Aspects of Life – Thoughts and Conversations
In 2019, I was interviewed by Huffpost as part of an article that explores the question Who Should Be Allowed to Adopt American Indian Children? Great question as conservatives and religious communities attempt to remove the Indian Child Welfare Act from Legislation. Read the article; watch the mini–documentary, by journalists Jennifer Bendery,Isaac Himmelman, and Lena […]
We never know where our paths will take us. We just know we are going on a direction, many times, we are being led. For me, it is deeper into the forest. Now, that forest isn’t scary, but it is relatively unexplored. That forest is American Indian child placement. I was in my 40s when […]
Last month, I participated in a podcast with the Archibald Project, an organization that uses storytelling to address the orphan and child vulnerability crisis in creative and educated ways. I loved talking with them because they asked the hard questions, those questions that reveal the complexity and depth of tough issues, the ones that make […]
Book ideas don’t materialize out of nothing. Built on foundations of experience, or rooted in something larger than a single story, ideas begin as ethereal and boundless shapes. Over time they take form, eventually becoming distinct and real. Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption is such a book. Although shaping the story has its […]
Just before I left for London last week, I was notified that Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption had been chosen as one of four finalists in the Creative Nonfiction category of the Colorado Book Awards. I am thrilled and I am so very honored to be among this list of great writers with […]
Unless you are Stephen King, publishing is like graduating from college – people aren’t knocking down your door asking you to work for them, or in this case, talking about your book. At least not until you get your name out there. And that can take a bit of time, a lot of patience, and […]
During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, American Indian children were placed with white families at a phenomenal rate. By 1974, approximately 30% American Indian children were removed from their American Indian families and placed with non-Indian families. Neglect was cited most often, a vague term that was responsible for changing the lives of Indian children, […]
The Indian Childwelfare Act of 1978 was established to stop the wholesale removal of American Indian kids from their families and communities. Prior to its legislation, Indian children were placed and hidden behind closed adoptions, with no way to find our way back to our families, our tribes. We were forced to live in a […]
A live interview is far more difficult to carry off than a taped and edited interview. Questions are asked that may not be what was expected, so there are pauses and “ums” as words are searched for in a room filled with tons of information. Even so, listening to this podcast still makes my throat […]