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| http://www.amazon.com/Two-Worlds-Children-Adoption-Projects |
TWO WORLDS: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, is a successful effort to present yet more testimony against the practice of Indian Adoption Projects. Co-editor Trace DeMeyer began being a voice for Indian adoptees with "ONE SMALL SACRIFICE: LOST CHILDREN OF THE INDIAN ADOPTION PROJECTS," which is a memoir of her own life as an Indian adoptee. She and co-editor, Patricia Busbee, have compiled an anthology of enlightening information on issues within the Indian Adoption Acts dilemma. The publication also includes short essays and poems, written by Native American and First Nation adoptees. Each adoptee's contribution uniquely tells a true-story of innocence, emptiness, endless searching for a place to really belong; and shows harsh reality of vulnerability, suffered through their lives for simply being different. A very profound statement captures the reader's attention by unveiling reality in numbers: "One quarter of all Indian children were removed from their families and placed in non-Indian adoptive and foster homes or orphanages, as part of the Indian Adoption Projects." Part of the publication includes information on Assimilation Acts and processes. The book gives a critical view into the history of The Indian Adoption Project, and uncovers an example of a failed and very controversial official adjudication, beginning in 1960, of trans-racial adoption. The well-respected study, "Far From the Reservation," was executed under a principal trust in trans-racial adoption, and headed by one of America's first postwar researchers within that genre. Methods followed for the study left much to be desired. It seems that David Fanshel's statistics presented resolutions following guidelines of other researchers, and failed to show any interest in recording possible impressions carried by adopted Indian children, living in non-Indian homes. Statistics given by the authors are devastating, clearly showing the rampant practice of Indian/First Nation Adoption Acts prevailing in North America, as well as Canada. It is a fact that the practice of taking Native and First Nation children out of their tribal environment is still condoned, while all effort to support traditional tribal childcare continues to be avoided.
The anthology has moved the "Lost Birds" one step closer to having their voices heard. It was difficult to put the book down for the expectation of new discovery with each new page.
--Dr. Raeschelle POTTER-DEIMEL, Vienna, Austria
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