Blog Week: Returning Stolen Children

Continuing with Blog Week and "What Annoys You about the Adoption Establishment: this story tore me up about India's Adoption corruption and their Stolen Children.

Read this post:

http://fleasbiting.blogspot.com/2012/02/finding-truth-returning-stolen-children.html

Quote: Note that almost all adoption corruption -- whether coercion of first parents to relinquish, persuading non-infertile folks to become adoptive parents, or persuading the general public or anyone in particular of the absolute goodness of international adoption in spite of facts to the contrary -- involves persuading people of a strong belief system (whose foundations have been laid for decades in our popular culture) and then reinforcing that strong belief system. This belief system is often at odds with other knowledge, emotions, and values and often requires the suspension of the usual protections of questioning assumptions, and using research and critical thinking to evaluate truth claims.

About their blog: Why These Fleas Bite

Desiree: In 1998 my husband David and I adopted a sibling group of two older girls from India.

Within six weeks of their arrival, our new daughters, who were severely emotionally traumatized, told us they had been stolen from their birthfamily.
For six long and difficult years, our agency, though asked to do so repeatedly, failed to investigate our daughters allegations.
Finally, on our own with the help of an Indian activist for the poor, we found our daughters' birthfamily and confirmed their disturbing story.
Despite all this there has yet to be so much as an apology from our agency, and certainly no justice. Not for our daughters. Not for our daughters' first parents. Not for ourselves.
It seems that NO ONE CARES about this crime.
Our US agency--which has not disputed the facts of the case--says that it bears no legal responsibility even if, like we say, they helped place stolen children in our home.
Our pleas to both the Indian and US governments have fallen on what appears to be deaf ears, and therefore, we assume, uncaring ears. The state office which licenses our agency has a phone machine for complaints; apparently they do not return phone calls--at least ours was never returned.
Meanwhile, the Indian orphanage director has been jailed three times on child trafficking related charges. He is currently trying to be relicensed yet again.
We have been left to ask the questions:
1) How could this have happened? Was our case simply a rare happenstance or could there be specific flaws--specific or systemic--in the system that have allowed/caused it to happen?
2) Why is it that no one cares about this kind of crime?
This blog represents some of the answers we've found to these questions. It also is shares the ongoing answers as we continue to learn.
Flea bites are simply individual incidents of exposing the reality of international adoption practices--one example, one practice, one analysis, one real-life experience, one proposed remedy, and one "big picture" at a time.
If our insignificant flea bites can save other families the extreme pain that our daughters, our daughters' first family, and our own family have endured, these flea bites will not be in vain.
To find out more about Desiree's family's adoption follow the following link. NPR's" Adoption in America Series: An Adoption Gone Wrong, July 24, 2007
Their advice: Tell Bad Stories
http://fleasbiting.blogspot.com/2007/02/corruption-item-17-tell-bad-stories.html

Blog Week: Who you need to read!

Participating in the unofficial "What Annoys you about the Adoption Establishment" Week - here are links to blogs who will be posting:

http://thirdmom.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-adoption-establishment-annoys-me.html

adoptionechoes.com/2012/02/27/why-the-adoption-establishment-annoys-me/

http://bastardette.blogspot.com

 http://www.declassifiedadoptee.com/

http://landofgazillionadoptees.com/

http://reformtalk.blogspot.com/2012/02/guest-blogger-barbara-mcartney-on-why.html
http://reformtalk.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-does-adoption-lobby-annoy-me-they.html

New addition: http://karenmoline.com/lurchingintodecrepitude/?tag=adult-adoptees
One more: http://reformtalk.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-annoys-me-about-adoption.html

Now is the time to share these posts with your friends AND sign up and subscribe to these blogs (via email) - and the greatest thing you can do is retweet, share on Facebook and comment - every blogger LOVES that!

I love my readers very much - and you adoptees teach me every day and I appreciate you all! ...Trace

" QUOTE"

“My problem is secrecy. I believe that perpetually secret adoptions assure un-accountability and lack of transparency. And secret adoptions are only the tip of the iceberg. The secrecy permeates the process: secret identities, secret parents, secret records, secret foster care providers, secret social workers, secret judges and lawyers (all their identities are sealed, typically), secret physicians, secret statistics and, in the case of some adoption-oriented organizations, secret budgets and secret boards of directors. In any social practice, when people in positions of power hide behind masks, one can be pretty sure that they have something to hide.”

             -Albert S. Wei, Special Advisor to the Bastard Nation Executive Committee

Blog Week: What bugs me about the Adoption Establishment

SHOTGUN ADOPTION
http://www.thenation.com/article/shotgun-adoption?page=0,0
This article is from 2009 but offers an interesting insider view of the Adoption Agencies agenda and their role in coercion of young women to relinquish their babies, instead of supporting them so they can keep their child.

Excerpt:
Carol Jordan, a 32-year-old pharmacy technician, was living in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1999 when she became pregnant. She'd already decided against abortion, but she was struggling financially and her boyfriend was unsupportive. Looking through the Yellow Pages for help, she spotted an ad under "crisis pregnancies" for Bethany Christian Services.

Within hours of calling, Jordan (who asked to be identified with a pseudonym) was invited to Bethany's local office to discuss free housing and medical care. Bethany, it turned out, did not simply specialize in counseling pregnant women. It is the nation's largest adoption agency, with more than eighty-five offices in fifteen countries.

...instances of coercion in adoption stretch back nearly seventy years.

...CPCs (Crisis Pregnancy Centers) might persuade reluctant women by casting adoption as redemption for unwed mothers' "past failures" and a triumph over "selfishness, an 'evil' within themselves."

...CPCs were wary of looking like "baby sellers"...

Care Net runs 1,160 CPCs nationwide and partners with Heartbeat International to host a national CPC hot line.

... National Council for Adoption (NCFA), the most prominent adoption lobby group in the country, in the company of other benefactors like Bethany; Texas maternity home giant Gladney; the Good Shepherd Sisters, a Catholic order serving "young women of dissolute habits"; and the Mormon adoption agency LDS Family Services.

The federally funded NCFA has a large role in spreading teachings like these through its Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program, a Department of Health and Human Services initiative it helped pass in 2000 that has promoted adoption to nearly 18,000 CPC, school, state, health and correctional workers since 2002.

(Blog Week: http://landofgazillionadoptees.com/2012/02/22/secret-message-for-other-bloggers-about-the-week-of-february-26th-aka-why-the-adoption-establishment-annoys-the-heck-out-of-us-blog-week/#comment-1867)

I added the bold in the excerpt so you can notice the main players in the industry. Stay tuned to this blog - more of my rants coming this week...Trace

BLOG WEEK: MY TOP 5

Kevin Ost-Vollmers and Shelise Gieseke at Land of Gazillion Adoptees Blog said Feb. 26th begins BLOG WEEK to answer this question: “Why does the adoption establishment annoy the heck out of us (adoptees)?” http://landofgazillionadoptees.com/2012/02/22/secret-message-for-other-bloggers-about-the-week-of-february-26th-aka-why-the-adoption-establishment-annoys-the-heck-out-of-us-blog-week/

MY MISSION today is to answer that question!  Ok, so why does the adoption establishment bug the heck out of me?

Here is my Top 5.

1- (Lack of) Disclosure - Old archaic laws are on the books in many states and it seems every state is having some kind of major meltdown or fiscal crisis. Adoptees who are fighting to gain access to our birth records can’t seem to grab their attention or warrant the lawmaker’s time or serious consideration - unless maybe the lawmaker is an adoptee.  

Yup, we know adoptees are low on the totem pole and status meter and that annoys me.

What are “they” thinking? Oh, it’s obvious - the status quo - let’s not rock the boat, just leave the law as is and let's not disclose information every adoptee needs and deserves, and definitely let’s not disturb the Adoption Industry who lobbies Wash. DC with fancy dinners and big campaign contributions. (Lack of medical history is a huge problem for many adoptees, including me)

I can hear the lobbyist pounding on their tables, “adoptees should be grateful they were adopted.” The adoption industry is a billion dollar business and they don’t want to lose a single dollar in profits. It’s about money. Even now, the adoption industry does not appreciate adoptees or ask how we feel or acknowledge what we endured. We are not invited to sit at their table or join in discussions. That really bugs me!

2- Secrecy - Over and over and over “they” claim our natural mothers demanded secrecy yet many mothers who lost children after closed adoptions are saying, “damn the secrecy, damn the laws, where are my children?”

Uniting all these mothers with all the adoptees on the same stage, fighting the discrimination, shame, secrecy and old laws would be powerful!

Sadly it seems both are on their own warpath to be heard.  Uniting our voices on this issue - especially natural mothers and adoptees who have been silenced for too long - is what is urgently needed. Big crowds marching on Washington DC would get "their" attention.  

Blogs (my favorites are listed in the right column) are enlightening the world to our plight. Using our voices, activism and blogging for change is good.

3- Identity - Adoptees are denied our basic human rights to the truth of our ancestry, our tribe(s), our birth name, our family names, our background (which is our identity), our medical history, our original birth certificate (OBC) and information about both our natural parents.

I noticed writing my memoir how adoptees will say they are looking for their mothers -- but we do have a dad somewhere and possibly siblings - and we do need to know who they are and where they are! Adoptees need to add “dad and siblings” to their list of needs when facing adoption industry discrimination and current adoption laws.

The bias in the adoption industry is to protect the adoptive parents and seal our identity so no one will ever find out the truth. That deeply annoys me.

If you are Native American, you cannot be enrolled without documentation and proof. If you are a Split Feather/adoptee, you not only lose your identity but your treaty rights and all that goes along with being an enrolled tribal member. Just remember your identity is Native American with or without tribal enrollment.  We must unite and form a national organization to teach about the government’s use of closed adoption to hurt and destroy American Indian families and cripple future generations.

4- New Identification Cards? Yup, as of 2005 more states will implement this new country-wide identification card. And guess what? Adoptees who cannot produce a real birth certificate (OBC) may (let me stress “MAY”) not be able to renew a driver’s license, vote, or apply for or renew a passport. That scares me and bugs me equally! Those ignorant lawmakers who wrote the Real ID Act of 2005 (and passed it) didn’t consider adoptees or how this would affect us? We pay them big salaries because they represent us. What were they thinking? They were not thinking of adoptees, perhaps 10 million of us in the USA.

5 - Gratitude - Over and over I hear adoptees say - almost by script - how grateful they were to be adopted by their parents. I call this our gratitude attitude. We get stuck there mentally and it’s hard to move on to empowering ourselves to regain our birth rights and identity. I know my gratitude silenced me. Gratitude meant I could not talk to my adoptive parents about anything - how I felt, what I planned to do, or even ask them questions about my adoption file. Laws prevented me from knowing anything about myself and my first family.

AND I found out my new parents were not really informed when they adopted me in 1957. They had basic information like I was illegitimate, how my mom was unmarried.

AND my adoption file didn’t include medical history. Really. Apparently the adoption industry didn’t think about the child at all when compiling information for the adoption hearing. It was about convenience and expedience for adoptive parents. Really.
Looking back the adoption industry should be so embarrassed and horrified they didn’t get our medical history when they “sold” us to our new parents.

So, what about the Adoption Establishment annoys you? Please leave a comment.

Indian Child Welfare, three interviews

Click here: http://stephaniewoodard.blogspot.com/

Indian Child Welfare Act, three interviews; part one

By Stephanie Woodard

Excerpt:

Native parents face extraordinary hurdles in keeping their children—including cultural misunderstandings and legal barriers that are unimaginable to many non-Native people. In this second decade of the 21^st century, American Indian children in states across the country are still taken from their families and placed in foster care or adoptive homes at a much higher rate than other kids—just as they were before the passage of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal statute intended to help keep Native families intact.

In Alaska, Native children make up 20 percent of the child population but 51 percent of those a state agency has placed in foster care; Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, North Dakota and Washington also have highly skewed numbers. In Minnesota, the percentage of Native children in foster care isn’t just high, it’s gotten worse in recent years. “Disproportionalities exist nationwide at every stage in the process, starting right from the initial reports of possible abuse or neglect of a Native child,” says Kristy Alberty, Cherokee, spokeswoman for the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

As those who read this blog are aware, the removal of Indian Children was supposed to end with the ICWA of 1978 and sadly, it's still a crisis and unacceptable. Poverty is a powerful weapon and is still being used against Indian people.  Trace

Cherokee Nation maintaining Sequoyah orphan cemetery

Read here: CN maintaining Sequoyah orphan cemetery

Video

By TESINA JACKSON, Reporter
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Across from Sequoyah High School along Highway 62 in the Southgate Business Park is a small, bordered area where the Cherokee Nation has placed 32 stones to represent a cemetery that went forgotten for decades.
The cemetery, commonly called the Sequoyah orphan cemetery, began for children who attended Sequoyah during its days as an orphanage.
After the Civil War, Cherokee children were orphaned because of fighting between Cherokees. In 1871, the Cherokee National Council authorized the orphanage’s construction about four miles southwest of Tahlequah.
“All of the stones that are over at the cemetery are actually stones that were salvaged from the third floor of the Cherokee Nation jail facility,” CN Natural Resources Group Leader Pat Gwin said. The jail no longer stands, and its material is stored at the Cherokee Heritage Center. “We used that to make the rock walkways and the rock headstones.”
The orphanage also housed as an institution for the handicapped, and Sequoyah teacher Don Franklin believes that patients who died at the institution are buried in the cemetery.

tesina-jackson@cherokee.org
 

The Thick Dark Fog

"The Thick Dark Fog" Official Trailer from randy vasquez on Vimeo.

Read more here: http://www.thickdarkfog.com/?page_id=120

Thick Dark Fog" Official Trailer
http://vimeo.com/user9741689/trailer

Award winning documentary - The Thick Dark Fog.

Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools in 1950, was still to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were not allowed to be Indians – to speak their language or express their culture or native identity in any way at the risk of being severely beaten, humiliated or abused. What effects did these actions cause?

Many Indians, like Walter, lived with this unresolved trauma into adulthood, acting it out through alcoholism and domestic violence. At age 58, Walter decided to write and publish his memoirs as a way to explain his past abusive behaviors to his estranged children. But dealing with the memories of his boarding school days nearly put an end to it.

“The Thick Dark Fog” tells the story of how Walter confronted the “thick dark fog” of his past so that he could renew himself and his community.

For more information visit: thickdarkfog.com

Colonization is an Act of Genocide

The following appplies in North America but since it is not taught in schools, apparently Native People are not considered to be the colonized. I beg to differ... Trace

Maori and Indigenous Analysis Ltd

Colonisation is an act of Genocide

Màori researcher Dr Leonie Pihama says the use of the term holocaust is an
appropriate and valid description of the impact of colonial genocide on Màori. A
Radio New Zealand panel featured Taranaki Màori academic Keri Opai using the
word holocaust to describe colonisation for Màori. The NZ Jewish Council said
his use of the term was "diminishing and trivialising of the Jewish Holocaust
experience". Dr Pihama says the NZ Jewish council are "basically incorrect" in
their response. She states "The term holocaust refers to deliberate acts of
genocide and ethnocide against groups of people, and that is exactly what
occurred here in Aotearoa. There was a deliberate and planned process of
colonisation that sought the extermination of our people. That is clear and well
documented".

United Nations conventions define genocide as "any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group , as such: as killing members of the group;

(i) killing members of the group;

(ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(ii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(iii) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(iv) forcibly transferring children of this group to another group

The definition of genocide by the United Nations is clearly one that reflects
the experience of Màori people and there needs to be a greater awareness of the
reality of the history of this country and of other Indigenous Nations. "There
is clear historical evidence of acts of genocide that were undertaken by
successive white settler Presidents in America. Hitler modelled many of his
oppressive acts on the forced removal and murder of Native Amerian people and
the imprisonment of thousands in concentration camps" states Dr Pihama.

Dr Pihama notes that Màori use of the term 'holocaust' should not be viewed
as in any way diminishing the experience of Jewish people and others that were
targeted by Hitler and Nazi Germany. She says clearly that Maori have always
actively acknowledged that history and the impact of it. Dr Pihama explains
"This is not about comparing experiences. The reference by Mr Opai is directed
to the historical trauma and post traumatic stress experienced by our tupuna and
generations of our people who continue to live with that impact on our own
land".

http://www.scoop. co.nz/stories/ PO1202/S00076/ colonisation- is-an-act- of-genocide. htm

Closed adoptions are a form of cultural genocide... Trace

Jennifer Lauck on how her birth mother's sexual history affected her own

This incredible interview with Jennifer Lauck, author of FOUND, struck a chord with me. Please read it:
http://www.examiner.com/open-adoption-in-national/jennifer-lauck-on-how-her-birth-mother-s-sexual-history-affected-her-own

Excerpt:
There has been a belief that the moment a child is taken from her original mother she ceases being that woman's child. This is one of the reasons many want to adopt a baby rather than an older child. They believe they are getting a "blank slate." Many people will go as far as to adopt from far away lands--as far away as possible -- so that they get the "blank slate" and as a bonus eliminate the chance that the original mother will reappear and take away what supposedly belongs to the adoptive parent -- the child, the relationship, the connection, the concept of family and so on. There is great ignorance in this thinking--similar to the thinking years ago that babies don't feel pain and thus were operated on without the mercy of anesthesia or pain blockers. Of course, science has now shown us otherwise. Babies feel pain. And you cannot stop a child from being connected to the original mother. Yes, you can take legal measures, you can take geographic measures, but you cannot change the fact of the biological link.
To further expand on this, consider this remarkable passage from Meredith Hall, author of Without a Map: "women carry fetal cells from all the babies they have carried. Crossing the defensive boundaries of our immune system and mixing with our own cells, the fetal cells circulate in the mother's bloodstream for decades after each birth. The body does not tolerate foreign cells, which trigger illness and rejection. But a mother's body incorporates into her own the cells of her children as if they recognize each other. This fantastic melding of two selves, mother and child is called microchimerism....the mother's cells are also carried in the child. During gestation, maternal cells slip through the barriers of defense and join her child's cells as they pulse through his veins...of course the implications are stunning. Mother and child do not fully separate at birth. We do not lose each other at that moment of severance."

As I wrote in my memoir One Small Sacrifice, the new science of birth psychology will forever change the way the world views adoption and its impact.
There are follow-up interviews with Jennifer at that website, a virtual blog tour - so please read them, too... Trace

Toronto Birthmother story

I had to share this. A birthmother wrote in response to this: http://splitfeathers.blogspot.com/2011/04/red-road-documentary-from-canada-60s_11.html

I am so happy that this lost spirit has found his roots after living a life of not knowing where he fit in! I have never given up the hope that one day my son who was taken from me at birth will somehow find his true family. I just hope that it isn't too late for us to join each other. I have always believed that my son is out there someplace and he will come home soon. He was taken from me on October 17,1976 from Toronto General Hospital. I was told that he died at birth. I never was asked if I wanted to see or hold him. To tell him how much his mommy loves him. I was just a young mother with a child of 11 months at home and a baby that I so wanted to bring home. I never was told where or when he was buried never laid eyes on him ever. I felt that something wasn't right but I was to with drawn from the loss that I just couldn't bare the loss. To this day the thoughts of it burns at my insides. I never knew about the 60's or 70's scoop until just with-in the last few years. That is when I got my answers to what happen. I believed that my baby boy was more then likely one of the native children that was scooped that day. I hope that this man isn't bitter towards his true Mom for what he went through. May the Creator bless him with true happiness in his life now that he has found his true identity as a Proud Native Man. From this story of this man it gives me the added hope that my son to will find me some day.
Signed BM (which means birthmom)

Remember this adoptees - closed adoption was used as a weapon! First Nations Families, please start your search now...If you need my help, email me... Trace (tracedemeyer@yahoo.com)

 

Celebrity Adopter Sheryl Crow (not one word about privacy and trauma)

ADOPTEE TRAUMA and PRIVACY?


My thoughts in 2012? What is classic news coverage when a celebrity adopts?

Bravo for Madonna, Brad and Angelina, Elton John, Ms. Sheryl Crow, and all the others.

We know it's not possible to hide anything when you're the celebrity and you adopt.

Public Relations is for us to think how great and wonderful the adopter is and how lucky the adoptee is, right?

Let's take Sheryl Crow and all the news last year when she adopted again.

Had Ms. Crow considered how the news would affect her sons Levi and Wyatt when they're adult men? They did not choose to be abandoned or adopted. They had no privacy. How will they feel being called the adopted sons of Sheryl Crow forever? Did Entertainment Tonight consider the boys rights before they showed their photos?

Does Madonna or Crow have a clue how adoptees are treated by their peers and bio-siblings in the real world?

How will Crow shield them from the cruel bastard label and the embarrassment they were abandoned by their own mothers? Will Levi and Wyatt be expected to show their gratitude to her and be silent around her about everything else?

Or were these open adoptions so the boys will know their natural mother's identity, their ancestry and their medical history? We can only hope, right?

Did Ms. Crow hire a surrogate? That's never mentioned but it won't change the boys emotional trauma.

What horrible thing happened that her sons were not able to be raised by their own mothers? That's carefully omitted in adoption propaganda and celebrity stories. They'll direct our attention to the famous rich person and have us forget the birth mothers and her loss entirely. The adoptee is considered lucky and now rich.

Do celebrities ever wonder how an adoptee feels after adoption? 

Crow is rich and famous, but her boys will still require truth, reality and plenty of emotional support! Makes you wonder if Crow has a clue about birth psychology, their severe narcissistic injury, PTSD and an adoptee's primal wound (read Nancy Verrier). There's trouble ahead if Crow denies it exists.

Publicity fills the ego of the celebrity narcissist and the hungry public eats it up.

We are supposed to believe Crow SAVED these boys, right? That's one of the adoption industry's clever ways to keep its business running smooth and encourage more women to abandon their children for adoption to the rich, better-off and famous. Forget those pesky rumors about reactive attachment disorders in adoptees!

Sappy stories about MS. CROW ahd her two adopted sons is great publicity for her obviously- but not for the two boys who will have to deal with their adoptee label and adoption trauma their entire life... Trace

Shit People Say to Adoptees (R-rating)

http://bitchyouleftme.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/shit-people-say-to-adoptees/

Comment:

T. Laurel Sulfate, Snarkurchin says:

January 18, 2012 at 11:09 am

Ugh–the “I wish I were adopted” comments make me furious. Do you also wish you were stigmatized or disadvantaged in other ways? Wanna be poor because those people are the salt of the earth? Wanna be all gay and native American and differently abled because that would get you some really cool scholarships? No? Then *why* pretend you wish you didn’t know who you are?
And “I feel that way too” really gets to me. Yeah, your ordinary alienation is so very not ordinary that it’s like not knowing where you come from and never looking like anyone in your family. Sure it is. It’s exactly like that. In fact, when people ask me how it feels to be adopted I always say “It feels really emo.” SPARE ME.
If you have horrible abusive parents, and you think it really would have been better off for you to have been adopted, *find a different way of saying that when you know the person you’re talking to is adopted.* Sheesh.

That post will make you growl and smile! I promise!
Trace

Resolution: Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act

MICHIGAN JUDGES ASSOCIATION Resolution in support of Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act
WHEREAS, the Michigan Judges Association is committed to the

improvement of the process and outcomes of child protection cases throughout

the State of Michigan; and

WHEREAS, the Conference of Chief Justices through Resolution 5, 2011 and

the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges through separate

resolutions, recognize that tribal courts serve the children and families of

sovereign nations with the same authority and responsibility as state courts; and

WHEREAS, the Conference of Chief Justices encourages each state court

judge to communicate and collaborate with their tribal court counterparts when a

Native American child or family may be involved in a case, and the National

Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges is committed to complying with the

letter and spirit of the Indian Child Welfare Act; and

WHEREAS, the Michigan Judges Association has a history of working to

improve state-tribal court relations through Michigan’s Court Improvement

Program including: the creation of an ICWA Court Resource Guide; statewide

ICWA training for state and tribal justice systems; ICWA training for new state and

tribal judges; ICWA amendments to the Michigan Court Rules; and proposed state

ICWA legislation to encourage and reinforce compliance with the letter and spirit

of the law by state court justice systems.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the Michigan Judges Association supports

the adoption and enactment of the proposed Indian Family Preservation Act by

the Michigan legislature, in recognition of its ongoing commitment to improve the

process and outcomes of child protection cases throughout the State of Michigan.

http://turtletalk.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/resolution-in-support-mifpa-2.pdf


[The Judges passed this unanimously! If every state did this, we could celebrate!...Trace]

About the First Nations Repatriation Institute

My Conversation With Sandy White Hawk, Sicangu Lakota Adoptee 
By kostvollmers | September 13, 2011 

URL: http://wp.me/p1Alq6-rV 

The following chat with Sandy is lengthy and so I’ll keep my comments
brief.  We here at Land of Gazillion Adoptees are huge fans of the
Adoptees Have Answers (AHA) Advisory Group.  Sandy and the advisory
group’s other members are certified rockstars, and I would strongly
suggest all adoptive parents and adoption agencies in MN to take a
close look at what the group and its members are doing for the
adoption community. 

Enjoy.
____________________ 

Land of Gazillion Adoptees: Parents love talking about their kids.
Would you mind talking about yours? What do they do? What do they
like? 

Sandy: I have two children. My daughter, who is 34, just graduated
with her MFA from the University of Madison, WI. She and her fiancé
have a 9-year-old daughter. Right after she graduated they moved from
WI and are now going to make their home in Minnesota. My son, who is
28, graduated with his BA in American Studies from the University of
Minnesota. He also lives here in the state. He has worked in community
development and is currently looking for work in the nonprofit sector. 

I started using when I was 14 years old and became an addict. I got
clean when I was 28; my daughter was 5. It took five years sobriety
for me to begin to heal enough to parent in a healthy way. 

I am proud of my children for many reasons. What I am thinking about
today is how both  of my children have accomplished more than I had
when I was their age. They both are confident and living drug and
alcohol free lives. They have chosen to live our Lakota way of life --
a life of balance and drug and alcohol free. They made this decision
when they were in college. I think this amazes me so much because I am
a recovering addict. I have been sober for 30 years. The cycle of
addiction and abuse stopped with me, and now I can grow old knowing my
grandchildren live in balanced and loving homes. 

watch?v=ZH-BHvACYiw 

Land of Gazillion Adoptees: Thanks for sharing that, Sandy. For
readers who don't know you, would you mind giving an overview of your
work with the First Nations Orphans Association and the Truth Healing
and Reconciliation community forums? 

Sandy: First Nations Orphan Association is now First Nations
Repatriation Institute. It’s basically the same with some additions.
The term First Nations people is used when referring to American
Indians or Native Americans.  An elder advised us that we were a
people of Nationhood pre-Columbian contact; we had governments. We
were the First Nations of this land. And the term repatriation comes
from the Latin word repatriatre – to go home again, to restore or
return to the country of origin, allegiance or citizenship. 

The overall purpose of First Nations Repatriation Institute is to
create a resource for First Nations people impacted by foster care or
adoption to return home, reconnect and reclaim their identity. The
Institute also serves as a resource to enhance the knowledge and
skills of practitioners who serve First Nations people. The First
Nations Repatriation Institute will eventually fill a significant gap
in resources available for First Nations people. There is currently no
organized effort at a local, state, national or international level to
address the needs of people separated from their culture by foster
care or adoption. 

Specifically, the First Nations Repatriation: 

Connects First Nations Adoptees with other First Nations Adoptees;
Supports First Nations people in searches for relatives during family
reunification;
Assists First Nations Adoptees with tribal enrollment;
Supports emotional, physical and spiritual health of all adoptees/
fostered individuals, their families and communities in accordance
with First Nations peoples’ traditional spiritual heritage;
Provides consultation and education to social service providers and
mental healthcare providers and the legal system in the cultural
traditions and values of First Nations people.
As for Truth Healing and Reconciliation Community Forums, they are day
long events that bring together First Nations adoptees and fostered
individuals with other adoptees, professionals and community and
spiritual leaders to strategize ways to address post adoption issues
and ultimately lower the rate of child removal. 

Truth: At the forums, we have adoptees, fostered individuals and birth
relatives share their stories. Social workers, Guardian ad Litems,
adoption professionals, judges, lawyers and others hear first hand the
long-term effects of being raised outside of culture and away from
family. For many adoptees/fostered individuals and other family
members, their life stories for the first time have a purpose. The
many years they spent wondering why they had to go through years of
isolation, anxiety and often depression are used to educate those who
work with Indian families. 

Healing: At the forums, we do not to blame and attack those who
represent the child welfare system. This brings about great results,
as demonstrated by the following response from a participant: 

“Another circle I was in was powerful as two small brothers told their
stories of being taken from their families and who were still in
placement. Their story of abusive foster homes and what they went
through was painful to hear. A white lady social worker was there and
she broke down. She cried so hard her shoulders shook. She apologized
to the boys, although she had not worked with them. She apologized to
the ones she had taken from their families. She apologized for not
understanding and not listening and just following those policies of
her organization. I cried when one of the little boys got up, went to
her, put his hand on her shoulder and said, ‘It’s ok. It isn’t your
fault.’ He allowed her to hug him. The strength of spirit that little
one possessed amazed me. He was so small in physical form, but mighty
and pure in spiritual form. As she held him she said she would do
things differently (I hope she did and is still doing it).”
Reconciliation: At the forums, the recognition is made that
Reconciliation begins with the individual in a process of sharing. It
is not an event. It is a process that begins after Truth and Healing.
Truth Healing and Reconciliation Community Forums provide a space and
time to establish new relationships, evaluate and reflect for change. 

Land of Gazillion Adoptees: Wow. That’s some fantastic stuff... Based
upon your experience, what do you think is the biggest need for
adoptees here in Minnesota? 

Sandy: The biggest need for Minnesota adoptees is access to their
original birth certificates. I would take it a step further and say
that we should also have access to our social work case files. Why
not? It is our history, no one else’s. We have no idea how many birth
mothers and fathers would welcome the release of guilt and shame
through meeting their relinquished children. Access to records could
be a first step in the healing process. 

Land of Gazillion Adoptees: Word to that... 

ICWA law at center of adoption controversy

ICWA law at center of adoption controversy
fox23.com
OKLAHOMA - The Indian Child Welfare Act went into effect 34 years ago, and supporters of the family of Veronica, a girl who was in the process of being adopted by a South Carolina couple, say it was improperly applied to this case.

The horrific comments after this story are very telling about the actual understanding of the sovereignty of tribes and their members...Trace

GUEST POST: Is ADOPTION all I ever think about?

Read Amanda's post about this - The Declassified Adoptee: Is Adoption ALL you Ever Think About? (Some New Stuff)

Sooo - Is adoption all I ever think about?

Nope, but the overall topic and history of adoption is imbalanced and I do think about that often.

I started this American Indian Adoptees blog in 2009 to express how my being adopted affected me and how I found (some pretty horrific) adoption history affecting Native Americans when I was writing my memoir One Small Sacrifice. I never expected to uncover what I did about the genocidal Indian Adoption Project(s) and Programs.

To maintain some balance, I've asked other adoptees like Leland and Johnathan to post their views in guest blogs.

If I find new Lost Children/adult adoptees, I'll publish their interviews and/or news.

It's a fact adoptees are still struggling, and too many are still hoping to have a reunion with their tribe and birthparents.

 
Adoptees have not been respected enough, in my view. You can see this with numerous archaic adoption laws in the USA, no access or limited access to our records and a billion dollar adoption industry who prefers to hide their secrets and preserve their myths.

It's also fact that being adopted lasts your entire life. There is no escape. There are complications and twists every turn. I tell my own evolving story on this blog.

To heal this experience, you educate yourself. Finding out you are not alone does help. Reading about adoption history helps, too, and can make you stronger. Use the google search bar to find topics already posted on this blog.

I often read other blogs by adoptees.

Until all adoption records are opened everywhere and unconditionally, I am not stopping! I will blog, write, do more research and post news.

If you have news or research you want to share with other Lost Birds: email: laratrace@outlook.com

Thank you for your continued support and your comments..... Trace

The Broken Circle (Movie trailer) 2012

The Broken circle (trailer 2012) from mathieu saliva on Vimeo.
Documentary about Sioux Lakotas (LGM productions) 1895 : Buffalo Bill leaves for Europe with his touring circus, the Wild Wild West Show. Among the artists you can find the legendary Native American Sioux chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse… Some of them are abandoned or willingly remain in Marseille & Paris. Today, their descendants live in the south of France. Their ancestors left them a heritage that no one suspected existed... Until now…

Questions about Mitt and the Mormons

Image from the Book of Mormon: Swords: Many critics of the Book of Mormon state that it is common knowledge that swords such as those described in Alma 24:12-15 did not exist in meso-america prior to the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors, despite what the Book of Mormon says.

Read more here: 

http://the-book-of-mormon.com/photo-proofs.html

Several Native adoptees who are new friends were adopted by Mormons. And there are more than a few Native Americans and Alaska Natives who follow Joseph Smith and the Mormon religion.
I remember living in Wyoming back in the 1980s and heard what a serious religion it is - no soda/pop, no dancing, no drinking, etc.  The joke in Jackson Hole was "Mormons act like God can't see over the Tetons." Mormons apparently broke many of their rules visiting Wyoming saloons - out of Utah and out of sight, I guess.
(By the way, I heard the fabulous Mormon Tabernacle Choir in concert in Wyoming.)
Friends tell me if you are Mormon, you had to give them a copy of your income tax paperwork because you are required to tithe 10% of your income each year - no exceptions!
I am not bashing anyone's religion here but I do question why so many Native American children were adopted by the Mormons and converted to this religion. There was an official Mormon Indian Adoption Program where they took thousands of tribal children per year, many from the southwest. Some adoptive families had 10+ children in each family.
My friend Joan had a son who married a Mormon girl in Salt Lake City but Joan wasn't allowed in the Mormon church to watch the wedding (later they did a vow repeat for the non-Mormons at a restaurant reception.) Why can't a mother watch her son marry a Mormon since she will be the girl's mother-in-law? What is about Mormon's documenting all their genealogy - it seems every ancestry site is now owned by the Mormon Church?
With the Mormon "Mitt" trying for the White House, I have many questions and not enough answers about this religion.
I do hope someone adopted by a Mormon family will offer to write a guest blog (please) and help me and others understand...What exactly is the Mormon religion? Or is there a rule you can't speak about it?

ICWA and the Media

by Kate Fort http://turtletalk.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/icwa-and-the-media/

There has been a lot of ICWA talk in national and local news this week due to a case we linked to here. I spoke with a person at the CNN In America blog (nothing up there yet) just about the general provisions of ICWA, and what struck me in that conversation was how few people today still know nothing about this law.

This same week we had two cases argued at the Michigan Supreme Court on notice compliance. We're having a meeting  about enacting a state ICWA law here in Michigan. We received a link to this  newsletter about ICWA compliance and monitoring at the trial court level in Minnesota. Sometimes it feels like ICWA is everywhere, if a person knows where to look for it. And yet most national media coverage of the Act is usually so biased and ignorant there's no way the coverage doesn't gin up serious opposition to the Act (the recent exception to this was NPR's excellent three part series on ICWA and foster care in South Dakota). And thus one, relatively minor, conundrum--talk to the media about the Act in the hopes of gaining a semblance of balance, or ignore the media in a case that is putting a child in the middle of that very media storm?

The case garnering this attention is difficult to get a handle on, fact-wise, and we're hesitant to add more commentary or links here, as we can't believe this level of attention is good for the child. It certainly isn't good attention for the Act, given the adoptive parents' full-out assault on it. There's a reason these cases are usually, or ought to be, anonymous. Regardless, we publish the Cherokee Nation's statement here to one media outlet, since it points out it has called on the court for both a gag order, and to release the final order (something we'd certainly feel more comfortable commenting on, rather than inconsistent media accounts):

Chrissi Ross Nimmo, the Assistant Attorney General who represented the Cherokee Nation in this case, gave FOX23 this statement:
“As a matter of law and policy, the Cherokee Nation’s attorney general’s office generally does not comment on juvenile cases due to their sensitive nature and confidential information. In an effort to quell the undue outside attention to this sensitive affair, the Cherokee Nation attorney general’s office filed a motion for a gag order in this case Wednesday afternoon, along with a motion to release the judge’s final order to the public. I ask that all parties involved in the matter respect the confidential nature of these juvenile court proceedings. The Cherokee Nation has 115 Indian Child Welfare employees and nine assistant attorneys general who work tirelessly to fight for the rights of Cherokee children and their parents, not only within our 14-county jurisdiction, but in tribal, state and federal courts across the nation.  The Indian Child Welfare Act was written to help keep Native American children with their families whenever possible – a concept embraced wholeheartedly by the Cherokee Nation.”

I want to add that this blog hopes to cover the violations of Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) to create awareness of the violations but not to identify or endanger any person's privacy... There is still much work to do in America...Trace 

Disgusted, dirty, and angry: You can help stop the deportation of Russell Green.

http://landofgazillionadoptees.com/2012/01/09/disgusted-dirty-and-angry-you-can-help-stop-the-deportation-of-russell-green/

My heart breaks reading stories like these...PLEASE sign the petition. I did!

American Holocaust of Native People (videos)

The powerful and hard-hitting documentary, American Holocaust (below), is quite possibly the only film that reveals the link between the Nazi holocaust, which claimed at least 6 million Jews, and the American Holocaust which claimed, according to conservative estimates, 19 million Indigenous People.

It is seldom noted anywhere in fact, be it in textbooks or on the internet, that Hitler studied Americas Indian policy, and used it as a model for what he termed "the final solution."

He wasn't the only one either. Its not explicitly mentioned in the film, but its well known that members of the National Party government in South Africa studied the American approach before they introduced the system of racial apartheid, which lasted from 1948 to 1994. Other fascist regimes, for instance, in South and Central America, studied the same policy.

19 Million Native People is a HOLOCAUST! 

WE NEED YOU NOW! New Bill in WA state

IMPORTANT!! New WA bill for OBCs and Non-ID! 


Write these lawmakers! I did!



Penni writes on Soaring Angels:
Hello- We have a new bill this year that would release original birth certificates (OBC) to Washington State adoptees AND would also compel counties and adoption agencies to give out ALL possibly non-id (changes the 'shall' to 'will' in the non-id RCW - YAY!!).

This bill is House Bill 2211:
http://apps. leg.wa.gov/ billinfo/ summary.aspx? bill=2211

Because there are certain legislators who are extremely anti-open records, we did have to agree to a compromise this year. This compromise would add an option for birth parents to file an affidavit of non-closure, which would
mean the adoptee couldn't get their original birth certificate. 

The good thing about this particular compromise is that it would expire every 2 years and the birth parent would have to renew it. Also, even if a birth parent would file an affidavit of non-disclosure, the adoptee would
still be able to get their non-identifying information.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU:

1. CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE! 
We need all of you with a WA connection to contact your state representative and ask them to support House Bill 2211 (HB 2211). 

You can find your representatives here:
http://apps. leg.wa.gov/ DistrictFinder/ Default.aspx

2. IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IS ON THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, SETUP A MEETING!
If any of you live in a district with a representative on the House Judiciary Committee, and would be willing to set up a meeting, we could arrange to have someone from WA-CARE go with you to the meeting. 

Here are the members of the Judiciary Committee:
http://www.leg. wa.gov/House/ Committees/ JUDI/Pages/ MembersStaff. aspx. 

3. SETUP A MEETING WITH ONE OF THESE SENTATORS!
Do any of you live in the districts belonging to Sen. Becker, Sen. Keiser, Sen. Stevens, and Sen. Pridemore?? If yes, we also need to try to set up meetings with one of these sentators in the event that the bill passes the
house and moves on to the senate, need to find a potential senator to sponsor the bill.

For more information about the efforts in WA to get the adoption laws changed, see the WA-CARE website: http://wa-care.com/default. aspx

Next WA-CARE meeting: Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 11.30am at Cutter's Point Coffee, 5750 Ruddell Road SE, Lacey, WA.

Any comments or questions, please email WA-CARE at washingtonadopteerights@gmail. com
Thanks! Penni


From Trace: Write a letter to the legislators and email Penni and tell your story - good and bad - adoption secrecy is like a cancer and needs maximum exposure aimed at the lawmakers. The adoptee and their stories are critical to change these lawmakers minds.

TO:	Representative Tina Orwall
FROM:	Ms. Trace A DeMeyer
BILL:	2211 (For Adoptee Rights)
	Dear Rep Tina Orwall I did live and work in WA state for many years but currently live in MA. I am an adoptee and an author. My struggle to find my identity, my medical history, my ancestry, my family and my tribe is detailed in my memoir ONE SMALL SACRIFICE: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects. My book is on Amazon. My blog (www.splitfeathers.blogspot.com) has research and history and many articles by and about adoptees who are also struggling with archaic laws. Not all have American Indian ancestry. Do you know who you are? Do you know what it is like not to know? Or date someone who could be your relative? Or get sick and not have medical history? Or have a fake birth certificate and now with the REAL ID ACT you may not be able to get a new drivers license or passport. My friends Wanda and Tom are WA state adoptees and cannot find their parents. Is that right? They are adults, not children. It's possible their parents are dead but they remember their siblings before they were taken to CT to be adopted. That was a part of the Indian Adoption Project. Excerpt from my second book SPLIT FEATHERS: TWO WORLDS Administered by the Child Welfare League of America and funded by a federal contract from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Children’s Bureau, the Indian Adoption Project lasted from 1958 through 1967. During an era when matching dominated adoption practice, it placed 395 Native American children from 16 western states with white families in Illinois, Indiana, New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, and other states in the East and Midwest. (Only 14 children were adopted by Southern families and one child was adopted in Puerto Rico.) Approximately fifty public and private adoption agencies cooperated with the project, but the largest number of children were placed by agencies that were leaders in African-American adoptions and services to children of color: Louise Wise Services and Spence-Chapin Adoption Services (both of New York) and the Children’s Bureau of Delaware. Because tribes are legally considered sovereign nations, the incorporation of Indian children into non-Indian families constituted a kind of international as well as transracial adoption...The Indian Adoption Project was perhaps the single most important exception to race-matching... It aspired to systematically place an entire child population across lines of nation, culture, and race. (85% of Indian children in 16 states were placed in CLOSED ADOPTIONS)(Each state had its own program after IAP using the ARENA projects which moved thousands of Indian children from Canada and the US to non-Indian adoptive families. I have more proof in book 2.) In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Native Americans challenged the idea that the Indian Adoption Project was a triumph and denounced the project as the most recent in a long line of genocidal policies toward native communities and cultures. In June 2001, Child Welfare League Executive Director Shay Bilchik legitimated Native concerns, formally apologizing for the Indian Adoption Project at a meeting of the National Indian Child Welfare Association. He put the Child Welfare League of America on record in support of the Indian Child Welfare Act. “No matter how well intentioned and how squarely in the mainstream this was at the time,” he said, “it was wrong; it was hurtful; and it reflected a kind of bias that surfaces feelings of shame.” Source: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~adoption/topics/IAP.html When you consider all the lies and secrecy and harm that surrounds adoption, how does that make you feel? Trace A. DeMeyer
RESPONSE:	Ms. DeMeyer has requested a response to this message.