"Little Papoose"

Amateur genealogist tracks down daughter's birth mother
11/25/2011 By Noelle McGee, http://www.news-gazette.com/news/people/2011-11-25/amateur-genealogist-tracks-down-daughters-birth-mother.html

Left to right, Susy Riggle of Georgetown; her adopted daughter, Amy Norman, of Indianapolis; her husband, Rich Riggle of Georgetown; and Karen and Cliff Andersen of Baraga, Mich, Norman's birth mother and brother, taken in July in Michigan. Susy Riggle searched for and found Karen Andersen in 2009. This past summer, Andersen reunited with Norman 33 years after she gave her up for adoption.


GEORGETOWN — As an amateur genealogist, Susy Riggle has researched generations of relatives all the way back to before the Civil War.

But one of her most meaningful searches uncovered a woman who isn't related by blood or marriage — her adopted daughter's birth mother.

Riggle found the woman in the fall of 2008 after about a year of searching for her. This past summer, Riggle helped reunite the birth mother with the birth daughter she hadn't seen since placing her for adoption 33 years ago.

"I really believe it was a God thing," said Riggle, who credits God with bringing her daughter — Amy (Riggle) Norman, who now lives in Indianapolis — into her and her husband's lives and bringing Norman and her birth mother together again.

Both lifelong Georgetown residents, Riggle — a retired teacher, guidance counselor and principal in the Georgetown-Ridge Farm school district — and her husband — Rich, a retired coal miner — had a son, Matthew, in 1970. A few years later, after trying unsuccessfully to have another child, they turned to adoption through the Easter House Adoption Agency in Chicago.

Amy Riggle was born on June 27, 1978, in Chicago. The Riggles took her home when she was four days old.

"She was precious," Riggle recalled. "She had dark hair and dark eyes. When my son saw her wrapped up in her blanket he said, 'She looks like a little papoose.'"

The Riggles raised their children on about 30 acres of land 2 miles east of Georgetown that's been in Susy Riggle's family for 175 years. Norman said she had an ideal childhood, growing up in a loving, Christian family with both sets of grandparents nearby.

"I always knew I was adopted, but I never thought anything of it," said Norman, who learned when she was 4 years old. "My mom was a counselor, so she thought it was important to tell me everything she knew, which was two typed paragraphs from the adoption agency. She never spun it like I wasn't wanted. I always viewed it as an unselfish act by someone who knew she couldn't take care of me. Because of that and because I had such a great family, I never felt like I needed to go looking for greener pastures."

The two typed paragraphs didn't reveal much, only that her biological mother was 20 and her biological father was 24. Both parents had dark hair and dark eyes. The back of Norman's adoption decree held one more clue: the name Cadeau.

"We had been told she was French," Riggle said of the birth mother's nationality.

Riggle was inspired to launch a search in the fall of 2007 after meeting a woman who had been adopted through Easter House and recently reunited with a sister. "I always thought if I could do anything to help her find out more about herself or her heritage, I would," said Riggle, who had her daughter's blessing.

With the help of a retired policeman, who was an adoptee himself, and a Massachusetts woman, Riggle got the name of two likely candidates. One was Karen (Cadeau) Andersen who lived on the west side of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Rich Riggle had been taking deer hunting trips on the east side for years. So in fall 2008, Riggle joined him, and the two made a side trip to Baraga, where Andersen lived. During their two days there, a librarian found an obituary for a woman named Cadeau, who was a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Baraga.

"That's the first time we learned about the Native American connection," Riggle said, adding the woman turned out to be Norman's biological grandmother.

While visiting the local newspaper, the couple tracked down Andersen's cousin, John Cadeau. "He was kind of hesitant at first, but he agreed to let her know we were trying to get in touch," Riggle said. "When we got back home, the phone rang. A woman said, 'I'm Karen Andersen. I heard you've been looking for me.'"

Over the next few months, Riggle, Andersen and Norman, now a mother herself, exchanged phone calls, emails and pictures. Andersen learned that Norman was an exceptional student who graduated in the top of her class at Georgetown-Ridge Farm High School and a standout athlete who set records in volleyball, basketball and track and later attended Georgetown College in Kentucky on volleyball and academic scholarships. She also learned Norman and her husband, Isaac, had a son, Jonah.

"It affirmed her decision to place me for adoption," said Norman, who discovered Andersen wasn't married and didn't have a good job when she got pregnant. "She wanted her child to grow up in a two-parent home, in a home that was religious. She was so happy to learn that I've had a good life."

Norman was equally happy to learn that Andersen is "in a good place." She said her birth mother and her family — who are Ojibwe or Chippewa — moved back to Michigan and reconnected with their Native American community. Andersen married and had a son, Cliff, who's 24. She earned a bachelor's degree, and now works as a wildlife technician for her tribe.

The Riggles first met Andersen, her son and siblings in person at the tribe's annual pow wow in Baraga in July 2009. This past summer, they took Norman and her family — including infant daughter, Elizabeth — and their son, his wife and their kids.

When Norman met Andersen, who was dressed in native attire for the pow wow, she described feeling the way she did when her children were placed in her arms for the first time. "We both teared up, though neither one of us are emotional," Norman said.

That weekend, Norman also got to know her biological brother, an uncle and several aunts, one of whom could pass for her older sister.

"We formed a quick bond," Norman said of Andersen's sister, Denise. "We're both tall and look alike. We played the same sports in high school and college. We also have similar personalities."

Norman said can't help but feel doubly blessed to have her adoptive parents, who "will always be my mom and dad," and this new family, with whom she plans to keep in touch via Facebook. She said she and her husband also hope to visit them every other year or so.

"As my kids get older, I want them to know about this part of their heritage and culture," she said.

I love stories like this!   Trace

The Declassified Adoptee: Indians Still Suffering Ill-Effects of Adoption

The Declassified Adoptee: Indians Still Suffering Ill-Effects of Adoption:
Guest Entry by: Trace A. DeMeyer

Trace's book is on Amazon and Lulu.com...

ADOPTION TRUTH: Lip Service

As part of Adoption Awareness Month and "No" Vember - here is a fantastic blog post that hits the core of this month's message! For some agencies, adoption is about profit, not keeping families together and intact.

Lip Service


There is a heart breaking story out there about a grandmother who lost her grandson to adoption . . .

A Grandmother Desperate To Adopt Her Grandson Fought The State and Lost

It is, unfortunately, another incident of another adoption agency destroying families at any cost for the sake of profits. Of more proof to the fact that as long as we allow these agencies to go unregulated and unchecked, they will continue to commit such crimes without punishment.

And adds to the sad realization that such agencies are the norm, not the rarity in the billion dollar world of adoption.

I’ve heard the argument, the justifications, but the truth of the matter is . . . there is no such thing as an ethical adoption agency. They don’t exist. They can’t exist under the nature of what adoption is in our culture.

As long as there is no protection for pregnant mothers or the children who are supposed to be the most important in adoption. As long as there is profit to be made off of human beings, government-paid programs teaching counselors how to convince women to give up their babies and more of our taxes going into helping couples adopt over helping mothers keep and raise their children, there will never be anything but corruption and greed, coercion and manipulation in adoption.

And an adoption agency can give hopeful adoptive couples or frightened pregnant women all the lip service in the world, it will never change the fact that it is just that . . .

Lip Service.

Because for an adoption agency to be truly ethical, to really care first and foremost about pregnant mothers and children, they would have to go against just about everything they are in business for. They would actually have to admit that adoption counseling is coercive just in the very nature of how it is done. Admit the damage separating a child from his or her family causes. And turn away from the profits they earn with each “successful” adoption.

A truly ethical adoption agency would refuse, without question or argument, to see or talk to a pregnant mother about adoption until she had received crisis counseling for her situation . . . TRUE crisis counseling. Not the kind that comes from counselors that earn their paychecks from mothers giving up their babies. Or Social Workers who aren’t trained to recognize or work with those who are in the midst of a crisis.

It has to be from those who know. Those who are licensed and have been educated and trained to realize that a mother claiming she wants to give away her child is not a normal reaction. To understand there are fears driving such feelings and a responsibility on the one offering counseling to help her not only work through her fears but overcome them so that any decision made is one done so outside of the emotions that are pushing her to make a rash decision that will affect her for the rest of her life.

But there is not an agency I know of that has such requirements. Instead they work their way around that by claiming they truly care about the pregnant mother because they offer “options” for parenting. What they don’t say, but they know . . . trust me, THEY KNOW . . .is that it doesn’t mean a thing to offer such options to a woman who is already caught up in fear. Already believes she can’t do it.

If she hasn’t been helped to overcome her fears, encouraged to seek solutions and answers to what is pushing her to make such an irrational decision, such options are going to be rejected without thought because she is already living under the terrible fear that she isn’t good enough for her own child. And NOBODY has helped her work through that fear or overcome it.

She has already been denied the help she needed . . . deserved. And is instead being manipulated because of her fears. Her desperate emotions being used to push her to give away her child.

There is nothing ethical about that. Absolutely nothing.

But it doesn’t even stop there. Again, for an agency to be ethical, they would also have to put every effort into making sure a child remain within his or her biological family if at all possible.

Not just in foster care adoptions – such as the grandmother who tragically lost her grandson because of the illegal practices of an adoption agency – but in ALL adoption situations.

They would make sure every pregnant mother who came in their doors was aware of the studies, the research, that shows children do better within their biological families versus being raised by strangers. They would encourage family adoptions over stranger adoptions and they would ALWAYS put their highest effort into keeping a child in their family, through whatever means possible.

There would no longer be counseling that encouraged grandparents to “accept” their daughter’s decision instead of stepping in to help support and raise their grandchild. No more suggestions that family offering to help was the same as them not “respecting” a pregnant mother’s decision.

And there would definitely not be situations such as this grandmother’s where biological families were denied their own grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, because there were already strangers being given the promise of adoption.

Keeping children, whenever possible, within their families would go beyond just a practice. Beyond whatever it is an adoption agency might tell others to appear ethical. It would be a requirement, a must, before any other form of adoption occurred. They would fight for it, be vigilant about it. And wouldn’t stray from it, not even if their profits were threatened.

And that is the final reason why there can never be an ethical adoption agency . . . profit.

They make money. They gain. They succeed off of taking children from their mothers and handing them over to strangers who have the ability to pay for them. They lie to adoptive parents, first parents and even adoptees. They cover their tracks, call themselves non-profit, do whatever they can to hide the one and true reason why they do what they do . . .

MONEY.

The money they will not give up. Money that keeps their manipulative, coercive, corrupt and illegal practices going. Money that pays for lobbyists to push for laws that keep them unregulated, untouched even when they clearly break the law. Money that denies protection for pregnant mother and children.

Money that does and will continue to make it impossible for any adoption agency . . . anywhere . . . to ever be ethical. Because they can’t be. They don’t want to be. And they never will be.

Not it today’s world. Not in the ugly truth that is adoption. The ugly truth that won’t change until our support, our belief . . . our own personal ethics . . . change and demand better.

Follow Cassi's blog here: http://adoptiontruth-casjoh.blogspot.com/

Laws protect full-bloods

Some states have revised the Indian Child Welfare Act

Laws Protect Full-Bloods

To protect Indian children from adoption agencies, tribal leaders pushed for the much-needed Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), made law in 1978. Since its passage, full blood Indian children are supposed to be protected and kept in their tribal community.

But the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of 1994, (amended by the Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996) decided: “If it turns out that a child is of mixed ancestry, including some Indian heritage, but is not an “Indian child” under ICWA, then the child’s placement is not subject to ICWA and the child is entitled to the MEPA-IEP protections against discriminatory placement decisions. If a caseworker has reason to know that a child may have some Indian heritage, it is essential to determine whether the child is a member of a federally recognized Indian tribe, or may be eligible for membership by virtue of being the biological child of a member. Delays in determining a child’s status as an “Indian child” can have the unfortunate consequence, years later, of disrupting stable placements with non-Indian foster or adoptive parents to rectify an earlier failure to abide by ICWA.”

I’m a mixed blood, meaning my blood was somehow tainted or ruined. The ax cuts both ways. Tribes might lose children if one parent was white and doesn’t disclose the child’s Indian ancestry. Some tribes exclude mixed bloods based on blood quantum. Some tribes dis-enroll members who move off their reservation.

Entire tribes were terminated by the 1950s, when the U.S. government ended its federal trusteeship of roughly three percent of the Native population through a process called termination. Of the 109 tribes and bands terminated, 62 were in Oregon and 41 were in California. Others were in Minnesota, Nebraska, Utah, and Wisconsin. (Many adoptions happened in those states, too, before the ICWA.)

Termination caused cultural, political and economic devastation for those tribes. Some did reestablish the trust relationship but for others, their lawsuits lasted years.

Lost Birds I’ve met want to find their families, even if not federally recognized. Mixed blood children now can certainly fall into these loopholes and disappear. Caseworkers might determine your Indian status based on how you look, which is ridiculous.

Really, it’s a mess. There are 250 tribes on a list of non-recognized tribes, with 150 of them petitioning for federal recognition. State-recognized tribes like the Abenaki in Vermont, who receive no federal benefits, are currently petitioning the federal government. The idea that a tribe doesn’t exist is troubling. If there are tribal members, there is a tribe.

Not long ago, Vermont decided to apologize for sterilizing Abenaki Indian women and children, after a deliberate attempt to make sure there would be no more Vermont Indians. Vermont’s apology took the form of teaching Abenaki tribal history in all its schools. For many years, the Abenaki were so afraid of the government militia called Roger’s Rangers; they did not teach their children the Abenaki culture, language or ceremony.

Some history I wish wasn’t true.

Tribal STAR Response to Unwarranted Removal of Indian Children in Recent Media Coverage

Tribal STAR Response to Unwarranted Removal of Indian Children in Recent Media Coverage


PRESS RELEASE:
Contact: Rose-Margaret Orrantia, Tribal STAR Program Manager, 619-594-8291

In response to the recent reports and media (ABC’s 20/20 and NPR) surrounding the mal-treatment of American Indian children, it should be pointed out that there are numerous recent reports[1] that illuminate that this is not an isolated phenomenon. Indian children across the country continue to be subject to inappropriate and questionable removal and placed in non-tribal foster or adoptive homes. The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed to ensure Indian children remained connected to their families and cultural heritage. ICWA was passed in 1978 and the media reports show that we are not living up to our legal and moral responsibilities.
The question is what can we do right now? Here are four directions that states, counties, and tribes may consider:

1. Use existing federal mechanisms to strengthen local response: The Federal Child and Family Services Review (2001) requires child welfare systems to engage with tribes to improve system performance. The Fostering Connections to Success Act (2008) requires that relatives and extended family members be identified for all children in the child welfare system. These mandates and other initiatives[2] can be used to strengthen cultural competence and appropriate engagement of county and state social workers when working with tribes and Native families. Simple steps such as training and communication with ICWA social workers can enhance the county and state social worker’s understanding of the prevailing cultural standards of the local tribes as required by ICWA. State and County child welfare improvement plans should include goals and objectives that increase ICWA-related training, and collaboration between states, counties, and tribes.

2. Improve proper placements and certify more AI/AN homes. Keeping a child connected to family and culture is supported by the Fostering Connections to Success Act through the identification of relatives and extended family members for possible placement. Additionally, states, counties, and tribes need to identify more American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) homes for children in care and support Tribal certification of homes. Encourage local child welfare directors and states to exercise the authority to grant exemptions when red flags occur because of old offenses. Research shows that AI/AN children who stay connected to their cultural heritage and extended families have more protective factors and exhibit more resilience than those placed with strangers while in the child welfare system.

3. Increase judicial support to effect ICWA outcomes. Courts have a key role in ensuring Native children are protected and the mandates of ICWA are followed. Courts need to require that inquiry and notice procedures are followed and ensure that tribal representation occurs at every ICWA-related hearing. We recommend that all judges and court personnel receive ICWA and cultural competency-related training in order to have a clear understanding of the historical and emotional context of the legislation.
The current reality of depleted federal and state budgets leaves little room for additional resources to serve this population. However, it is to the benefit of every state, county, and tribe to identify every AI/AN child and link them to culturally appropriate services such as Title VII Indian Education (supports mentoring, tutoring for completion of primary and secondary education, and provides cultural restoration), Tribal TANF (temporary assistance for needy families), and some Tribal health services. When tribal children are identified and linked to these services the costs are shared, diffused, and ultimately reduced. Unfortunately the current funding mechanisms provide resources based on the number of children served by the system with few options for focusing on prevention. How can we reduce the number of children in our care when our system funds jurisdictions based on children in care?

4. Prevent new cases through collaboration and active efforts. Collaboration and authentic engagement with tribes and urban tribal communities needs to occur at federal, state, and local, levels to reduce the disproportionate representation of Native children in child welfare and prevent new cases from entering the system. Once an Indian child is identified, states, counties, and tribes should begin active efforts[3] to link the child and family to services and resources that can reduce risk and prevent the case from entering the child welfare system.

There are a number of promising and model programs that demonstrate collaboration and court involvement to achieve ICWA compliance. For more information go to the following websites:
· National Resource Center for Tribes: www.NRC4Tribes.org
· National Indian Child Welfare Association: www.NICWA.org
· National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges: www.NCJFCJ.org
· American Indian Enhancement Project of California Toolkit: http://calswec.berkeley.edu/CalSWEC/AIE/AIE_home.html

Tribal STAR is a program of the Academy for Professional Excellence, SDSU School of Social Work, funded by the State of California Department of Social Services. Since 2003 Tribal STAR has provided training and technical assistance to Southern California Counties with a mission to ensure that American Indian/Alaska Native children remain connected to culture, community and resources.
For more information go to  http://theacademy.sdsu.edu/TribalSTAR.

[1] Disproportionality Rates for Children of Color in Foster Care: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, California Disproportionality Report, and “An Unsettling Profile” Coalition of Communities of Color: Portland Oregon State University.

[2] Family to Family, Family Finding, Client Engagement, Signs of Safety, and Active Efforts.

[3] Indian Child Welfare Act : Pub.L. 95-608, 93 Stat. 3071, enacted November 8, 1978.

Please share this with tribal officials and contact Tribal STAR for more attention.... Trace

Killers Walk

Ivan Skorobogatov/Nathaniel Craver Case Update: Killers Walk

I have to say that this story has upset me so deeply, I'm crying. I'm crying for Ivan and for all the other adoptees who were murdered by their parents. This is the month to portray all aspects of adoption, and this is certainly one of the most disturbing aspects to me and to many others... Trace

QUESTIONS: a new journey begins...

By Trace A. DeMeyer
Whenever I find new adoptees, I want them to know immediately we share this experience. Here is someone who is in the first stages of discovery...
http://urbanhaas.blogspot.com/2011/08/unexpected-connection.html
What strikes me about this new adoptee and his new adoptee journey are the QUESTIONS: " Is it right to contact someone who carried you and gave you up 42 years ago? What if reaching out is painful or opens old wounds? What if it’s better not knowing? What if they’re bad people? What if …. Many questions rolled around in my head as I considered what to do...."

These are our thoughts. What do we do, how do we handle contact and reunions, what ifs, etc. There are no guidebooks for this which is why I wrote my memoir One Small Sacrifice. I had to explain to others we are not alone and if they are Native adoptees, I want them to know the history and how the Indian Adoption Project files are sealed to hide their hideous intentions to erase us as Indians.

I feel for this adoptee: He writes:
"...Contact. What happens next? We’ve been corresponding via email and are making plans to meet face to face. It’s exciting. Both of us felt shock at the sudden connection. Neither of us have experienced the pain that could have come. Not yet at least...."

One reason I blog and read other adoptee blogs is our shared experience. Sharing our stories is how we heal...

Have you found any new adoptee blogs?

How many children were adopted in 2000 and 2001? STATiSTiCS

It's important to know the most recent statistics on adoption; here is the most recent report (2004)...

The Children’s Bureau and its Child Welfare Information Gateway (Information Gateway) are grateful to the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) for its important work in verifying adoption information from courts, bureaus of vital records, Native American Tribes, and private adoption agencies.

The purpose of this ADOPTION report is to estimate the number of children adopted in each of the States for 2000 and 2001 and to use these numbers to estimate the composition and trends of all adoptions in the United States.
Key findings are summarized below:

• In 2000 and 2001, about 127,000 children were adopted annually in the United States. Since 1987, the number of adoptions annually has remained relatively constant, ranging from 118,000 to 127,000.
• The source of adoptions is no longer dominated by kinship adoptions and private agency adoptions. Public agency and intercountry adoptions now account for more than half of all adoptions.
• Adoptions through publicly funded child welfare agencies accounted for two-fifths of all adoptions. More than 50,000 public agency adoptions in each year (2000 and 2001) accounted for about 40 percent of adoptions, up from 18 percent in 1992 for those 36 States that reported public agency adoptions in 1992 (Flango & Flango, 1995).
• Intercountry adoptions accounted for more than 15 percent of all adoptions. Intercountry adoptions increased from 5 percent to 15 percent of adoptions in the United States between 1992 and 2001 (U.S. Department of State, n.d.).
• The other two-fifths of adoptions are primarily private agency, kinship, or tribal adoptions. With the available data, it is not possible to separate figures within this group, although the percentages of all adoptions in that group as a whole have decreased. In 1992, for example, stepparent adoptions (a form of kinship adoption) alone accounted for two-fifths (42 percent) of all adoptions.

No one agency is charged with collecting data on adoptions. The National Center for State Courts’ (NCSC’s) Court Statistics Project collects data by calendar year (which most States use) and State fiscal years for the total number of adoptions processed  through courts. NCSC’s figures are incomplete, however, for several reasons. Some parents who adopt in foreign countries choose not to file in a U.S. court. While all domestic adoptions are finalized in U.S. courts, adoptions are such a small percentage of court caseloads that they are sometimes included in a larger category, such as “other civil petitions,” and cannot be separated from other civil petitions.

Three other sources of adoption information provide numbers of adoptions by type: the Federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), the State Department, and the Office of Immigration Statistics within the Department of Homeland Security. AFCARS provides data on adoptions through public agencies, and the State Department and the Office of Immigration Statistics provide the number of visas issued for intercountry adoption. There is no overlap between the AFCARS data and the data provided by the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security. Other data sources are inconsistent in terms of reporting period and population reported and are not mutually exclusive.  The number of adoptions in the third category—private agency, kinship, or tribal—can be approximated by subtracting the AFCARS and intercountry adoption numbers from the total adoptions reported by courts. The result is an approximation, but any difference due to gaps and overlap among counts from the three types is probably only slight.
To access a copy of these Highlights, go to www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/s_adoptedhighlights.cfm.
This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway. Available online at www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/s_adopted/index.cfm.

CITATION: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2004). How many children were adopted in 2000 and 2001? Washington, DC: Child Welfare Information Gateway.

Adoption by Type

Three sources of adoption information provide numbers of adoptions by type: the Federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), the State Department, and the Office of Immigration Statistics within the Department of Homeland Security.
AFCARS reported 54,627 adoptions in the United States during fiscal year 2000 and 50,136 adoptions in fiscal year 2001.

1992

PUBLIC: 18%

INTERCOUNTRY: 5%

PRIVATE, INDEPENDENT, KINSHIP AND TRIBAL: 77%

2001

PUBLIC: 39%

INTERCOUNTRY: 15%

PRIVATE, INDEPENDENT, KINSHIP AND TRIBAL: 46%

This number includes private agency, independent, and tribal adoptions with public agency involvement that were reported to AFCARS.

Adoption information in AFCARS is updated continually based on new reports submitted by the States. The data in this report were those available on May 15, 2003. In Illinois, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Arizona, in both 2000 and 2001, the public agency adoptions comprised the largest share of all adoptions. More than half of all adoptions in these States were public agency adoptions. Of all States, Alabama and Wyoming had the smallest percentage of public agency adoptions.
More stats available online at www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/s_adopted/index.cfm.

[I was asked recently how many children are adopted each year...These statistics tell us plenty...Trace]

STOP deporting adoptees!

I had to share this post as part of NO-Vember Adoption Awareness... Trace

Stop deporting adoptees!
Posted on November 18, 2011

Take the time to inform yourself about this special class of adoptees: They assume they are U.S. citizens. And then some issue arises and all of a sudden their citizenship is denied or questioned, or found out to be legally non-existent. As young adults they find themselves deported to their “home” nation, yet they know no one there (having grown up in the USA) and usually no longer speak their native language. Outrageous. Just another example of the “never quite belonging” way adoptees get treated in our society.
Read more here:


http://johnraible.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/stop-deporting-adoptees/

And any First Nations adoptees who have been deported to Canada, please comment here...

Diabetes Diabetes Diabetes

This past week more than a few Native adoptee friends told me adoptees need to be reminded of the diabetes epidemic in Indian Country.  Even if you have not made contact with your natural parents or tribe, adoptees still need to watchful of their health and have regular blood tests.  My birthmother died from complications of diabetes, so I am extra careful.  I remind everyone to schedule your annual physical now and ask your doctor to monitor your blood glucose levels.
As you know, most adoptees are denied their medical history. Some of us are Indian or part-Indian...  I will be posting more on health issues for Split Feathers very soon... Trace

get your blood tested for diabetes

This press release came at the right time: Native American tribes Focus of Diabetes Education Campaign

SANTA CRUZ, CA, Nov 16, 2011

LawyersandSettlements.com, the premier publication for Online Legal Media, has announced an educational campaign aimed at the Native American Indian population. In honor of National Diabetes Month, as well as American Indian Heritage Month, LawyersandSettlements.com identified Native Americans as an underserved group when it comes to diabetes education and information on the potential hazards and current legal activity of drugs used to treat diabetes. Their Nov. 16th news release will hit media outlets and social media that particularly serve the tribes with the largest populations, including Navajo, Cherokee, Sioux, Chippewa, Choctaw, Apache, Iroquois, Pueblo, Creek and Blackfeet, among others.

According to the Indian Health Service (www.ihs.gov), American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest rates of type 2 diabetes in the United States. It is unknown what percentage of American Indians with diabetes have been treated with drugs such as Actos and Avandia, but LawyersandSettlements.com believes it is important for all users to have a single source of current legal news and pending lawsuits.

For those who, unfortunately, have suffered such side effects as bladder or kidney cancer, heart failure or bone fractures, readers can turn to http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/ and read the latest news and information regarding pending lawsuits and other legal actions.

"Indigenous people are genetically twice as likely to get type 2 diabetes," said Ben Stewart, an attorney who works with several tribes on issues concerning Native populations and traces his heritage to the Upper Creek Nation. "Many American Indians are on a supplemental drug plan and Actos has historically been the cheapest drug to treat diabetes. They are receiving treatment for one disease but are not being screened for side effects as a result of their Actos use. LawyersandSettlements.com is making a great effort to spread the word on this all-important issue."

"We believe it's important to keep topics alive that often fall off the radar of traditional mass media," said Stephen King, CEO. "By reaching out to specific populations, we hope to educate those readers with comprehensive legal news coverage so they can make an informed decision about their possible case."

Visit them on the web: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/

Follow Online Legal Media on Twitter @OnlineLegalNews
and on Facebook at  http://www.facebook.com/pages/LawyersAndSettlementscom/74380229132

Government spies on advocate for Native children

Published Nov 15 2011

Since 2007, federal officials have attended 75 to 100 meetings at which Cindy Blackstock spoke, then reported back to their bosses.

Pawel Dwulit/Toronto Star file photo

By Tim Harper (National Affairs Columnist, Toronto Star) OTTAWA-ONTARIO

Why is the federal government spying on Cindy Blackstock?
When does a life-long advocate for aboriginal children become an enemy of the state?
The answer, it would seem, is when you file a human rights complaint accusing your government of willfully underfunding child welfare services to First Nations children on reserves.
Accusing your government, in other words, of racial discrimination.
That’s what Blackstock, as executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, did in 2007.
Since that time, federal officials attended 75 to 100 meetings at which she spoke, then reported back to their bosses.
They went on her Facebook page during work hours, then assigned a bureaucrat to sign on as himself after hours to check it again looking for testimony from the tribunal.
On at least two occasions, they pulled her Status Indian file and its personal information, including data on her family.
As first reported by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, it’s all there in a mountain of documents, measuring more than six inches high, which she recently received after waiting 1 ½ years for them to be released under access to information legislation.
“I have never had a parking ticket, let alone a criminal record and I have never conducted myself in an unprofessional manner," she told me from Edmonton Tuesday.
Some of the emailed reports that went up the ladder at the former Indian and Northern Affairs openly mocked Blackstock.
In one report of her presentation to a New Brunswick symposium, there was a sarcastic summary of her “tour de force . . . which fired up a ready to be impressed audience. ...She rattled through some general statistics (or gave the impression of doing so) before being whisked off to the airport."
It’s hardly the first time that the Conservative government has surreptitiously kept its eyes on aboriginals.
Last month, it was revealed the Canadian military had been keeping watch on activities of native organizations and had delivered at least eight reports over 18 months dealing with everything from a potential native backlash over Ontario’s introduction of the HST to potential demonstrations on the lawn of Parliament Hill.
In 2009, Blackstock was awarded the Atkinson Charitable Foundation’s Economic Justice fellowship, which provides $100,000 per year to community leaders to support their work.
Among those who praised her on that occasion was former prime minister Paul Martin.
In April, she spoke at a two-day provincial summit organized by the Dalton McGuinty government to try to find common ground among those fighting to improve the lives of native kids.
So, while one level of government was seeking her expertise, another level was spying on her.
A spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan, said the government “takes privacy concerns very seriously. The department routinely monitors and analyses the public environment as it relates to the department’s policies, programs, services and initiatives. This is done to do a better job in service delivery and policy."
Blackstock decided to seek her own file after she was denied access to a 2009 meeting with departmental officials on behalf of Ontario chiefs.
Instead, she was made to wait in an anteroom, where she was watched by a burly security guard who towered above her.
“I have never said anything that the auditor general hasn’t said," Blackstock says.
Indeed, in 2008, then-auditor general Sheila Fraser confirmed that substantial shortfalls in federal child-welfare funding on reserves are jeopardizing children’s safety.
Fraser also found First Nations children receive substantially less elementary and secondary school funding per capita than other Canadians enjoy.
“I’m a common sense girl," Blackstock says. “I say rather than spend the money following me around, spend it on the children."
This is a government that seems perpetually in need of enemies.
The irony is that there has been much speculation in this city of late that the plight of aboriginals will be a major preoccupation of Stephen Harper in the remaining years of his majority government.
A first step would be to stop treating advocates for aboriginals as enemies.

Read the MANY comments: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1087493--tim-harper-government-spies-on-advocate-for-native-children?bn=1

[As part of ADOPTION BEWARE-NESS MONTH and my advocacy for all First Nations and American Indian adoptees, I hope someday to meet and thank Cindy for her work.. Until then I honor her here on this blog as one of my heroes...Trace]

PENN STATE: SILENCE IS NOT AN ANSWER

My years as a College Student 1974-1978

By Trace A. DeMeyer

Why it took me years to write my memoir - why I didn’t want to write about me at all - is because I was sexually abused by my adoptive father. I broke my silence at age 22 when I went to my first therapist for counseling (right after college). I wasn't telling everyone what had happened - I kept silent. Writing about my childhood took me nearly 5 years. I published my memoir in early 2010. At age 53, shame could still do that - it tried to silence me.


Did I want to remember those years?  No.  Remembering what he did to me paralyzed me: to go back in time to think about those years seemed like a bad idea, like I’d be reliving it.  I had therapy twice and it had helped. Writing helped more. The more you tell what happened, the old terror loosens its grip on you.  I had therapy to release it and writing about it was hard but not horrible. Our minds do bury what is hard to comprehend. When we feel safe, as adults, after time has passed, we can go back and look at what happened.  Talking about it and writing about it releases the shame.


Did I want the world to know? No. I checked with a few of my female cousins to make sure that my dad made me his only victim. Of course this was years after it happened. After my memoir, my cousins then knew what happened to me and yes, they did back me up and support me emotionally. They knew my dad was a bad alcoholic. Now they knew the truth and everything else.


Did I have to write what happened? Absolutely. WARNING: This kind of thing can define the rest of your life. If you don’t face it head-on, it can control you and destroy you and your confidence.


For years and years I didn’t want anyone to know - because of my shame. I never confronted my dad as a teenager. To me, my father was sick. He was the monster who I had to live with. I endured more than five years of inappropriate touching and non-stop talk about sex - what he wanted to do to me in graphic detail.


Why didn’t I go to police or to a trusted teacher or a relative? First I was afraid no one would believe me. Second, I was afraid I’d be blamed - my mother had called me a whore. I was 12 when my dad first molested me - I was not a whore. Our family was sick and damaging in many ways.


I want each and every sexual abuse victim, at PENN STATE or anywhere else to know: your silence keeps you the victim. Silence is not an answer. To heal this, you have to speak your truth.
First, find a really good therapist; then hire a really good lawyer.

Now I am a survivor of sexual abuse, not a victim.

PENN STATE SCANDAL - Sandusky also an adopter

WTF? Does it really go that high up the food chain?

BLOG.AMYADOPTEE.COM published "WTF? Does it really go that high up the food chain?" on 11/15/2011 written by Amy Adoptee.


I have been paying attention to the "child molestation charges against Sandusky" news. I want to try and steer the negative implications away from the university, Penn State. The entire school isn't bad. Their athletic department leaves much to be desired. My concerns, however, have always been with The Second Mile charity established by Jerry Sandusky. They are a foster care type of agency that allowed a pedophile run amok with the children charged in their care. Sandusky and his wife even adopted a child from that agency. I find it hard to believe that no red flags came up at all. Ironically even the Westboro Baptist Church got it right this time.

Let's look at the characters involved in this melodrama. Sandusky is of course the disgusting perp in this mess. Paterno is the coach. McQueary is the grad student who saw Sandusky getting his kicks with a young boy. Tim Curley and Gary Schultz supposedly covered it up. Graham Spanier was President of the university at the time all of this happened. Jim Calhoun was another witness that has "dementia." Wendell Courtney worked as counsel for both the university and The Second Mile charity (DING DING DING).

Ironically the charity is now being represented by the former Philadelphia district attorney, Lynne Abraham to represent them because Wendell Courtney (see above DING DING DING) resigned last week.

Ray Gricar (DING DING DING) went missing and was recently declared dead this past July. However, his disappearance raises questions on a major level as another blogger suggested. Believe me, it entered my brain too. He did not prosecute this case when it could have been stopped but he also did not prosecute a football player, Scott Paxson,for rape either. It could have been for a lack of evidence but also his brother also committed suicide too.

Finally someone at the state level is looking into The Second Mile Charity. The heat brought about the resignation of Jack Raykovitz. The governor of Pennsylvania is a calling for an investigation into the agency. Finally! They need to be investigated fully and totally. Every one of their donors need to be investigated and fully vetted. This agency allowed a pedophile around children who needed protection not more abuse. He is rumored to have even pimped those children to some of the rich donors. Bad thing is that this agency probably had connections in Texas as well as New York.

Interestingly, another article points out a certain judge and her ties to The Second Mile organization. She let Sandusky post a $100,000 unsecured bail when the state was asking for $500,000 at least. He does not have to wear any kind of leg monitor or be monitored at all. She donated to The Second Mile Program and even participated in its events. Geez, I think that is a conflict of interest there, sweetie! According to news articles, she is now being investigated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to see if her capabilities as a judge and her involvement with the Second Mile might force her to recuse herself from the bench.

As far as NBC's interview with Sandusky, he admits to showering with these boys. Excuse me, that is even dangerously close to sexual abuse. I would be uncomfortable if my teacher or someone that I respected did that with me. He even sounds pervy in the interview with that soft voice. EWWWWWWW!

Permalink: blog.amyadoptee.com/2011/11/15/wtf-does-it-really-go-that-high-up-the-food-chain.aspx

[A 10-year-old child does not initiate sexual contact with an adult - Sandusky is a pedophile, despite what he said this morning on NBC ...Trace]

Effects of American Indian boarding schools still linger today

archival photo

At a conference at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center last month, more than 140 health and human service workers listened to Anderson’s presentation on the boarding schools and the negative effects they still have on Indian people today. Anderson was one of more than 120 to present at the 2011 St. Louis County Health & Human Service Conference October 10 and 11.
By: Naomi Yaeger-Bischoff, for the Budgeteer News (Duluth, Minnesota)
Duluth News Tribune

While giving her talk, Susan Anderson, a student in the social work department at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, projected historical images of American Indian children who had been taken from their parents and placed in boarding schools. This photo was taken four months after the children first arrived at the school.
Susan Anderson projected the slide of an American Indian boarding school onto a screen. She looked out into the audience and asked, “Who of you would enjoy going to school here? You can just imagine what these young children experienced.”
At a conference at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center last month, more than 140 health and human service workers listened to Anderson’s presentation on the boarding schools and the negative effects they still have on Indian people today. Anderson was one of more than 120 to present at the 2011 St. Louis County Health & Human Service Conference October 10 and 11.
Anderson, who has researched the topic as part of her master’s of social work concentration at the University of Minnesota Duluth, presented a slideshow with interviews and photos of the schools. She said her mother attended one of schools, which she described as militaristic and run like prisons.
"I knew my mom loved me,” she said, “but she didn’t know how to show it. She didn’t know how to hug me.”
Anderson went on to illustrate how children as young as five were torn from their families and placed in the schools. The boarding school philosophy, she said, was “kill the Indian, save the man,” the legacy of which continues to affect Indian people today.
“Even if you are a native person and you don’t understand historical trauma, you are still affected by it,” she said. “It’s intergenerational.”
Anderson said that the U.S. government hoped American Indians would abandon their culture and assimilate. She said that brainwashing techniques were used at the schools.
“On the fateful day of Oct. 6, 1869, Col. Richard Pratt opened the first boarding school in Carlyle, Penn.,” Anderson said. “It was modeled after a prison,” she said, projecting a slide of it on a screen, “And it looks like a prison.”
Anderson showed a short film about how American Indian children were forcibly separated from their families and punished whenever they spoke their native language, even if they didn’t know English.
But Pratt showed off his work, using before-and-after photographs to raise money for Indian schools, pronouncing that he took the Indian children from barbarian to civilization.
“Four months later, they don’t even look like the same kids,” Anderson said. “They’ve had their haircuts; stripped of their Indian names….They just lost everything within four months.
She then showed an interview with an American Indian man who attended boarding schools in North Dakota between the mid-1960s and early 1970s.
“I got hit so much I lost my tongue ... I lost my native tongue,” the man said as he wept. “They beat me. Every day they beat me. They cut off my hair…”
Anderson added that there was physical and sexual abuse at the schools. “They were degraded,” Anderson said.
Of herself, she said, “I’m proud to be who I am, and…..you know that impression, what we receive from the outside is bad.” But, she added, “I know that I have some internalized depression. It’s a shame and disowning of our individual and cultural reality. We take what they say and make it a part of us.”
Charles Lussier, a job counselor for the Minnesota Chippewa tribe whose grandmother was sent to the boarding school, attended her talk.
“I suffer from historical trauma,” he said. “I connected the dots one day and realized what had happened.”
He said that he was two generations removed from the boarding school experience, going back to the 1920s, but that it “had such a profound effect on our family.”
Lussier said that the boarding school experience of previous generations may be the cause of current day problems for some individuals. “The native guy may not be able to put his finger on what is wrong,” he said. “Learning to heal the wounds began a generation or two previously might be a start.”
SOURCE: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/214447/

Privacy and Adoptees

Privacy and Adoptees: Middle School
From Joy's Division on 11-9-11:
...I can’t believe I am making another post. I can’t believe after the kajillion words I have posted in the last few days that I am so compelled to post again.


My days have been so argumentative and didactic and I hate didactic, I am a party-girl at heart and cocktail parties thrive on funny jokes and a complete lack of moral teachings. Fuck moral teachings, but man God has laid plenty on my heart about this, and by God I mean, accountability and responsibility.

Some agro-adoptive parents have noted that I have criticized them a lot and not noted how they could better improve their standard.

Okay, this is key: PRIVACY

Read the rest here:

http://joy21.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/privacy-and-adoptees-middle-school/

Adoption Truth: NO Vember

 This list I totally agree with! Adoption Truth: "No" Vember

As part of Adoption Awareness Month, here is another blog ADOPTION TRUTH you must read. There are many amazing adoption-related blogs out there now in cyberspace!  Check out my favorites in the left column. Sign up for our blogs by email and RSS feeds. Please COMMENT, too! It really helps me and other bloggers when you share it on Twitter and Facebook - we LOVE you when you do this...
Thank you everyone for reading... Trace

Blue Hand Books: 11-11-11 - Interview with our author JOHN CHRISTIA...

Blue Hand Books: 11-11-11 - Interview with our author JOHN CHRISTIA...: Author John C. Hopkins (Narragansett) TWILIGHT OF THE GODS published on11-11-11 on Kindle Welcome to our first interview with John Chri...

North Carolina reunion of mother and son

Family reunited after decades

http://www.myfox8.com/videogallery/65980732/News/Adopted:-Family-Reunited-After-Decades

November 9, 2011


Three years after North Carolina changed its laws to give adoptees access to more information about their parents, families are still reuniting at a steady pace.

In the video above, Sheeka Strickland introduces us to a mom and her son who had lived completely separate lives for decades.

Before 2008, state laws prohibited most information from being released to either party, even with consent. The law changed again a year ago to allow people to get a death certificate from relatives who passed away.

Thursday night at 10, Sheeka will introduce us to a woman who used an Internet search angel to find her birth mother. Copyright © 2011, WGHP-TV

What strikes me is how expensive it is in North Carolina for an adoptee or natural parent to make connections - and there is a backlog of those requesting reunion. This has to be corrected - it should cost us NOTHING - we need reunion to heal....Trace

[Birth Mother,] First Mother Forum: Like father, like son...John Jandali and Steve Job...

[Birth Mother,] First Mother Forum: Like father, like son...John Jandali and Steve Job...: Jandali and Jobs
Before his death earlier this week, Steve Jobs and his natural father never met, according to news reports.

Since it is Adoption Awareness Month, let's read more ADOPTEE BLOGS and FIRST MOTHER FORUMS!  Check out my favorite blogs in the left hand column!
Rest in peace, Steve Jobs...

The Daily Bastardette: Michele Bachman Wants to Adopt You

The Daily Bastardette: Michele Bachman Wants to Adopt You

Another great post on another great blog! It's Adoption Awarenesss Month!

Real Daughter: Flesh peddling for Joseph Smith!

Real Daughter: Flesh peddling for Joseph Smith!: Apparently, there are official prompts for those of us participating in nablopomo . Today's prompt is : "If you knew that whatever you a...

Warning: this blog post will make you think!

STUDY on Adoption Reunions by Eileen Skahill

Master Thesis Project on Adoption Reunions by Eileen Skahill
Date: 21 Oct 2011
As part of a Master Thesis in Sociology, the principal researcher is looking for adoptees who have been in reunion for longer than four years. The researcher would like to obtain participants who are currently in an adoption support group, and participants who currently are not.  The research is qualitative in design and would require participation in open ended interviews roughly 30-90 minutes in length. The research focus relates to the participants' experiences/relationships with their natural siblings and other extended family members, rather than their experiences with their natural parents. This study is IRB (Institutional Review Board) approved requiring a signed consent form. All participants will be guaranteed anonymity.  If you are willing to participate, please contact Eileen Skahill at:  eileenskahill@yahoo.com or 719-510-5109. 

Good news in New York State

Assemblyman David Weprin calls for change in state to give adoptees access to their birth records                                                                                                            

Change would help track family and medical issues

BY Jennifer H. Cunningham
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, November 6 2011, 6:38 PM

 

Norman Y. Lono/NORMAN Y. LONO

Nov 6, 2011 - Manhattan, NY

State Assemblyman David I. Weprin on Sunday called for a change in state law that bars adoptees from seeing to their birth records.

Weprin said he is sponsoring the “Adoptees Bill of Rights” bill to give adoptees access to their birth certificate and medical records once they turn 18. Weprin said birth records are sealed and kept by the state Department of Health once someone is adopted.

"This bill would allow adoptees, when they turn 18, access to their original birth certificate,” Weprin, joined by adoptive advocates, said Sunday on the steps of City Hall. “It is time these archaic laws be amended to reflect our current reality.”

Adult adoptees must go through the courts to get their records - a costly move with no guarantee of success, adoptive advocates said.

“They are the only classification of persons that have no right to their birth information,” said Ellyn Essig, legal advisor for Unsealed Initiative, a group fighting for adoptee access to birth records. “All we’re looking for is equal footing with everybody else.”

Larry Dell, 63, of Maplewood, N.J., discovered he was adopted four years ago, and said changing the law would help him find his family.

“I would get my original birth certificate with the names of my parents,” Dell said. “That’s what I need. That’s the missing piece.”

Weprin said the bill has wide bipartisan support, and he anticipates a vote when the assembly goes back into session in January. Seven other states have passed similar legislation.

Weprin said access to birth records wasn't only a human right, but it allows adoptees to find out their family medical history.

Adoptee Joel Vergun, 51, agreed. Vergun said finding his birth mom, Jill Auerbach, 68, of Poughkeepsie, was the difference between life and death.

“There's a serious history of heart disease in my family,” Vergun said. “Because she found me eight years ago, I went and had some tests done that I wouldn't have known to do otherwise. They found a couple of conditions, which were treated, which would have caused me to have an arrhythmia, which would have caused my heart to suddenly stop like it did my birth father. She saved my life.”

November is National Adoption Month.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/assemblyman-david-weprin-calls-change-state-give-adoptees-access-birth-records-article-1.973061#ixzz1d2Nz424j

Blue Hand Books: Book Trailer: Twilight of the Gods coming out 11-11-11

Blue Hand Books: Book Trailer: Twilight of the Gods coming out 11-11-11

This is my new venture: a book publishing collective with other Native authors!

Things In Life That Are Really Really Awful

Things are heating up in Adoption Bloggerland: Read these posts:

Things In Life That Are Really Really Awful « Joy’s Division

http://eag-oncewasvon.blogspot.com/2011/11/twenty-fun-things-to-do-with-adoptees.html

The comment I made on Von's blog yesterday (on her Nov. 3rd post) bears repeating:

I attended the international adoption conference in Boston last year and one of the major points stated throughout was DO NOT BLOG about your adopting a child. DO NOT BLOG about the child (or children) at all. That child will grow up and find the blog by her adoptive mother and read these highly personal details. It is a violation of the child's right to privacy. (I envision lawyers lining up to sue a-parents for this infraction.) Obviously young adoptees do not arrive with a written warning - do not blog about me - it's not in our paperwork or in the adoption decree.


There are adopters out there who read your blog Von - I do hope they hear this message loud and clear.

I am an adoptee and clearly I always wanted more information about my identity than the nonsense I received from my adoptive parents.

If I read details of how they adopted me on a public blog and if they mention my natural parents and my ancestry and the how or why I was given up - I would throw up first then call an attorney.


AND FINALLY - here is a good reason to celebrate Adoption Awareness Month in NOVEMBER 2011:  AWARENESS= BLOGS=CHANGE:
http://www.declassifiedadoptee.com/2011/11/things-to-celebrate-during-national.html

The Declassified Adoptee: When "Pro-Adoption" Becomes "Anti-Adoptee"

"Pro-advocating-for-what's-right-when-it's-the-right-thing-to-do." - Amanda

Please read:
The Declassified Adoptee: When "Pro-Adoption" Becomes "Anti-Adoptee": I have a friend who is the son of an adoptee who is interested in Adoptee Rights and Adoption Reform. The other day, I was talking to ...

This ad rocks! From Amanda's blog!

November is touted as Pro-Adoption Month...

watch for my guest blog on her blog, soon...

REUNION - a good friend in the news in Toronto! 60s Scoop Survivor



Debby's photo was used in an adoption brochure in 1956

IN THE NEWS: Debby Poitras Precius Reunion:

Metis siblings have 1st meeting

October 31, 2011News > Local News > Toronto

A Métis brother and sister separated decades ago when they were small children had an emotional first meeting in Toronto Monday.

Here is the link:
in video section of CBC news
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Local_News/Toronto/1317912017/ID=2163160192
Debby is in our book SPLIT FEATHERS: TWO WORLDS! We hope to have a publisher SOON!

URGENT Update for Illinois Adoptees from Melisha Mitchell

check your bookstore for this book!

DO NOT MAIL IN OBC REQUESTS BEFORE 11/15!!!     

November 1, 2011
PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS MESSAGE WIDELY!!!!!

Dear Friends:

Yes, it's me again. A little sooner than expected...but with important news for all of the post-1946 adoptees who plan to request their OBC's on November 15th.
We learned yesterday from Illinois Vital Statistics that they WILL NOT ACCEPT any OBC Request Forms that arrive in their offices before November 15th. Yes, you read that correctly. They are not going by the postmark, but by the date the Request Form arrives! And, all Request Forms received in
Springfield prior to November 15th are being RETURNED TO SENDER!
According to Vital Statistics, accepting Request Forms prior to that date "would be like breaking the law." I am surprised by this interpretation, but time is of the essence here... As I type this, the checks of hundreds among you who planned ahead, and thought you were going to be at the front of the
class, are weaving their way back to your mailboxes... and you'll soon find out that you've been sent to the back of the line. 
What do do???
If you've already sent your Request Form in, don't panic..just keep reading!
And, if you haven't, below you'll find complete instructions on how to make sure your Request Form is among those that Vital Statistics receives on the morning of November 15th, and not a second before (or after).
Scenario 1:
You've already mailed in your Request Form.
If you've already mailed in your Request Form, trust me, it's on its way back. They have reportedly returned "hundreds" of forms in the past two weeks. If yours is one of them, don't wait for it to come back (hoping they made an exception in your case--they didn't). Unfortunately, returned mail
travels very slowly...November 15th could very well come and go before your envelope works its way back to you. 
Void the check you sent with your original Request Form, if you don't feel comfortable having a $15 check that won't be cashed floating out there.
Otherwise sit tight...and then choose one of the options below for Scenario 2.
Scenario 2:
You have not yet mailed in your Request Form (but you sure would like to learn more about being among those who are being sent to the head of the class).
Since learning about this latest glitch in the unrolling of the second phase of the new law, we have come up with five ways to allow you to make sure that your obc will be among the thousands that will be sitting on Vital Statistics' doorstep on Tuesday, November 15th:
1. You can mail your completed Request Form, along with the $15 check made out to the Illinois Dept. of Public Health and a photocopy of your state ID to me at our offices, 525 N. Halsted, Suite 203, Chicago, IL 60642.  DO NOT USE the PO Box address which appears on the website. I am asking that
Request Forms mailed directly to me be sent via Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation (cost is $5.65 in the U.S.) or via any other method of your choice that can be tracked via the internet (eg. Fedex, if you have a Fedex account). All mailed Request Forms must reach me by Friday, November 11th at the latest to be part of "Operation Pony Express" (see below).

2. You can bring your completed Request Form, along with the $15 check made out to the Illinois Dept. of Public Health and a photocopy of your state ID to in a SEPARATE envelope and hand-deliver it to me at White Oak's offices, at 525 N. Halsted, Suite 203, on November 9th, 10th or 11th, or at the
informational table we'll be hosting in the Thompson Center, 100 West Randolph, on November 8th or November 14th. Drop-off times on the 9th, 10th and 11th will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. all three days. We will be at the Thompson Center between the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on 11/8 and 11/14. All request forms received during the 3-day open house and the two days at the Thompson Center will be included in "Operation Pony Express" (more on that after #3).

3. You can join me, along with Rep. Feigenholtz, and film-maker Jean Strauss, and many of those who played a pivotal role in the passage of this ground-breaking legislation. ..at a party being held to celebrate this historic event on the evening of November 14, 2011. I can't yet tell you where exactly we'll be celebrating (but it will be somewhere in Chicago), nor the exact time (6 to 10 is my best guess), but I can promise you that we'll have a lot to celebrate (99.9% of 250,000 original birth certificates unsealed in a single day)!
All of the Request Forms received by mail or in person at our offices prior to November 11th, along with all the Request Forms gathered at the Thompson Center on November 8th and 11th, and all those received at the celebration party on the evening of the 14th, will be hand-delivered to Vital Statistics
on November 15th via what I am calling "Operation Pony Express."

On the morning of November 15th, Rep. Feigenholtz, along with Jean Strauss and members of Rep. Feigneholtz' s staff, will be hand-delivering the hundreds of Request Forms we've gathered between now and November 14th to Vital Statistics. If we can get press coverage for "Operation Pony Express,"
you may even get to see your Request Form, rolling among all those delivered to Vital Statistics that day, on the evening news.  If you'd like to be part of "Operation Pony Express"...and Illinois adoption history ....and are interested in taking advantage of Options 1, 2 or 3 above, please email me at iltreesurgeon@ aol.com as soon as possible. 
And, if you'd like to get your Request Form in on the 15th, but without being involved in all the hoopla, you can:

4. Send your Request Form via Overnight Delivery on November 14th, using FedEx or the U.S. Postal Service's overnight service.

5. Walk, drive or fly to Springfield, IL and hand-deliver your Request Form to Vital Statistics on the 15th (you might run into Jean Strauss and her film crew, if you do!). However, be advised that, even if you hand in your Request Form on the 15th, you will have to wait just as long as anyone who chose option 1, 2, 3 or 4 above to receive a non-certified copy of your original birth certificate.

WEBINARS
We've been overwhelmed by your response to our free webinars this week! The 2 p.m. Thursday webinar is nearly full (two spots left), and there are five spots left for the Friday, 6 pm seminar. We are looking into recording one of the webinars and making it available online throughout the month of
November. 
I will be emailing all those who signed up for either seminar later with instructions on how to find us on Thursday or Friday, along with a Pdf file that includes the materials we'll be covering during the webinar.
Thanks for all the letters of support and solidarity that have been pouring in since Friday night...I'll try to get back to everyone individually once the 15th has come and gone, but it looks like I am going to be REALLY busy between now and then!
If you live anywhere in the Chicago area, hope to see you at one of the events above!!!
Warm regards,
Melisha Mitchell, Illinois Dept. of Public Health

(I know several adoptees in Illinois who are Lost Birds - I send you strength and patience for the journey ahead....Trace)

250,000 adoptees in Illinois can access records on November 15

Illinois adoptees will have access to birth parents’ names

By: Jim Anderson |   10-30-11

Source: http://wjbc.com/illinois-adoptees-will-have-access-to-birth-parents-names/

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz was adopted and plans to take advantage of the new law she helped pass. (WJBC file photo)

A new law takes effect in November regarding birth certificates for those who were adopted.
Adoptees born 1946 or after will be able to apply for their original birth certificates, which contain the names of their birth parents, as of Nov. 15. Starting last year, those born prior to 1946 could apply. The law was structured that way because the law sealing the records took effect in 1946. The pre-1946 records were sealed retroactively by a 1986 law.
Birth parents may prevent the release of the original birth certificate, but they would have to step forward and do so. They also may attach other restrictions, such as “do not contact.” Any restrictions will remain in place until the birth parent changes them or dies.
State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), who sponsored the law and who herself will take advantage of it, expects few birth parents to place restrictions on access.
Feigenholtz says those who do apply probably just want the piece of paper. She says those looking for a reunion have, for some time now, had other ways to accomplish that.
The law affects 250,000 people.
Applicants must be over 18. Applications are available from the Department of Public Health, office of Vital Records.

[Here's the raw deal - it's conditional access - which means restrictions - which is NOT GOOD!  I cannot believe the ignorance of these legislators, including Feigenholtz - who caved to adoption lobbyists apparently.  If you are an Illinois adoptee, please comment here when you have opened your records.  I pray for all of you and your success with reunion.... Trace]

NPR's ICWA investigation (Parts 2 and 3, links and transcript)

NPR's year-long investigation has produced startling evidence the certain states are ignoring the Indian Child Welfare Act - and as you have read on this blog, this is often unquestioned criminal behavior, illegal by federal law and overt racism againt Indian People with the abduction of Native Children to foster care and adoption...   and today, some tribes ARE hiding the children they rescue from foster care...
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/27/141728431/native-survivors-of-foster-care-return-home

Tribes Question Foster Group's Power and Influence (Part 2)
Transcript from "All Things Considered":
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=141700018

Copyright ©2011 National Public Radio®. 

October 26, 2011 -

MELISSA BLOCK, host: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.
MICHELE NORRIS, host: And I'm Michele Norris.
There's a federal law that says Native American children who are removed from their homes should be placed with their relatives or tribes. The idea is to stay close to their culture. But this week, an NPR News investigation finds that in South Dakota's foster care system, that's not happening. Hundreds of Native children are placed instead in private group homes. The homes get paid millions of dollars to care for the kids.
BLOCK: The largest is a place called the Children's Home Society. South Dakota's governor used to run Children's Home, and he was on its payroll while he was lieutenant governor. As NPR's Laura Sullivan reports, that arrangement highlights the influence of South Dakota's powerful child welfare system.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Get ready. Set. Who's on first?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Let's go, dude.
LAURA SULLIVAN: On a small crest deep in South Dakota's Black Hills, a dozen children jump on sleds and float across the snow. These kids are wards of the state. This is their home, the western campus of the Children's Home Society.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: OK. Let's go. Let's go.
SULLIVAN: There are rolling hills, a babbling brook, even a new school. On a visit last winter, Children's Home Director Bill Colson says it's a place to help children who can't make it in regular foster care.
We want to solve the problems. And sometimes, it just seems like you're beating your head against the wall, but the reality is we are making progress. And I feel great about it, and our agency feels good about it.
State officials say Children's Home and other organizations like it are necessary. But Native American tribes say the homes are overused on kids who don't need to be there - kids who should be placed with relatives or their tribes.
That's what Congress mandated 30 years ago when it passed the Indian Child Welfare Act. But a 2005 government audit found 32 states are failing, in one way or another, to abide by it. One those states is South Dakota, where 90 percent of Indian children in foster care are placed in non-Native homes or privately run group homes; a generation of children torn from their traditions, cultures and tribes.
Many wind up here at Children's Home. Director Bill Colson says he's heard the tribe's complaints. And he says returning children to their relatives is a top priority
It's hard. It's frustrating for us, too, because we want to see children be successful. Our goal is to have kids, be in a family and be successful.
Children's Home provides services for almost 2,000 children. It's one of the largest nonprofits in the state. But it wasn't always. Ten years ago, this group was in trouble. Tax records show it was losing money. Then in 2002, a former banker named Dennis Daugaard took over as chief operating officer. A year later, he was promoted to executive director, and things began to change.
Money from the state doubled under his leadership. Children's Home grew seven times its size financially. It added two facilities. It seized on a big opportunity when the state began outsourcing much of its work, like training foster parents and examining potential foster homes. Children's Home got almost every one of those contracts. The group paid Daugaard $115,000 a year. But that wasn't his only job.
(SOUNDBITE OF A POLITICAL AD)
Governor DENNIS DAUGAARD: I'm Dennis Daugaard, and I want to be your next governor.
SULLIVAN: At the same time he was getting paid to be director of Children's Home, Daugaard was also the state's lieutenant governor and a rising star in state politics. He had just taken office at lieutenant governor when Children's Home promoted him to its top post. The years he spent running the place and his ability to turn it around were prominent features of his 2010 bid for governor.
(SOUNDBITE OF A POLITICAL AD)
DAUGAARD: I left the bank then and joined Children's Home Society, a home for abused and neglected children, and became their executive director.
SULLIVAN: He won. He is now South Dakota's governor. It could be that Children's Home was the best organization for the job, at the best price for all of those contracts it got. But it would be difficult for taxpayers to know. That's because in just about every case, the group did not compete for the contracts. They didn't have to bid against any one else. For almost seven years, until this year, Daugaard's colleagues in state government just chose his organization and sent it money - more than $50 million.
MELANIE SLOAN: It's a massive conflict of interest.
SULLIVAN: Melanie Sloan is the executive director of a government watchdog group called Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington. She says any private organization run by a lieutenant governor would have a lot of power in that state.
When you're lieutenant governor, people are anxious to curry favor with you.
Daugaard declined NPR's repeated requests for an interview. In a statement, his office said Children's Home was the only viable organization that could have done the work, and that Daugaard never used his influence as lieutenant governor to secure the contracts.
Tribal leaders, though, say the unusual relationship provides a window into the role money and politics place in South Dakota's foster care system. They say Children's Home's dominance in this area is but one more example of the interests of the state trumping the interests of Native children.
JUANITA SHERICK: They make a living off of our children.
SULLIVAN: In a basement office on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Juanita Sherick manages foster care cases for her tribe.
(SOUNDBITE OF TELEPHONE RINGING)
SHERICK: Hello. May I help you?
SULLIVAN: She says the state pushes aggressively to place kids in Children's Home. Kids, she says, would be better off with their own grandmothers, aunts and uncles.
Give the children back, you know, to their relatives. The Creator gave those children to those families.
In recent years, Children's Home has become a powerhouse. It examines potential foster families and homes, houses the most kids, trains the state's case workers; holds all of the state's training classes; does all examines of children who may have been abused.
Children's Home gets paid millions of dollars every year for this work, and Rose Mendoza says that's ridiculous. She runs social services for the Standing Rock Sioux, and she says her group would do it for free, especially the home studies, the job of examining tribes' potential foster homes.
Why is there no private agency onto our reservation? We can send our worker, our licensing worker out to go do a home study.
In a state where the majority of foster children are Native, Mendoza and many other tribal officials say home study, social worker training and family placements should be done by people who know and understand the children's culture.
ROSE MENDOZA: Everybody says, well, its cultural difference. Cultural difference, but it's a way of life. Our way of life is different.
SULLIVAN: Native tribes weren't the only ones left out. Troy Hoppes ran a similar group called Canyon Hills Center at the time. He says he didn't know about contracts until after they were doled out.
I just remember in the news there were some grants that were awarded, and I was envious. We wanted to get some grants for ourselves, as well.
Hoppes says his organization would have jumped at the chance.
TROY HOPPES: Facilities love the opportunity to branch out with things like that.
SULLIVAN: In its statement, Governor Daugaard's office says any group home with a license can care for kids. But Hoppes says Canyon Hills had a license, yet it struggled to fill its beds, while at the same time, Children's Home had a waiting list.
The statement also emphasizes that lieutenant governor was a part time job, and that Governor Daugaard never supervise any of the people who approved government contracts. Social service officials in their statement said Children's Home was treated the same way as every other organization.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: But I'm so excited. On Saturday is my grandmother's birthday.
SULLIVAN: On Children's Home campus, kids walk through the hallways to get to their next class. This place has won many state accolades for its work with these kids. But none of that means much to Suzy Crow or her granddaughter, Brianna.
SUZY CROWE: She was over there most of three years.
SULLIVAN: Suzy Crow was taken from her family and forced into boarding school like thousands of other Native American children over the past century.
CROWE: Every night, me and my sister would meet at her bed, and we would say, let's run away tomorrow, just to comfort ourselves that we're still there. This foster system reminds me of that.
SULLIVAN: Crow didn't want Brianna to grow up like she did, not knowing who she was or where she belonged. It took a court order for the state to finally send Brianna home.
CROWE: I didn't care what it took. I battled with them.
SULLIVAN: State records show South Dakota paid Children's Home almost $50,000 over three years to care for Brianna. And all across the state, grandmothers, aunts and uncles, family and tribal members would have cared for Brianna and hundreds of other Native American children like her for free; close to their tribes and culture like federal law intended.

Part 3  (October 27, 2011) Native survivors of Foster Care Return Home:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/27/141728431/native-survivors-of-foster-care-return-home

Disproportionality Rates of Native American Children In Foster Care (statistics)

click here: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/25/141475618/disproportionality-rates-of-native-american-children-in-foster-care

Native foster care providers are not getting children in South Dakota? 32 states are failing to abide by the ICWA.... A Congressional Investigation by the Federal Government will be one way to solve this... prosecution of social workers and state government officials? Stop their funding? I am grateful to NPR for this ground-breaking investigation and shining a light on this... 
Please email me if you are interested in providing testimony to Congress... It will take time but We must act...   Trace (my email: tracedemeyer@yahoo.com)