expert witnesses are core vehicles to do that,” Grinnell-Davis told The Imprint. “If tribes no longer have the right to protect their citizens, or have the tools taken away that are important in that protection, other acts of external sovereignty such as environmental and cultural protections, mineral rights and gaming contracts will be challenged next, and sovereignty will be sovereignty in name only.”

YOUR STORY is important, whether you are in reunion or not.  And you need to know what your state's adoption laws are when you speak to the newspaper... Yes, it will take some time for you to do some research but PLEASE do this... use your experience to tell others, the entire world, what happened to us.

 

"When laws restrict opening adoption records, these policymakers make us victims.  There are many adoptees ready to know their family name, meet relatives and have reunions, but cannot because of adoption laws. Other adoptees, lulled by gratitude, may fear upsetting their adoptive family, and may not see themselves as victims of a corrupt unjust system.

"The adoptee moves from victim to survivor when they decide to break the law, when they decide to regain and restore their own identity, and get their name. That’s a giant leap forward."

Read my interview: https://blog.americanindianadoptees.com/p/survivor-not-victim-my-interview-with.html 

 

Please share this post on your social media and with all Native adoptees in your circle. DO NOT hesitate to get in touch with Trace via email. 

 

Trace Hentz 

https://blog.americanindianadoptees.com/ 

email: tracelara@pm.me 

or laratrace@outlook.com

 

 

The Heart of federal Indian policy #ICWA

 

Neoshia Roemer on ICWA as Reproductive Justice

Matthew L.M. Fletcher Aug 25

Neoshia Roemer has posted “The Indian Child Welfare Act as Reproductive Justice,” forthcoming in the Boston University Law Review, on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

After decades of abuse through family regulation, Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (“ICWA”) to prevent the breakup of Indian families and promote tribal sovereignty.  While ICWA seems like an outlier that addresses one category of children, it is not an outlier. Rather, I argue that ICWA is a tool of reproductive justice. By formulating a legal rights framework for reproductive justice in American jurisprudence, I discuss how the reproductive justice movement is grounded in U.S. law beyond the right to terminate a pregnancy that the Supreme Court abrogated in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. By looking at the history of reproductive rights in American Indian communities, I discuss how family regulation challenges reproductive rights and tribal sovereignty considering Dobbs and Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta. Indian child removals exist in the same history, context, and policy that disrupted the reproductive rights of American Indian families and tribal sovereignty in other areas. Before concluding that ICWA is still good law and good policy to disrupt family regulation and protect the reproductive rights of American Indian peoples, I consider where challenges to ICWA in Haaland v. Brackeen fit into this paradigm and the ongoing need for the protection of tribal sovereignty and reproductive rights for American Indian peoples.  For nearly 400 years, the disruption of reproductive rights, including family regulation, has been at the heart of federal Indian policy. The current frame of family regulation as “saving” children means that it is often divorced from the notion of reproductive rights.  As the history behind and contemporary challenges to ICWA demonstrate, it should not, and cannot, be separated from the other reproductive justice issues facing American Indian communities. To strengthen legal protections for American Indian people that disrupt these government interventions, like ICWA, is to realize reproductive rights more fully in the United States.

Highly recommended!!!

Alaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact: NEW LAW #ICWA

Alaska State Law Codifies Child Welfare Protections for Indigenous Families

By Nancy Marie Spears

A new state law that took effect August 5 in Alaska aims to “address and improve deep structural inequities” in the state’s child welfare system — protecting residents should broader federal protections be overturned by a pending Supreme Court case.

Specifically, HB 184 solidifies the state’s intergovernmental relationship with the tribes and codifies the protections of the Indian Child Welfare Act, the 1978 federal law providing Indigenous communities enhanced protections from foster care separation. The law known as ICWA faces a Nov. 9 challenge before the nation’s highest court.  

But the Alaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact will protect Alaska Native families, even when there are shifts in state administrations. It became law earlier this month without the sitting governor’s formal approval, following a bill signed by Alaska’s former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson, and 18 tribal co-signers representing 161 federally-recognized tribes. 

The Act ensures that tribes and tribal organizations can utilize foster care prevention programs that integrate the traditional, cultural beliefs of Indigenous communities in Alaska, paving the way for a more relevant and culturally appropriate child welfare system in the state. According to an Alaska House Coalition press release, signatories are now empowered “to provide quality children and family services as close to home as possible. The model is lauded nationally and has been replicated in other states.

“Children are the most vulnerable members of our communities; protecting them and helping them to thrive is the most important work we can do,” Association of Village Council Presidents CEO Vivian Korthuis stated in the press release. “We all have the responsibility to take care of all our children. Tribes have the same goal as the State — better outcomes for Alaskan children, and as partners we can transform child welfare together.”

The makes Alaska one of many states now finding ways to protect state residents in the event that the landmark ICWA law is struck down by the Supreme Court. To date California, Oregon, Washington, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Oklahoma have similar local laws in place. 

States are either strengthening their versions of the federal law, or are entering into government-to-government agreements — like this recent Alaska legislation —between state child welfare agencies and one or more tribes.

“Tribal compacting is the way out of Alaska’s child welfare crisis,” said Alaska Federation of Natives Executive Vice President and General Counsel Nicole Borromeo. 

The landmark state-tribal compact Borromeo helped facilitate began in 2017, “to address and improve deep structural inequities in Alaska’s child welfare system,” according to the press statement.

State leaders also praised the agreement. “The Tribal Child Welfare Compact is an excellent example of the State capitalizing on the excellent work of Alaska Tribes and working together to improve the way we are meeting the needs of Alaska families,” stated Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky (D), who served as prime sponsor of HB 184. “Healthy communities begin with healthy families. When our children succeed, so does Alaska.”

 

NEWS:

8/4/2022

Supreme Court Set to Consider Fate Of Indian Child Welfare Act in November

The Supreme Court will begin to hear oral arguments in a case that challenges the federal Indian Child Welfare Act in November.

 

GOOD NEWS: 21 pro-ICWA Amicus Briefs

 

Amicus Briefs in Haaland v. Brackeen

Kate Fort Aug 21

We have a total of 21 pro-ICWA Amicus Briefs. Here they are in some rough categories and some VERY rough summaries. In writing this post, I became overwhelmed at this stunning array of briefs and support for ICWA.

Government Briefs

NARF's Tribal Government and Organizations Brief : this brief has the sign on of nearly 500 tribes and over 60 tribal organizations. It discusses ICWA as an exercise of the trust responsibility, and the political relationship of tribes.

Congressional Brief : 87 Members of Congress signed this brief defending ICWA in the four principle arguments in the case

State AG Brief : 23 states and the District of Columbia signed on to this brief, which highlights how ICWA allows and encourages tribal-state relations in the area of child welfare.

LA County Brief : from the county counsel at the largest child welfare system in the country, it discusses the importance of ICWA to LA County practice with a focus on relocation in particular

Semi-Party Brief

Bradshaw Brief : This brief is unique in that it primarily tells the story of Robyn Bradshaw, the grandmother who adopted her granddaughter who was the subject of the claims of the Cliffords, one of the three foster family plaintiffs in the case. Because the procedural posture of the case below, the Cliffords' narrative of facts was allowed to go unchecked throughout the life of the case until now.

How Child Welfare Works Briefs

Family Defenders : a brief from parent attorneys/family defenders in more than 8 states, this brief discusses the constitutional rights afforded to parents and families, how those intersect with the child welfare system, and the importance of ICWA in that structure. It directly addresses the arguments made by the other side regarding the child welfare system.

American Bar Association : This brief directly takes on the contention that child welfare is the sole province of the states as well as discussing the legal complexity of the child welfare system.

Casey Family Programs and 26 Other Child Welfare and Adoption Organizations : A continuation of the original, wildly successful, "gold standard" brief from Baby Girl, this brief focuses on child welfare best practices and how ICWA creates, promotes, and supports them.

National Association of Counsel for Children and 30 Other Children's Rights Organizations : In addition to discussion the Constitutional rights of families, this brief directly addresses how ICWA supports the best interests of children in state proceedings.

Former Foster Children : One of the briefs with a particular place in my heart, this brief allowed Native youth to tell their lived experience to the Court.

How Adoption Works Brief

Non-Native Adoptive Parents : while the plaintiffs in this case were not adoptive parents, this brief directly addresses how ICWA actually works in voluntary adoptions.

Law Professor Briefs

Ablavsky Brief : The originalism brief

Administrative and Constitutional Law Professors : this brief addresses three main issues--federal power, anti-commandeering, and delegation

Indian Law Professors : this brief focuses on the exclusive power of Congress to legislate on behalf of Indians as a political class

American Historical Association : this brief provides historical context, especially around the early efforts (or lack thereof) of state child welfare systems and Native children

Medical Organizations

American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association : ICWA works directly to address the attendant physical and emotional trauma of federal and state policies designed to destroy tribal families and extended tribal networks

American Psychological Association (specifically including the associations of Texas, Louisiana, and Indianan) and the Society of Indian Psychologists : The benefits for children of being parented by Indian adults

Interest Groups

ACLU : ICWA is not a race based law

Constitutional Accountability Center : Originalism and anti-commandeering

National Indigenous Women's Resource Center : The ramifications, specifically to VAWA, if "Indian" is a racial classification

Sen. Abourezk/Lakota People's Law Project : Passage of ICWA and issues in South Dakota