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 […]
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 […]
Keynote Panelist – Privilege and Oppression – Adoption Initiative Conference
Adoption contains both privilege and oppression, but for whom? What do these actions look like? How do they leave their mark, their scars? Join Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander LMFT, Blake Gibbins, and myself in a keynote panel, moderated by Adam Kim, as we deconstruct these issues from personal and professional experience. For more information, visit […]
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 […]
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 […]
Father’s Day and Trauma – how the two come together when thinking of Dad
2019 would have been Dad’s 92nd birthday. He passed away when he was 74. It’s hard to believe it’s been 18 years since I last saw him Anyone who has read my book, Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption, knows that I write significantly about my adoptive father. I write about his abusive and […]
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, […]
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 […]
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…
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 […]