Advertisements
On an Australian documentary TV show last night, "Stephen Fry In America", [url=http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/abc1/201012/programs/ZY9919A004D2010-12-27T203255.htm?program=Stephen%20Fry%20In%20America]ABC Television | The complete TV guide for ABC1, ABC2, ABC3, ABC News24 & ABC iView[/url] the interviewer (Stephen Fry) meets a First Nation adult (I think it was from Montana, S Dakota or N Dakota) who says on camera that 1 in 4 children from his tribe are adopted out or fostered to non-First Nation families (sorry, I forget which tribe). Wow! If what he'd said was true, I'm rather shocked at how high the numbers are. Reminded me a bit of the plight of the Indigenous people from the Stolen Generation in Australia. Sadly, he'd also said that the number of people who speak their native language is dwindling. Good news is that apparently more young people are learning their ancestors' native language and cultural traditions.
Like
Share
Advertisements
Advertisements
usisarah
I didn't see the program. Was he saying that 1 in 4 are removed from their homes and either fostered or adopted, or was he saying that eparents in his tribe chose to put up their children for adoption outside the tribe, which results in 1 in 4 being fostered or adopted out?
Native people in the USA, for decades, were stolen from their parents, had hair cut, and were put in group homes, prevented from speaking their language, wearing their own clothes, worshipping their own religion. We don't need to look to Australia for this.Wikipedia describes the "boarding schools" here:[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_boarding_schools]Native American boarding schools - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/url]Check out the picture at that link -- there's a sea of children who've been placed at that school. It's a very shameful, creepy history, it came from over the top racism:I know a man who was taken from his Alaskan tribe and placed in WA state in this way. This is our history.
Attendance in Indian boarding schools generally grew throughout the first half of the 20th century and doubled in the 1960s (10). Enrollment reached its highest point in the 1970s. In 1973, 60,000 American Indian children are estimated to have been enrolled in an Indian boarding school (10; 11). Several events in the late 1960s and mid-1970s (Kennedy Report, National Study of American Indian Education, Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975) led to more emphasis on community schools. Many large Indian boarding schools closed in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 2007, 9,500 American Indian children lived in an Indian boarding school dormitory (9). This includes 45 on-reservation boarding schools, 7 off-reservation boarding schools and 14 peripheral dormitories (9). From 1879 to the present day, hundreds of thousands of American Indians are estimated to have attended an Indian boarding school (12).
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School founded by Richard Henry Pratt in 1879 is one example. In a speech he gave in 1892, he said "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him and save the man."[6]
alys1, I wasn't aware of that part of our history, although I can't say I'm surprised. I didn't see in the article you posted...how did these children get to the boarding schools? I can't get over the logistics that would have to take place. Were Native American families punished if they did not send their kids to these schools? Did they ever try to fight sending their kids to boarding schools? I'm seriously asking for information only...not trying to insinuate (sp?) that the Native American people are to blame at all for any of this.
Advertisements
It was a horrible time, in Canada as well. I am a white parent of NA/FN children and live in a community where this is EXTREMELY controversial. Our community has significant FN community issues, and a long and sordid history of govt. interference in the lives of families. Here, essentially, it is considered that ANYTHING is better than a white home for FN kids. Anything. That no attachment to white parents should be considered etc. In our case, the ONLY reason that our daughters are our daughters is because both parents, AND the grandparents were supportive. Without that, it would have NEVER ever, ever happened. We had two bands turn out to court to fight us (but had no other options at all for the girls) and the only reason they didnt win is because they respected the one grandparents request that they let the girls stay. I had a white friend just lose her son she raised from 2 years old to the age of 12 because she was not first nations (he is now in another foster home) and helping a friend process the loss of her first foster baby she has had for 17 months ... and that child is being moved to the home of a 70 year old woman with 5 other children under 8 - but on reserve. Please dont think I am under stating the importance of cultural retention etc (I am taking my girls' language at university and now speak more than their bio mother) - I am not. But the issues on FN reserves and communities are complicated, and the kids suffer for a wide variety of reasons -- not the least of which is that this is the end result of decades of govt family genocide.
As far as the current US climate goes in Native American/FN adoption I would find it hard to belive that those statistics (1 in 4 children) are accurate across the board. While it might be accurate for one tribe somewhere I doubt it is even close to accurate for all tribes. Because of this country's poor choices in the best RE:Native children, the ICWA is strictly enforced in most states, even to the detriment of children. Many children remain in foster care for an inordinate amount of time because a Native American adoptive family can not be found. I do belive that some NA/FN children in the US are placed in care dissporportionatly to CC children (statistics have proven that ALL other races besides CC are overrepresented in the foster care system based on population) but they are not always placed with CC families, attempts are made to find NA/FN foster homes or even kinship placements before placing with a CC family. IF the child is placed with a CC family they may live thier for the rest of thier lives, never gaining permenancy because of the ICWA barriers. Even in domestic adoption, if a child is NA/FN and the tribe finds out the emom wants to place, permission from the tribe must be obtained if the PAP's are not NA/FN. Not obtaining that permission can result in nullification of the adoption decree and the child can be returned to the tribe for placement.....an example is the story of a baby named Talon who was adopted by a couple in Utah (I think) and returned to the tribe at around 7 mos old because they had not followed ICWA protocol. You can google the story if interested. I am on the fence. I tend to think that ICWA is overly restrictive and can interfere with the best interest of the child in obtaining permenancy, however....I have also seen adoptive parents fail to properly instill the first culture of thier children in thier lives (actual I have seen a ton of aparents completely ignore thier child's cultural heritage) and that is a loss that is not in the child's best interest either. When you are talking about a culture such as the FN/NA it could in some places be considered "becoming extinct" and then you have to think of not just the best interest of a single child but also the best interest of a dying society. My mom is adopted, and despite my grandparents best efforts she lost much of her cultural NA heritage (she is Lakotah on her biofather's side, although that is not confirmable) because they new so little about the culture and geographically they were half a country away. My grandparents did better with my uncles who were NA from Alaska, but that is because they were older (my mom was an infant) when placed and the tribe from Alaska kept the, informed and included as well as reached out to both the kids and my grandparents. I have always had an interest in NA culture and sometimes even I feel cheated that I will never know what it is like "to be a Lakotah", if my mom had been kept within her tribe, I may have had a chance to experience that.