Trace A. DeMeyer's Blog, page 298

Adopt a village

I am a Laura Jean Thrall-Bland and I am Trace DeMeyer. Split feather – two names – two identities. Confusing, right?

Are any adoptees reading this? How about foster children? How about adoptive parents? Now what I can't ask is – have any of you given a baby up for adoption? Why can't I ask? Because there is a shame associated with this for many mothers and there is a stigma attached.

Thank God, little by little this stigma is changing, and views about adoptees who search for their relatives...

The takeaway: Adoptees fight for birth certificates

Poverty on Reservations

(This information was found at the Abbe Museum website in Bar Harbor, Maine. This story happened across New England. President Obama and family recently vacationed at Bar Harbor. Hope Obama went to the Abbe.)

When Maine separated from Massachusetts and became a state in 1821, it took over Massachusetts's treaty obligations and responsibility for the Indian communities. The state of Maine controlled the tribes's money and resources—they held them in "trust." "Indian agents" were assigned by...

Racial Misclassification of American Indians & Suicide

"Race is important to identity and when your race is not recognized by others it is stressful." I found this study important since people are often judged by how one looks. That includes some long-held ideas of what American Indians should look like; then I thought about adoptees who are Native American by blood but have no connection to family and tribal culture. It's known adoptees do commit suicide at higher rates, obviously stress-related. Understanding how we fit into this world of...

Ghost Shell

I dream of this, the weight,

a tortoise shell on my back, a heavy hull.

Did I choose its protection? I was asleep.

No one ever said, "You can drop it now" or

"It's safe to drop that, you'll be ok."

Maybe the shell did protect me at one time

when I needed armor.

Maybe it isolated me for reasons

I do not know or understand.

It was heavy and hard to balance.

When I woke up, I could feel its weight.

I can still feel it, like a ghost,

like an arm or leg amputated.

Somehow it still sig...

Adoptee Rash

Waking up here is different than waking up in my bed on Crystal Lake.



Here, precisely at 4:30am, one bird calls to wake me up. I live in western Massachusetts. I have not met this bird or know its name. Its message is instinct for me: it's time to type.



On Crystal Lake, it was a loon; and he/she usually let me sleep in until 5am. I'd walk outside just as the sun would rise across the lake. Then it was time for me to open my journal and write something, or take a picture like this one (left...

Intercountry Adoptees: Heard any Arizona Travel warnings?

"Protesters held signs at a rally at the Arizona Capitol prior to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signing a tough immigration bill – S.B. 1070 – into law on April 23, in Phoenix. The sweeping measure would make it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally, and would require local law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally." (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

My adoptive family had lots of immigrants. My one ...

NEW! Book review by John C. Hopkins

By John Christian Hopkins

Tuba City, Arizona (NFIC) May 2010



     The Beatles sang of a long and winding road, but they never set foot on the long, treacherous path of a Native American adoptee that is strewn with potholes, deadends and disappointment.

     Award-winning Native journalist Trace A. DeMeyer shares the heartfelt journey of loss, loneliness and finding love in her powerful, new memoir "One Small Sacrifice: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects," an exposé on generations...

ADOPTEE HEALTH (read this!)

Adoptees are a unique and diverse group. Some say as babies they were traumatized and now are plagued with emotional and physical problems while others feel downright happy and show little interest in being an adoptee.



Some adoptees I know were adopted as small children so they spent time with the natural mother, and perhaps were breastfed.



I did not spend any time with my natural mother and went directly to an orphanage. By the time I was adopted, I was a wreck. How do I know this? My par...

Recent Reviews of ONE SMALL SACRIFICE (with links)

http://ungratefullittlebastard.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-will-never-ever-ever-blog-again.html



AND



http://nsbloodline.blogspot.com/2010/05/one-small-sacrifice-lost-children-of.html



AND



http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9191&Itemid=1



AND Facebook comments:



Paula Benoit, Adoptee Care wrote:  I loved this book from the moment I started reading it. It's well written, painfully honest and bold. Thanks for setting the tone for future memoirs and conversations...