It’s hard to believe that the South Dakota Festival of Books is in two months! I hope you join me as I share my memoir and the reason the topic is so important today! To access my speaking schedule, please click on this link: Susan’s Speaking Schedule To access the schedule for all presenters , please […]
Aftermath
Prior to 2013 I was considered, by some, to be an anti-adoption activist, specifically with regard to American Indian child adoption. And there was good reason: I wrote fiercely about adoption as an aspect of historic trauma. I vehemently questioned the moral role of legislation in determining and defining the legitimacy of a family, a […]
Tightrope
Being a transracial adoptee is to walk a tightrope that connects history to the present, all the while realizing that the time-space compression is colliding with such violent force as to make that crossing dark and perilous and sometimes people die…
A Flight of Omniscient Memories
I am sitting in Missoula, Montana, at the Doubletree Inn, a beautiful hotel on the banks of the Clark Fork River. It used to be the Red Lion. I remember driving across the bridge to the east, the wooden one whose iron archways hold it in place, I tell the waitress who looks at it […]
Adoption as Privilege: A Reply to the Vitriol
The rant. Angry words splashed onto a virtual page. Nonsensical. “Adoption is child trafficking! It should never happen under any circumstance!” Where does this person live that they can make this statement with such venom, with such determined and righteous force? It sounds like privilege. *** My mom lay dying. Is this your ‘real’ mom […]
May 2017 Be the Year When You Realize the Strengths You Didn’t Know You Had!
Yesterday, January 1st, was an overwhelming day. Perhaps it was ‘change’ (a New Year), perhaps it was because I sat and thought of all the possibilities that I could do with this year. And that’s when the breaking down of my spirit happened. Because there are SO many ideas, so many issues that need addressing, […]
Indian Summer
Autumn is my favorite season. The chill in the air has once more arrived, almost without notice, taking me by surprise, as if I thought the dog days of August and early September would go on forever. But I have to admit, the surprise is a pleasant one; I can wear my sweaters, make butternut […]
Colonization and Adoption – A History
This first appeared in Gazillion Voices, November 2014, Issue 16 Recently, after giving a presentation on American Indian Transracial adoption, I was asked a question. “Where do you think you’d be now if you hadn’t been adopted?” Without pausing, the man who asked the question answered for me. “I bet you wouldn’t be giving presentations […]
Being Indian – A Memory
THE AMERICAN WEST is stunningly beautiful. Its images, quilted together, form a landscape that can be brought to mind with the aroma of pine that stings my nostrils, the feel of soil between my fingers, the sound of a waterfall or the taste of chokecherry jelly that Mom used to make in August. To me, everything […]
Adoption Researchers, Take Note…
My response to Daniel Ibn Zayd’s (of Transracialeyes.com blog fame) query regarding recruitment advertising for transracial adoption research. As a researcher who has studied “us”, I would like to weigh in. I, as an American Indian transracial adoptee, wanted to study us because no one was talking about our experiences. As transracial adoptees we […]