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journal article?
[url]http://www.oacas.org/resources/OACASJournals/2000October/Feathers.pdf[/url]
SInce the Dr. PHil show I thought I would do a paper on Native AM. adoptions for my human behavior and social environment class. I am an enrolled tribal member and was raised by a white family. I found this to be helpful and somewhat comforting. Please tell me what you think about it.
Were any of the adults in this study adopted by a non-NA family because a NA family couldn't be found for them? Had there been an effort made to find a NA home for any of them?
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Not sure MommaD - i know there is alot more I'd like to know about the subjects. I wonder if it'd do any good to try to contact the author.
This caught my attention on the first page:
"Other contributing factors included physical, sexual
and mental abuse from adoptive family members; loss
of birth brothers and sisters; uncaring or abusive
foster/adoptive families; not being told anything or
being lied to about their adoption; not being given
advanced notice of moves; too many moves; nobody
to talk to; loss of personal property."
I think if anyone who is adopted, whether NA or not, was raised in a home like that they would feel:
"1. the loss of Indian identity
2. the loss of family, culture, heritage, language,
spiritual beliefs, tribal affiliation and tribal
ceremonial experiences
3. the experience of growing up being different
4. the experience of discrimination from the
dominant culture
5. a cognitive difference in the way Indian children
receive, process, integrate and apply new
informationin short, a difference in learning style"
I would think that how these people came into their non-NA families would be significant. It seemed that the author was blaming these people's unhappy lives on the sole fact that they were raised in a non-NA home. While I'm not denying that played a factor, it also seemed that these people were raised in abusive homes that would cause any child to feel unloved, unwanted, and detached from their roots.
It is rare in this day and age that a NA child is adopted by a non-NA family. However, if the child is special needs, or older it is more likely that they will be placed in a non-NA home after a NA home can not be found.
Being outside of the tribe I don't have a clue how to get more NA families interested in fostering and/or adopting special needs children. But it needs to be done. These children lose their birth family and then their tribal family.
I dread the day that my son figures out that his bio siblings were adopted by family members and non-family tribal members, but he was rejected after being repeatedly offered for adoption to his birth/tribal family because he wasn't born healthy.
I have been a foster parent for 4 years and at least 75% of my foster children have been NA. I have non-NA friends who foster parent and I would guess that to be the same for them. I turn away no baby, but it is unfair to the children to be placed into foster homes that aren't NA. However there is no other choice a lot of times. Also, the icw workers rarely visit or are involved at all, until it's adoption time, and then suddenly come and take the baby/child with little more than a day's notice (I have first hand knowledge of this). It's very frustrating for me, as I can see the harm being done to these children by the very thing that is supposed to protect them.
I'm sorry if I've offended, that was not my intent. I just wanted to share another side of the story, and hopefully let you know that non-NA families aren't out to take NA children from their tribal families. I know that used to happen, but honestly, in all my dealings with social services they are extremely careful to follow icw laws.
I agree more should be done to recruit NA foster/adoptive families for NA children. Some tribes are more successful at this than others. Some have great foster care/adoptive families set up and some have nothing. I also feel all tribes should work together in case there is a child that can't be adopted or fostered by a member of their own tribe they could still find a placement with a diff tribe. It is each individual tribes responsibility to get this mess straightened out so why does icwa get blamed?
Don't worry your opinion on this gets heard all the time. As I said before I was raised by a white family and no offense taken.
Since most people are more caught up on how awful ICWA is here is a story where it did what it was supposed to with a happy ending. I have a mentally ill/delusional aunt that moved across the country from our rez and had a son. She was drug addicted and gave her son up. WHen social workers asked about her family and tribe she reported all family members dead and wouldnt give any info on her tribe. After much research they found out her tribe and contacted them immediately. When her oldest sister heard what was going on she was able to get custody. He's now an adult still living on our rez and calls his aunt mom. This same aunt also adopted a child from a different tribe that couldnt find a home for him on their reservation. Even though he didn't get raised by his own tribal member/s he was raised by a native woman. I only wish IcwA would have worked on my behalf. My bio family members should have been contacted and given the option to raise me.
I'm so sorry your family (biological and tribal) wasn't given a chance to raise you. A child should always remain with biological family when possible. Where I live, biological family is always given priority. The child might be in foster care long enough to find and clear bio family though.
I think we are talking about 2 different things, and I'm sorry for the confusion. My experiences are only related to adoption and foster care from the state, I have no experience with private adoption/fostering and how the ICWA works with that.
Also, I was not blaming the ICWA for the problems. I think that it's vital. The problem I have seen is with the ICW workers that don't get involved with the child until they have to. I have yet to have an ICW worker make a visit to my home.....for any NA child I've ever had. I've seen only 2 show up at court. Also, I have had a NA child that was born with birth defects. They only affect his appearance, not his development or abilities. His ICW worker stated that child welfare could do whatever they wanted with him, because "nobody I know is going to want that kid". THIS is the problem I have.
The way it works here is that when a NA foster child is at the point of being placed for adoption, and there is no biological family able/willing to adopt, all NA families in the state (meaning one or both parents are official members of a tribe), regardless of what tribe, are considered first. I think they look at the child's own tribe first, but if that doesn't work out they will look at all families waiting to adopt in the state that are NA. Then, depending on the tribe they will look through their families waiting for adoption and try to place in or out of state with a NA family. If that doesn't work then the ICW worker will go before the tribal court and ask for "good cause". Meaning they have tried everything to find a NA home for the child, and have failed. So they will let the child be adopted by a family of any ethnicity. Sometimes they do this before they actually try to find a NA family :(
Again, this is only for NA children taken into state custody. I'm sure it works differently for children being placed privately through a tribal agency.
I'm sorry to have taken your thread off topic. I will leave it alone now.
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I was part way through a reply when I was interrupted, so I do not know if you got it. So here I go again. My husband and I adopted a First Nations child when she wa 3 weeks old. We did not seek to take a child out of their own cultural background. We wanted to adopt a child who was in need of a home. Her birth mother did not contact her tribe for assistance, as far as native adoption. She left our daughter at the hospital, with signed adoption papers. Would lit have been better to leave her bounching around the foster care system or would a stable family home be bwetter. Those were the paths available. I found my daughter's family, which has been both good and bad, but necessary. Her mother told me that she appreciated the life we had given her daughter, but when 'under the influence' would rant and rave about that 'white *****'. Perhaps those were her true feelings, but I cannot let that worry me. My daughter hadf the opportunity to know her mom for 8 years, before she died. She learned essential health information. She connected with her extended family. Her adoptive familyw as very supportive of her integration with her culture; provided dancing regalia, took her to pow-wows, went to university to study First Nations. I was very disappointed to learn that her mother did not follow any native traditions.
ICWA is a touch subject with me. I am a non-native adoptive mother of a NA child. He was placed with us as a foster child when he was 6 days old. My DH and I had no intention of adopting. We became foster parents to help our community. When our son was 11 mos old, we applied to adopt. His birth mother or no other family member visited. She didn't go to court. The SW tried to find family members, the tribe said they could not locate any. (It was revealed in court that the tribe didn't even check their enrollment for relatives. His bio maternal grandfather was indeed registered with the tribe) His maternal grandmother fineally called a maternal half great aunt who lived on the reservation. Our son was 14 months old at this time. We were the only family he had ever known. He was part of our family. The ICW social worker refused to talk to us. In fact, she didn't even notify anyone that we tried. The case went to court and we won. The tribe had know about him since he was 2 months old and hadn't officially intervened until we petitioned for adoption. Who knows how long he would have remained in foster care. That is the problem I have. The amount of time kids wait for a home. My son had two sisters in non NA foster homes and the tribe declined to help them. I do not understand that. I hope I am not offending you. I am very sensitive when it comes to children.
We adopted our daughter in Canada, we're all Canadians and our situation may be different. I keep saying to people that we did not take our daughter from her culture; she had been left in the care of the government when she was born and we were lucky enough to be chosen to be her parents. If she hadn't been adopted, the only other option would have been long-term foster care. In the 1970s there were numerous suicide among native teens, who were in foster care. We provided her with everything she could need,d INCLUDING appreciation and knowledge of her culture. I even found her family for her.
My dad was travelling by boat, along the BC coast and spent quite some time talking with the chief from one of the coastal tribes. My daughter was still a baby at the time. Dad told him the situation and asked him what he thought. The chief said that publicly he was to say that it was bad, but that privately he thought it was the best thing that happened to her. I do know that she did not grow up with issues of alcoholism, abandonment, domestic violence and poverty. My greatest disappointment when we met her mother, was that she was not involved, in any way other than speech, with her native culture.
Also Canadian, and proud momma of our 9 year old daughter of Cree heritage; incidentally, just returned from a weekend visit with birthfamily;
[QUOTE=MommaD]
"Other contributing factors included physical, sexual
and mental abuse from adoptive family members; loss
of birth brothers and sisters; uncaring or abusive
foster/adoptive families; not being told anything or
being lied to about their adoption; not being given
advanced notice of moves; too many moves; nobody
to talk to; loss of personal property."
I agree with Momma D that any child of any nationality that had to go thru any or all of the above, would have a negative reaction to adoption.
Thankfully, our daughter does not have any of these issues. There has never been any abuse of any kind, there has always been openness and honesty about adoption, and we keep in contact with birthfamily. These are the factors that contribute to a successful adoption.
I know that when we first applied for adoption, we were told to disregard any questions regarding adoption of native children, as there simply weren't going to be any adoptions of native children by non-native families. You can imagine our surprise then when we were offered the child that became ours!! Birthmom does have ties to her tribe but has not lived on reserve for some time. She made her choice based on what was best for this child. I believe that thru our open relationship, dd's culture will always be as available to her as it is to her birth siblings.
In a perfect world, I suppose all waiting native children would go to native homes. The world is not perfect.
We are making the world as perfect for our dd as we can, and that includes contact with her native family, her culture, and our love.
Babs
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Your adoption issues will begin when your daughter is a teenager, and is defining herself. My daughter had issues when we moved to a city not far from a large reserve. People didn't know exactly who she was. The changes were dramatic and I wish I had been better prepared.
You may be interested in some of the changes that have been made, regarding foster care. When President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton were in the White House, they changed the law, that let children languish in foster care, while the parents tried one more time. As a CASA (court appointed special advocate) I learned that the department must have a permanency plan in place, and ready to implement in a year. It was finally acknowledged that 6 months for a child is far more significant than for their parent and they cannot give their parent another chance. Thankfully, during the year, many services can be offered to lead toward reunification. Other cases, over the period of a year show that the parents have not made significant progress and the chance of enough change is not there. Then these lead to termination.
I was brought up by a white family ; they always told us we were full blood Choctaw; also I did find my birth mother 9 years ago, she said my birh father was Native American she was brought up Spanish but that my great grandfather on her side is Comanche, She is 90 years old now and I really cant find out much from her now. What do I do.
It is a misfortune all the problem this kids go through. I just hope that the the law would get tougher with those that harm them. [URL="http://www.cherylstradingpost.com/"]native store[/URL]
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