AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES

An exciting blog about all things adoptee-related - in particular American Indian adoptees who are called Lost Children, Lost Birds, Lost Ones and Split Feathers. This blog is updated regularly by journalist-adoptee Trace A. DeMeyer, author of ONE SMALL SACRIFICE: A Memoir and the new book TWO WORLDS: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects with Patricia Berdan Cotter-Busbee. The only way we can change history is to write it ourselves.....and the truth shall set us free...

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Native America Calling on #NDN Adoption

Friday, August 17, 2012 – Finding Your Native Roots After Being Adopted: (listen)
Imagine if you grew up away from your tribal community and had no clue that you were an Indigenous person and the only identity that you had to hold onto was from a non-Native family who was raising you as one of their own. Now just what would you do if you felt the call of your people and the reservation wanting you to come home? Would you act on it? Is it easy for a person who has been adopted out to come home when they feel the need? What does it mean to discover your Native roots? Do our tribal communities welcome those that have the urge to return? Join us as we talk with Sarah Koi (Cree) a Native adoptee discovering her Native roots, adoptee Adrian Greywolf (Sisseton/Wahpeton) and Rachel Banks-Kupcho (Leech Lake Ojibwe) Anu Family Services.

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FIVE STAR review of One Small Sacrifice

Paula Benoit wrote:

One Small Sacrifice is a must read for anyone touched by adoption. I couldn't put this book down from the moment I started reading it. Trace DeMeyer has captured the heart and soul of life as an adoptee brought into a culture not originally her own. The importance of adoptees knowing who they are and where they come from is paramount to their mental, physical and spiritual wellness. She points out many reasons why people feel complete when they have their original identity, not just the identity given to them by their adopted parents. Millions of adult adoptees across the United States are without their original identity because of sealed birth certificates and Trace takes the readers along her journey to understanding who she is and where it all began for her.

(Paula Benoit, former State Senator in Maine, helped Maine unseal their adoption records) (see more great reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!)

Wonderful review on Amazon!

Two Worlds - Lost children of the Indian Adoption Projects
If you thought that ethnic cleansing was something for the history books, think again. This work tells the stories of Native American Indian adoptees "The Lost Birds" who continue to suffer the effects of successive US and Canadian government policies on adoption; policies that were in force as recently as the 1970's. Many of the contributors still bear the scars of their separation from their ancestral roots. What becomes apparent to the reader is the reality of a racial memory that lives in the DNA of adoptees and calls to them from the past. The editors have let the contributors tell their own stories of their childhood and search for their blood relatives, allowing the reader to gain a true impression of their personalities. What becomes apparent is that nothing is straightforward; re-assimilation brings its own cultural and emotional problems.
Not all of the stories are harrowing or sad; there are a number of heart-warming successes, and not all placements amongst white families had negative consequences. But with whom should the ultimate decision of adoption reside? Government authorities or the Indian people themselves? Read Two Worlds and decide for yourself. (on Amazon UK)