NICWA Conference Addresses Challenges of the Indian Child Welfare Act

NICWA Conference Addresses Challenges of the Indian Child Welfare Act

Excerpt:
"Increasing national and state compliance with the ICWA law includes getting accurate information out to the public about the real story of the act and how it impacts Indian children and families, said NICWA Executive Director Terry Cross. To that end, much of the conference focused on strategies in working with the media.
“The media plays a crucial role in telling this story,” Cross said. “Typically the mainstream press picks up a story regarding ICWA only when a non-Indian family has somehow been injured.”
Conference attendees were encouraged to work with the press and alert the NICWA office about local stories involving the ICWA law. “We are finding that it’s possible to defuse an explosive situation by simply getting factual information out to the press,” Cross said...."

Read more:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/27/nicwa-conference-addresses-challenges-of-the-indian-child-welfare-act-110270 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/27/nicwa-conference-addresses-challenges-of-the-indian-child-welfare-act-110270#ixzz1tG1Xblya

Mary Annette Pember did a fantastic job reporting on this conference!! Trace

Using the Indian Child Welfare Act to petition court

A friend sent this and I wanted to share!  If you are thinking of opening your adoption and know the state you were born, the INDIAN CHILD WELFARE ACT can be used to petition the courts and judge to get your tribal information:

Excerpt:

One section of the ICWA is of particular interest to adoptees. Section 1951b states "Upon the request of the adopted Indian child over the age of eighteen, the adoptive or foster parents of an Indian child, or an Indian tribe, the Secretary shall disclose such information as may be necessary for the enrollment of an Indian child in the tribe in which the child may be eligible for enrollment or for determining any rights or benefits associated with that membership. Where the documents relating to such child contain an affidavit from the biological parent or parents requesting anonymity, the Secretary shall certify to the Indian child's tribe, where the information warrants, that the child's parentage and other circumstances of birth entitle the child to enrollment under the criteria established by such tribe."

Essentially this section directs the State to give adult adoptees of Native American heritage who request it, their birth information, so that they may enroll in their tribes. The section does allow for birthparents to file a veto, but even then the adoptee is entitled to tribal notification so that they may process their tribal rights and privileges. You can read the entire ICWA on the Web (use google search).

There are a few problem areas with using the ICWA.  Many adoptees are of enough Native American blood to qualify for enrollment in their tribes, but there is nothing documented that verifies that information.  Before a judge will open a file under ICWA s/he will often demand some sort of proof that the adoptee is NA at all, proof that most adoptees will simply not have. But in other instances, the agency that handled the adoption, or the court file itself, will contain notations that you, the adoptee, do have NA ancestry.

If you have received non-ID from a source that states this, include a copy with your court petition. You will also need to include a copy of the ICWA in order to make the judge's work easier and predispose him/her to wanting to help you. If you have any information at all that you are even the smallest bit Native American, you should use the ICWA in your petition. Include affidavits from family members (adoptive and birth) who have told you that you have Native American blood, as well as any 'official' agency or other documents to support your claims. Remember that most tribes have small blood quantum requirements, and you should not feel guilty about using the ICWA. The intent of this law is to ensure that those of us who are entitled to tribal membership by birthright, have the *choice* to join our Native American communities.


[ADOPTEES: please contact the adoption agency, if you know who it was, or ask your adoptive parents what they were told and ask them to request the entire adoption record in the state you were adopted. WHY?? Since your adoptive parents signed papers to adopt you - they have a right to request a copy of your file and adoption records.  If you are 18, you are an adult and can petition the courts. The Indian Adoption Projects was a secretive measure to assimilate children and change us - but it doesn't work - you are still Indian, no matter where you were raised... Indian Blood is loud... Contact me if you need to know the laws in your state and contact NICWA and request all the information they have to help adoptees... Trace]

National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA)

5100 SW Macadam Avenue, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97239
Telephone: (503) 222-4044
Fax: (503) 222-4007

Hours: Monday—Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

DNA tests: Finding the Truth and your Family

Finding the truth and family is what we adoptees live for, right?

I have wanted to write about DNA tests for quite some time, since it concerns Lost Children/American Indian adoptees who may find themselves in the snarky position of having to prove their blood while in reunion with tribal family - often years after the adoption.

Why years? It takes time and money (and lawyers sometimes) to open sealed adoption files.

How do you prove you are? DNA - it's absolute, it's blood and tests results can't be disputed.

I have a close American Indian friend who just did the DNA test with her mother's brother and indeed, she is related to her mother's family and her mother's tribe in Minnesota  - no question, it's absolutely true.

Why was this so important to do? Since her mother had already died, my friend had found her siblings.  It was her mother's children who doubted who she was.

Yes, that hurts. It really really hurts.  After all you have endured being separated from them, then you find your own brothers and sisters question your legitimacy.  Her siblings were raised by their mother, and their mother had told them they had a sister out there lost to adoption.

Yet these siblings could not and do not comprehend what my friend lived through or felt. My friend's siblings lacked compassion for her and her loss; they had their mother their whole life and now my friend would never meet her own mother since she had already died.

These are the snarky scenarios of adoption reunions and we have to know about them. It can be complicated and DNA can be costly! You never know what you will face until you get into your reunions.

What I also want to mention is my friend had no problem with her natural dad's family when she found them and their tribe. Her father's side had no doubt who she was or is...  So there are big differences in families and tribes - definitely.

In finding the truth, the painful part of reunion in Indian Country might be your own brothers and sisters who throw you a curve and demand proof of who you say you are...!

I warn adoptees - be prepared for all these scenarios.

Another friend Rhonda, who I mention in my memoir One Small Sacrifice, had to do DNA with her uncle because her father had already passed on by the time she could open her adoption in Michigan. Rhonda met both her father and mother's sides of the family and had a good reunion with her brothers, her mom's sons. DNA was required for her to be enrolled with her father's tribe.

For me, I did DNA with my natural father Earl back in 1994 - that seems like a lifetime ago. It was so expensive - around $500!

I saved the test results and the polaroid photo they took of Earl and me like it was the greatest gift anyone ever gave me.  We needed to do DNA because neither of us was sure. And indeed, 99.9% DNA positive, Earl was definitely my dad.

If you need to have a DNA test, contact me. Others on Facebook are making recommendations I can share with you... I had mine done at a lab in Springfield, Illinois.

Be well and be strong in search and reunion....I am here if you need to talk... Trace

NUMBERS: How many children were taken by IAP?

"As for the Indian Adoption projects (IAP), I needed a calculator. If the Native American population was 2 million and if just one quarter of all children were removed (via adoption) before the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, then on-paper, 80,000+ children were removed from their families during the early to mid-1900s. If the population of American Indians was 3 million, then over 100,000 babies were removed.

"I hated this math…85 percent of children were removed by adoption in 16 states. That’s genocide.

"Genocide, by my definition, means a community of people were culturally killed, wiped out or literally made dead for political and/or economic reasons. Strong words but true. Some of us are your next door neighbors. Some of us are not correctly listed on the census. Some of us are Indian only when we look in the mirror."

This is an excerpt from my memoir One Small Sacrifice. On Amazon.com.

Order a copy
Read an excerpt
Watch the trailer

Thank you for reading my blog and sharing this history with everyone... Trace 

Google Images and search tips for adoptees

Photo: Andrew Miller/For The Times of Trenton

Carla Hill, 44, poses for a portrait at her desk at Foundation Academy Charter School in Trenton on April 20, 2012 with a scrapbook her birth mother Linda Person gave to her last year. Hill found out at 23 she was adopted and has been looking for birth family for years when a Google images search last year helped her finally find her family.
This is one of the great tips I found recently. Here is the link to her story: http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2012/04/search_and_social_media_bring.html

And as I posted prior, use Google Alerts with your birth info http://splitfeathers.blogspot.com/2012/03/adoptee-use-this-search-method.html

People decide to trace their genealogies for many reasons, adoptees searching for biological relatives and ancestors... A group called the Missing Connection is something I recommend you do with other adoptees you've met in your state. Here is one based in New York State and another in Virginia.

Genealogy group forming in Lowville

By STEVE VIRKLER , TIMES STAFF WRITER, TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2012CLE OPTIONS

LOWVILLE, NY — A group for genealogy buffs is forming in connection with an organization created two decades ago in Watertown, New York. The Missing Connection will hold meetings from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month at the Lowville Free Library, 5387 Dayan St.

"There is just so much information out there,” said Katharine B. Manning, who is heading the local group. Forms and reference information will be available, and guest speakers and field trips to a cemetery may be planned. There is no charge for joining the group. Manning said she got involved with genealogical searches while seeking information on the biological parents of her father, who was adopted. “I had all this information, and it just blossomed from there,” she said.

Now, with the help of Internet site www.ancestry.com and other services, she has traced her lineage back 23 generations to the 1200s. People decide to trace their genealogies for many reasons, from searching for biological relatives among adoptees to simply looking for any prominent ancestors, Ms. Manning said.
Networking among genealogists is helpful, as different people may be able to suggest alternative search methods, she said.
Ms. Manning said she has reserved dates for April, May and June and plans to assess the interest in continuing the group after that three-month trial period.  For more information, contact Ms. Manning at 376-1630 or look for “The Missing Connection — Lowville Group” Facebook page.

“We just want to give people resources where they can search their family trees,” said Susan J. Palma, who formed The Mission Connection in 1992 in Watertown. Palma, then Susan Boyce, started the group to help reunite adoptees with their biological parents and siblings, assisting with roughly 100 reunions during its eight years in the north country, she said.
Now living in northern Virginia, Mrs. Palma recently restarted the group there. While still available to assist with adoptive-specific searches, she decided to broaden the revamped group’s focus on genealogy in general.
“We just hit it off instantly,” Mrs. Palma said.
According to its website, The Missing Connection’s mission is to promote genealogy, provide help and educational aid to researchers and preserve the heritage, history and genealogy of families who settled in the area.
For more information, visit http://www.themissingconnection.org.

Adoptees have to be creative when they search! These tips are great useful ideas!... Trace

The Stolen Generations

Full story: http://apihtawikosisan.com/2012/04/21/the-stolen-generations/

Excerpt:

Adoption as Cultural Annihilation

It is important to remember that many of the services Canadians take for granted, such as education, health care, and social welfare programs are in the main, designed and administered by the provinces and territories.

However, the federal government has been asserting its authority over “Indians and Lands of the Indians” since 1763. While is still remains unclear whether this includes all Inuit and Métis, it remains true that First Nations must turn to the federal government, not the provinces, for many services.
Canada did not spring from the skull of Zeus fully formed. The development of social programs and services has been incremental. Before the mid 1960s, there was no organised federal child welfare system. The provinces each had their own system, but nothing was in place for First Nations people.
In the mid 60s, agreements started to be formed between the federal and provincial governments to provide some child welfare coverage in First Nations communities. To be brief, the approach was “take first, ask questions later (if ever)”.
The similarity to tactics used during the height of the Residential School system is eerie. Aboriginal children were taken en masse from their families and adopted out into non-native families:

Child welfare workers removed Aboriginal children from their families and communities because they felt the best homes for the children were not Aboriginal homes. The ideal home would instill the values and lifestyles with which the child welfare workers themselves were familiar: white, middle-class homes in white, middle-class neighbourhoods. Aboriginal communities and Aboriginal parents and families were deemed to be “unfit.”

Research has shown that in British Columbia alone, the percentage of native children in the care of the Child Welfare system went from almost none, to one-third in only 10 years as a result of this expansion. This was a pattern that repeated itself all across Canada.

I was very pleased to find this blog post - please subscribe to âpihtawikosisân - I did! Trace

Abusive Adoption Practices (abstract and links)

The Aftermath of Abusive Adoption Practices in the Lives of Adoption Triad Members: Responding to Adoption Triad Members Victimized by Abusive Adoption Practices
by David Smolin and Desiree Smolin (via email)

Abstract:
The above-titled presentation was given as a plenary presentation at the Annual Symposium of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) on April 18, 2012. 
It is important to note that the original context for this presentation is Intercountry Adoption to the United States. However, some of you may find some of these points relevant to domestic adoption issues as well as Intercountry Adoption to other nations (Canada, Italy, Spain, etc.)

Especially at the event itself, with our own commentary added, this was a presentation not just on abusive adoption practices, but especially on how the intercountry adoption system, as shaped by the United States government and United States adoption agencies, is “designed for failure.” Abusive adoption practices thus are not merely problems in themselves, but are symptoms of a system that chronically produces abuses and breakdowns in the system: a system that fails to self-correct and thus is self-defeating.

Further, these features of the current dysfunctional system were not necessarily inevitable, but have arisen from specific choices made during the construction of the system by the U.S. government and U.S. agencies. The governing rules they advocated for, and chose, created the dysfunctions that have doomed the system to continuing cycles of abuse.

This is very much a presentation about the inestimable human costs of those failures for all those impacted by adoption: not only adoption triad members, but also siblings, extended families, communities, and even nations. It is also a presentation about a system that fails to assist or recognize its own victims.

The presentation is very much of a joint project: each of us wrote about half of the material, and each critiqued the other’s materials. The process of converting material into PowerPoint format was done initially by Desiree, although again the final product was reviewed, modified, and critiqued by both of us. Overall, the concepts and information presented represent years of working together to analyze adoption systems.
We certainly do not expect everyone to be happy with these materials and critiques may come from all sides. Please keep in mind that the PowerPoint cannot embody all that we said; also please keep in mind the original audience and occasion for the presentation. We welcome vigorous and respectful dialogue, from which we hope to learn, as so much of what we do know to this point in time is due to the many people who have shared their experiences and thoughts with us.

For discussion and further commentary, please go to the blog: http://fleasbiting.blogspot.com/

Thanks,

David and Desiree Smolin

Link: http://works.bepress.com/david_smolin/12

I do hope everyone will watch this presentation - we need to be informed about the billion dollar adoption industry and its practices... Trace

SC high court takes up Indian child adoption case

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP/Native Times) – The South Carolina Supreme Court is taking up arguments in a custody case involving a Charleston couple, an Oklahoma father and a federal law meant to protect Native American children.

Because it’s an adoption case, Tuesday’s arguments are closed.

The case pits the couple who nurtured a 2-year-old girl named Veronica against the child’s biological father, a Cherokee Nation citizen who took her to Oklahoma late last year after winning custody.

The case also concerns the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. The 1978 law was passed because many Indian children were being removed from their homes by public and private agencies.

The act gives the child’s tribe and family the right to a say in decisions affecting the child.

http://www.nativetimes.com/news/tribal/7098-sc-high-court-takes-up-indian-child-adoption-case

Court victory for First Nations child welfare

Archive photo: Cindy Blackstock 

Link: http://www.causes.com/causes/2181-first-nations-aboriginal-rights/actions/1644003?causes_ref=email&template=activity_mailer%2Fnew_activity&utm_campaign=action_email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=causes

The Federal Court has handed First Nations groups and child-welfare advocates a victory.

In a much-anticipated ruling Wednesday morning (on April 18, 2012), the court has rejected the federal government's attempts to prevent First Nations groups from arguing for better funding for child welfare on reserves.

The ruling means First Nations and the federal government will have a full-blown hearing about whether Ottawa is treating native children unfairly.

"It's a real victory for all the children who have waited so long for this," said Cindy Blackstock, who heads the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and spearheaded the legal challenge.

First Nations groups say Ottawa is discriminating against native kids because the support the feds provide for child welfare on reserves is much lower than what kids off reserves get from provincial governments – even though the need is greater.

Blackstock figures the federal government should be spending about $200 million a year more, in order to just match the level of service the provinces deliver to non-aboriginal children.

But the federal government has tried to block the case on technicalities, saying it was not fair to compare federal services to provincial services.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal initially sided with the apples-and-oranges argument from the government, and rejected the case without hearing substantive arguments. But today, the Federal Court disagreed, and has ordered the tribunal to hold a new hearing, under a completely new panel of decision-makers.

"It's a real slap to the tribunal. They have to go back to the drawing board," said Carolyn Bennett, the Liberals' aboriginal affairs critic.

Ruling opens door to challenges
Officials in Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The ruling opens the door to similar challenges on federal funding to First Nations for education, policing and health, according to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The ruling from the judge, Anne Mactavish, said that in day-to-day practice, the federal government frequently compares its own child welfare services to services delivered by provinces. "The tribunal erred in failing to consider the significance of the government's own adoption of provincial child welfare standards in its programming manual and funding policies," she writes.

The prevalence of First Nations children in child-welfare system across Canada is far higher than for non-aboriginal children. There are far more native children in care now than at the height of the residential school system.

A recent study of maltreatment of First Nations children found that children on reserves are far more likely to be living in a problematic situation than non-aboriginal children. The national study found that First Nations children are eight times more likely to be subjected to neglect, and 4.7 times more likely to be exposed to violence.

For years, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada as well as the Assembly of First Nations have argued that the federal government would be better off funding prevention services and supports for families, rather than paying for foster care.

"The difficulties facing many of the families involved in these First Nations child welfare investigations may require programs offering longer-term, comprehensive services designed to help them address the multiple factors – such as poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence and social isolation – which pose chronic challenges to their abilities to ensure the well being of First Nations children," the report concludes.

The federal government has recently started moving in that direction, but slowly.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/04/18/pol-first-nations-court-welfare.html

Tool box for Trauma!

I am sharing a blogspot by my friend Sunday that really helped me - and I hope it helps you too.

I often use EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique - to deal with my adoption trauma - you can google it for a specific one for adoptees. You tap and repeat affirmations.

Be well,

Trace

Borrowing Tools From My Neighbor

click on title to go directly to this blog...

Posted: 17 Apr 2012 02:31 PM PDT

So, I few weeks ago, I was really struggling. I was dealing with some triggers that were just flat out dragging me down. This had been an ongoing thing and I had been doing what I thought was a decent job using all of the little tricks and tools I have acquired over the years to deal the occasional anxiety that comes along when you have survived a traumatic past, usually out of the blue. But this was situational, and thing were coming up pretty regularly, and I was handling each trigger as it came pretty well, until the day that my brain snapped, crossed its arms like a three year old and said to me,
“Nope, I am not ever going back there. EVER! You can’t make me!”
I tried to rationalize with my crazy baby brain. I tried to play little games with it. I tried to trick it. I tried to cajole it. I asked it for a miracle, which is merely a change in perception. And still my trauma brain said,
“You can’t make me! You are not the boss of me.”
Well, shoot here I am stuck with this triggered trauma brain who has decided to become oppositional – defiant, and I had grown-up things that I needed to do. Every time I even thought about going back I hit that proverbial brick wall.
I can’t even begin to tell you how ridiculously it is frustrating it is when your own brain choses to defy logic.
Having exhausted everything I could think of to get stupid brain unstuck, I did the only thing left I could think of…I asked for help. I reached out to Lisa, a friendly fellow blogger who has been parenting a child from trauma for several years now and I asked her what she had I their tool box I could try. She said,
“Rub and tap.”
What the what?
Lisa, with her sweet-self took the time to talk me through it. That woman is something special!
“Psychological Reversals (Rubbing) Think of Rubbing as rubbing out a stain. The negative thought or belief is always stated first and the opposite positive phrase is stated last. Do it 3 times by rubbing gently on the sore spots on your chest. It is a gentle circular motion.” Lisa-Life in a Grateful House
Tapping:


And this is the one specifically for trauma and abuse:

And for as silly as it looks, guess what? It worked. Not like a miracle cure and I will never struggle with anxiety from PTSD anymore. But, like I went back. I walked back through the doors. I faced triggers. I acted like a grown-up. My brain functioned like a grown-up’s. I took care of my responsibilities. I managed my instinct to freeze.
I tap, tap, tapped, Rub, rub, rubbed and hooped my way through it.
Thanks Lisa!
(and that it’s WAY better than being wrapped in blankets and sat on!)

Lost Daughters: Adoption Survivor, not Victim

Lost Daughters: Adoption Survivor, not Victim: Von Coates interviewed me about my adoptee and writing experience...

On Kindle and in paperback on Amazon

This interview about my book and experience was in 2011 but I do think it's still relevant to what Lost Children are facing and will continue to face with closed adoption records. The Indian Adoption Project was an act of war and we adoptees are the survivors... Trace

Adoption Scandal in Spain investigated

Spain Opens Court Inquiry on Newborn Abductions

By RAPHAEL MINDER

Published: April 12, 2012 New York TimesNew York TimesTop of Form

Bottom of Form

MADRID — An 87-year-old Spanish nun became the first suspect to appear in court Thursday as part of an investigation into at least 1,500 allegations that newborns were abducted and then given or sold for adoption over four decades.

The nun, Sister María Gómez Valbuena, used her right to remain silent before the judge. She then made her way from the Madrid courtroom to a waiting car amid a crowd of journalists and onlookers, some of whom jeered and shouted abuse at her.
Sister Gómez Valbuena was subpoenaed last month after being accused by María Luisa Torres of abducting her baby daughter, born in a Madrid clinic in 1982. Ms. Torres was reunited with her daughter Pilar last summer, after the start of a nationwide campaign to help parents find their abducted children, using DNA testing to confirm parentage.
While the nun refused to testify in court, she issued a statement later in the evening denying any wrongdoing and saying that she found "repugnant'" the idea that a mother could be separated from her baby. She said that she had spent her long life helping the most needy in a disinterested manner, in accordance with her profound religious beliefs.
The associations that have spearheaded the campaign met Thursday with Spain’s ministers for the interior, justice and health, as well as the attorney general, to seek stronger government support for their crusade and to push for a more speedy judicial handling of the cases.
While the associations have complained about foot-dragging by Spain’s judiciary, the attorney general and investigators have underlined the difficulty of confirming startling allegations that have resurfaced several decades after the events and that have involved several people who have since died.
The baby-snatching practices supposedly started in the 1950s under the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco and are believed to have continued until about 1990, 15 years after Franco’s death.
The investigations have also proved sensitive because many of the cases have at least indirectly involved the Roman Catholic Church, since its nuns commonly worked in maternity wards or orphanages.
Antonio Barroso, president of Anadir, an association representing parents searching for missing children, described the meeting Thursday with the ministers as “clearly positive.” The ministers agreed to take several measures to help with the investigations, including devoting more staff to such inquiries as well as setting up a national archive to help coordinate and contrast the different data.
“We have wasted a lot of time, but things should speed up now,” Mr. Barroso said. “While it’s too early to claim any victory, it’s important to have strong government support.”
Anadir also says that Spain was a hub for gangs trafficking snatched babies, with many of the newborns then sold into adoption overseas. Such trafficking dwindled after 1987, it says, when tighter legislation on adoption procedures came into force in Spain.
Meanwhile, some judges across Spain have recently ordered exhumations from cemeteries to confirm whether infants had in fact been buried there. These exhumations have been linked to cases filed by mothers who claim that their newborns were taken away from them immediately after giving birth — officially to undergo further medical checks — and that they were then told that the infant had died.
Ms. Torres recently told the judge investigating her case that she had attempted to get her baby back from Sister Gómez Valbuena, who worked in the maternity ward of the Madrid clinic where she gave birth. But according to Ms. Torres, the nun instead threatened to denounce her for adultery because Pilar was fathered by a man whom she met shortly after separating from her husband.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/world/europe/spain-opens-court-inquiry-on-newborn-abductions.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

We know that Canada, Australia and Ireland had inquiries into the practices of Catholics and other churches who sold babies for profit. Spain is the latest on the list... Trace

60s Scoop survivor strong advocate today #NDN

60s Scoop child turns horrifying experience into strong advocacy

 Saskatchewan Sage

Author:

By Shari Narine Sage

Contributing Editor SASKATOON

Forty-one years ago Lynn Thompson was stolen from off the Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba.

“We were told by our grandparents, if white people come around, you run in to the bush,” said Thompson.
But the three-year-old could not run fast enough and she and her two sisters, one of whom she carried on her back and the other she was pulling, were apprehended by social workers. Her eight-year-old uncle, who kicked the men who were taking her, was also grabbed.
Thompson's three older brothers made it to the bush safely. Thompson would be 40 before she reunited with members of her biological family, but they still remain strangers to her.
Thompson was one of a conservatively estimated 20,000 children who were apprehended in the 1960s through to the 1980s. The “60s Scoop,” as this action became known because the majority of children were taken in the first decade, was a government-sanctioned program entitled Adopt Indian/Métis children. These Aboriginal children were placed in foster homes throughout Canada and the United States. Thompson said the uncle who tried to rescue her was sold for $500 to a family in the US. What ensued for Thompson were 25 foster homes in Ontario and Manitoba by the time she was eight years old and two failed adoption attempts. Like many of the children in her situation, she was abused. Eventually, she ended up being settled in a German Mennonite community in Manitoba. Seventy percent of the children taken were placed in non-Aboriginal homes.
“I would have given anything to have been in a residential school, to have other brown faces around,” said Thompson, who shot herself while in care.
The pain of Thompson’s childhood, which she classifies as “pretty messed,” followed her into adulthood.
Twelve years ago, Thompson accompanied a partner to Saskatchewan. Shortly after arriving in that province, she contracted HIV through intravenous drug use.
“I wouldn’t say I was a regular user. It was just something I experimented with and I ended up contracting HIV,” she said.
That was when she took control of her life.
“With HIV, it’s either fight or flight. I chose to fight. I educated myself,” said Thompson who spent two years learning all there was to know about the virus. She turned away from modern medicine and treated herself with a traditional tea and is also under the care of a healer from Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation.
“I’m kind of the White Buffalo of HIV. I’m the only one I know of in Canada that uses traditional meds (for HIV),” said Thompson. “Instead of getting sicker, I’m getting better.”
But she didn’t stop there. Nine years ago, Thompson became an advocate for those suffering from the virus, fighting against the stigma and discrimination HIV-positive people experience every day.
Saskatoon, where Thompson lives, and Prince Albert have the highest cases of HIV in the country. Young women present the highest numbers, contracting the virus through intravenous drug use. But in the next few years, Thompson expects to see those figures skewed as a larger number of older men become HIV-positive through unsafe sex. Thompson said men are paying $20 or $30 extra to do the act without a condom.
Thompson has amassed an impressive resume. She serves as consultant for such organizations as Persons Living With AIDS Network and AIDS Saskatoon; has been an advisor for working groups such as All Nations Hope Network and Public Health Canada; has spoken in schools both in the Saskatoon Public School system and Saskatchewan First Nations; has participated in the documentaries “Positive Women” (for Canadian AIDS Law Society) and “Silent Epidemic” (Indigenous Circle); and has written articles and been interviewed for various television programs.
Thompson is also one of two women named in a class action lawsuit launched last year against the federal government in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Regina. She and Valery Longman represent other First Nations and Metis children targeted in the “60s Scoop.”
For the past 15 years, Thompson has been collecting information and stories from and about children taken from their homes in this manner. After she was reunited with her youngest sister, who broke her back after running away from a foster home in the US, Thompson and others realized something needed to be done. It was then that a lawsuit was discussed.
Thompson is hopeful that the lawsuit can lead to support similar to what residential school survivors have received through the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. She also hopes it makes Canadians aware of another dark part of Canadian history.
Source: http://www.ammsa.com/publications/saskatchewan-sage/60s-scoop-child-turns-horrifying-experience-strong-advocacy

One Man Champions Adoption Rights On Hartford Street Corner

CT News Junkie | One Man Champions Adoption Rights On Hartford Street Corner

Please share this story with your friends - we have to work to change adoption laws and this man is doing just that! Bravo!
Trace

Adoptee - use this search method

Search Tips: Google Alerts (ehababes)
Google Alerts can be a useful tool for individuals in the process of searching for a family member.
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your queries. You decide a search query you wish to monitor. For example, if you are searching for a child born on December 1, 1990 in Illinois and surrendered to Easter House, you could set up the following alerts:
Born December 1, 1990 in IL
Born 12/1/1990
Easter House
Google will regularly search for your keywords and send you an email report containing links to any information that matches your alert. You should put in several variations of your information as you can not know how another person might enter it. You may write your DOB as 12/1/1990 and they would post to a registry under December 1, 1990.
Alerts are easy to set up. Simply visit the Google Alert page and start entering your keywords and phrases.
If you need help, visit the Google Alert Getting Started Guide.

Many adoptees who find their family name can then search on Facebook and Google - believe me, we can use all the help when we search!
Please post a comment on what search tips you recommend!
Trace

Why we have a Facebook Page SPLIT FEATHERS

Yup, it’s what all the experts say you need - and it’s the way to find new people who become new friends.

In fact, this blog Split Feathers has found many new adoptees (like Michael and his brother who are Native adoptees but don’t know their tribe yet).

That is the purpose of Facebook (FB) - to connect you with friends and let you comment and talk and like and share. I try and make time to read friend’s posts and I’m sure you do, too.

Because of Facebook I have reconnected with friends from school and college and friends I knew when I lived in various places but moved away. I have adoptees friends I have not met in person (yet) and Native American friends who are not adoptees. It’s a giant circle, really!

It’s a kind of meeting place - and you can have groups of people, business pages (like our Blue Hand Books) and lists of interests (I am figuring out Facebook like all of you are, yes.)

So if you haven’t been to our Facebook page, please do it now.

Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/Splitfeathers.

(There is a Facebook box in the right column on this blog where you can click like and it will add us to your FB list.)

Please LIKE the page so you can receive updates on your FB timeline. There will be more news and more stories in the coming days - so stay tuned!

Thank you! Chi Megwetch and Pilamaye!  Trace 

WA #NDN tribe gain full control on Child Welfare matters

Port Gamble S'Klallam Obtain Full Control Over Child Welfare Matters

Posted on March 29, 2012

After a decade-long effort in conjunction with the federal and state departments of Health and Human Services, the state Attorney General's Office, and tribal lawyers, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe has achieved a landmark goal -- complete control over the welfare of their own children. The 1,000-member Tribe in western Washington became the first in the nation to assume all control of guardianships, foster care, and adoptions for their children. Under an agreement with the federal government, the Tribe has disengaged the oversight by DSHS and is now solely responsible for its child-welfare cases.
The contemporary practice of removing Native American children from reservations in child-welfare cases has been likened to the infamous boarding-school era, when the federal government forcibly placed Native children in state or religious institutions to “assimilate” them into “American” culture.
To break away from this system, Port Gamble S'Klallam's children and families coordinator Jolene George has spent years working with DSHS to draft policies on how they would handle child-welfare protocols, which are listed under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. "We will no longer lose our children," George said. "We didn't do this with a grant. We put our efforts, our money and whatever we could to do this."
Francine Swift, a member of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribal Council, said it's vital to have children stay on the reservation so they don't forget their ancestry and traditions. She said that before the Indian Child Welfare Act, children were adopted out and lost complete contact with their relatives, ancestors, and culture. "We never want to see our kids go through this again," Swift said.

 

http://www.nativelegalupdate.com/admin/trackback/274803

 

 

This is one excellent example of tribes in action - and it is happening in more states! Happy Dance!

Trace