Essay published in High Country News – Adoption Didn’t Solve the “Indian Problem”

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, […]

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Bitterroot – Interview by Deborah Kalb

Last September I spoke with author, editor and blogger, Deborah Kalb.  It was the first interview I had done regarding the writing of Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption, and it was eye-opening for me.  I’d finished writing the book, but I had not spent a lot of time reflecting on it; after three years […]

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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 […]

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