Adoption is often seen as a positive in our society, and it can be. There are many wonderful stories of parents and children who benefited from the practice.<\/p>\n
Less visible, but equally important, are the stories that tell a different side of adoption. One in particular isn\u2019t widely known in American culture, whether that stems from intentional ignorance or piecemeal knowledge of Indigenous history.<\/p>\n
The documentary\u00a0Blood Memory<\/em>, making its\u00a0broadcast premiere tonight on WORLD Channel<\/a>, explores the history of and trauma stemming from America\u2019s Indian Adoption Era. Children were removed from\u00a0Native American<\/a>\u00a0families and adopted by white families or sent to boarding schools. They were not permitted to contact their birth families and lost contact with their tribes.<\/p>\n The film examines the continued impact on those children who were taken from their families during the era, which ran from 1940 to 1978. It also explores the ramifications of those policies on Indigenous families today.<\/p>\n \u201cI want everyone to know that the United States government used adoption as a form of forced assimilation. People made money off of us,\u201d says Sandy White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota), who is profiled in the film.<\/p>\n