Ask the Author: Susan Devan Harness
Answered Questions (2)
Susan Devan Harness
I think you were doing what you thought was right at the time, without fully understanding the history of what Indian child placement meant: move them permanently away from the family and community because the boarding schools didn't accomplish that. However, as you and I have talked about, a lot of these issues that I talk about didn't become known, let alone acknowledged for a long time. It is my hope that if such placements occur, and they will, that the child is not permanently removed from their family and community. It's well documented the harm is causes in the long term. I'm so sorry for your loss.
Susan Devan Harness
After conducting my research about American Indian transracial adoptees, I wanted to make it accessible to a wider, more general audience. An audience that was talking about adoption because they either adopted, or had a child removed, or were working to place a child, or were interested in policy regarding adoption. In order to do that, I had to take an academic, scholarly book and adapt it so one didn't need a dictionary in order to understand most of the words and phrasing. Creative nonfiction seemed to be the best possible format with which to tell the story of child placement as the trajectories of American Indian history, policy and social memory collided, sometimes violently.
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