The story of a Sixties Scoop survivor's search to find herself and her community
CBC Books ·
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Otipemisiwak is a Plains Cree word describing the Metis, meaning "the people who own themselves."
Andrea
Currie was born into a Metis family with a strong lineage of warriors,
land protectors, writers, artists, and musicians - all of which was lost
to her when she was adopted as an infant into a white family with no
connection to her people. It was 1960, and the Sixties Scoop was in full
swing. Together with her younger adopted brother, also Metis, she
struggled through her childhood, never feeling like she belonged in that
world. When their adoptions fell apart during their teen years, the two
siblings found themselves on different paths, yet they stayed
connected. Currie takes us through her journey, from the harrowing time
of bone-deep disconnection, to the years of searching and
self-discovery, into the joys and sorrows of reuniting with her birth
family.
Finding Otipemisiwak weaves lyrical prose,
poetry, and essays into an incisive commentary on the vulnerability of
Indigenous children in a white supremacist child welfare system, the
devastation of cultural loss, and the rocky road some people must walk
to get to the truth of who they are. Her triumph over the state's
attempts to erase her as an Indigenous person is tempered by the often
painful complexities of re-entering her cultural community while bearing
the mark of the white world in which she was raised. In Finding Otipemisiwak,
one woman's stories about surviving, then thriving as a fully present
member of her Nation and the human family are a portal. Readers who walk
through will better understand the impact of the Sixties Scoop in the
country now called Canada. (From Arsenal Pulp Press)
A
memorial to the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, when lands promised to the
Muscogee Nation and the Seminole Nation were open to settlement to
non-Indians. Photo: mike krzeszak
Oil boom = theft boom
And the more money a Native had, the more vulnerable they were in court. This was particularly true if oil land was involved.
READ: The plunder, pillage, and robbery of the Five Tribes of Eastern Oklahoma
Author J Hoolihan Clayton (adoptee) is First Nations Plains Cree. Having lived a
diverse and authentic life in the American West, she now writes history
as fiction in order to inspire and elucidate.
excerpt...
Alamosa Citizen: Can you tell us a little bit about
yourself? Who you are, where you come from, where you’re going, all of
that good stuff.
J Hoolihan Clayton: Okay,
well I’m Plains Cree. I was taken as an infant from the reserve in
Canada in the Sixties Scoop and illegally adopted out across the
medicine line into the United States.
I was adopted by a white
family with a ranch in Wyoming. I was raised on a ranch in Wyoming,
basically in the middle of nowhere, no running water, no electricity. I
spent a lot of time, from a young age around Native elders and old
cowboys and basically it was there that I think I became a writer.
I
was so fascinated with the stories. I seem to have sort of an idyllic
memory. I retained stories and then as I grew older, I began to write
stories for myself. Despite all the other things that I’ve done in my
life, I’ve always been a writer. I learned cowboying growing up and
wasn’t able to have a college education early on. I worked as a ranch
hand and wound up fighting wildland fires for years until I sustained
enough injuries that vocational rehabilitation sent me to the University
of Montana and I was able to get a degree in education and history.
History has always been a passion for me.
So,
from there, since I needed an indoor job, I started teaching and mostly
focused on Native American education and history. And mostly taught
Native students or Hispanic students. I also specialize in at-risk
education programs. I ran the education in the juvenile detention center
in Taos for five years.
I set up several alternative education
programs. One in a treatment center on the Taos Pueblo. One on the Zuni
Pueblo. I taught at Dulce on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation and in
rural Hispanic areas mostly. Then I decided that, for a variety of
reasons, administration, fighting cell phones, I decided to retire and
write full time.
There’s a wonderful quote from E.L. Doctorow that the historian will
tell you what happened, the novelist will tell you what it felt like.
That’s my impetus in writing these books. I also, because of my troubled
past, with having been stolen, and also spending many, many years
living in and cowboying on reservations in Pueblos and working on
Pueblos, I wanted to tell the stories that I was learning about Native
groups that are told from a perspective that you don’t find.
A member of Western Writers of America, J. Hoolihan has been published
in western historical magazines, such as "True West" and "Wild West."
During her extensive research, J. Hoolihan continues to accumulate an
abundance of topics for a succession of factual stories pertaining to
the 19th century American West. Her first novel, Commendable Discretion,
was published in January 2021. With Great Discretion is the second book
of this series.* "Throwing the hoolihan" is a technique that old time
cowboys used for roping horses. "Hoolihan" has been Juliana's nickname
for decades
Their Shows
Might Be Over, but They’re Just Getting Started
Historic
Emmy nominees Lily Gladstone, Kali Reis, Sterlin Harjo, and D’Pharaoh
Woon-A-Tai all see their celebrated shows ending as a new beginning for Native
representation on TV.
'Reservation
Dogs,' 'True Detective: Night Country,' 'Under the Bridge'
FX/HBO/Hulu
However
exciting it was for Lily Gladstone to receive her own
first Emmy nomination for her work in the Hulu series “Under the Bridge,” the more
meaningful aspect of her Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or
Anthology Series or Movie nod was seeing “True Detective: Night Country” breakout Kali Reis be honored as well.
“I love that I’m not alone in this category. Having just had a bunch of first
time historical monikers applied to me, there’s something that’s very lonely
about that,” the recent Oscar nominee told IndieWire over Zoom. “So it’s great
to carry that with another actress who turned in just this stellar performance,
and then just represents a whole other aspect of how diverse and how important
it is to highlight how diverse Indian country is.”
The
conclusion of “True Detective: Night Country,” highlighting some of its Native
actors that had mostly stayed in the background, was a twist the star did not
see coming, but thoroughly appreciated. “Coming from the Native community, the
nosy-ass aunties know everything. They know everything. If you want to
know the tea, go to Auntie’s house,” said Reis. “Also on a serious note, the
invisibility, the very thing that is something that we ‘are’ or people look at
us or don’t look at Native people, especially Native women, as invisible, that
invisibility is the very thing that was a superpower.” It reflected the ways in
which indigenous organizations have to take finding answers for missing and
murdered indigenous women into their own hands in a way Gladstone also found
“invigorating.”
By Merrina O’Malley, Special to ICT
Minnesota state senator fights for the rights of missing and murdered Indigenous people by educating the public ... continue reading
Native American Representation in film from 2007-2022 An analysis of the 1,600 top-grossing movies released from 2007-2022 found: 0.25 percent of all speaking characters were Native American 1 percent of films featured female Native American characters with speaking roles 77 percent of Native characters were male and 23 percent were female Data from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
Blake has a recently released graphic memoir called Connecting Threads: Five Siblings Lost and Found. She is one of five children who were removed from their first family over time and placed in foster care, and most were adopted when young. She didn't know until decades later that she had lived with her first mother for weeks or months.
Because of closed adoptions, it took decades to connect scarce information to find her siblings. She and her siblings have Ojibwe or A-nish-i-naabe and Northern European roots. Some are enrolled tribal members, and all have Indigenous heritage. After many years, they began to find each other, one by one. Because her siblings did not grow up together, it took time to know each other, feel solid in their identity, and develop a deep sense of belonging. This happy ending came after a complicated childhood with many challenges. Her Website: https://www.elizabethblake.us/
A WA parliamentary inquiry into the devastating forced adoption scandal of last century has recommended financial redress for mothers, adopted people and some fathers.
Tanya Talaga has made a career of telling the unvarnished truth about Canada, to Canada. In her bestselling books, Seven Fallen Feathers and All Our Relations, Talaga, a Globe and Mail columnist
of Anishinaabe and Polish descent, turned her incisive eye on systemic
problems like racism in policing and the suicide epidemic among
Indigenous youth. But when it came to the personal, to her own family,
Talaga always found more questions than answers.
In The Knowing,
her third non-fiction book, out August 27, Talaga runs toward, not
from, her history, filling in the gaps in her own ancestral line. It’s a
lineage severed several times, as her First Nations relatives were
forcibly sent to government- and church-sponsored residential schools,
asylums and new families entirely as part of the Sixties Scoop. After
years spent digging into the past, she’s learned a few things: about her
grandmothers, about Canada’s past and that, when it comes to family,
you can never really know the whole story.
The Knowing
revisits the colonial history of Canada, as well as the history of your
own matriarchal line. What made you decide to weave in your own family
details?
All
Indigenous families share the same history; we all have people who are
missing. I didn’t want to write a trauma porn book, talking about
everyone else’s pain. Elder Sam Achneepineskum from Marten
Falls First Nation once gave me some advice: our ancestors need to know
who’s speaking. We need to tell people who each of us are, so everyone
can understand what happened.
...Figuring it all out, the how did we get here—that helps me a
lot. It’s reclamation. One person I met, Paula Rickard, is a
professional genealogist who lives in Moose Factory, Ontario. She’s
built out a family tree of the James Bay coast that now has something
like 12,000 names. When I was just starting out, I messaged her Facebook
page, and she responded with, “You know we’re related, too, right?”
Reveal illustration; Charles Deluvio/Unsplash; Dukas/Universal/Getty
In
2017, David Leavitt drove to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in
Montana to adopt a baby girl. A few years later, during an interview
with a documentary filmmaker, Leavitt, a wealthy Utah politician, told a
startling story about how he went about getting physical custody of
that child.
He
describes going to the tribe’s president and offering to use his
connections to broker an international sale of the tribe’s buffalo. At
the same time, he was asking the president for his blessing to adopt the
child.
That
video eventually leaked to a local TV station, and the adoption became
the subject of a federal investigation into bribery. To others, the
adoption story seemed to run afoul of a federal law meant to protect
Native children from being removed from their tribes’ care in favor of
non-Native families.
This
week on Reveal, reporters Andrew Becker and Bernice Yeung dig into the
story of this complicated and controversial adoption, how it
circumvented the mission of the Indian Child Welfare Act, and why some
of the baby’s Native family and tribe were left feeling that a child was
taken from them.
Brandon
Friendship Centre’s Eagle Healing Lodge program co-ordinator Denise
Sinclair says the camp is helping people reclaim their Indigenous
languages through land-based activities. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)
Nestled in
a ceremony site east of Southwestern Manitoba's biggest city, a group
of language keepers is working to strengthen and grow fluent Dakota,
Cree, Anishinaabemowin and Michif speakers.
They're part
of the Brandon Friendship Centre's Eagle Healing Lodge's first
land-based language camp. Four teepees have been set up between the
forest and prairies, each home to an Indigenous language in Westman.
"Language
has always been connected to the land," says Denise Sinclair, program
co-ordinator for the healing lodge. "Everything that we're doing here is
specifically land-based ... in the language so that you can hear it
[and] you can pass that on."
The three-day camp, held
Tuesday through Thursday, was an opportunity for participants to learn
and speak Dakota, Cree, Anishinaabemowin and Michif, she said. They
would speak their languages for different activities like setting up
tents, smoking meat or medicine picking.
Julia Brandon, left, and Martina Richard crush chokecherries as a way to learn Anishinaabemowin. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)
It's
powerful seeing connections forged as people learn and speak their
languages, Sinclair said. It's important work that has to carry on to
help with language revitalization.
"Whatever you're
learning you're going to remember … you're building that core memory
with the language, that you needed growing up," Sinclair said.
Language as strength
The
healing lodge has been cultivating a community centred on strengthening
Indigenous languages since 2021, Sinclair said. It began as a program
for Sixties Scoop survivors and grew to include residential school
survivors and others.
Language serves to reconnect people with their culture and identity in a safe place centred on healing, Sinclair said.
"We
have to remember that there's still that sense of …. something being
taken," Sinclair said. "Now they feel safe to talk to us as learners
because they feel that importance of passing on that language."
Martina
Richard, from Waywayseecappo First Nation, camped out at the site for
two days to immerse herself and her family in language and culture.
Participants could choose to camp, or to go home for the night.
Eagle
Healing Lodge Cultural support worker Lacey Hotain says she wants to
strengthen her Dakota to pass it on to future generations. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)
Richard's
focus was on learning Anishinaabemowin. As she gets older, Richard
says, she feels the need to be a fluent learner to help strengthen the
language for future generations.
"Just like how it was
spoken around me, I'm starting to use the language more around my
children and they're starting to understand and use the words too,"
Richard said.
"It feels like home ... It's good to be around what feels like family."
Julia
Brandon, also from Waywayseecappo, was one of the language helpers at
the camp. She teaches Anishinaabomowin through cultural activities like
smoking moose meat, beading and crushing chokecherries.
It's
exciting getting out of the classroom and onto the land, Brandon said.
It's a more hands-on experience for everyone involved no matter their
language skill level.
She still considers herself a learner, because other women are expanding the words she knows in Anishinaabemowin.
"I'm getting strength from being around the other speakers to keep going," Brandon said.
Building Community
Lacey Hotain from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation is a Dakota speaker who works as a cultural support worker at the healing lodge.
Hotain
visited each of the teepees to participate in different cultural
activities and learn about different Indigenous languages.
"I
definitely feel a sense of importance here because everybody who comes
here has a role," Hotain said. She says she's always felt "a calling, of
an obligation" to go back to language as a priority.
Hotain
wants to help teach Dakota to young people in the future. She says her
knowledge is being strengthened by working on the land at the camp.
Brandonite Shirley McKay beads a wolf willow necklace. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)
The
Eagle Healing Lodge is planning on hosting a second language camp in
the spring. It's important to keep activities like this accessible –
through being welcoming and available – for those struggling with their
identity and their connection to language and culture, Sinclair said.
Brandon
hopes the next camp will be fully immersive for participants, with
Indigenous language spoken the whole time, to help keep languages
thriving in the community.
She
wants her grandchildren and the next generations can help carry the
language forward, Brandon said. But, it's challenging because she wants
them to be engaged and curious about Anishinaabemowin, but doesn't want
to force them to learn the way she was forced to learn English.
This
means they need more language options outside the camp so First Nation
children can stay connected to their culture and traditions.
"The
First Nations, we don't have our language because it's not promoted,"
Brandon said. "How do you promote your own language if you're if you're
not talking it yourself?"
Brandon camp connects language, culture and land
VIDEO: Duration 1:55
The
Brandon Friendship Centre's Eagle Healing Lodge hosted its first
three-day language camp this week. The camp's goal is to help people
reconnect to their Indigenous language through land-based and cultural
teachings.
If you can take 10 minutes, this animated film (above)
is a good overview of that history. There is so much information to
understand, that this animated film can reinforce some of the details.
If you haven't yet called or written your congressperson to support these two bills, here it is again. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSPERSON AND SENATOR TO
SUPPORT THE TWO BILLS PROPOSED BY SEC.DEB HAALAND TO INVESTIGATE AND
BEGIN TO BRING HEALING TO NATIVE AMERICANS ADVERSELY TRAUMATIZED BY THE
BOARDING SCHOOL ERA.
If you would like to be part of educating the public, please consider hosting our film NATIVE WOMEN AND ALLIES SPEAK: What You Weren't Taught in School
As hurtful truths come to light regarding historically operated Federal Indian boarding schools in the United States, many Native Nations are reclaiming their voices. For the Upper Sioux Community (“Yellow Medicine Nation”) living in Minnesota, these historical truths are known to have cast profound ripples that impact their present. This mini documentary explores community interpretations of this boarding school past and offers hope for justice and healing.
NEW YORK (AP) — Tucked within the expansive Native American halls of
the American Museum of Natural History is a diminutive wooden doll that
holds a sacred place among the tribes whose territories once included
Manhattan.
For more than six months now, the ceremonial Ohtas, or
Doll Being, has been hidden from view after the museum and others
nationally took dramatic steps to board up or paper over exhibits
in response to new federal rules requiring institutions to return
sacred or culturally significant items to tribes — or at least to obtain
consent to display or study them.
Museum officials are reviewing
more than 1,800 items as they work to comply with the requirements while
also eyeing a broader overhaul of the more than half-century-old
exhibits.
But some tribal leaders remain skeptical, saying museums
have not acted swiftly enough. The new rules, after all, were prompted
by years of complaints from tribes that hundreds of thousands of items
that should have been returned under the federal Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 still remain in museum custody.
“If things move slowly, then address that,” said Joe Baker, a
Manhattan resident and member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians,
descendants of the Lenape peoples European traders encountered more than 400 years ago. “The collections, they’re part of our story, part of our family. We need them home. We need them close.”
The leader of the tribe in Oklahoma said he visited the Peabody this year after the university reached out about returning hair clippings collected in the early 1930s from hundreds of Indigenous children, including Cherokees, forced to assimilate in the notorious Indian boarding schools.
“The
fact that we’re in a position to sit down with Harvard and have a
really meaningful conversation, that’s progress for the country,” he
said.
As for Baker, he wants the Ohtas returned to its tribe. He
said the ceremonial doll should never have been on display, especially
arranged as it was among wooden bowls, spoons and other everyday items.
“It
has a spirit. It’s a living being,” Baker said. “So if you think about
it being hung on a wall all these years in a static case, suffocating
for lack of air, it’s just horrific, really.”
This story was first
published on Jul. 29, 2024. It was updated on Jul. 31, 2024, to correct
the scope of repatriations to tribes undertaken by the Field Museum in
Chicago.
