Sacred Mound Returned to Osage Nation

 So much destruction of our history, along with looting and worse... Trace

Annotated image of Sugarloaf Mound from the Heckenberg Family Scrapbook. Photograph by Jennifer Colten. (photo/Courtesy of Joan Heckenberg.)

By Kaili Berg

November 22, 2024

Sugarloaf Mound, the last remaining intact Mississippian mound is one step closer to returning to the Osage Nation.

Once part of “Mound City,” a network of over 100 earthen structures constructed by Native Americans between 800 and 1450 AD, Sugarloaf Mound is the sole surviving structure to a civilization nearly erased by colonization and urban development. 

Bottom of Form

The Mississippian culture, responsible for building Sugarloaf Mound and others, was one of the most advanced pre-Columbian civilizations in North America. At its height, it included Cahokia, a massive urban center just across the Mississippi River in present-day Illinois. 

Cahokia, known for its towering Monk Mound, still the largest structure in the Americas, was home to an estimated 20,000 people during its peak around 1100 AD. 

Sugarloaf and Big Mound were among the most prominent structures in what is now St. Louis. These signal mounds were positioned along the Mississippi River, allowing communication with Cahokia via smoke signals. 

The mounds of St. Louis stood as landmarks when the city was founded in 1764, even drawing visits from European royalty.  However, settlers soon repurposed the structures, demolishing them to make way for roads, railroads, and the 1904 World’s Fair. 

According to AP News, bones from Big Mound were reportedly discarded into the Mississippi River as the structure was dismantled.  By the early 20th century, only Sugarloaf Mound remained. 

In 2009, the Osage Nation purchased a portion of Sugarloaf Mound and began stabilizing the site.  A pivotal moment came recently when 86-year-old Joan Heckenberg, who has lived on the mound for 81 years, agreed to sell her property to the Osage Nation. 

Once Heckenberg moves or passes away, this part of the mound will officially return to the tribe.  However, a house owned by Kappa Psi, a pharmaceutical fraternity, remains on the mound, and the fraternity has yet to commit to selling the property, AP News reported. 

Efforts to rematriate Sugarloaf Mound gained momentum with the 2023 Counterpublic triennial, a public art exhibition that turned the site into a symbol of Indigneous homecoming.  Public programming led by the artist collective New Red Order, curator Risa Puleo, and the Osage Nation brought visibility to the sacred mound and its importance. 

The city of St. Louis has also taken steps to recognize the mounds’ significance. Alderman Cara Spencer announced plans for a resolution in January 2024 to formally acknowledge Osage sovereignty over the site.

Long-term plans include developing a cultural and interpretive center at Sugarloaf Mound, which overlooks the Mississippi River a few miles south of downtown. 

For the Osage Nation, reclaiming Sugarloaf Mound is more than preserving a sacred site, it is a step toward sovereignty and the restoration of their heritage. 

“To be able to at least salvage one mound in St. Louis, on the west side of the Mississippi River — it means a lot to us, to regain our heritage,” Andrea Hunter, director of the Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office, told AP News. 

 

The costs of being adopted

That's me on the right with my adoptive family

By Trace L Hentz

News stories like this one in Missouri enrage me (read below).  31+ states restrict adoptees’ access to their original birth certificates, just like Missouri who is now considering a change. Some states will charge fees in the thousands of dollars for an adoptee to get their own identifying information.

Minnesota is still holding my OBC hostage. WHY? Old laws, old ignorant beliefs. All my parents, birth and adoptive, are dead. Why can't I have a piece of paper that has my real name? Why should I have to pay anything to have it? I didn't ask to be adopted. I didn't ask to have a fake amended birth certificate.

Has anyone else heard of the REAL ID ACT of 2005 that will require we all have documentation as to our identity. The creators of this ACT didn't think of 7+million adoptees - most don't have any real identification?

And let's look at more costs! State Intermediaries also charge adoptees fees: More money we don't have. I spoke with an adoptee last week and she said Lutheran Social Services told her to pay them $1000 and there was no guarantee they'd even find her file. No, they don't give refunds either. REALLY?

(2016) Karen Vigneault and I are still assisting Native adoptees who are trying to find their tribal families. And it's free. But we run into roadblocks with states like Missouri, Minnesota and Utah who are holding Native adoptees own documentation hostage. (look in the reference section to get in touch with Karen or me.) If you need to know information about the state where you live, and how to open your adoption records, please email Karen or me.

The costs of being adopted is not even mentioned in this story below:  

Missouri considers easing adoptee birth certificate access

Feb. 6. 2016

JEFFERSON CITY • Danika Donatti first met her biological father when he was in hospice dying from complications of a disease she might also carry.

Donatti, 18, was adopted shortly after birth. She has known the names of her biological parents since childhood but didn’t try to form a relationship with them until she learned her biological father was fighting cancer and a rare genetic disorder, which she had a 50 percent chance of inheriting.

“I could have this and I wouldn’t have known that had I not had my birth certificate,” she told The Associated Press.

Missouri is one of more than 31 states that restrict adoptees’ access to their original birth certificates, according to the American Adoption Congress, a group advocating expanding such access. Adoptees can obtain their original birth certificates only through a court order; they can access their adoption file, which can contain identifying information, if their biological parents give their permission or die.

If the parents cannot be found, the information remains sealed.

Legislation scheduled for a vote on Feb.9 by a Missouri House committee would change that. The Missouri Adoptee Rights Act, sponsored by Rep. Don Phillips, would open access to original birth certificates to adoptees at age 18.

The current law creates hardships for adoptees that should not exist under the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause, said Phillips, R-Kimberling City. “It doesn’t say, P.S., by the way adoptees, sorry about your bad luck but you’re not included.”

After an adoption is finalized, a court amends the child’s birth certificate to list the adoptive family as the parents. An adoptee doesn’t need consent to get nonidentifying information about biological parents — which can include a medical history if it was provided at birth.

The current arrangement protects the confidentiality of the birth mother, said Laura Long, and it would be wrong to change that retroactively.

Long, who is an adoptee, works as a confidential intermediary for people seeking their biological parents’ permission to release their identifying information. Many parents consent, she said, but many were traumatized by getting pregnant and placing their child for adoption. People still feel stigmatized by that, she said, and it’s still a secret for some.

The state should respect the wishes of parents who agreed to adoption because of its confidentiality, said Tyler McClay, general counsel for the Missouri Catholic Conference, which opposes the bill. He said a better model is Illinois, which makes identifying documents available unless the biological parents opt out.
The bill is HB 1599.

Missouri? Are they next to open our adoption files?

Steven Hamblin says while he wouldn’t trade his life for anything, he wants to know more about where he came from.

JACKSON, MO (KFVS) -  Giving a child up for adoption can be a difficult decision for some birth parents.

It can also be difficult for some children when they grow up and want to reconnect with their biological families. However, that could change under one Missouri proposal.

Right now it's very difficult for adults in Missouri who were adopted as children to get their own original birth certificate.

"I look at faces. I used to look at yearbooks from SEMO,” Steven Hamblin said.

Hamblin was adopted at birth.

"My non-identifying information states that my father was a college student with an engineering degree,” Hamblin said.

He said while he wouldn't trade his life for anything, he wants to know more about where he came from.

"I want to search and find my birth family. I want to know what my identity is as far as German, Irish, whatever I might be,” Hamblin said.

He said access to his birth certificate, which includes his birth parents' names, isn't only about peace-of-mind but could lead him to more.

"It doesn't open up for my family medical history but it's a step towards being able to open your adoption records,” Hamblin said.

A bill going through the state legislature would make it easier to get that information.

Through an application process, House Bill 647, would put Hamblin's original certificate in his hands for good, but some say that has its downsides.

"This would even open up records for adoptions 30 to 40 years old when women at that time were told nobody will ever know about this,” Evelyn Beussink, the assistant director at Lutheran Family and Children's Services, said.

It's a move Beussink and agency director Leisa Blisset say could cause privacy issues.

"Could be crisis pregnancy maybe from rape so they don't want that information to get out,” Blisset said. They say they want to respect all parties involved in adoptions and know how emotional this issue can be.

"It could cause a lot of difficulties both the privacy concerns and the concerns about the trauma,” Beussink said.

As for Hamblin, he said it's not an issue of privacy but of rights.

"It'll be a sense of relief. Right now, the one I have is a Xerox copy and I can see the staple in the corner where my original is folded behind it,” Hamblin said.

There is another bill that deals with this same issue. Beussink and Blisset say they support House Bill 1112, which would allow adoptees their birth certificate with permission from their birth parents.

However Hamblin said that is not enough; that process is still too long.

SOURCE 

NOTE and COMMENT: HB 1112 would make it so the adopted person has to go through the same process that they do now to get their records. This means that thousands of adopted adults would get nothing when the court cannot find their file or the appointed searcher cannot locate the biological parent even though the adoptee is charged and average of $300-$500 for such a search. Adopted adults should have the right to their own information. If the biological parent chooses to Not have a relationship, then at least the adopted person would have closure and the chance to ask for Medical information: Comment from Heather Dodd

HBO 1112 is an agency bill that mirrors current law which does not follow best practices in adoption. HB 647 establishes that adult adopted Missourians have the same right to their original birth certificates as non-adopted adults. (That one is the one we need and want...Trace) 


**************MORE NEWS!

http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/indiana/2015/03/16/Indiana-Supreme-Court-hears-disputed-adoption-of-2-boys.html

Indiana Supreme Court hears disputed adoption of 2 boys

Indiana Supreme Court hears adoption case of 2 boys that pits grandmothers against each other

What's best for kids? Michigan adoption bills would protect faith-based agencies, limit LGBT options

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/03/whats_best_for_kids_michigan_a.html

January  2016: Colorado to open all birth records!

Guatemalan Child Kidnapping for Adoption

Missouri Couple Silent on Order to Return Adopted Daughter to Guatemala

By RESHMA KIRPALANI and CHRISTINA NG, Aug. 5, 2011

A Guatemalan judge has ordered an American couple in Missouri to return their 6-year-old adopted
daughter to her birth mother in San Miguel Petapa, Guatemala.

There are major questions about whether the judge’s ruling is enforceable in the U.S. and whether the

couple who adopted the girl, Timothy James Monahan and Jennifer Lyn Vanhorn Monahan of Liberty, Mo., will comply or simply ignore it.
The Missouri couple has remained silent since the judge’s ruling.
Judge Angelica Noemi Tellez Hernandez ruled on Monday in favor of the child's birth mother, Loyda
Rodriguez, who is represented by the Guatemalan human rights group, Survivors' Foundation. The foundation claims that the child was kidnapped from her mother in 2006 and was illegally put up for
adoption by traffickers who financially benefited when the child was adopted by the Missouri couple in

2008.

The foundation does not allege that the U.S. couple knew the girl had been kidnapped, according to the

Associated Press.

Court Rules Missouri Couple Adopted Stolen Baby

Court documents released by the Survivors' Foundation lists the adoptive parents as Timothy James Monahan and Jennifer Lyn Vanhorn Monahan of Liberty, Mo., a suburb of Kansas City.  Calls to Monahan, an orthopedic surgeon, were not immediately returned to ABCNews.com.

Hernandez ordered the cancellation of the child’s passport, made out to Karen Abigail Monahan
Vanhorn when she was adopted out of the country.
The court order says that the American Embassy should coordinate efforts with local agencies in
Guatemala to help locate the child in the U.S. and return her to Rodriguez. If she is not returned within
two months, Interpol will be solicited to help locate and return her, the court stated.
Nine Guatemalans, including a judge, have been charged in the case.
Survivors' Foundation said in a statement, "The resolution is considered historical and it's a light of
hope for all the Guatemalans, because the justice in Guatemala, despite all of the obstacles, is changing
not with giant steps but hopefully case by case."
In 2008, Loyda Rodriguez told ABCNews.com, "My daughter... was kidnapped as I was entering my

home. A woman appeared in my backyard and grabbed her out of my arms. There was nothing I could do."

At the time, the child was known as Anyelí Liseth Hernández Rodríguez. Her birth mother said that
local police were indifferent to her case and offered virtually no help in finding the kidnappers.
The foundation said that Rodriguez and other mothers whose children have been victims of rampant
trafficking have endured "fear" and "desperation" in their constant search of their children for the last five years.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/missouri-couple-silent-order-return-adopted-daughter-guatemala/story?id=14234379

More on this: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=14225981

I write about Guatemala and the crisis of child kidnapping in my book "One Small Sacrifice." If you want to read the e-book version, email me: tracedemeyer@yahoo.com. I will send it FREE!