Sandy Whitehawk is helping Indian adoptees find their tribal families. Whitehawk, 35, was born on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. She was adopted by a white family and never felt like she belonged anywhere. "Don't grow up to be a good for nothing Indian. You're just going to be a drunken Indian like your mother. Those were things I heard all the time," Whitehawk tells Minnesota Public Radio. After combating substance abuse, Whitehawk finally went back to the reservation to find her family. "I noticed I was more relaxed. There's something you can't put words to, to walk on your homeland where you know your relatives feet have also touched. That's healing, because it's where you began," she says. Countless other Indian children were taken from their homes and placed in non-Indian families. The White Earth Band of Ojibwe Indians in Minnesota estimates that 25 percent were taken away and is hosting a conference this weekend to welcome some of them back home. Get the Story:
White Earth Nation welcomes adoptees home (Minnesota Public Radio 10/5) Relevant Links:
White Earth Band of Ojibwe - http://www.whiteearth.com
First Nations Orphan Association - http://www.geocities.com/fnoac
Related Stories
White Earth Band of Ojibwe welcomes adoptees
(10/4)
