{"id":26983,"date":"2022-08-04T17:05:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T21:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=26983"},"modified":"2022-08-04T17:05:09","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T21:05:09","slug":"montana-free-press-film-explores-lost-bird-who-found-her-way-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/08\/04\/montana-free-press-film-explores-lost-bird-who-found-her-way-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Free Press: Film explores &#8216;Lost Bird&#8217; who found her way home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/533738588?h=9874eba19b\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><script src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/api\/player.js\"><\/script>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Official Trailer: <a href=https:\/\/vimeo.com\/533738588>Daughter of a Lost Bird<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h1-responsive\">\u2018Daughter of a Lost Bird\u2019 and the complexities of Indigenous identity<\/div>\r\n<div><strong>\r\nThe Montanan-made documentary applies a wide-angle lens to a personal story of adoption and assimilation.<\/strong><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Thursday, August 4, 2022<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Erika Fredrickson<\/div>\r\n<DIV class=\"source\">Montana Free Press<\/DIV>\r\n<DIV class=\"source-website\"><A \r\nhref=\"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/\">montanafreepress.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cDaughter of a Lost Bird\u201d \u2014 a documentary made by and featuring two Montana Native women \u2014 is less about closure than about openings. There is no tidy bow at the end, and no singular takeaway. It plays out unapologetically in the realm of loose ends, liminal spaces and uncertainties. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nThe documentary, which premiered at the 2021 Maoriland Film Festival in New Zealand, follows adult adoptee Kendra Potter, who decides to find connection with her Native identity and culture. It begins with Potter at age 34 as she meets her birth mother and discovers, over the course of eight years, her ties to the Lummi Nation \u2014 a Native American tribe located in the coastal region of Washington state, near Bellingham. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.daughterofalostbird.com\/\">\u201cDaughter of a Lost Bird\u201d<\/a> isn\u2019t just about one person\u2019s identity in a vacuum, and that\u2019s what makes it complicated and unsettling. It\u2019s really an exploration of why context matters. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nAs Potter begins to unravel the layers of her own identity, she discovers answers that are equal parts murky, illuminating, tragic and empowering. Brooke Pepion Swaney, a Blackfeet\/Salish filmmaker who grew up in Montana and now resides in Polson, uses Potter\u2019s story to cast light on a larger national narrative. As Potter learns about herself, she learns more about the events that inform her own past and that of other Native adoptees: in particular, the troubling history of Indigenous genocide and assimilation, from Native American boarding schools to a recent Supreme Court case that threatens a long-held Native American adoption law.<P><\/P>\r\n\r\nPotter is an actress with a variety of roles under her belt, including parts in a Hallmark Holiday movie, a Chris Rock rom-com, several independent shorts and the Montana-made feature film \u201cWinter in the Blood.\u201d But being the subject of \u201cDaughter of a Lost Bird\u201d meant being herself in a documentary that began with an uncertain storyline and grapples with ambiguous personal feelings. It\u2019s what makes her a nuanced protagonist.<P><\/P>\r\n<div class=\"fb-video\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daughterofalostbird\/videos\/3131249863803010\/\" data-width=\"auto\" data-show-text=\"false\"><blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daughterofalostbird\/videos\/3131249863803010\/\" class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daughterofalostbird\/videos\/3131249863803010\/\"><\/a><p>Thank you, Lummi Nation and Blackhawk Singers, for an incredible night. Truly, I will remember this for my whole life.\r\n\r\nThe food was so good we didn\u2019t have a chance to document! \r\n\r\n#atni2022 #lummination #blackhawksingersoflummination #blackhawksingers<\/p>Posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daughterofalostbird\">Daughter of a Lost Bird<\/a> on Wednesday, May 18, 2022<\/blockquote><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Daughter of a Lost Bird:\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daughterofalostbird\/videos\/3131249863803010\/\">\r\nLummi Nation and Blackhawk Singers<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nIn a recent interview conducted while walking along the bank of the Clark Fork in Missoula, where she lives, Potter talked about her life before the making of the documentary. She grew up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, in what she describes as a supportive and loving white, upper-middle-class, adoptive family. She graduated from the University of Montana\u2019s School of Theatre and Dance and spent the next decade living and working as an actor in Los Angeles and New York. During those early acting years, she began to ask herself questions like: Whose voice is speaking through me? Do I have a right to play these roles, with no knowledge of my culture? Where did I come from? <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nIn 2012 she starred in a short film called \u201cOK Breathe Auralee,\u201d also directed by Swaney. In that film she played Auralee, an adult Native adoptee like herself, whose desire for a baby leads her to contemplate her Native roots. Around the time she won an award for \u201cOK Breathe Auralee,\u201d Potter learned she was pregnant with a daughter and, like her character in the film, began to consider her Native roots. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nBut it was Swaney who pushed Potter to reach out to her Native family and begin exploring the complexities of her identity. In a recent interview, Swaney acknowledged that she\u2019s most comfortable with narrative fiction, but decided to film Potter\u2019s story as a documentary. Potter agreed, and they began by contacting her birth mother, April Kowalski, asking if she would meet with Potter on camera. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cI knew Kendra would meet her family and go back to her homelands and we would film the things in between,\u201d Swaney says. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know that April was going to be such a character in the film. It almost became like a dual protagonist situation in a way.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n<div class=\" content_cards_card content_cards_domain_www-facebook-com\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content_cards_image\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_image_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daughterofalostbird\/posts\/pfbid0v1NAkEGPi3Ks5wrmey3Ueh6ZzEj5QNfuKrPpR4HAoDtrMGwbZbYXMiGCKojoqqF5l\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/21\/473150519_1200740428072031_301085783758479316_n.jpg\" alt=\"Daughter of a Lost Bird\">\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_title\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_title_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daughterofalostbird\/posts\/pfbid0v1NAkEGPi3Ks5wrmey3Ueh6ZzEj5QNfuKrPpR4HAoDtrMGwbZbYXMiGCKojoqqF5l\">\n\t\t\tDaughter of a Lost Bird\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_description\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_description_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daughterofalostbird\/posts\/pfbid0v1NAkEGPi3Ks5wrmey3Ueh6ZzEj5QNfuKrPpR4HAoDtrMGwbZbYXMiGCKojoqqF5l\">\n\t\t\t<p>Thank you @siffnews and Seattle audiences for a fantastic festival and for voting us top five of your favorite feature documentaries. Thank you Black Hawk Singers for singing for our screenings and&#8230;<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_site_name\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.xx.fbcdn.net\/rsrc.php\/y1\/r\/ay1hV6OlegS.ico\" alt=\"www.facebook.com\" class=\"content_cards_favicon\"\/>\t\twww.facebook.com\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nPotter meets up with Kowalski in a key scene early in the film. They hug, and Kowalski tells Potter about her life. Like Potter, Kowalskiwas adopted, but she had a far different experience, marked by emotional and physical abuse, which led to addiction and three years trapped in sex trafficking. \u201cLost bird\u201d is a widely used term across Native cultures for adults who were removed or adopted as children out of tribal communities into white families. The name comes from Zintak\u00e1la Nuni Lost Bird, a Lakota infant found alive after the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre and adopted by a white U.S. Army general. Kowalski is a lost bird, and Potter the progeny of a lost bird. Both are trying to learn who they are.<P><\/P>\r\n\r\nAnd yet, Potter says, the meeting with Kowalski didn\u2019t offer the tension a film usually needs.<P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cNeither of us felt grief about having not had my childhood together,\u201d she says. \u201cIf anything, it just continued to feel like this happy, happy story when we needed some conflict.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n\r\nThe other problem was that, despite her curiosity, Potter didn\u2019t feel conflicted about her life as she knew it. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cIt just feels like my Native friends, in general, and this film crew in particular, look at me like I\u2019m missing an appendage \u2014 like I\u2019m a three-legged dog,\u201d Potter says, laughing. \u201cAnd they\u2019re not wrong. But it\u2019s like, I\u2019ve been three-legged my whole life, right? And I\u2019m getting around just fine. I understand that for someone who has all their limbs there might be grief. But at the time, I felt no grief.\u201d <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nSwaney says it was hard to accept that Potter could feel content or complete without a better understanding of her own heritage. As an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation with Bitterroot Salish blood, Swaney says she navigates her own complexities of family and identity, but she felt strongly that her subject\u2019s self-understanding of Native identity was essential. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nPotter said she told Swaney, \u201cListen, we can\u2019t make a film about someone with a hole when they don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s a hole. If anything, we\u2019re just gonna have to make a story about how incredibly well-assimilated I am. Not as a celebration, but as an honest truth.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n<div class=\"mt-1 mb-1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8411603009680747\" data-ad-slot=\"6394965691\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div><p><\/p>\r\nAs that idea simmered, a new element of the story emerged when the cast and crew met with Terry Cross, assistant director for the National Indian Child Welfare Association. In the chronology of the film, Cross shows up toward the end. In reality, Swaney and Potter met him early in the filmmaking process and Swaney says he provided the point of tension they needed: The Indian Adoption Project and the Indian Child Welfare Act.<P><\/P>\r\n\r\nThe Indian Adoption Project was a federal program that acquired Indian children from 1958 to 1967 with the help of adoption organizations and churches. About a third of Indian children across the U.S. were separated from their families during that time. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was instituted in response to the adoption project. The act was designed to keep Native children with their families and tribal communities when possible, and in doing so, keep them connected to their culture. The Indian Child Welfare Act is currently being challenged.<P><\/P>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/case-files\/cases\/brackeen-v-haaland\/\">Brackeen vs. Haaland<\/a> is a pending U.S. Supreme Court case that began with one white family hoping to adopt a Native child and has since expanded to include Texas, Louisiana, Indiana and individual plaintiffs seeking to declare the ICWA unconstitutional. A podcast called \u201cThis Land,\u201d produced by Crooked Media and hosted by investigative journalist Rebecca Nagle, has recently been <a href=\"https:\/\/crooked.com\/podcast-series\/this-land\/\">exposing the money and motivations behind the lawsuit<\/a>. Nagle and a small team of reporters discovered that the attorneys representing Brackeen have a history of lawsuits aimed at dismantling the legal structure that currently upholds many Native American rights. Just as the assimilation programs that led to Indian boarding schools were blatantly documented as a way to eliminate American Indians and take land, the fight against the ICWA has the well-documented appearance of a land grab. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cThis challenge to the law is particularly scary right now because it could have ripple effects on not just Native kids who are still being overrepresented in foster care, despite the law, but on tribal nations,\u201d Swaney says. \u201cIndigenous people are not an ethnic minority or a racial minority. We are a political group because we have government-to-government treaties with the federal government. So yes, we are different people, but we have this special status that our ancestors have been fighting tooth and nail to preserve.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n\r\nSwaney was generally aware of such laws and policies, including the Indian Adoption Project, but hearing the details drove home the issue\u2019s urgency.<P><\/P>\r\n\u201cAs I was watching [April and Kendra] absorbing all of this information from Terry Cross, I realized that they didn\u2019t know any of it,\u201d Swaney says. \u201cBecause they\u2019ve been raised in this non-Indigenous society. And so if they don\u2019t know, then certainly Regular Joe doesn\u2019t know. And it just became more important to me that there had to be some of this context [in the film].\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CQRwzZanOs3\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\"><div style=\"padding:16px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CQRwzZanOs3\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <div style=\" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\"> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div><\/div><div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\"><div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: auto;\"> <div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div><\/div><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\"><\/div><\/div><\/a><p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CQRwzZanOs3\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A post shared by Daughter Of a Lost Bird (@daughterofalostbirddoc)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nSwaney had wanted to make a character-driven documentary, in which she let her protagonists drive the story. But now she got involved. She was educating her protagonists about their own backgrounds \u2014 and it was having an impact on them. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nEven more uncomfortable for Swaney was when Potter and film editor Kristen Swanbeck insisted Swaney become part of the film as the filmmaker driving the story and also a friend helping Potter find her missing fourth leg.<P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cSometimes the antagonist in a story is the person that pushes the main person into action,\u201d Swaney says. \u201cAnd I feel like that\u2019s me, actually. I am the inciting incident in some ways in Kendra\u2019s story.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n\r\nIn the film, Potter grapples with issues of identity and assimilation out loud. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cI\u2019m realizing that I am a perfect example of assimilation, a perfect example of \u2018kill the Indian, save the man,\u2019\u201d she says in the film. \u201cI am a saved man. And a dead Indian. I don\u2019t know. I mean it\u2019s tragic. I just don\u2019t know how to be with that.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n\r\nIt wasn\u2019t until after making the film that Potter said she started feeling angry. Not at individuals, but at the systems and policies that have destroyed many Native lives. And she realized that despite having a life she wouldn\u2019t trade, she does feel more whole now. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cI don\u2019t feel bad about anything that\u2019s happened for me,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I also feel uniquely situated to advocate moving forward.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/08\/04\/montana-free-press-film-explores-lost-bird-who-found-her-way-home\/daughterofalostbird\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-26989\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" data-attachment-id=\"26989\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/08\/04\/montana-free-press-film-explores-lost-bird-who-found-her-way-home\/daughterofalostbird\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/04\/DaughterofaLostBird.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1280,720\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Kendra Potter &amp;#8211; Daughter of a Lost Bird\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Kendra Potter &amp;#8211; Daughter of a Lost Bird&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Kendra Potter is seen in &amp;#8220;Daughter of a Lost Bird.&amp;#8221; Still image from &lt;a href=https:\/\/vimeo.com\/533738588&gt;official trailer&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/04\/DaughterofaLostBird-1024x576.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/04\/DaughterofaLostBird.jpg\" alt=\"Kendra Potter - Daughter of a Lost Bird\"   class=\"size-full wp-image-26989\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\"> Kendra Potter is seen in &#8220;Daughter of a Lost Bird.&#8221; Still image from <a href=https:\/\/vimeo.com\/533738588>official trailer<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cDaughter of a Lost Bird\u201d had its Montana premiere to a sold-out crowd at the Wilma Theatre at Missoula\u2019s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February. During the Q&amp;A, Potter was flanked by her family, including the parents who adopted and raised her, Sandy and Larry Mylenchuk. Potter says people often ask her how her parents feel about her search for identity. And that, of course, is complicated. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cThey were incredibly supportive of my journey but have not come with me on it.\u201d she says. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nFor a while, she said, after the filming was over she felt like a kid coming home from college, changed. Her family loved her, but she couldn\u2019t tell if her experience had changed them. In recent months she sees it affecting them. Knowing that her birth mom had been kidnapped and trafficked, Potter\u2019s dad called her recently to see if he could join her for a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women rally. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\nIn May, when Potter got her official membership card to the Lummi Nation, she said, her mom hugged her and her dad texted her: \u201cYou did it Kendy! You\u2019re back!\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cThey are finding ways to show up and learn and support,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s what I hope the film will do for everyone.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\n\r\nShe has returned to Lummi Nation land a few times now, sans camera, with her children and husband. The Lummi enrollment feels as close to wrapping up a complicated story as it gets. <P><\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cMy takeaway from this experience has been: Understand the murky context of your existence and then use it to make really smart choices moving forward,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes that involves deep quantities of healing and sometimes it involves a public apology or recognition of imbalances and the act of bringing balance back. But I don\u2019t think that we can move forward in a healthy way until we fully recognize how we got here.\u201d <P><\/P>\r\n\r\n \r\n<strong><em>\u201cDaughter of a Lost Bird\u201d is <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/worldchannel.org\/episode\/america-reframed-daughter-of-a-lost-bird\/\"><strong><em>available for streaming<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em> on PBS Passport as part of WORLD Channel\u2019s America ReFramed series.<\/em> <\/strong><P><\/P>\r\n\r\n<HR><EM><a href=https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/author\/erika-fredrickson\/>Erika Fredrickson<\/a> is a freelance journalist based in Missoula, where she writes about technology, the environment, and lifestyle. She was the arts editor at the Missoula Independent for 10 years before it was shut down in 2018.<\/em><hr>\r\n<P><\/p>\r\n<strong>Note: This story originally <a href=\"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/2022\/07\/18\/montana-made-documentary-daughter-of-a-lost-bird-premiere\/\">appeared on Montana Free Press<\/a>. It is published under a <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/3.0\/us\/\">Creative Commons license<\/a>.<\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new documentary applies a wide-angle lens to a personal story of adoption and assimilation of an Indian child.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,20,13,1,14],"tags":[250,3237,110,176,86,3236,1846,249,194,613,47,2018,84,3235,542,314],"class_list":["post-26983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-national","category-politics","tag-blackfeet","tag-brooke-pepion-swaney","tag-film","tag-genocide","tag-icwa","tag-kendra-potter","tag-lummi","tag-montana","tag-montana-free-press","tag-nicwa","tag-race","tag-rebecca-nagle","tag-supreme-court","tag-terry-cross","tag-theater","tag-washington","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-71d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/04\/DaughterofaLostBird.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}