The COUNT is meant to find all the Native Adoptees who were sent from the USA to Canada, Canada to the USA, or to parts of Europe, even Iceland, Australia, etc.... Also the adoptees who were a part of the INDIAN ADOPTION PROJECTS, more than one in the USA. And we hope to find Native American/First Nations adoptees who could be anywhere in the world.
WHY? No one has ever published an actual count, one that we can look at and trust. It's long overdue.
WHAT WE KNOW:
Outcomes of the Indian Adoption Project
Officially, only 395 Native children from 16 States were adopted in the scope of the IAP contract. Thirty-one agencies under contract with the League participated in the project. Realistically, the adoption of Native children in white families went far beyond Lyslo’s expectation as other non-member agencies made adoptive placements for Native children. Many sources bear out this view:
A letter dated July 6, 1962 written by Joseph H. Reid underlined that 585 Indian children had been adopted in 1961.
A report written by Lyslo on October 11, 1966 presenting the results of the participation of 66 adoption agencies revealed that 696 children from Indian origins had been adopted in 1965.
A report that the Association on American Indian Affairs released to the Senate Commission in 1977 stated that 11,157 Native children were adopted between 1964 and 1976 (survey for 13 states).
A letter from Arlene L Nash, director of ARENA (Adoptive Resource Exchange of North America), claimed that 48 Native children were adopted in 1972.
We can infer that approximately 12,486 children were adopted between 1961 and 1976 out of the scope of the Indian Adoption Project.
Number of adoptions:
1964-1976 Native Adoptees - 11,157
1959-1967 Native Adoptees - 395
1961 Native Adoptees - 585
1965 Native Adoptees - 696
From Claire Palmiste, Indigenous Policy Journal Vol. XXII, No.1 (Summer 2011)
NOTE:
As for the Indian Adoption projects, I needed a calculator. If the Native American population was 2 million and if just one quarter of all children were removed before the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, then on-paper, 80,000+ children were removed from their families during the early to mid-1900s. If the population of American Indians was 3 million, then over 100,000 babies were removed. I hated this math…85 percent of children were removed by adoption in 16 states. That’s genocide. - Trace Hentz
EMAIL: tracelara@pm.me
PHONE: 413-772-6996
My birth mother was white, had an affair with a native American and got pregnant with me. After I was born, my birth mother and her hubby were killed in a car accident. The grandparents gave me up for adoption. The social worker told my parents this story but there is no paper work with the birth father's name. I feel like I have missed out on a big part of my heritage.
ReplyDeleteTamra, can you email me? tracelara@pm.me - I have a few questions about your paperwork...
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