Fwd: [nativestudies-l] new anthology major contribution to Native American history

[Claire Bowern]

Hi all,
This is not directly language related but looks like an important book.
Claire


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Trace A DeMeyer <tracedemeyer at yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Subject: [nativestudies-l] new anthology major contribution to Native
American history
To: nativestudies-l at mailman.yale.edu


Major contribution to Native American history published

TWO WORLDS, Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects offers
astounding narratives that challenge views on adoption



            After generations of Native children were forcibly removed
from their Tribes and placed in residential boarding schools, children
were also being placed in closed adoptions with non-Indian families in
North America.

            Finding those children became a mission for award-winning
Native American journalist-adoptee Trace A. DeMeyer who started
research in 2004 which culminated in her memoir “One Small Sacrifice”
in 2010.  DeMeyer was introduced to Cherokee adoptee Patricia
Cotter-Busbee, and the two collaborated on their new anthology, “TWO
WORLDS: Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects.”  The book hit
Amazon and Kindle in September. (ISBN: 978-1479318285, Price: $19.95
(PAPERBACK), $6.99 (EBOOK).

            “Readers will be astonished since these narratives
document a page of North American history that few even know
happened,” DeMeyer said. “Today tribal families hope to reconnect with
adoptees but we know closed adoptions were planned to assimilate
children, to erase their culture and end contact with their tribe. I
started this project in 2008 after my memoir, then adoptees wrote to
me.  When I met Patricia in 2011, she shared her own amazing story and
I knew she had to be part of this book.”

            A recent MFA graduate of Goddard in writing, Patricia
Cotter-Busbee welcomed the chance to contribute and help edit. “I
could not resist helping with this important book. I felt that this
was the project I had been waiting for. I kept thinking where are all
these adult adoptees? I am an adoptee and know how badly I wanted to
reconnect with my first families. If 1/4 of all Indian children were
removed and placed in non-Indian adoptive homes, these adoptees must
be looking for help, trying to open records and find clues to their
identity. One study even found in sixteen states in 1969, 85 percent
of the Indian children were placed in non-Indian homes. This book will
help lost adoptees reconnect.”

            The Lost Children in Two Worlds share details of their
personal lives, their search for identity and their feelings about
what happened to them.

            “The history of the Indian Adoption Projects is troubling
since it was unofficially ethnic cleansing by the US and Canadian
governments, and this practice went on for years without public
knowledge, but I am happy to report it failed because we are still
here and still Indians; and this book explains how we adoptees did
it,” DeMeyer said.

            DeMeyer and Busbee agreed that “TWO WORLDS: Lost Children
of the Indian Adoption Projects” is an important contribution to
American Indian history.

            “Indigenous identity takes on a whole new meaning in this
anthology,” Busbee said, “both for the adoptee and those who adopted
them.  Adoptees definitely live in two worlds and we show you how.”

            The book covers the history of Indian child removals in
North America, the adoption projects, their impact on Indian Country
and how it impacts the adoptee and their families, Congressional
testimony, quotes, news and several narratives from adoptees in the US
and Canada in the 384-page anthology.

            “Two Worlds is really the first book to debunk the billion
dollar adoption industry that operated for years under the guise of
caring for destitute Indigenous children,” DeMeyer said. “Readers will
be astonished since very little is known or published on this
history.”

            DeMeyer lives in western Massachusetts and Busbee lives in
North Carolina. DeMeyer is the former editor of the Pequot Times in
Connecticut.



-30-

For a copy of this press release online: visit Blue Hand Books at
www.bluehandbooks.blogspot.com

Contact: Trace A. DeMeyer, 413-258-0115 (msg)

Photos available upon request.

Adoptees in this book are available for interviews.



REVIEW COPIES: email tracedemeyer at yahoo.com (the ebook can be emailed)



Early reader comments included: “…sometimes shocking, often an
emotional read...this book is for individuals interested in the
culture and history of the Native American Indian, but also on the
reading lists of universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched and obviously a subject close to the heart of the
authors/compilers, I found the extent of what can only be described as
'child-snatching' from the Native Americans quite staggering. It's not
something I was aware of before…”

“The individual pieces are open and honest and give a good insight
into the turmoil of dislocation from family and tribe… I think it does
have value and a story to tell. I was affected by the stories I read,
and amazed by the facts presented…. because it is saying something
new, interesting and often astonishing.”





Visit:

www.splitfeathers.blogspot.com

Trace A. DeMeyer on Facebook

Twitter: @Trace15




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