When Race, History, and Policy Collide – Why ICWA is important

I am so honored to have been invited to be a presenter at this year’s Speaking of the Children Conference in LaVista, Nebraska.  This conference is heavily attended by people in all aspects of child welfare, including social workers, law enforcement, mental health specialists, lawyers and now a cultural anthropologist! Historical events and policies, designed […]

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Adoption and Reproductive Justice – Petrie-Flom Blog Digital Symposium

Recently, U.S. Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett suggested that child placement through adoption makes Roe V. Wade a moot point. And there are pleny of myths that point to this seemingly painless transaction.  But as Katherine Joyce, a writer for Salon, states, “the suggestion that adoption entails nothing more than several months of inconvenience […]

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Structures of Non-Belonging – Presentation – Adoption Iniative

American Indian children who are adopted into white families are accompanied by the supernova that occurs when race, history, and policy collide.  We don’t fit anywhere because of cultural structures that are so deeply inbedded in the U.S. as to be nearly invisible.  The theories of ethnic group belonging, social hierarchy and capitals, and social […]

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Melding music and ideas of the apocalypse

 Yesterday, I spoke with Phillip Barcio, who is an arts journalist. He also wrote a fabulous review for Bitterroot for the Western Humanities Review.What was really interesting about his interview is that he asks guests to think about the idea of apocalypse, and submit 10 pieces of music that would be meaningful for the guest […]

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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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Star Tribune Review of Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption

Last month, Carter Meland, Ph.D., wrote  a fabulous review for Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption, noting that there are many ways to be Native.  Transracial adoption was one of them.  This is  an important point to make.  Our families and communities have become fragmented due to the atrocities committed by the U.S. government […]

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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…

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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 […]

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