What do you think?
Rate this book
A Generation Removed: The Fostering and Adoption of Indigenous Children in the Postwar World
On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case Adoptive Couple vs. Baby Girl , which pitted adoptive parents Matt and Melanie Capobianco against baby Veronica’s biological father, Dusten Brown, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Veronica’s biological mother had relinquished her for adoption to the Capobiancos without Brown’s consent. Although Brown regained custody of his daughter using the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Capobiancos, rejecting the purpose of the ICWA and ignoring the long history of removing Indigenous children from their families.
In A Generation Removed , a powerful blend of history and family stories, award-winning historian Margaret D. Jacobs examines how government authorities in the post–World War II era removed thousands of American Indian children from their families and placed them in non-Indian foster or adoptive families. By the late 1960s an estimated 25 to 35 percent of Indian children had been separated from their families.
Jacobs also reveals the global dimensions of the These practices undermined Indigenous families and their communities in Canada and Australia as well. Jacobs recounts both the trauma and resilience of Indigenous families as they struggled to reclaim the care of their children, leading to the ICWA in the United States and to national investigations, landmark apologies, and redress in Australia and Canada.
In A Generation Removed , a powerful blend of history and family stories, award-winning historian Margaret D. Jacobs examines how government authorities in the post–World War II era removed thousands of American Indian children from their families and placed them in non-Indian foster or adoptive families. By the late 1960s an estimated 25 to 35 percent of Indian children had been separated from their families.
Jacobs also reveals the global dimensions of the These practices undermined Indigenous families and their communities in Canada and Australia as well. Jacobs recounts both the trauma and resilience of Indigenous families as they struggled to reclaim the care of their children, leading to the ICWA in the United States and to national investigations, landmark apologies, and redress in Australia and Canada.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
7 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 26, 2022
This was one I really enjoyed talking about and dissecting as a group in my reproductive history class this semester. It was really eye-opening to see the way colonialism and white supremacy shifted with time.
Overall, this book talked a lot about specific bills and governmental functions, and I felt as though there are some sections you can skim. This book is a good read for anyone who is interested in the history of reproduction in the united states, especially when we keep in mind that most of that literature is focused on cis white women. In my class, we discussed how the author places herself into the story; how her whiteness can impact the narrative, and what it means to write about indigenous Americans through the lens of white womanhood. Additionally, for white people who are thinking of adoption, reading this book and investigating literature like this is something I would deem essential; it helps expose how adoption can be a tool of assimilation and white supremacy.
Overall, this book talked a lot about specific bills and governmental functions, and I felt as though there are some sections you can skim. This book is a good read for anyone who is interested in the history of reproduction in the united states, especially when we keep in mind that most of that literature is focused on cis white women. In my class, we discussed how the author places herself into the story; how her whiteness can impact the narrative, and what it means to write about indigenous Americans through the lens of white womanhood. Additionally, for white people who are thinking of adoption, reading this book and investigating literature like this is something I would deem essential; it helps expose how adoption can be a tool of assimilation and white supremacy.
January 2, 2016
This was the best-written history I've ever read, and I think it ties more directly to things that are important in American life than any other history I've ever read. It's also one of the two or three best books I've read this year.
Read
April 24, 2015362.73408 J174 2014
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews