This book is also our history and the basis for a strong lawsuit:
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A Generation Removed: The Fostering and Adoption of Indigenous Children in the Postwar World
Margaret D. Jacobs
978-0-8032-5536-4
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Last
Thursday, with tears, a few angry remarks, and a traditional folk song,
some of those children came together at the University of Southern
Maine to share their experiences.
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| a new 2nd Edition is coming out in 2015 |
The
meeting also educated the public about Maine's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. The commission, signed into law in June, is the first such
group formed between Indian nations and a state government.
Truth
and reconciliation commissions are fact-finding groups that investigate
past wrongdoings by government. One of the most well-known commissions
was created to study the effect of apartheid in South Africa. Only one
other commission has been organized in the United States, a group that
examined the 1979 massacre of five protesters in Greensboro, N.C.
The
goal of the Maine commission is to record the experiences of the
Wabanaki ("dawn land people") with the state's child welfare system,
provide feedback on how the system can improve its work with Wabanaki
children, and help native people heal.
"When
I was very young, my sisters and I were removed from the reservation
where we lived. The reservation was the world, and I didn't think
anything else existed," Denise Altvater said.
"Then
one day, strangers showed up, put our stuff into garbage bags, and
drove us off. And the more they drove, the more our world disappeared
into nothing. They brought us to this horrible place where we were
basically tortured for four years."
Others
attending the meeting shared similar stories. One man told the audience
how he was taught to be ashamed of his Wabanaki heritage, and refused
to help his mother comb her dark Indian hair.
Forced
relocation was common in Maine for many years. It began in the 1870s,
when church groups took Indian children and sent them to schools where
they were forbidden to speak their own language, wear their own clothes
or practice their own religion.
In
1958, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Child Welfare League
of America began a 10-year "experiment" to place 1,000 Indian children
in the foster care of white families. While the federal government
initially thought the experiment would be a success, Native Americans
have called it cultural genocide.
While
it's not known exactly how many of those children were taken in Maine,
the state placed them in white homes at a rate many times higher than
other states, according to the commission.
At
one time, the state had taken custody of 16 percent of all children in
the Maliseet tribe, one of the four Wabanaki tribes that still exist in
Maine. Originally, the tribes numbered more than 2o.
In
1978, the federal government passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, which
gave Native American children more protection and recognized that a
child's tribal citizenship is as important as a family. But in the
1990s, federal officials cited Maine's Department of Health and Human
Services as "failing" in its compliance with the ICWA.
The commission is one attempt to correct that failure.
"One
of the most distinct aspects of this initiative is that there is no
shame and blame, but just people from the tribes and the state who are
committed to making sure this never happens again," said Chief Kirk
Francis, one of the Maine five tribal chiefs who signed the agreement
creating the commission with Gov. Paul LePage.
For Denise Altvater, the work of the commission is more than the letter of the law.
"We
can work together to make sure everyone simply follows law and
policies," she said. "Or we can go deeper to figure out how to make
changes because it is the right thing to do."
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