Indian Adoption Project

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The Indian Adoption Project was a project in which almost 400 Indian children in the USA were forcibly given up for adoption between 1958 and 1967 . Under the policy of the resolution of the Indian tribes that from 1953 to 1968, the Federal Indian Policy dominated, this represented a part of the assimilation strategy.

The project was created through an agreement between the Bureau of Indian Affairs , the US Children's Bureau and the Child Welfare League , i.e. between the state institutions that were responsible for Indians and children and the welfare league for children. This was intended to ensure that Indian children from difficult backgrounds can grow up in a materially secure, non-Indian environment.

The director of the project was Arnold Lyslo. This affected 395 children from 16 western US states. They were adopted by white parents in Illinois , Indiana , New York , Massachusetts , Missouri, and other states in the midwestern and eastern United States. 14 children came to the south, one to Puerto Rico . Most of the adoptions were brokered by Louise Wise Services and Spence-Chapin Adoption Services from New York and the Children's Bureau of Delaware ; a total of around 50 institutions were involved. Established in 1966, the Adoption Resource Exchange of North America (ARENA) became the immediate follow-up project, and it continued the policy of the Indian Adoption Project until the early 1970s.

From 1960 to 1968 David Fanshel carried out a study on around a quarter of the children. His overall result was positive, but he foresaw some of the problems that followed.

In 1978 Evelyn Stevenson, whose mother belonged to the Salish, more precisely to the Inland Salish (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes), and who had herself been forced to attend a boarding school , co-authored the Indian Child Welfare Act with which one tried to save the remnants of Indian culture and identity. This deprived the states of the right to intervene in the reservations through adoptions . Many Indian leaders viewed adoption as an abduction from another nation.

The trigger for adoption was often the observation that children were living in circumstances that were viewed as unsuitable. In many cases, local missionaries complained about the living conditions of children in the reservation to the authorities who brought the youth welfare office into operation. In some cases, cultural prejudices came into play that were combined with well-meaning principles. For example, it was sufficient if the children mostly lived with aunts and uncles, which was common in many cases, or in cramped conditions, which was normal in view of the poverty of the reservation residents, in order to deprive the parents of their children.

Most of the adoptive parents acted in good faith, because just making sure that the children did not grow up among Indians was considered a good work. However, if there were problems with upbringing, these were often traced back to the Indian ancestry, even to their genetic makeup, according to an investigation. Drug use and the suicide rate were higher among the children than in comparable milieus, the feeling of alienation and rejection has never left many of them.

The First Nations Orphans Association tried to reintegrate the children into their original cultural environment or to deal with the conflict that often occurred. However, they were not taken up again without further ado, but were rejected as apples (apples) because they were "red" on the outside and "white" on the inside.

In 2001 the Child Welfare League apologized for the whole project and its unforeseen consequences. Accordingly, children with the program of their culture and language, their tribes and their families were torn away, which robbed them of much of their happiness in life. Shay Bilchik, one of the leaders, said, “No matter how well it was meant and how much it was in the general thinking of the time, it was wrong; it was hurtful; and it reflected a kind of prejudice that provokes feelings of shame. "

literature

  • Sherman Alexie: Indian Killer , New York: Warner Books 1996.
  • Susan Devan Harness: Mixing Cultural Identities Through Transracial Adoption: Outcomes of the Indian Adoption Project (1958-1967) , Lewiston, New York a. a .: Edwin Mellen Press, May 2009.
  • Barbara Kingsolver: Pigs in Heaven , New York: Harper Perennial 1993.
  • Rita J. Simon, Sarah Hernandez: Native American Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories , Lexington Books, March 2008, ISBN 9780739124925 .
  • Steven Unger (ed.): The Destruction of American Indian Families , New York: Association on American Indian Affairs 1977.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ "No matter how well intentioned and how squarely in the mainstream this was at the time, it was wrong; it was hurtful; and it reflected a kind of bias that surfaces feelings of shame. "( Indian Adoption Project )