Native Voices in Adoption & Foster Care

Listening to those who have directly experienced the impacts of adoption and foster care across the generations are our best teachers. Their voices can guide us in understanding their acute losses and traumas and in helping them heal. Please also reference our Adoptee & Foster Voices, Foster Parenting, Talking About Adoption, Foster Care & Other Hard Things, Talking About Race, Transracial Parenting & Cultural Diversity and Trauma pages for more resources.

Websites

Recommended Books & Articles

Tribal adoption-related books in ORPARC's library including the Lost Children of the Adoption Project series by adoptee Trace L. Hentz (Shawnee & Cherokee)

AdoptUSKids
- Considerations with fostering or adopting Native American children
- How Tribal Values and Traditions Can Guide Recruitment, Development and Support of Resource Families
- Fostering Extended Family Ties Between Resource Families & Birth Families in Tribal Child Welfare Practice
American Indian Resilience by Child Welfare Information Gateway
Keep Our Families Together by Eva Lopez, ACLU - voices of two Native people (Little Shell Chipewa and Rosebud Sioux Tribe) impacted by ICWA
The Long History of Native American Adoptions by Elizabeth Hidalgo Reese Yunpoví (Tewa: Willow Flower) (Nambé Pueblo)
Q&A with Journalist Adoptee Trace L. Hentz (formerly DeMeyer; scroll down for interview) (Shawnee & Cherokee) - author in ORPARC's library
Welcome Home by Marcie Rendon - the story of Sandy White Hawk's (Sicangu Lakota) adoption & return to home
What It's Like To Be a Native American with White Parents by Denalee Chapman - Tiffany's (Navajo) story
'Where Do I Belong?' Native roots, hard realities surface in woman's search for her past by Dan Gunderson, North Star Journey - Peggy Mandel's (Ojibwe) story (article + audio)

Videos & Podcasts

Adopting A Child of A Different Race? Let's Talk by Tribal adoptee Susan Devan Harness (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes) (TedTalk) - author in ORPARC's library
Cultural Humility with Priscilla Day (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) by the NTDC Podcast with April Dinwoodie
Daughter of a Lost Bird & Interview - documentary of adoptee Kendra Mylnechuk Potter's (Lummi Nation) rediscovery of her heritage (article + videos)
Dawnland by The Upstander Project - award-winning documentary (video)
How the U.S. stole thousands of Native American children by Vox (video)
Understanding and Engaging Native Families by AdoptUSKids (webinar)

Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption

This memoir by Susan Devan Harness (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes) confronts hard truths about race, identity and belonging in her own transracial adoption, available in ORPARC's library.

Bitterroot cover - image of author as young girl in a field with flower