Aspects of Life – Thoughts and Conversations
As a researcher, lecturer and writer I’ve been involved in the various ways we, as a society, communicate the experiences of American Indian transracial adoption. For the past several years I’ve participated in formal discussions, panels and presentations. Informally, I’ve communicated this experience all my adult life; I am one of those adoptees. Adoption in […]
Even in third grade, Susan Devan Harness knew she didn’t belong in the white world. She already was being called “squaw girl” by classmates. Harness drew suspicious stares and was followed by employees every time she entered a store in the Montana town where she was raised. But it wasn’t until she was 14 that […]
Interview with Tara Gatewood at NativeAmericaCalling.com Adoption is a part of the storyline of many Native families and individuals. As one Native author who experienced adoption first hand writes, there is power in identity. Many Native adoptees are adopted out of their culture and are raised in another. For some, the journey back home can […]
Susan Devan Harness is an American Indian transracial adoptee. This identity is unique in that it is situated in a very specific time and place in American Indian history. Unlike other transracial/transnational adoptions, American Indian children were adopted through colonization and assimilation practices on home soil, creating tensions of race and culture. Running from 1958 […]
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – American Indian trans-racial adoptees often find themselves at the intersection of belonging and not belonging in today’s society. Colorado State University cultural anthropologist Susan Harness explored issues of ethnic belonging, social hierarchy and social memory and their impact on adult American Indian trans-racial adoptees – like herself – who were adopted […]