Leland P Kirk Morrill: a follow-up interview

Earlier interviews with Dine adoptee Leland P. Morrill (Kirk) have been so popular on this blog, we decided to check in with him again and see what he's been up to. Leland is one of 10 children adopted by one Mormon family. He has been working on several projects concerning American Indian Adoptees.

How is your reunion going with your family on the Navajo reservation?

Leland Morrill: I am in constant communication with my Uncle Ernie & Aunt Carrie on Facebook. I enjoyed Thanksgiving with them this past year. Facebook has been a "blessing in disguise." I am meeting more and more Navajo family and friends through Facebook and it's been a treat to be able to have a platform of communication.
Last year my cousin Elton hosted a pow wow here in Los Angeles called "Celebrating Life & All Creation." (He founded that pow wow and some of us are organizing it for this year since he moved to Denver.)
Of note, Elton and I (on October 18, 2009) each provided "public comment" at the HIV/AIDS Community Discussion: Los Angeles for the White House HIV/AIDS Community Discussion held at Hollywood High. Back then we didn't know we were related. I was coerced to attend by a friend and then he said you should say something...so I prepared comments while waiting in line after filling out the "comment request card."  Elton spoke before me and I thought I was going to be the only Native American, let alone a Navajo, who was going to present a comment. He was so eloquent and well-spoken. I talked to him then but it wasn't until this past year we found out we are cousins. Funny how life throws those curveballs. 

Can you give us an update on your work concerning the REAL ID ACT of 2005:

LM: I have taken somewhat of a break from this, because I needed to pay off bills, get a new career started and find myself and enjoy meeting new family, the Kirks and the Pachecos. I've been attempting to balance that and continue to volunteer for NALEO Education Fund Citizenship Classes, filling out the N400 forms for qualified applicants.

Tell us about the conference you attended at Pepperdine and what topic you presented:

LM: I was invited by Bert Ballard, co-chair for the conference INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION: ORPHAN RESCUE OR CHILD-TRAFFICKING?

Bert had invited me to a previous conference at Claremont Colleges in California last year for the same InterCountry Adoption conference and I'd attended their dinner. Bert Ballard is one of the Operation Babylift Vietnam babies and he also adopted two children with his wife.

Jennifer Kwon Dobbs (who I've known throughout this past year from the same events) has kept in constant communication with me. She was the organizer for our breakout session FORGOTTEN, DETAINED, REMOVED: TRANSNATIONAL ADOPTED PERSONS AND CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS. Caittlin Kee, McClane Layton (author of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000), and I were the presenters for this group.

I specifically told my story and I started with the video of The Morrill Family on National Television (Summer 1981) when my adoptive parents adopted seven Native Ojibwe Adoptees from Ontario, Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPA3QeB_UpM

Then I talked about my story and my issues with citizenship being native, born on US soil. I went long but it was an introduction to putting Native American adoptees on the international map, especially with so many attendees from around the globe attending.One of the highlights was a private lunch with Ambassador Susan Jacobs, Special Advisor for Children's Issues, Bureau of Consular Affairs, US. Department of State.  Marshall Derks, Branch Chief InterCountry Adoptions/US Department Of State/Bureau of Consular Affairs, McClane Layton, Bert Ballard, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Caitlin Kee and I were able to speak with her.

It was a "standing lunch" and I didn't eat much because we had a lot to cover; we went about 40 minutes with the seven of us. During the lunch I brought up my story and also Brent Snavely and Lisa Kay's contributions. (I'd asked for experiences on the Facebook page NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES, hoping for different angles.) Those proved to be very good to support my story as well. We also briefly discussed Adoptive Couple vs Baby Girl (the baby Veronica case). All in all it was a wonderful lunch, all of us spoke about many angles, including genocide, the Hague and UN definition; with Jennifer being a Korean Adoptee, me being Navajo with citizenship issues and how I had recently overcome the Real ID Act; and McClane Layton's authoring the Child Citizenship Act.

Who attended and what significance do you think the Pepperdine conference had on the people who attended:

LM: Notable attendees were: U.S. Ambassador Susan Collins; Ambassador Susan S Jacobs; Marshall Derks, Branch Chief, Intercountry Adoptions US Dept. of State; Whitney Reitz, Senior Policy Advisor on International Child Welfare, Office of US Senator Mary Landrieu, Louisanna; David Smolin, Cumberland Law School; Elizabeth Bartholet, Harvard Law School; Benyam dawit Mezmur, Chairperson of the African Commitee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child Member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Isaac Obiro, Attorney Ekirapa & Co Advocates, Kampala Uganda; Mark Riley, Adovcate & Consultant at Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development Uganda; and many others.

I gave copies of the anthology "TWO WORLDS: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects" to Mark Riley, Marshall Derks, Ambassador Susan Jacobs, Bert Ballard, Whitney Reitz, Caitlin Kee, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Kit Myers and then left some on a central table, where they were snatched up.

Also, of interest, one of the attendees, Katheryn Joyce, author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement (Beacon Press, 2009) and The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption, had our book TWO WORLDS on her "to read list." She described the cover, but unfortunately, I had given out all the copies and went back to the table the second day & the remaining ones had been claimed. Hopefully she reads the book.

David Smolin at Cumberland School of Law posed the question: "Do you think this is an issue that my law school's new center for children, law, and ethics could usefully take up?" I told him YES, and sent him some information. 

Also, I had informed Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly about the conference and he responded: "Thank you Mr. Morrill for sending this over. I look forward to learning more about this issue. It is also good to know that our Navajo people, like yourself, are included in these important discussions. We wish you all the best with your upcoming event."

Hopefully some great networking has begun and we are on the page internationally, not only through my efforts but as a collective group of Native advocates...it takes a village.

You gave copies of Two Worlds: Lost Children to the Dr. Phil show. Do you think they plan to do an update to the Baby Veronica case closer to the Supreme Court hearing in April?

LM: My humble opinion is only if the case Adoptive Couple vs Baby Girl (the baby Veronica case) provides enough media coverage for the show to boost ratings and to have a re-visit. Just from observing, being in the audience on several occasions, I know Dr. Phil McGraw & his wife Robin are great caring people. Television is edited so you only see the "drama" that will keep people captivated, get viewership, and draw advertising.
So, hopefully the Baby Veronica Case will create a buzz.

Big thanks to Leland Morrill who is a contributor to the anthology TWO WORLDS: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects. He lives in Los Angeles and works as an actor.

Two Worlds (paperback) is available on Amazon.com and the e-book version is on Nook, Kindle, Kobo and more.

NPR update: Maine, Tribes Seek 'Truth And Reconciliation'

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In Maine, an unusual and historic process is under way to document child welfare practices that once resulted in Indian children being forcibly removed from their homes. Many of the Native children were placed with white foster parents and with white adoptive families.  Chiefs from all five of Maine's tribes, along with Gov. Paul LePage, have created a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help heal the wounds.

Read the entire transcript here: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/12/174080043/maine-tribes-seek-truth-and-reconciliation

Sandy WhiteHawk is correct - we do not know how many children were taken. You can visit her website here: http://wearecominghome.com/Sandy_White_Hawk.html
Contact her organization, First Nations Repatriation Association!NS REPATRIATION INSTITUTE  

History: Indian Child Welfare Act

History Behind Enactment of The Indian Child Welfare Act

        In 1978 Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act ii (Act or ICWA), in response to a national crisis in which an alarmingly high percentage of Indian families were being broken up due to the often misguided removal of Indian children from their families and tribal communities. Prior to the Act's passage, Senate oversight hearings in 1974 yielded numerous examples, statistical data, and expert testimony documenting "the wholesale removal of Indian children from their homes ... the most tragic aspect of Indian life today." iii Congress also heard testimony indicating that, by conservative estimates, one out of five Indian children has lived in foster or adoptive home at some time. iv It was found in States with large Indian populations an incredible 25 to 35 percent of Indians were in out of home placement or adoptive homes at one time in their lives.v

        In Minnesota for example between 1972 and 1974, one-quarter of Indian children under one year of age were adopted. vi In Minnesota Indian children were placed in foster care or adoptive homes at a per-capita rate of five times that of non-Indians, and 97.5% of Indian children placed for adoption were placed into non-Indian families. The removal rates for Indian children in other states were just as alarming. In South Dakota Indian children were disproportionally represented in foster care at a rate of sixteen times that of non-Indians. vii In Washington Indian children were being adopted at a rate of nineteen times that of non-Indians. viii

        The disproportionate rate at which Indian families were being broken up has had severe consequences to Indian children, parents, and tribal communities.  Dr. Joseph Westermeyer, a University of Minnesota social psychiatrist, testified to Congress about his research, which indicated that Indian adolescents who are raised in non-Indian homes typically have difficulty coping in white society, despite the fact they had been raised in a white environment. ix A 1975 report prepared for the American Academy of Child Psychiatry states, "native American children placed in off-reservation non-Indian homes are at risk in their later development. Often enough they are cared for by devoted and well-intentioned foster or adoptive parents. Nonetheless, particularly in adolescence, they are subject to ethnic confusion and a pervasive sense of abandonment." x

        Puyallup Tribal Chair Ramona Bennet succinctly stated the parents' perspective: "If you lose your children, you are dead; you are never going to be rehabilitated, you are never going to get well." xi 

        For the tribes, Congress heard the testimony of Mr. Calvin Isaac, Tribal Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indian, who stated:

Culturally, the chances of Indian survival are significantly reduced if our children, the only real means for the transmission of the tribal heritage, are to be raised in non-Indian homes and denied exposure to the ways of their People. Furthermore, these practices seriously undercut the tribes' ability to continue as self-governing communities. Probably in no area is it more important that tribal sovereignty be respected than in an area as socially and culturally determinative as family relationships. xii

Chief Isaac also summarized the principal reason for the high rates of removal of Indian children:

One of the most serious failings of the present system is that Indian children are removed from the custody of their natural parents by non-tribal governmental authorities who have no basis for intelligently evaluating the cultural and social premises underlying Indian home life and child rearing. Many of the individuals who decide the fate of our children are at best ignorant of our cultural values, and at worst contemptful of the Indian way and convinced that removal, usually to a non-Indian household or institution, can only benefit an Indian child. xiii

        One of the particular points of concern to Congress was the failure of social workers to understand the role of the Indian extended family. The House Report on ICWA thus states:

An Indian child may have scores of, perhaps more than a hundred, relatives who are counted as close, responsible members of the family. Many social workers, untutored in the ways of Indian family life or assuming them socially irresponsible, consider leaving the child with persons outside the nuclear family as neglect and thus grounds for terminating parental rights. xiv

        In addition to the alarming removal rates of Indian children is the Federal Governments well documented involvement in the destruction of Indian families through Federal policies. For example in 1971, 17% of Indian children where removed from families to attend Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) boarding schools. xv The Indian children were often times isolated from families and punished for speaking their own language and practicing their own religion. Based upon this evidence, in passing the ICWA Congress found:

...that the States, exercising their recognized jurisdiction over Indian child-custody proceedings through administrative and judicial bodies, have often failed to recognize the essential tribal relations of Indian people and the cultural and social standards prevailing in Indian communities and families. xvi

        The Indian Child Welfare Act addresses the crisis in Indian placement in two ways. First, it provides that no Indian child may be removed from the home unless qualified Indian expert testimony indicates that the child is in danger of experiencing physical or emotional harm. xvii This requirement, if followed, will ensure that removal of an Indian child from the home is based upon objective indicia of harm to the child, rather that subjectively applied cultural or social standards. Secondly, where Indian expert testimony does indicate that likelihood that continued custody in the home will result in harm to the child, the ICWA generally requires that the child be removed from the home, but placed, in order of preference, within the Indian extended family, within the family of the child's tribal affiliation, or within another Indian family. xviii Placement of Indian children in Indian homes was Congress' way of ensuring that when state court and child-protection agencies place Indian children outside of the home, they do not sever the children from their only means of receiving their cultural heritage - the Indian family. xix

Congress found as the purpose of the Act:

The congress hereby declares that it is the policy of this Nation to protect the best interest of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families by the establishment of minimum federal standards for the removal of Indian children from their families and the placement of such children in foster or adoptive homes which will reflect the unique values of Indian culture, and by providing for assistance to Indian tribes in the operation of child and family programs.

        Congress concluded as the legislative history shows that proper implementation of the Act itself would serve the "best interests" of Indian children.

i Parts of the following History were taken from the Indian Child Welfare Law Center Case for Support (6/28/93) prepared by Mark Fiddler.
ii 25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq. (1978).
ii Indian Child Welfare Program, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 93 Cong., 2d Sess., at 3 (1974)(statement of William Byler)(herinafter 1974 Hearings).
iv American Indian Policy Review Commission, Report on Federal, State, and Tribal Jurisdiction, at 19 (1976) (hearinafter the 1976 Report).
v The House Report, H.R. Rep. No. 1386, 95th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1978), reprinted in 1978 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 7530 (hereinafter House Report) at page 9.
vi See House Report at 9.
vii Id.
viii Id.
ix 1974 Hearings, at 46.
x Indian Child Welfare Act of 1977 Hearing on S.1214 before the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, 95 Cong., 1st Sess. (1977), at 114 (hereinafter the 1977 Hearings)(statement of Drs. Carl Mindell and Alan Gurwitt, American Academy of Psychiatry).
xi Id. at 164.
xii Hearings on S. 1214 before the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs and Public Lands of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. (1978), at 193 (hereinafter 1978 Hearings).
xiii Id, at 191-192.
xiv House Report at 10.
xv House Report at 9.
xvi 25 U.S.C. § 1901.
xvii 25 U.S.C. § 1912(e),(f).
xviii 25 U.S.C. § 1915.
xix See House Report at 19 (where the House stated that compliance with ICWA is "in the best interest of an Indian child").

If you need help or more information:

Indian Child Welfare Act Law Center
Suite 104
1730 Clifton Place
Minneapolis, MN 55403

1-866-879-0123

Tribes line up support as Supreme Court takes up ICWA dispute

March 6, 2013
  

The National Congress of American Indians and the Native American Rights Fund are lining up some major support as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, an Indian Child Welfare Act case. At least a dozen briefs will be filed in support of Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation whose rights are at issue in the case. Briefs are coming from individual tribes, national tribal organizations, adult Indian adoptees, several states, national child welfare organizations, law professors, religious groups, psychologists' associations, current and former members of Congress, military and veterans organizations and even the American Civil Liberties Union. "We have brought our A-team to this case," NARF attorney Richard Guest said at NCAI's 2013 executive council winter session in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Read it here: http://www.indianz.com/News/2013/008782.asp

Kind Hearted Woman: Documentary follows Sioux woman's struggle

Watch Kind Hearted Woman Preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/181060/group/News/
By Chuck Haga, Forum News Service, The Jamestown Sun

GRAND FORKS - The Spirit Lake Nation's continuing efforts to deal with deficiencies in its child protection system is about to get another round of national exposure.

The PBS news program "Frontline" has produced a two-part documentary titled "Kind Hearted Woman" featuring Robin Charboneau, a 32-year-old divorced single mother who lived on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation.

The documentary follows her over three years, according to PBS, as she "struggles to raise her two children, further her education and heal herself from the wounds of sexual abuse she suffered as a child."

The programs are to air April 1 and 2.

The tribe's problems, especially allegations of sexual abuse of children and failure of authorities to investigate and prosecute sexual predators, already have received considerable regional and national attention.

The exposure has been promoted, welcomed or at least tolerated by some at Spirit Lake who have been critical of responses so far by tribal government, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and FBI. Other tribal members have lamented the attention, however, arguing that it paints a false picture of conditions and efforts by the tribe to make improvements.

At a "town hall" meeting on the reservation Wednesday, organized by the BIA at the urging of Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., several members of the tribe decried the "negative" focus of the attention. One man asked that news cameras be removed. Organizers declined to do that, saying the meeting had been set up and advertised as an open session.

Charboneau, who also uses the name Robin Poorbear, was among those who spoke at the Wednesday meeting. Along with several others, she challenged Mark Little Owl, hired by the tribe last summer as director of tribal social services.

Helping victims, raising awareness

The PBS documentary was done by filmmaker David Sutherland, who previously produced the documentary portraits "Country Boys" and "The Farmer's Wife."

"Kind Hearted Woman" opens with Charboneau walking home on the reservation after a 20-day stay at a rehabilitation center.

"Now I'm sober," she says, "and I'm really, really scared I'm going to start drinking again."

According to PBS, the two-part program will follow Charboneau through a custody battle with her ex-husband over her two children, her efforts to obtain a college degree and her hopes of becoming a social worker.

"When Robin's daughter reveals that her father has sexually abused her, echoing Robin's own childhood abuse, it ignites both emotional turmoil and a dramatic criminal trial in federal court," according to PBS.

(Anthony Charboneau was convicted in U.S. District Court in Fargo in 2009 of sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact of minors, according to court records. He was sentenced to almost four years in prison. He appealed the conviction, but his appeal was rejected in January by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.)

Robin had lost custody of her children to the tribe, "a move Robin believes is the result of her ex-husband's connections to tribal leaders," according to PBS, but when her ex-husband is convicted she regains custody and moves to International Falls, Minn.

There, Robin works as a sexual-abuse educator, her daughter organizes a fundraiser for victims of domestic abuse, and the family participates in a walk to raise awareness.

"A march like this could never happen on the Spirit Lake Reservation," Robin says in the documentary, according to PBS, "because there, we just don't talk about abuse."

A spokesman for the tribe said Friday that tribal officials were not aware of the documentary.

A spokeswoman for PBS said the company has reported on the ongoing child protection issue at Spirit Lake, including a report on Wednesday's meeting, and that attempts have been made to speak with tribal officials but were unsuccessful.

The documentary is separate from that reporting, the spokeswoman said. "This doesn't fall under Frontline's typical investigative work," she said. It is rather a portrait, "one woman's journey."

For more on the documentary, visit www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kind-hearted-woman.


Please watch this one. It's vital we help parents who are struggling to keep and raise their own children.  More effort is needed to help all families, to keep them intact which is better than fostering and adopting children out to strangers...Trace

Watch http://video.pbs.org/video/2332643066" David Sutherland, Filmmaker

on PBS.

RED ROAD: The Barry Hambly Story

Poster advertising the children

One Man's Search for Identity

The events that lead up to the removal of Barry Hambly and his three brothers from their mother, reflected a series of policies that adversely affected — and continue to affect — First Nations people. 

Barry's mother, Darlene Whitecap, has experienced firsthand the impact of these policies on her life, and the lives of her children. Darlene Whitecap was raised on a reserve and taken away to a white-run residential school at age four.

 Eventually returning to the reserve, she found herself in an abusive relationship when she was 16.  By the time she was 24 years old, with four young children, alcohol had become a part of her life. It was then that she decided to run from the reserve to Regina. Soon after, she would lose her children to social agencies due to her alcoholism.

The adoption policies of this era were controversial and became known as the "Sixties Scoop."



Red Road was produced by Lost Heritage Productions in association with Life Network, and with the financial participation of the Canadian Television Fund (CTF). Film Previews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7--Lt11tTk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujau8Fm4Tko&feature=related

Reclaiming her identity: Suzie Fedorko

Two Worlds contributor Suzie Fedorko has a fantastic interview in Indian Country Today about her new memoir!!

Susan Fedorko was 40 years old when she found her birth family—or rather, when a long-lost sister found her. Her first book, Cricket: Secret Child of a Sixties Supermodel (Outskirts Press, 2012) chronicles Fedorko’s journey from Native American adoptee-turned “white” mother and wife, to a person reunited with her extended family. That family hails from the Grand Portage Indian Reservation people on her mother’s side and the White Earth Nation on her father’s, both Chippewa/Ojibwe. In an unexpected twist, Fedorko discovered that just a few years after her birth, her birth mother—Cathee Dahmen—had become an immensely popular supermodel, probably the first Native American woman to attain that status.
Fedorko’s story is a bittersweet mix of hard-won healing and humor. She recalls gazing at her then 11-month-old daughter, Samantha: “I broke down, thinking how terrible it must have been for my birth mother to part with me. It would rip me apart to be separated from Samantha.” Just pages later, she captures the voice of one of her husband’s good-old-boy friends, “whose accent made him sound like his name could have been Cletus.” Her experiences have been diverse, her responses unfailingly human, and her writing utterly frank.
Thousands of Native children—up to 35 percent of Indian youth in some states—were taken from their homes and adopted into white families before the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act.  Fedorko is one of them. Her story will resonate both with those who have reconnected and those still dreaming about that day.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/26/reclaiming-her-identity-conversation-native-adoptee-and-author-susan-fedorko-147877

 

An interview with Susan Harness on MPR

In Other Words (Montana Public Radio)

 

January 11, 2013

By Susan Harness

Recently, I was interviewed for a radio program in Missoula, Montana regarding my research on American Indian transracial adoption. It originally aired on Montana Public Radio (MTPR.org) Tuesday, December 11th 2012, on the program In Other Words, which explores experiences through a feminist perspective. The interview looks at American Indian transracial adoption and its intersection with race, history and class. If you weren’t able to catch it live, click on the link below to listen now.

http://www.susandevanharness.com/in-other-words-montana-public-radio/#comments

Susan and I are good friends and both transracially adopted. Please listen to this podcast. It's important. Her important book is listed in the reference section on this blog.

Tribunal: Canada's human rights abuses of First Nations children

Archive photo: Sitka, Alaska Residential Boarding School

Canadian Government faces allegations of discrimination towards First Nations Children at Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

OTTAWA, Feb. 22, 2013 /Canada News Wire

 

On February 25, 2013, the Government of Canada will appear before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to face 14 weeks of hearings to determine if its flawed and inequitable First Nations child and family services program is discriminatory. The federal government controls and funds child and family services on reserves where as the provinces and territories do so for other children. The Auditor General of Canada and other expert reports confirm that the federal government's funding and program approaches to child and family services, including the more recent enhanced funding approach, are flawed and inequitable.

There is clear evidence linking the inequality in services to hardship among First Nations families and to the growing numbers of First Nations children in care.

Dr. Cindy Blackstock said, "This generation of First Nations children deserve an equal chance to grow up safely at home - something the Federal Government deprived many of their parents and grandparents of during the residential school era."

The complaint was filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2007 by the Assembly of First Nations and First Nations Child and Family Caring Society after the Government of Canada failed to implement two evidence informed solutions to address the problem. Since then the Government of Canada has spent over 3 million dollars in its numerous unsuccessful efforts to get the case dismissed.

Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, said, "This case is important for everyone concerned about human rights. The outcome will affect both the quality of vitally important services available to First Nations children as well as the integrity of human rights protection in Canada."

Nathalie Des Rosiers, General Counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) says, "It is very important that this case move forward, and that issues of discrimination be promptly addressed. What is at stake in this case is the integrity of our human rights regime and its ability to respond meaningfully to allegations of discrimination."

 

SOURCE: FNCFCS, http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1118727/canadian-government-faces-allegations-of-discrimination-towards-first-nations-children-at-canadian-human-rights-tribunal

Leland's adoptive family

http://youtu.be/HPA3QeB_UpM

(1981 TV program) This is Leland Morrill's family who adopted 10 children. Seven are from one family in Canada. You ask, what happened that seven children were placed at one time? The mystery continues. This was during the infamous 60s Scoop. Leland is a contributor in the anthology Two Worlds and wrote what it was like growing up a very large Mormon family.

Today's Child" started in June 1964 when Helen Allen -- a veteran reporter for the Toronto Telegram - Questioned at the time by skeptical Children's Aid Societies, but supported by Ontario's provincial government. During its first few years, about 80% of the children featured in the column were adopted.
Helen Allen in this National Television show states that she personally adopted 10,000 to 11,000 children. Who knows how many native and aboriginal children were adopted through her in Ontario Canada.
Featured on this video are 7 Ojibwe children, my adopted brothers and sisters to a Mormon family who adopted 10 children. I was a Navajo "undocumented adoptee" before we moved to Ontario Canada.
Note on the video how many of my brothers and sisters are not white like our adopted parents.
What is Genocide? What constitutes Human Trafficking?
Native Children who are deemed adoptable because of the 3rd world conditions forced on them through the Reservation system (Concentration Camps) may be labelled under "neglect", by Departments of Social Services that blur the lines between neglect and impoverishment. thus creating the definition of "abused or neglected" to encompass those "whose environment is injurious to the child's welfare."

Genocide is the worst crime possible, undoubtedly the most serious crime that can be
committed under international law. The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
(hereinafter the Statute) testifies to the fact that this is the most serious of the crimes
within its jurisdiction.

It places Genocide first, followed by Crimes against Humanity,
War Crimes and the Crime of Aggression. The crime of genocide is defined in Article 6
of the Statute in the following terms:
[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

United Nations defined genocide as the intentional "destruction of racial,
national, linguistic, religious or political groups", "with the purpose of destroying it in
whole or in part or of preventing its preservation or development", either "causing the
death of members of a group or injuring their health or physical integrity" or interfering
with their biological reproduction or also "destroying the specific characteristics of the
group" through the "transfer of children"

[Birth Mother,] First Mother Forum: Why first mothers walk away from their children af...

[Birth Mother,] First Mother Forum: Why first mothers walk away from their children af...: Jane "Why do first mothers cut off communication with their relinquished children?" a reader emailed us recently.

This puzzles me too, since I didn't actually have reunion with my mother Helen.
The comments on this blog are very enlightening too. Please read.
Don't let fear enter into reunion. That is still my best advice.   Trace

New research finds at least 3,000 confirmed Indian residential school deaths

Colin Perkel, Canadian Press, Feb 18, 2013

At least 3,000 children, including four under the age of 10 found huddled together in frozen embrace, are now known to have died during attendance at Canada’s Indian residential schools, according to new unpublished research.
While deaths have long been documented as part of the disgraced residential school system, the findings are the result of the first systematic search of government, school and other records.
“These are actual confirmed numbers,” Alex Maass, research manager with the Missing Children Project, told The Canadian Press from Vancouver.
“All of them have primary documentation that indicates that there’s been a death, when it occurred, what the circumstances were.”
The number could rise further as more documents — especially from government archives — come to light.
The largest single killer, by far, was disease.
For decades starting in about 1910, tuberculosis was a consistent killer — in part because of widespread ignorance over how diseases were spread.
“The schools were a particular breeding ground for (TB),” Maass said. “Dormitories were incubation wards.”
The Spanish flu epidemic in 1918-1919 also took a devastating toll on students — and in some cases staff. For example, in one grim three-month period, the disease killed 20 children at a residential school in Spanish, Ont., the records show.
While a statistical analysis has yet to be done, the records examined over the past few years also show children also died of malnutrition or accidents. Schools consistently burned down, killing students and staff. Drownings or exposure were another cause.
In all, about 150,000 First Nations children went through the church-run residential school system, which ran from the 1870s until the 1990s. In many cases, native kids were forced to attend under a deliberate federal policy of “civilizing” Aboriginal Peoples.
Many students were physically, mentally and sexually abused. Some committed suicide. Some died fleeing their schools.
One heart-breaking incident that drew rare media attention at the time involved the deaths of four boys — two aged 8 and two aged 9 — in early January 1937.
A Canadian Press report from Vanderhoof, B.C., describes how the four bodies were found frozen together in slush ice on Fraser Lake, barely a kilometre from home.
The “capless and lightly clad” boys had left an Indian school on the south end of the lake “apparently intent on trekking home to the Nautley Reserve,” the article states.
A coroner’s inquest later recommended “excessive corporal discipline” of students be “limited.”
The records reveal the number of deaths only fell off dramatically after the 1950s, although some fatalities occurred into the 1970s.
“The question I ask myself is: Would I send my child to a private school where there were even a couple of deaths the previous year without looking at it a little bit more closely?” Maass said.
“One wouldn’t expect any death rates in private residential schools.”
In fact, Maass said, student deaths were so much part of the system, architectural plans for many schools included cemeteries that were laid out in advance of the building.
Maass, who has a background in archeology, said researchers had identified 50 burial sites as part of the project.
About 500 of the victims remain nameless. Documentation of their deaths was contained in Department of Indian Affairs year-end reports based on information from school principals.
The annual death reports were consistently done until 1917, when they abruptly stopped.
“It was obviously a policy not to report them,” Maass said.
In the 1990s, thousands of victims sued the churches that ran the 140 schools and the Canadian government. A $1.9-billion settlement of the lawsuit in 2007 prompted an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The research — carried out under the auspices of the commission — has involved combing through more than one million government and other records, including nuns’ journal entries.
The longer-term goal is to make the information available at national research centre.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/18/it-was-obviously-a-policy-not-to-report-them-new-research-finds-at-least-3000-confirmed-indian-residential-school-deaths/

Amazon Review: Two Worlds



http://www.amazon.com/Two-Worlds-Children-Adoption-Projects

This review is from: Two Worlds: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects (Paperback)

TWO WORLDS: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, is a successful effort to present yet more testimony against the practice of Indian Adoption Projects. Co-editor Trace DeMeyer began being a voice for Indian adoptees with "ONE SMALL SACRIFICE: LOST CHILDREN OF THE INDIAN ADOPTION PROJECTS," which is a memoir of her own life as an Indian adoptee. She and co-editor, Patricia Busbee, have compiled an anthology of enlightening information on issues within the Indian Adoption Acts dilemma. The publication also includes short essays and poems, written by Native American and First Nation adoptees. Each adoptee's contribution uniquely tells a true-story of innocence, emptiness, endless searching for a place to really belong; and shows harsh reality of vulnerability, suffered through their lives for simply being different. A very profound statement captures the reader's attention by unveiling reality in numbers: "One quarter of all Indian children were removed from their families and placed in non-Indian adoptive and foster homes or orphanages, as part of the Indian Adoption Projects." Part of the publication includes information on Assimilation Acts and processes. The book gives a critical view into the history of The Indian Adoption Project, and uncovers an example of a failed and very controversial official adjudication, beginning in 1960, of trans-racial adoption. The well-respected study, "Far From the Reservation," was executed under a principal trust in trans-racial adoption, and headed by one of America's first postwar researchers within that genre. Methods followed for the study left much to be desired. It seems that David Fanshel's statistics presented resolutions following guidelines of other researchers, and failed to show any interest in recording possible impressions carried by adopted Indian children, living in non-Indian homes. Statistics given by the authors are devastating, clearly showing the rampant practice of Indian/First Nation Adoption Acts prevailing in North America, as well as Canada. It is a fact that the practice of taking Native and First Nation children out of their tribal environment is still condoned, while all effort to support traditional tribal childcare continues to be avoided.
The anthology has moved the "Lost Birds" one step closer to having their voices heard. It was difficult to put the book down for the expectation of new discovery with each new page.
--Dr. Raeschelle POTTER-DEIMEL, Vienna, Austria

HUGE DAY FOR WASH STATE ADOPTEES

Hello!
Big, HUGE day for WA adoptees!!

Sen Mike Carrell of Tacoma amended his OBC bill SB 5118, and REMOVED the veto (affidavit of nondisclosure) and replaced w/ the 'contact preference form'. What this means is that EVERY SINGLE WA ADOPTEE COULD GET THEIR ORIGINAL BIRTH CERT....IF this bill passes!!

The amended bill was voted on today in the Senate Human Services & Corrections committee, and PASSED!! This is the same committee that has blocked this bill the past 3 years (well, 'the committee' didn't block it -
the former chair is the one that did the blocking).

Next stop for this bill is the Senate Ways & Means committee, where there will hopefully be another hearing and another vote. Then another committee, Senate floor, then over to the House to start the process there.

So we have a LONG way to go BUT this is year is looking like we actually have a REAL chance of passing one of these OBC bills!

BUT...

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!

We need more people showing up in Olympia for these hearings, even if you don't testify, WE NEED TO FILL THE ROOM TO SHOW THE LEGISLATORS THAT THIS ISSUE IMPACTS MANY OF US!!!

We also need you ALL to keep writing snail mail, emails, and calling legislators on each committee that each bill goes to. Writing the letters and emails are easy once you write up your first one. Because after that first one, you can just copy-n-paste for future letters/emails. Easy peasy!!
And we're more than happy to help!!

We also need to increase our 'fans' on Facebook and 'followers" on Twitter. Links are below.

IF YOU ARE WILLING AND ABLE TO GO TO OLYMPIA FOR HEARINGS IN THE COMING
WEEKS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!

Thanks!!
-Penni

Find WA-CARE in the following places:

www.wa-care. com
Facebook (http://www.facebook .com/pages/ Wa-Care/14191478 2493687)
Twitter (https://twitter. com/WA_CARE)
Email (washingtonadopteerights@gmail. com)

PLEASE take the time and like and follow and contact Penni - I have several adoptee friends from WA state who need this! Thanks for reading this blog, too! XOX Trace

NPR: SD Tribes accuse state of violating ICWA

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All Things Considered

4 min 59 sec

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For years now, council members of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota have watched as the state's Department of Social Services removed children from the reservation and placed many of them in white foster homes, far from tribal lands. Many of the children were later adopted, losing their connection to their families and heritage.

"I've seen it firsthand," says Brandon Sazue, chairman of the Crow Creek tribe.

Derrin Yellow Robe, 3, stands in his great-grandparents' backyard on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota. He was taken off the reservation by South Dakota's Department of Social Services in July 2009 and spent a year and a half in foster care before being returned to his family.

John Poole/NPR

 

 

Sazue says the state has long overstepped its authority.

"That would be like United States going into a foreign country and saying, 'Hey, I'm taking your kid because of this or that,' " he said. "I mean, this is within the boundaries of the Crow Creek Sioux Indian reservation, and as far as I'm concerned, we are the government."

Read more: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/06/171310945/south-dakota-tribes-accuse-state-of-violating-indian-welfare-act

 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/05/1184630/-Laura-Sullivan-of-NPR-to-Air-Story-Tomorrow-on-Report-to-Congress-by-South-Dakota-s-ICWA-Directors

Two Worlds contributor presenting at Pepperdine

Dear Friends,

Our conference this year will be focused on the important and complex topic of intercountry adoption. All who address this issue have a deep concern for the plight of orphans worldwide. In the Bible, James declares, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress." Praised by some and criticized by others, intercountry adoption remains a matter of deep contention on the global stage. Proponents see it as a way to give a purported 18.5 million adoptable orphans a family and a better life, while critics call it a door to corruption and cultural imperialism.

This conference seeks to find understanding and common ground among these voices, while exploring the complex legal, religious and ethical issues raised by intercountry adoption. Our objectives for this conference include:

• Finding common ground among conflicting points of view regarding intercountry adoption
• Exploring current barriers to intercountry adoption such as legal regulations in both sending and receiving countries
• Viewing faith and social science together to form a more complete picture of intercountry adoption
• Providing knowledge and guidance for families with adopted children and those looking to adopt

We hope you can join us as we bring together lawyers, scholars, pastors, adoptive families, and adoptees to investigate the future of intercountry adoption.

BREAKOUT SESSIONS I Responding to Adoption Triad Members Victimized by Abusive Adoption Practices David Smolin How Religion Informs Adoption Law Part I: Interfaith Perspectives Mark Goldfeder, Faisal Kutty Forgotten, Detained, Removed: Transnational Adopted Persons and Citizenship Rights Caitlin Kee, J. McLane Layton, Lele Morrill

Leland Morrill, a contributor in the adoptee anthology Two Worlds, and a Navajo adoptee who has been reunited with his family and relatives, will be a presenter at this conference and share his presonal experiences with the Real ID Act of 2005 and his troubles securing a drivers license without an original birth certificate and tribal census number for his Navajo Nation. (Adoptees have amended birth certificates which are falsified birth documents listing our adoptive parents as our natural parents.) Leland plans to present a copy of Two Worlds to Ambassador Jacobs on Friday. Keep good thoughts and prayers for Leland on this important day... Trace

NICWA to Host Webinar on Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl

Sign up and listen!

Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Time: 11 a.m. Pacific / 2 p.m. Eastern
Presenter: Adrian Smith, JD, MSW, NICWA government affairs associate

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear the case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, a South Carolina adoption case involving the Indian Child Welfare Act. This high profile and emotionally charged case has garnered significant attention in the past year. Oral arguments are expected to occur in late April, and a decision announced shortly thereafter.

The National Indian Child Welfare Association will host a webinar for those interested in learning:

• What are the background and facts of the case?
• What are the questions before the U.S. Supreme Court?
• What possible implications will this case have on Indian Country?
• What is being done nationally in preparation for this hearing?

This free webinar is open to all. Register here.

Hat tip to NILL's blog.

NPR: Lack of ICWA Compliance, Genocide

Bryan Brewer, Tribal Council Chairman, Oglala Sioux Tribe (Pine Ridge)

It has to be exposed nationwide what [South Dakota is] doing to our Lakota people. It’s a form of genocide (Chairman Brewer).

NPR: South Dakota Tribal ICW Directors’ Studies on State’s Incredible Lack of Compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act

Here, via Pechanga.
An excerpt:

South Dakota’s Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) directors have issued two reports to Congress: “Reviewing the Facts: An Assessment of the Accuracy of NPR’s ‘Native Foster Care – Lost Children, Shattered Families,’” and “Is South Dakota Over-Prescribing Drugs to Native American Foster Kids?” The first of these reports cites evidence that South Dakota’s Department of Social Services (DSS) is placing 87% of Indian children into non-Indian homes or group care, even while anywhere from 20-43% of licensed Native American foster homes in the state sit empty. This, according to the authors of the report, is in clear violation of the federal ICWA law which requires states to keep Native foster children with their extended families and tribes whenever possible. The study also affirms NPR’s assessment that the state’s ICWA violations are partly motivated by the tens of millions of federal dollars that South Dakota receives for placements of Native children each year.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/business/prweb/article/NPR-s-Laura-Sullivan-to-Report-on-Congressional-4251417.php#ixzz2K80xREPN

 

This is HUGE NEWS! Good movement forward! I am so honored to share this with you... Trace

Canada's unstated paternity policy amounts to genocide against Indigenous children

By Dr. Lynn Gehl Gii-Zhigaate-Mnidoo-Kwe, January 29, 2013

Source: http://rabble.ca/news/2013/01/canadas-unstated-paternity-policy-amounts-cultural-genocide-against-indigenous-children

Canada commits genocide of 25,000 Indigenous children through Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada's (AANDC) unstated paternity practice, yet relies on language -- unstated paternity -- that blames their mothers.

In 1943, Raphael Lemkin first coined the term "genocide" and proceeded to define the term. Interestingly, what many people do not know is that Lemkin defined genocide in cultural terms rather than in terms of killing and mass murder. More specifically, Lemkin defined genocide as having two stages. The first involves the denial of an oppressed group's national pattern; and the second stage involves the imposition of the oppressor's national pattern.

When the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations in December 1948, Lemkin's definition was included within the definition. Article 2 of the Convention codifies five genocidal practices and states that any of these acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, constitutes genocide. These five practices are: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

That said, when I think about the issue of unknown and unstated paternity and the Indian Act, specifically about AANDC's unstated paternity policy, or internal practice or whatever they want to call it, I realize it is in fact genocide. As many know, Indian status is delineated into two subsections of section 6 of the Indian Act: subsection 6(1) and subsection 6(2). While mothers registered under subsection 6(1) are able to pass on status to their children in their own right, this is not the case with mothers registered under subsection 6(2), also known as a weaker form of status. In the event that a father’s signature is missing or not found on a child’s birth registration form, the Registrar of AANDC assumes a negative presumption of paternity, meaning the Registrar assumes non-Indian paternity. This means that the children born of mothers registered under subsection 6(2) are vulnerable as their children are now considered to be non-status and thus not entitled to their treaty rights such as health care and education rights, First Nation band membership, and First Nation citizenship.

Many know by now that Indigenous women are victims of a higher rate of sexual violence such as incest, rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and prostitution. This situation has been brought on through the oppression of colonization, the denial of our rights as Indigenous people, the denial of our land and resources, the residential and day school systems, and the criminalization of our cultures and Indigenous knowledge systems. In any sexist and racist society young Indigenous women are particularly vulnerable. Research has shown that 45 per cent of the children born to status Indian mothers 15 years of age or younger do not have their father’s signature on their birth registration form.

It is precisely at this moment where Canada's practice falls within the parameters outlined in the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Specifically, when a father's signature is not placed on a child's birth registration form and the mother is registered under subsection 6(2) of the Indian Act, AANDC's unstated paternity policy transfers [read commits the genocide] these children from their First Nation community into mainstream Canadian society.

It is crucial that I point out that in the process of committing genocide Canada relies on language that blames mothers, as in "unstated paternity." While AANDC's unstated paternity policy targets Indigenous mothers for the lack of the father's signature, there are many instances where a mother, for very legitimate reasons, may refuse to obtain a man's signature, such as in the unfortunate situations of incest and rape. In addition, there are many situations where a father will not sign a birth registration form as they seek to avoid child support payments or because they need to preserve a previous relationship. Clearly, terms such as unreported, unnamed unacknowledged, unestablished, unrecognized, and unknown paternity are better signifiers of women's realities.

AANDC's genocidal policy continues to exist today despite the fact that section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was put in place in 1982 and is supposed to protect Indigenous women from sex discrimination. Furthermore, this genocidal policy exists today despite the long-time heroic efforts of Mary Two-Axe Early, Jeannette Corbiere-Lavell, Yvonne Bedard, Sandra Lovelace, and Sharon McIvor. It is clear to me that legislative change, such as the changes to The Indian Act that took place in 1985 and 2011, is not an avenue for Indigenous women. Clearly the government of Canada has merely manipulated moments of legislative change in their favour: genocide.

Through their unstated paternity policy, Canada perpetuates the sexual violence imposed on Indigenous women and commits genocide on their children. Since 1985, when this AANDC policy emerged, I estimate that as many as 25,000 Indigenous children have been affected by this genocidal practice.

In April 2012 Canadians celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Do you feel protected? Did you feel fuzzy and warm? I certainly did not and I am sure many Indigenous women and their babies stand with me on this.

Dr. Lynn Gehl is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She has a section 15 Charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in The Indian Act and she recently published a book titled Anishinaabeg Stories: Featuring Petroglyphs, Petrographs, and Wampum Belts. You can reach her at lynngehl@gmail.com and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com.

 

Ottawa ordered to find and release millions of Indian residential school records

By GLORIA GALLOWAY, OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail

The federal government must scour its archives for millions of documents related to the Indian residential schools that operated in Canada for more than century – institutions where physical and sexual abuse was rampant and from which many students never returned.
An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled on Wednesday (Jan. 30) that it is not good enough for Ottawa to provide the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) with records that can be found in the active files of departments.

More Related to this Story

• TERRY MITCHELL, LORI CURTIS Canada, first nations have a road map. It was the Kelowna Accord
• residential schools Debate over crucial residential school documents delays reconciliation deal
• INTERVIEW What Shawn Atleo wants from Stephen Harper: real change, real commitment

Awareness

Video: Teaching legacy of residential schools necessary: Commission

CP video

Justice

Video: RCMP reports on abuse in residential schools

Video

Video: Shawn Atleo: Status quo is the common enemy for all first nations
 

Most of the relevant documents were long ago sent to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) for storage, and Mr. Justice Stephen Goudge said the government must now retrieve them so that the commission can fulfill its mandate of compiling a historical record of the residential-schools experience.
Canada’s obligation under a settlement agreement signed in 2006 with the school survivors, the government, the churches that ran the institutions, and others, is straightforward, Judge Goudge wrote.
“It is to provide all relevant documents to the TRC,” which was created as part of the settlement agreement, he wrote. “The obligation is in unqualified language unlimited by where the documents are located within the government of Canada.”
The department of Aboriginal Affairs has turned over a million records and promises hundreds of thousands more. But 23 other departments have refused to do likewise. It is estimated that millions of school-related documents in the archives could occupy 6.5 kilometres of shelf space, and finding them could cost as much $100-million.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-ordered-to-find-and-release-millions-of-indian-residential-school-records/article8001068/

 

The only thing I can add is America needs to do the same - and if it's up to me, we will have the records released in my lifetime for the residential schools here and the genocidal Indian Adoption Projects...Trace

Utah adoptees need court order to get adoption records

Go here:
http://www.utdcfsad opt.org/search_ reunion.shtml
The Utah Mutual-Consent Voluntary Adoption Registry
http://health. utah.gov/ vitalrecords/ pictures/ forms/adopt. pdf> 

Utah law permits adult adoptees the right to obtain non-identifying,
detailed genetic and social history with regard to their biological family.
Adoptive parents should receive the state forms entitled "Birth Father's
(and/or) Birth Mothers Non-identifying Information for Adoption Registry" at
the time of finalization. Copies of the completed forms may be obtained for
a nominal fee from the Office of Vital Statistics. In 1987 the state of Utah
established a "Mutual Consent Voluntary Adoption Registry." This registry is
administered by the Bureau of Vital Records and Statistics and is available
to adult adoptees (21 years or older who were born in Utah), their
biological brothers and sisters, and their birth parents. If both the adult
adoptee and an adult member of the biological family register, then
identifying information will be released to both parties. See links below.

A Few Tips:

* Request non-identifying information from the agency that handled the
adoption. Contact the Department of Vital Statistic for the state you were
born in and they should be able to direct you to the agency.
* Review the laws and what is available for the state where you were
adopted.
* Sign up with the state registry. Contact the Department of Vital
Statistics for the state where the adoptee was born and where the adoption
was finalized.
* Sign up with the International Soundex Reunion Registry.
* Speak with your adoptive parents. Many adoptive parents have
additional information that they were waiting for the "right time" to share
with their children.
* Join a support group.

Utah Dept. of Vital Statistics
288 N. 1460 W.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Telephone: (801) 538-3916

Overview of Utah Adoption Information

In Utah, records are sealed and may be opened only by court order upon a showing of good cause. Requests to open sealed adoption records are initiated by formal petition in the court in the county where the adoption took place. Where a petitioner is seeking medical information to aid in the preservation of his or her health, petitioner must contact the bureau of vital statistics and the agency involved in the adoption to request non-identifying information, accompanied by a letter from a physician stating the need, and whether the information requested is necessary for the preservation of the health of petitioner. Where petitioner is seeking something other than medical information from the adoption records, he or she must register with the Voluntary Adoption Registry. Identifying information will be released when a registration is received by a court or licensed child placing agency from an adult adoptee (age 21) and a birth parent. Information will not be released if the adult adoptee has a biological sibling who was raised in the same family and who has not yet reached age 21. Adult biological siblings of adoptees may also register. If a registration has been received from both the adult adoptee and his or her biological sibling, such information may be released.

Utah Code Ann. 78-30-15; 78-30-18.

For registry information, contact:
Adoption Reunion Registry
Department of Health
Vital Statistics
288 N. 1460 W.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Telephone: (801) 538-3916

Only 8 states have opened adoption records. Utah, who has a very high percentage of Native adoptees, needs to open them immediately... Trace