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Dr Beth Todd Bazemore
February, 1999
Q: Tell me about your background.
Well, I was born in 1958 in near Buffalo New York near the Seneca reservation and a
that time there was a project called the Indian adoption project. It was run by the um,
child welfare relief. And the idea was um, this was during 58, 59 and the early 60s
to um
people from the child welfare league swept through the reservations of New York
state and remove children, infants and young children who were felt to be, not taken care
of Properly. The problem of the definition of not being taken care of properly meant that
if a mother was young, if a child was being cared for by grandparents, things like that,
um there was no recognition that that was the traditional way that Indian children, many
times their grandparents or grandmothers were their primary care takers, and they removed,
I think it was three hundred forty kids total during those years. I was one of those
children. The idea was that if those young children were adopted into white homes, that
they would stand a better chance at growing up. That they would
that growing up on a
reservation um in poverty and all those things, they thought was going to be detrimental
to the children and so their best chance would be to be raised in a white family and
assimilated into white society. It was during a time when there were many policies of
assimilation going on across the country, boarding schools, relocation programs, things
like that. The general philosophy at that time was that assimilation was the best thing
for Indian people.
Q: What led to that?
I think theres never really been an understanding of why its important to
Native people to stay together to stay connected to their land that they have been on for
thousands of years. Its been hard for people in the mainstream to understand
"Why do these people want to stay together?" Why do they want to live in often
remote areas
in what looks like just poverty kinds of conditions. Theres no
understanding of the strong family ties, the extended family, the sense of community that
tribal-ness. So I think the philosophy behind the assimilation kinds of policies were that
in order to be successful in the mainstream context of success, that people would stand a
better chance if they just assimilated into white society and lost that
Indian-ness and
became just like everybody else. After a while it is that sense of Indian-ness and that
sense of community, and extended family and
.. the whole tribe or the nation that is
important to Indian People, and white people have resisted that.
Q: What are the differences between child off reservation and child on reservation.
A child adopted on the reservation or within their tribal group will grow up with the
culture, with the traditions, with the traditional spirituality, with a sense of
themselves as part of that nation
that community. Although they may not be with both
parents, they would have a solid sense of themselves as they grew up. As not only as a
native person, and knowing what that meant to them, but also as a member of the community,
as a relative to everyone within that nation. A child that is adopted off the reservation
by a non-Indian family would grow up with all the values and traditions of what that
family may be. I think the biggest difference between those two situations would be that
our United States nation value system is based on the individualistic kind of society while
native nations are based on collectivistic kinds of societies and the whole values and
reason for being there is to be a good relative and to help the people. Whereas in
mainstream society the value is more on becoming successful, on becoming all you can be,
getting all that you can get and its more what an individual can achieve instead of
..helping the people.
Q: How about the History of Boarding schools
It was early in the 1900s that children began to be sent away to boarding schools
when they were 4, 5 or 6 years old and the idea again, was to
it began because many
of the treaties specified that the United States government would be responsible for the
education of the children. So again the idea was that the children would do much better if
they learned how to function in mainstream society. It was difficult teaching them to do
that. when they went home at night to a very different kind of society were more
influenced by the values of their parents and the community. So taking them away from
those influences and leaving them in boarding schools where essentially 24 hours a day,
the (mainstream values and ways of doing things could be taught to the children. Some of
those boarding schools were government run boarding schools, and (then ) became affiliated
with various churches in this area
mostly the catholic church. The ideas again, was
to kind of educate the Indian-ness out of that child. and it was done with good intentions
and the belief that these children were going to be better off. In some way by being able
to blend in and becoming a member of mainstream society. Nobody ever understood how
important it was to people to be a member of their own society and to maintain those
values and traditions and how much that history and culture, and spirituality, how that is
a part of who that person is. I think that people were surprised over the years, very
surprised that people hung on so strongly to that and wanted to return to that. It caused
a lot of trauma for children, if you can imagine being five years old and taken away from
everyone and everything you know, often not understanding English suddenly having to
live for months at a time away from you family and everything you know.
Sometimes children didnt see their families again until they were grown. Then
suddenly they were back, they were out of the school, they had been educated and had grown
to learn the values of mainstream society, and when they went back to their families, they
no longer fit in their communities, so they didnt know how to be a relative, you
know, whats valued so much, in native society, and yet they couldnt really be
non-Indian either because they looked Indian, so white society wouldnt let them be
just part of the mainstream. A lot of times people got lost in the middle. And thats
oftentimes what happened to children who have been adopted by non-Indian families.
Q: How does the trauma manifest itself?
It often becomes most apparent during the adolescent years, um during adolescence is a
time of trying to establish a sense of identity, who am I and how do I fit in? And um
adolescents of all cultures struggle with those sorts of questions. Within each culture
our culture tells us how we decide who we are and how we fit in. Within a particular
culture, any culture, theres expectations and roles and different ways that we
transmit to a young person how they develop that sense of identity. A native person who
has grown up in a non-Indian home has learned basically how to part of that mainstream,
theyre also at this point in time noticing that theyre different. They notice
that they look different, people see them different. They have to face things like racism
and discrimination. And their white family doesnt have any understanding of how to
teach them how to cope with those kinds of situations. Oftentimes its too painful
for families, they dont want to think of their child, who, in most cases they love
and care for being hurt by racism because they see them as just one of the family and so
they cant teach them how to cope with things like that. Oftentimes, when people
adopt, its because theyre not able to have children of their own so being
reminded of that adoption is a painful reminder of that inability to have children and
that painful time they went through before they were able to adopt. So in some cases,
children are unable to talk, young people are unable to talk about that adoption and where
they come from and who they really are and incorporate that into the identity they
theyre forming. That may be too threatening to the family. So they have to develop
an identity that doesnt truly feel like who they are. It feels like something is
missing, it feels like a piece of themselves is still unknown. Thats true across
adoptee generally, you often hear people talk about a sense of just not knowing who they
are because because they dont know who their biological parents are, where they came
from, what their background is, what happened, why was I given up
those kind of
questions. Cause people to really have a sense of not having a complete identity and
its even harder when its across racial lines. Because through our culture, we
teach a child how to be a member of that society and so theyre not getting help in
doing that. So you often find young people have a difficult time more so during
adolescence. All the typical turmoil during adolescence is part of that attempt of forming
that identity they act one way with their friends, and another way with their parents and
another way at school and um, they really are trying out different identities, they really
dont have a solid sense of who they are all the time in any situation, and so a
child, an Indian person whos been growing up in a non-Indian world, they have an
extra piece that theyre really struggling with trying to understand what that means.
To know (where did they come from?) and often times feelings way deep inside of connection
to something that they dont know anything about because they havent learned
that.
Q: How does the typical person handle the situation?
Well, I guess, you know, a lot of times young people will do things that um are
considered dangerous um maybe even self destructive. If the child has gotten the message
that its not OK to be who they really are, that who they need to be is part of the
family theyve been adopted into, and that they know that deep down they dont
feel the same, what they can come to do is to hate that part of themselves. That
doesnt fit in, because any child wants to be loved and accepted and to be part of,
you know to feel part of their family if they dont feel like all of themselves can
be accepted, or theres a place that they dont really even know, or
theyre not sure that that can be accepted, they come to hate that part of themselves
and you can see self destructive kinds of behaviors. There have been some studies that
have shown that these young people are more prone to suicide the kind of behaviors
that
are designed to kill the pain, drug use, alcohol use, running away, acting out kind of
behaviors. Sometimes children are lucky enough, their families really try to help them
learn about who they are too. And thats an ideal situation. The families open to
letting that child explore, to explore who they are, learn about their background, maybe
even meet members of their family and learn more about the culture, where they come from,
who they are, how they fit in overall. Those young people typically do a lot better. As
you know, adolescence is a time where you swing from one extreme to another, so there may
be times where they um, if they may have the freedom to do that, they may make a real
intense swing of wanting to reject everything theyve grown up with, and only
identify as the background theyre discovering, but usually theyll choose to
come back, because how they were raised is part of who they are too. And so they tend to
become more bicultural. But (thats a much) more positive way for them to adjust.
Q: How does the Indian Child Welfare Act impact this situation?
The Indian child welfare act said that any child who needed to be removed from their
natural home, and placed into foster care or a foster home, would be
the attempt
would be made first to place them in an Indian home. So they would be raised within their
culture, their traditions, their spirituality within the tribe
the tribe would not
lose that member. That ultimately would not have as strong an effect on the future of the
nation. and so, um, but prior to 1978, there were many children who were placed outside of
the tribe. Um Now if a child does have to be placed outside of the tribe or it
has to be
placed in with a non-Indian because theres no availability or no one, a relative or
somebody that they can place that child with, they know that child is often enrolled in
that tribe, and still a member of that tribe and can later trace back and find who they
are and still be a member of their tribe prior to 1978, that didnt happen.
Q. Is that pretty much followed today?
Well, no, I think theres many, many cases where its not followed and
its particularly difficult where one parent is a member of a tribe and one parent is
non-Indian and most particularly when the non-Indian parent is the mother. Because then if
that child then needs to be placed in foster care or an adoptive home, most often the
child is physically with the mother and the mother makes the decisions and Ive
worked with a number of cases where that kind of thing has happened and its
difficult, where the tribe has to be notified by the court and has to intervene within a
certain amount of time. And say, no, we want this child back.
I know that one tribe that I worked with a couple of years ago had over two hundred
open ICWA cases, ICWA meaning Indian Child Welfare Act that means there had been 200
children who had um, not been placed through ICWA and were paced in non-Indian homes and
the tribe was trying to intervene and have those children placed within the tribe. So
theres many times when its not applied 46:30 the tribes usually have to go to
court.
Q. Whats the answer?
I think that there is still an attitude in many place "Why would anybody want to
be raised on a reservation?" "How can this possibly be good for a child?"
um "What can they possibly gain?" "Wouldnt it be so much better for
them to be placed in this home in this community" Look what they can be given. And
theres not as much of an understanding of how difficult and how damaging that can be
to a child's sense of identity. So there is still an attitude of assimilation is best and a
lot of times people dont understand a lot of times people wonder why do Native
people even want to live together, why dont they just become like everybody else?
Why dont they just blend in? Why would they want to live like that? So theres
not really a lot of understanding about the culture, the values of the culture, the idea
of a collectivistic society within the United States which is known around the world as
being an individualistic society. Its such a different way of being in the world
that I dont think theres a good understanding across those cultures. That this
is right here amongst us here in the United States. I think that people still do believe,
, child welfare workers, judges, social services people, that the child would be better
off if they were raised in a different kind of environment. And of course the stories you
hear about life on the reservation, you hear only the negative things, high poverty, high
unemployment, alcoholism, those kinds of things, you dont hear about the positive
values, the value of thousands of years of tradition and culture and spirituality that
that child does receive.
Q. Psychological effects of boarding schools
In many cases, in the boarding schools, theres a whole range of experiences that
people have had. In the worst cases, there was severe abuse, physical abuse, emotional
abuse and sexual abuse and um Ive heard about
some of the things you hear
about, you know the trauma of leaving your family, the trauma of not being able to speak
your language any more, and severe punishment for speaking the language, Ive heard
people talk about
to walk around with a block in their mouth or soap in their mouth
because they were speaking their own language beatings, things like that, most of the boys
had to have their hair cut off , you know, to be more like the mainstream. Um depending on
what the teachings are in that culture about hair, that can be a very traumatic thing,
having your name changed, think of what that does to your sense of identity, all of a
sudden, poof, your name is something else than what you had known it to be. And a foreign
sounding name too because it was to a native language.
Theres a lot of people who reported being sexually abused in the boarding schools
and the bottom line here is you have children who grew up, not in a family, with no models
of what family life is like, no model of what parenting is supposed to do, and so when
they grew up and became parents themselves, they had no idea how to be parents. They had
no role models, they didnt know what that role was, when you think about it, even
though we say "Ill never do things the same way my parents did" we tend to
sort of follow the pattern that we know because thats how we learned that. And so we
have generations of people now who had no model of being in a family and have a very
difficult time and a very mixed up sense of identity. How to fit into the world and where
do they fit theres also been stories of people who were sterilized while they were
in boarding schools. Again the idea is no more Indian children.
They were the most prevalent during those years, but we still have boarding schools
now. Many people of my generation grew up in boarding schools for at least some of their
years of growing up. Now theres other people who had very good experiences in a
boarding school, in some cases maybe there was issues in their family where their family
wasnt able to take care of them so they had a better upbringing by being in boarding
schools. So youll find a whole range of experiences, but one of the things that
seems to be real common is a sense of abandonment. Even to a young child, it doesnt
matter the reasons that mom and dad arent there, its just that they
arent there. It often leaves a very deep sense of abandonment inside that person
which has an impact on their relationships when theyre grown up.
Q. What are the lessons from Lost Bird Story
One of the things about Lost Bird is that she was seen as a curiosity, a trophy, I
guess theres a lot of instances of those kinds of things after every war. I
think theres a yearning inside for
to be a relative, to be a part of something
greater than what we are individually, to to know your place within the community or the
tribe or the nation or the planet and to know your relatedness to everything else and
thats not something that
I believe its something that is not just
learned...its something thats just got to somewhere there inside of us, hard
wired so to speak its there, because I dont think we could explain things that
happened to lost Bird and how she felt and how she struggled with what she had learned to
become, who she had learned to become she always felt that pull to something else. I think
for a lot of people who have been adopted, and who have experienced those kinds of things,
.Its easy, even now to just say to say even now, to say well, you take that
child, you put him or her over here and everything will be just fine, hopefully we have a
better understanding that theres more to it than that. More to who we are and that
goes beyond what this lifetime has been, you know, theres a spiritual connection to
where we come from.
I think anybody can understand that there will be a short term impact of placing a
child outside of their family, you can imagine the grieving process, even an infant can go
through that, but what we havent understood for years is the long term, the lifelong
impact on how people develop and who they develop in to the ways that they cope with their
lives.
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