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One Small Sacrifice
An unforgettable memoir, an adoptee who found her family and also found closed adoptions had a purpose - to break up American Indian families. What is known about the Indian Adoption Projects and the aftermath has been pretty much secret . . . Until now. A reader The journey. . . the courage and openness of your work. It's very inspiring. The way 'Small Sacrifice' shares itself . . . it's as if the book were speaking . . . holding a talking stick with us all gathered in a circle . . . we come together through your sacrifice. Trace blogs www.splitfeathers.blogspot.com.
228 pages, Paperback
First published March 19, 2010
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76 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 11, 2011
This book had an interesting story told in a very unorganised way.
The author was an adoptee who later discovered that her father was an Indian (not on a reservation) The book explains some things that I was not aware of regarding the problems of blind adoptions for the adoptee. I had never thought about the issue of knowing the family and relatives of your adopted family but realizing it was not your history. You actually don't know what your grandparents did or where they came from even as you hear these stories of your adopted family. Also the feeling of being always a little uncertain of your solid place in the family (after all they did adopt you and perhaps could un-adopt you) and not being able to discuss these issues with you adopted parents as it could be hurtful. And also the unfairness of a blind adoption when the adult adopted child is denied acess to his birth certificate or information about his biological family because of the desire of the birth mother or the adoption organization. Really a civil liberties issue.
Also the author discusses the Indian adoption program after WWII and into the 70s whereby thousands of Indian children were taken away from their parents on the reservations and put up for adoption to non-Indian families in blind adoptions. This was often done for the flimsiest of reasons and because of cultural misunderstanding by the white social workers who were making the decisions regarding the unfitness of the parents. In one example Indian parents came home to find their young child taken because they were being "neglected" by the parents who were off gathering water or wood when that was the cultural norm on the reservation where there was a different expectation about the independence of young children. There was no recourse for these parents. The kids were gone. The tribal authorities were not involved and could not help. The federal government like this adoption idea in that it reduced the tribal roles and thus the # of people for whom to provide treaty-agreed services. It was really a form of cultural genocide.
This being said the book was unbeliveably poorly written. I saw that it was self-published and it shows. There is little organization to the book, to chapters, to paragraphs and event to sentences. I don't know if there are other books on this subject but I would not recommend this one unless you are a junior high school teacher used to reading garbled papers. If it is the only book around of a personal story of Indian adoption and a discussion of the Indian Adoption Program then I guess you will have to read it if you want to know about that issue.
The author was an adoptee who later discovered that her father was an Indian (not on a reservation) The book explains some things that I was not aware of regarding the problems of blind adoptions for the adoptee. I had never thought about the issue of knowing the family and relatives of your adopted family but realizing it was not your history. You actually don't know what your grandparents did or where they came from even as you hear these stories of your adopted family. Also the feeling of being always a little uncertain of your solid place in the family (after all they did adopt you and perhaps could un-adopt you) and not being able to discuss these issues with you adopted parents as it could be hurtful. And also the unfairness of a blind adoption when the adult adopted child is denied acess to his birth certificate or information about his biological family because of the desire of the birth mother or the adoption organization. Really a civil liberties issue.
Also the author discusses the Indian adoption program after WWII and into the 70s whereby thousands of Indian children were taken away from their parents on the reservations and put up for adoption to non-Indian families in blind adoptions. This was often done for the flimsiest of reasons and because of cultural misunderstanding by the white social workers who were making the decisions regarding the unfitness of the parents. In one example Indian parents came home to find their young child taken because they were being "neglected" by the parents who were off gathering water or wood when that was the cultural norm on the reservation where there was a different expectation about the independence of young children. There was no recourse for these parents. The kids were gone. The tribal authorities were not involved and could not help. The federal government like this adoption idea in that it reduced the tribal roles and thus the # of people for whom to provide treaty-agreed services. It was really a form of cultural genocide.
This being said the book was unbeliveably poorly written. I saw that it was self-published and it shows. There is little organization to the book, to chapters, to paragraphs and event to sentences. I don't know if there are other books on this subject but I would not recommend this one unless you are a junior high school teacher used to reading garbled papers. If it is the only book around of a personal story of Indian adoption and a discussion of the Indian Adoption Program then I guess you will have to read it if you want to know about that issue.
June 23, 2011
Trace is a journalling friend on Bookmooch and sent me a copy of her book. The only other reviewer here has mentioned the difficulty experienced in reading it. I also began, feeling that it was going to be a hard read because of the disjointed nature of the time-line of events, certain stylistic quirks that made it more like speech than a written record, and some things which I felt should have been caught in the proofreading stage.
However as I read on I found I could simply not put the book down.
It repeated certain things several times, the language is in places loose and inexact, the rhythm jerky. But what could portray the splintered nature of the pain felt by adopted children torn from their culture and roots and denied the ability to understand the differences between themselves and their adoptive families, better than this fragmented, disjointed attempt to communicate the pain of those lives?
If you take a child from her mother, from her tribe, from all she or he has been born into, turn their life and values upside down and deny them access to the knowledge of where they came from, you can hardly expect a clearly laid out and methodical exposition of facts.
This is writing which gets to the emotional heart of the suffering caused by the closed adoption of one person. By that light it also illuminates the clear injustice in a system which protects the rights of the birth-parents and the adoptive parents and possibly above all of the adoption agencies, but denies any justice to the thousands of children involved.
This book should make you question the wisdom of any adoption being closed. The old arguments that it is better for the child to know the love of a family who wanted them, and be protected from learning that they were abandoned and shut out, will not wash.
Read it if you believe this argument is justifiable, and tell me you have not changed your point of view after after reading it!
However as I read on I found I could simply not put the book down.
It repeated certain things several times, the language is in places loose and inexact, the rhythm jerky. But what could portray the splintered nature of the pain felt by adopted children torn from their culture and roots and denied the ability to understand the differences between themselves and their adoptive families, better than this fragmented, disjointed attempt to communicate the pain of those lives?
If you take a child from her mother, from her tribe, from all she or he has been born into, turn their life and values upside down and deny them access to the knowledge of where they came from, you can hardly expect a clearly laid out and methodical exposition of facts.
This is writing which gets to the emotional heart of the suffering caused by the closed adoption of one person. By that light it also illuminates the clear injustice in a system which protects the rights of the birth-parents and the adoptive parents and possibly above all of the adoption agencies, but denies any justice to the thousands of children involved.
This book should make you question the wisdom of any adoption being closed. The old arguments that it is better for the child to know the love of a family who wanted them, and be protected from learning that they were abandoned and shut out, will not wash.
Read it if you believe this argument is justifiable, and tell me you have not changed your point of view after after reading it!
November 4, 2021
For a book with “Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects” in the title, it had surprisingly little to do with the Indian Adoption Projects. There is a little bit mentioned in the first few pages, but otherwise pages 126-142 is all there is. That part is very interesting, but it’s only 16 pages out of 218.
This book is a memoir, but the author’s adoption had literally zero to do with the removal of Indian children from their homes and tribes. Her bio-Dad was mixed race, had no real connection to his Indian heritage and was not interested in the past at all. Her bio-Mom was white. They met in Chicago, didn’t want to stay together to raise their child, and gave her up by choice for a closed adoption. In truth, if either of her biological parents had raised her, she would not have been any more connected to her Indian heritage than she was with her adoptive parents. With that said, I think it’s amazing that she wants to be connected to her Indian heritage in spite of that. What bothers me is that this book is titled and sold as something it isn’t.
The majority of this book is about the author’s life growing up. Her story and search for her identity is relative and important to adoption in general as opposed to Indian adoption specifically. And yet so much of what she shares has nothing to do with adoption at all. There are some segments that are so random that they don’t seem to have anything to do with anything.
Aside from that, this book is a mess. The timeline jumps all over the place. Some things are repeated multiple times. Other stories contradict previous stories. There are either no chapters, or every page is new chapter. I can’t tell which. There are no chapter numbers, there are just one or two paragraph headers per page and every time you reach one, the subject completely changes. This book is self-published, which often can mean a lack of editing. But the author mentions her editor a couple times in the book and thanks two editors at the end. I honestly can’t believe that an editor (let alone 2 editors) reviewed this book and gave their stamp of approval. It is one of the most unorganized, scattered, fragmented books I’ve ever read.
One thing that really bothered me is that after tracking down her bio-Mom, she published photocopies in this book of letters her bio-Mom sent her as an adult. She included her bio-Mom’s full name and address, clearly without permission since her Mom didn’t want anything to do with her. What an astounding invasion of privacy. I don’t know how that’s even legal.
The reason I’m giving this 2 stars instead of 1 is because I did learn a few things about the history and laws surrounding Indian adoption, mixed race adoption, and adoption in general. I also learned a little bit about how adoptees can feel about not having a biological connection to their adoptive families. Unfortunately, most of this book was a huge disappointment.
This book is a memoir, but the author’s adoption had literally zero to do with the removal of Indian children from their homes and tribes. Her bio-Dad was mixed race, had no real connection to his Indian heritage and was not interested in the past at all. Her bio-Mom was white. They met in Chicago, didn’t want to stay together to raise their child, and gave her up by choice for a closed adoption. In truth, if either of her biological parents had raised her, she would not have been any more connected to her Indian heritage than she was with her adoptive parents. With that said, I think it’s amazing that she wants to be connected to her Indian heritage in spite of that. What bothers me is that this book is titled and sold as something it isn’t.
The majority of this book is about the author’s life growing up. Her story and search for her identity is relative and important to adoption in general as opposed to Indian adoption specifically. And yet so much of what she shares has nothing to do with adoption at all. There are some segments that are so random that they don’t seem to have anything to do with anything.
Aside from that, this book is a mess. The timeline jumps all over the place. Some things are repeated multiple times. Other stories contradict previous stories. There are either no chapters, or every page is new chapter. I can’t tell which. There are no chapter numbers, there are just one or two paragraph headers per page and every time you reach one, the subject completely changes. This book is self-published, which often can mean a lack of editing. But the author mentions her editor a couple times in the book and thanks two editors at the end. I honestly can’t believe that an editor (let alone 2 editors) reviewed this book and gave their stamp of approval. It is one of the most unorganized, scattered, fragmented books I’ve ever read.
One thing that really bothered me is that after tracking down her bio-Mom, she published photocopies in this book of letters her bio-Mom sent her as an adult. She included her bio-Mom’s full name and address, clearly without permission since her Mom didn’t want anything to do with her. What an astounding invasion of privacy. I don’t know how that’s even legal.
The reason I’m giving this 2 stars instead of 1 is because I did learn a few things about the history and laws surrounding Indian adoption, mixed race adoption, and adoption in general. I also learned a little bit about how adoptees can feel about not having a biological connection to their adoptive families. Unfortunately, most of this book was a huge disappointment.
March 1, 2017
I've always held a fascination for American Indian culture and way of life and having read a fictional book which touched on the forced adoptions, I found this book and was really looking forward to learning more about this period in American history. unfortunately this book was not easy to read in as much as it seems to have been written in a very disjointed way, almost like a stream of consciousness interspersed with excerpts from legal documents. I assumed the author was full Native American and had been taken from her family because of the way the law allowed this to happen in order to dilute the tribes and assimilate the children into a 'white' America. but actually from what I could understand her birth mother was from an Irish family and her birth father was also from Irish stock but his grandmother was Shawnee/ Cherokee. I couldn't really work out how that made her a Native American as it seemed she only really had a tiny part of Indian blood and was mostly Irish. of course that doesn't lessen the wrongs perpetrated against Native Americans who were taken from their families but perhaps the author wasn't the best person to tell this story as it didn't truly seem to apply to her reason for being adopted. in all honesty I didn't finish this book so perhaps I missed some vital information towards the last quarter but I just got bored wading through legal documents in between the actual words of the memoir.
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May 4, 2015My memoir has 5 Stars on Amazon...
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