::Title Slide - The History of Adoption - Lynn Smith & Dominic Carter:: [Bonni Goodwin] And I'm going to let everyone in. Tammera? I don't think we can hear you. Hello everyone. Welcome. While we get Tammera set up here, we are, I'm just gonna welcome you to our Lunch and Learn today about covering the History of Adoption. Tammera, let's, I'm gonna see if you're ready to -- I saw you took off your headphones. You'll see in the chat, we've got... We've got some information asking for your name, if you wouldn't mind stating your name and also where you're joining from, and if you are interested in being put on our list to receive more information for our future events -- more Lunch and Learns, we've got some book clubs going on, and we've got other exciting things coming up. So if you are interested in being a part of receiving more information, please go ahead and put your email address in the chat and we will add you to the list -- unless you're already on that list, then thank you so much for joining us today. I am Dr. Bonni Goodwin and I work with the University of Oklahoma, but most of my time in my heart is spent with Child Welfare as the Statewide Coordinator of Adoption Preservation Services. So I am so grateful to welcome you all today and I'm going to mute and turn it over to our wonderful team who is going to share about the history of adoption. Lynn Smith and Dominic Carter are running the show today. [Lynn Smith] Hello everyone. Thank you again for coming in. We appreciate everyone for joining. We want to get started so we can make sure to respect everyone's time and the great information that we're going to be sharing with you today. Let's go over a few housekeeping things at the very beginning. We are recording this meeting. So by participating you are giving your consent to be recorded. Help us reduce distraction so we can all focus and participate. We have muted everyone to make it possible for everyone to hear the presentation. We want to see you. So if you are willing and you can, so please turn on your video. If you're unable, that is fine also. Also, at the end of the training we will provide you with a survey link that we'd like for you to complete. This provides us with the opportunity to be able to receive feedback on today's presentation. And if you are an open resource home, please complete this survey, there's a question in there that will let us know that you are an open resource home, and by attending this training today, you will be able to receive one hour of training credit towards the 12 hours of in-service training that you need every year. I hope everyone is enjoying their lunch, and out of respect for your time, we want to head on, get everything going and get it started today. Just like Dr. Bonni discussed, we will be discussing the history of adoption. My name is Lynn Smith. I am currently an OU Masters of Social Work student and practicum with imposed adoptions at Oklahoma Human Services. I have worked with the, within the Child Welfare Field for over 10 years, currently as a Supervisor in Foster Care Recruitment. My co-host today will be Dominic Carter and I will let him introduce himself. [Dominic Carter] Hello everyone. My name is Dominic Carter, as she did state, I'm also a student at the University of Oklahoma pursuing my Master's in Social Work as well. And I have nine years of experience. I've worked in Child Protective Services. I've also worked in Permanency Planning. And my current position is an Education Specialist, and I serve with youth who are transitioning out of foster care or who've been adopted, transitioning into post-secondary education by providing a scholarship for them to help assist with financial resources for post-secondary education. [Lynn] Thank you Dominic. Now, moving forward for the short hour that we have together, we will be looking at a brief but detailed history of adoption and how we can move forward to improve upon the past and build a new and better future for individuals impacted by adoption. This would include adoptees, adoptive parents, bio families, extended families, and especially professionals in the field, including teachers, medical personnel, mental health providers, coaches, anyone that has interactions and direct contact with families, individually or as a unit. So, moving on. ::Slide - Objectives:: [Dominic] So for today's objectives, we will talk about adoption competency and the lens in which we view adoption competency, and how it -- how important it is to understand the 18 domains, and how to best serve those youth, families, adoptive families, and adoptees in the regard of adoption competency. We will also talk about the types of adoption and how that impacts those individuals in that realm. And then we will focus on primarily today on the adoption history from the 18th century to present. And I'll read a quote here from Henry Glassie: "History is not the past, but the map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful for the modern traveler." ::Slide - What is Adoption Competency?:: So in our previous Lunch and Learn, our team discussed and defined adoption competency and its impact on adoptive families, post adoptive families, adoptees, and biological families, along with professionals who adoption impacts. So there are 18 domains of adoption competencies, and we'll take a look at them in the next slide. In all of the research with adoptive families the past decade, finding someone who gets it, who are, who understands adoption and what that looks like when working with these families, but also understanding the unique challenges and complexities of adoption, making their work with family sometime potentially incomplete or even harmful if they do not understand what adoption competency is, what that looks like, and how to address those concerns with those individual families and those children. This is why understanding adoption competency is very critical for both professionals, parents, adoptees, and biological families that are also assisting in the transition. ::Slide - Domains of Adoption Competency:: So as we did state, understanding the history of adoption, we have to understand adoption competency in order to be able to serve the youth. So today we won't be going through the entire 18 competencies. However, what we will do is focus primarily today on the history of adoption and the processes of adoption to be able to understand how we've come to today's presentation. So when understanding adoption competency, we understand that these 18 competencies, they overlap they weave together, and it's very important to understand each unique characteristic about adoption that must be viewed through a specific lens which professionals approach in their work, but also understanding youth in the process as well because every experience that an individual has, it's their expertise. So we want to be able to understand them from their point of view to be able to address whatever concerns they may have. Whether it be able to address loss and trauma, or loss and grief, be able to address trauma. So what we're going to do is, we're talking about the major pillar today, which is going to be the history of adoption. ::Slide - Attachment Activity:: So, when we address the history of adoption, there's one thing that we have to focus on, which is bonding and attachment. So there are several activities that we have outlined that allows us to be able to build that bonded connection with young people who have experienced adoption, and for younger children, one activity that we have of kind of a staring game. So this activity takes about two or three minutes that you can work directly with your child. And we typically advise the parents that we're working with, this is something that you can do often with a child because it builds up on the connection. So if they make a noise, or if they're cry for those individuals that are under specific age, just them being acknowledged that they exist or being able to, you know, find a bottle because they're hungry, or being able to change their diaper, that is a bond and attachment because they know that you see that they're there and that they are present. With older children, mirror matching is a very good activity to be able to work with those young people. If they make a funny face, or they laugh, or just kind of having that moment with them where they can actually take the lead, because many children are being told what to do and not necessarily given the opportunity to be a lead. So knowing that they have a voice in that conversation, in that relationship is very important. Um, so for other activities, those are ones that we expressed in our previous training, for this specific training here, we'll outline two other ones, which is the remember game. And for younger children, just kind of having a time where you can sit down either at dinner time, or you can have a seat at the dinner table, and just allowing them to express different experiences that they've had, whether it be in the foster care system, or experience with another foster child that they have been placed with at some point in time. Just giving them an opportunity to tell their story. And also you can create a Life Book in this process with them. So if you're doing it at dinner time, just being able to collect those pictures or those memories, being able to write them down with that child. It gives them an opportunity to be able to go back and visit those stories and those memories with you, and that is a moment where you can build that emotional bonding connection with the child. And then with older children, another activity... I've worked in Child Welfare, as I stated before. A lot of my conversations came in the car with some of my older youth that I've served, just giving them an opportunity just to be able to kind of tell their story, as far as how is their day? What did that look like? What are their expectations moving forward? And what would they like to see in their lives? So it just gives them an opportunity to open up the dialogue and kind of state where they would like to be in their perspective, in regard to their story. ::Slide - Types of Adoptions:: [Lynn] I'm sorry, I was steady talking and I was muted. I'm sorry. So now we are going through to the types of adoptions. As we all know, there are many different situations that can lead to an adoption occurring within a child's life. According to the Children's Bureau for Children and Families. There are two types of adoption: domestic adoption, public agency adoption, which is listed up under the domestic adoption, which a lot of us are familiar with, our children coming in from the child welfare system. We have the private agency adoption where the bio parent is working with the agency to find a family. We have an independent adoption, through which a private attorney is working with the family and there's no agency that is involved. And then also we have the international or intercountry adoption. That is the Hague Convention country adoption and a Non-Hague Convention country adoption. Let me explain what Hague means. The Hague Convention is a treaty that provides safeguards to protect the best interests of the child's birth parents and adoptive parents in international or intercountry adoptions. That includes regulations or eligibility, forms that need to be completed, and then also the adoption process as a whole. And currently the United States recognizes more than a hundred countries as part of that treaty. ::Slide - Adoption:: Now, let's start down the road of the history around adoption. The first place I wanted to start was with the word "adoption." Let's first look at it and its origins. During research, it was found in the Online Etymology, which is a language and word dictionary, that the first records of the word adoption came from about the 1300s. That "adoption" is a noun form of the verb "adopt," comes from the Latin verb "adoptāre," meaning "to choose for oneself." And "optāre," which is the root of that word, means "to choose." ::Slide - 18th Century B.C.:: So in reviewing ancient history, it shows that the ancient Mesopotamians wrote detailed family laws that included adoption laws and contracts that upheld the rights and interests of both the adopted child and adoptive parents of the child. These logs were -- laws were documented and sealed on tablets. On the screen there on your left, you will see an original ancient Mesopotamian adoption agreement written on a tablet. Now, let's move forward a little bit to 1750 BC, the Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian, included the rights and the responsibilities of both the adoptees and adoptive families in detail. Now, the law has been translated as stating that craftsman should train their adoptive sons as their own apprentices. This law even allowed unmarried women to adopt, as well as indentured slaves to be adopted as part of the family. I have documented a part of the law which is Law 185. And it has been translated as stating that, "If a man adopt a child and to his name as son, and rear him, this grown son cannot be demanded back again." Now we're gonna take another leap. Moving forward to 400 AD in Ancient Rome. Adoption was a common practice as a way of creating and solidifying family ties among the wealthy and political families. And it was also a way that was used to ensure a peaceful transition from -- transition in power from one Emperor to the next. The World History Encyclopedia even stated only a handful of Emperors were related by blood to their predecessor, so adoptions at this time had taken a a little bit of a evolutionary step in regards to, it was at this point being politically motivated. ::Slide - 17th to 19th Century:: [Dominic] All right. So we're going to take a jump to the 17th to the 19th century in the Middle Ages. And in contrast to Ancient Rome, the Europeans' nobility gave attention to the continuum of the family bloodline, mainly for the purposes of inheritance. In 1693, Sir William Phips, who was the Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay adopted a child. It became one of the earliest known record instances of adoption in European history. In 1729, the first orphanage in the United States was established at a covenant -- convent in New Orleans ran by nuns in the Ninth Ward. The orphanage was established to care for white children orphaned by a conflict between Indians and whites. Some theorized these orphans were established in response to the health epidemic, which is tuberculosis and influenza, and also the war, influx of immigration into particular geographic locations, growing urbanizations and the poor economic times. Others theorize that this establishments of these institutions were for a variety of other reasons, and these were to control the poor and also the need for child labor. In 1851 the state of Massachusetts passed its first modern law on adoption, the Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act. It recognized adoption as a legal and social procedure based on the welfare of children rather than the interest of the adult parties involved. We're going to watch a short clip here. I believe it's about five or six minutes, but it talks about Charles Loring Brace and the orphan trains. So if you all would brace yourselves for about six minutes here, we'll watch this and then we'll have move forward. ::Video clip - "The Orphan Trains 1853-1929":: [video starts, music plays] [Photo: children posed in front of & on top of a parked train] [Narrator] In the 1800s, the railroads faced a problem: [Photo: group of children with dirty faces, wearing coats & hats] farm labor shortages along their [Film clip: boy planting in a field] newly expanded westward lines threatened profitability. [Photo: building in background with newspaper ads superimposed] Not surprisingly in 1853, they jumped at the chance to support a [Photo: group of boys in suits with a nicely dressed man and woman] New York City Minister's idea: an early version of foster care that would find homes for [Image: map of Minnesota with St. Paul & Fargo-Moorhead] the city's orphans on farms in the Midwest. [Photo: group of children with dirty faces, wearing coats & hats] [Christina Baker Kline] They were told, "Your parents are not your parents. Your past is not your past. Your life begins when you are chosen." [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] The orphan trains began because a Methodist Minister in New York City named Charles Loring Brace [Photo: Charles Loring Brace 1826-1890] looked around the streets of New York and saw that [Photo: 3 children asleep against a brick wall] there were 30,000 children living on the streets. [Film clip: busy street scenes] They were getting run over, dying of starvation and exposure, going to jail, [Photo: boys smoking] becoming criminals, that were becoming prostitutes. What we think of as [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] Dickensian London is really what it was like [Photo: wooden building in disrepair] poor people. Immigrants were pouring in, the Industrial [Photo: multiple people laying/sleeping/resting in one room] Revolution was replacing jobs for poor people with machines. [Photo: woman in a home holding 2 babies] The Civil War was raging and creating vulnerable war widows. [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] So there are many reasons that there were all these children on the streets. And Brace had this idea. It was sort of [Photo: 2 children posed in front of a fence or building] a glorified fresh air fund. He thought, "If I can get children off the streets and send them to farms in the midwest where labor is needed, maybe we can save their lives, [Photo: same 2 children posed in front of a field of wheat] in the midwest where labor is needed, maybe we can save their lives, [Film clip: children playing in a playground] and maybe we can clean up the streets of New York." [Film clip: boy planting in a field] He worked with the train companies to send children on [Film clip: various angles of trains moving on a track] trains to the Midwest and the trains each held between 10 and 30 children and over the course of the next 75 years over 250,000 children were sent to the Midwest. [Photo: children posed in front of & on top of a parked train] There were two ways that people got children from the orphan trains: [Photo: brick buildings "Foundling Hospital New York, NY"] the Foundling Hospital, which got into the act a little bit later, would put notices in [Photo: brick buildings "Foundling Hospital New York, NY" with newspaper ads superimposed] newspapers around the Midwest and people would write in and say, "I'd like a blonde, curly haired, blue-eyed seven year old boy with a sweet disposition." And so [Photo: long tables with lots of children eating] they would look around and find that child and put him on 402 a train, [Photo: many children dressed up, posed in front of a parked train] and then that person would be waiting on the other end. [Photo: several children lined up according to height] The Children's Aid Society had the children line up by height at a train platform or at a City Hall or a Grange Hall, [Photo: several children lined up according to height with a superimposed film of man using the phone] then farmers, or whoever came, [Photo: group of boys in suits with a nicely dressed man and woman] a slave auction, have them run in place, check their teeth, check their muscles, have them do even sit ups or push-ups to make sure they were strong because they wanted workers. [Photo: boy in dirty clothes, holding a pot in each hand] The farmers would take them off the stage and then fill out [Photo: boy in dirty clothes, holding a pot in each hand in front of image of a certificate] certificates taking ownership of the child. [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] Contracts were signed between the people who took the train riders in and the organization, the Children's Aid Society or [Photo: contract] the Foundling Hospital and it says, "shall be indentured until the age of 21." These children were 2 to 14 years old. [Photo: children in a field] 21 is quite a long time to be working for someone else. [Film clip: children in school] The people who took in the train riders were required to send them to school, four months of schooling a year, [Photo: family eating] to feed and clothe them. There was some [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] language about treating them as you would one of your own. [Photo: child picking berries] However, they were labor. For some of them it was actually a form of slavery. [Photo: 2 children looking to the right, off in the distance] Many of them had no choice, but do what they were told to do. [music] [Photo: 4 dirty boys] [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] There were volunteers in communities who were supposed to check in on the children. That was rather spotty as a process. For one thing, they were volunteers, [Photo: several children working in a field] and because children were property, even if someone went out to check [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] on a situation, it was much more likely that the adults would be believed [Photo: wooden barn] then that the child would be believed. [Photo: children working in a field] Furthermore there was a great disincentive to take children out of homes, because it was so hard then to know what [Photo: 3 children sleeping on steps by a barrel] to do with them. And so they would often leave children in situations that were not really the best for them. [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] It was an imperfect system, and what it meant is that [Photo: children working in a store] it was absolutely a roulette wheel. And the children had no choice about where they were going, and the people who took in the train riders were as varied as human nature. [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] There were very good people, the very kind people who took in train riders, and they were also people who weren't so [Photo: family at home, one child in separate room] good and kind. Even if the people who took them in were kind, they often treated them as a little bit less than family. One of the reasons we don't know much, that most people don't know much about the [Photo: boy, posing in field] orphan trains, is that the train riders themselves didn't realize that they were part of this large movement. [Photo: children posed, hanging out of train windows] A quarter of a million children go on these trains [Photo: map of orphan destinations] and most of them think that their train was the only one that went. So you can see why [Photo: Orphan Train Riders of Minnesota group picture, as adults] they didn't organize more quickly or reach out to each other. [Photo: "Orphan Train" book by Christina Baker Kline] I was so lucky when I began this book. There were a hundred and fifty living train riders. Today, there are probably between 10 and 20. It was such a gift. [Photo: close up of group picture of Orphan Train riders] I had access to living train riders and could interview them. [Photo: Pat Thiessen and another woman] Even at the age of 93, she felt the loss [Photo: Pat as a young girl] and the sort of sorrow. She said they were good people, but they were not my people. As one train rider said to me, [Footage: Christina looking at interviewer, off screen] "You know, we had been through so much turmoil and so much trauma." [Photo: young child sitting by a lamp post, selling newspapers] Every child who rode the Orphan Train had been through something terrible.Otherwise, they [Photo: children posed in front of & on top of a parked train] wouldn't have been there, because the trains were the last resort. [video ends - credits] ::Slide - 20th Century:: [Lynn] So moving forward a little bit. We have the orphan trains that were going, now we have, in 1921, The Child Welfare League of America was created, leading change around child-placing policies, standards of record-keeping, personnel training, and also placement practices. 1948, we have the first recorded adoption of an African-American child placed in a white home that took place in Minnesota. But simultaneously, it was still against social norms for white children to be adopted and raised in non-white homes. 1953 was first naturally coordinated effort to locate adoptive homes for African-American children. The National Urban League Foster Care and Adoption Project was the leader of this project. For a good part of the 20th century, African-American and birth -- African-American birth parents and children were denied adoption services by agencies because of their religion, race, or a combination of both. African-Americans had to rely instead on traditions of informal adoptions, basically, to take care of their own. Between the 1930s to about 1965, it was estimated that 50,000 African-American children were in need of adoption. During the 1950s, the US Children's Bureau that was established by Congress in 1912, initiated a number of programs around the country to begin recruiting non-white adoptive parents. Also in 1953, the MARCH which is the Minority Adoption Recruitment of Children's Homes in San Francisco recorded a high number of Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, and American Indian children reported as needing services on their caseloads. It was documented at the department of history at the University of Oregon in the year 1970 that adoptions reached a historical high of 175,000 children that year, with around a documented guess of around 2,500 transracial adoptions occurring within the same year. And I say historical guess, it's because when I was doing the research on this information, I found different numbers and it was just due to the fact that the recording of adoptions by race was not really enforced until 1948. And as we all know, sometimes the trickle-down of who is recording and how people are recording, and especially during that time, it may have taken a little bit longer for the records to be accurate. ::Photo - The Need for ICWA: The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978:: [Dominic] All right. So next we'll talk about the Indian Child Welfare Act. We'll play a clip first, and then I will give a brief history about it. And then we have one clip following that. [Video starts; music plays] [Opening photo montage: various totem poles at different angles & the Lummi Nation Administration Center sign] [Lutie Hillaire] Everybody that come to Lummi, I'll say "Well, who are you and what are you doing here? And how come you're here and away from home? What do you want?" [Footage: Lutie Hillaire - Lummi Elder, sitting at a table with another woman] And I do that to everybody. No matter who they are. [Footage: Grandparents Committee Lummi Nation - people sitting at table across from Lutie] I guess because we've [Footage: Lutie Hillaire - Lummi Elder, sitting at a table with another woman] been hurt so many times in our lives. As Native people and we have the mistrust. We have to, you have to gain your trust in order for some of us to speak. [Film clip: close ups of various Native students and a white teacher in a classroom] We were forbid to do our traditional beliefs, and our people were put to, put in jail for practicing our belief. [Film clip: barn & beach] It's not... easy [Footage: Lutie Hillaire - Lummi Elder, sitting at a table with another woman] thing to talk about. [Film clip: Native children posing with white adults] We were forced to go to school, kids were pulled out of [Film clip: Native baby's face being manipulated by white hands while Native woman holds baby] their homes. Some of them not even knowing, the families not even knowing where [Film clip: Native children standing at attention in uniform] their children were. [Film clip: white woman with 3 young Native children] The churches and the government took our kids and put them in foster care, [Film clip: Native child] foster homes. [Film clip: Statue of Liberty] [Narrator] I grew up knowing the terrible history that the US has with its indigenous people and my family. [Film clip: corn field] After centuries of stolen land and genocide, [Film clip: church building] our are people did not die out. [Film clip: train] We survived [Film clip: highway & bridge] an obstacle to Manifest Destiny. [Film clip: many older Native children walking around on a campus] So the US came up with a solution to get rid of us. [Film clip: Native adults in regalia with a white Santa Claus holding a Native child while other children watched] Absorb and assimilate. [Film clip: 2 groups of Navajo children described by C.L. Walker] [C.L. Walker] On the one hand, we have the Navajo as we find him in the desert. Few of these boys and girls have ever seen a white man, yet through the agencies of the government, they are being rapidly brought from their state of comparative savagery and barbarism to one of civilization. [Children sing "John Brown Had a Little Indian"] [Film clip: groups of Native girls marching in uniform] [Narrator] The Indian adoption project began in 1958 [Film clip: Native child] as a government effort to remove Native children [Film clip: 2 white children with drum and flag] from their families and place them in white homes. [Film clip: various shots of a court room - Congressional Hearing on Indian Child Welfare 1974] [Narrator] For decades, Indian parents and their children have been at the mercy of abusive action of local, state, federal, and private agency officials. [Man, testifying in Congress] Between 25 and 35 percent of All American Indian children are removed from their families. [Different man, also testifying] Welfare agencies seem to have operated on the premise that most Indian children would really be better off growing up non-Indian. It has been called by some cultural genocide. [video ends] ::Photo - The Need for ICWA:: [Dominic] All right. So just I mean they've given quite a bit of history there, but we'll talk about the Child Welfare, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. Prior to this act being put into law, between 18-- the 1880s and the 1930s, the policy in the United States towards Indigenous people was assimilation into white society by stripping them of their language, spiritual beliefs, foods, traditions, and families' lives were considered uncivilized. So missionaries and governments opened up boarding schools on and off reservations, forcing children to abandon their traditions. These actions of the United States government was identified as a culture of genocide as stated in the video. The culture couldn't survive without the children being able to carry on their traditions. Children who were forced into these schools or abused physically, mentally, emotionally, and also sexually. This act was created to help protect the best interests of Indigenous people and promote the federal standard for the removal of indigenous people and placing preference with Indigenous families or other indigenous people, which is other indigenous tribes, to maintain their sovereign rights and also legal powers. We have one other video that's going to talk about the legal ramifications of the Indian Child Welfare Act, and currently there is a debate in the Supreme Court whether or not to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act based on it being an act that is based on race or talks about sovereignty. So that is about three minutes. ::Video - 3 Minute Legal Talks:: [Throughout video, Stacey Lara looks into camera when answering questions showing on screen, asked by male voice] [Video starts; music plays] [Stacey Lara] My name is Stacy Lara and I'm an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Washington School of Law. [Narrator] Can you give a brief overview of the Indian Child Welfare Act? [Stacey Lara] The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 in response to the really egregious and tragic practice of unnecessary removal of Indian children from their families and their communities. The Indian Child Welfare Act was put in place to address this reality and to, in its passage, create certain protections for Indian children to remain in their homes. These include notice, so tribes getting noticed when one of the children have been removed from their family's home. It sets higher standards for service provision, so Child Welfare agencies or someone looking to -- a third party looking to an adopt a child needs to make active efforts to keep the family intact before removal, and to try and return that child home as soon as possible. It also creates higher standards of proof and creates a remedy in that it allows for the invalidation of a termination of parental rights if the law is not complied with. [Narrator] What are the issues concerning Brackeen vs. Haaland? [Stacey Lara] So this case presents three primary issues to the Supreme Court. The first is whether ICWA unconstitutionally discriminates on the basis of race by requiring state proceedings to give preference to, in its placement of Indian children, with that child's extended family, other members of the tribe, or Indian families rather than non-Indian adoptive parents. The second is whether ICWA in its implementing regulations constitutionally commandeers states or otherwise exceed Congress's Authority, and then the third is whether the authority the ICWA confers upon individual Indian tribes violates the non-delegation doctrine. [Narrator] What are the arguments for both sides of the case? [Stacey Lara] Well, under the Equal Protection argument, and it involves placement preferences that are component of ICWA. The Brackeen argument is that because ICWA applies to Indian children, it's a race-based classification. Many states are taking the position that ICWA's not about race. It doesn't apply because it's not based on racial identification. Tribal membership or enrollment is determined by the tribes themselves, and it is a political designation and that was established under Morton v. Mancari. On anti-commandeering, that doctrine, the Brackeen argument is that ICWA requires state agencies to spend money and resources, and in doing that it commandeers state governments, which would be a violation of the anti-commandeering. The response is that ICWA sets a minimum legal burdens, and that if Congress has the power to pass a law, it also has the power to require state judges to comply with and enforce it. And then with respect to the non-delegation doctrine, the Brackeen position is that Congress improperly delegates placement preferences to tribes. This response being that tribes are not administrative agencies. They're not private persons. They're separate sovereigns that have a sovereign-to-sovereign relationship with the United States government, and therefore that the delegation doctrine doesn't apply. [Narrator] Can you explain what the decision might mean for federal Indian law and Tribal sovereignty? [Stacey Lara] One commentator has said that they, this case could have revolutionary and catastrophic consequences. And I absolutely agree with that. There are hundreds of treaties that the federal government has made with Indian nations that are in effect and whether or not these can stand based on whether or not this law is considered unconstitutional really remains to be seen. If Congress can't distinguish between tribal members and non-members, that has a real potential to impact future litigation involving native tribes. It could impact gaming revenue, gaming rights, mineral rights, tribal recognition, really undermining Native sovereignty which has been in place since the very, you know, first days of this country. [video ends] ::Photo - The Need for ICWA:: [Dominic] So after watching that video if you have any comments ::Slide - Late 20th Century:: you would like to discuss towards the end of the presentation, definitely put that out there. I'll just kind of make note of one, is that it said that out of 374 different treaties already established with this, several, or different tribes throughout the United States, so that definitely kind of stood out. But we'll transition to the late 20th century here. [Lynn] Okay moving on. I'm going to jump a little bit to 1994. We have the Multiethnic Placement Act, which is the first federal law that prohibited agencies from receiving, that were receiving federal funds, for denying transracial adoptions. 1996 we have the Inter Ethnic Adoption Amendment, which is an amendment to the 1994 MEPA, Multiethnic Placement Act that I just discussed. It was revised and made it impermissible to employ race at all in -- within the adoption process. Then we have 1997, The Adoption and Safe Families Act. It was an act that enacted the health and safety of the child as paramount and very important through the adoption process, changing the view of also reunification. Then we have 2000 The Child Citizenship Act. It allowed certain foreign born adoptees to automatically become US citizens, eliminating the legal process. ::Slide - Adoption:: As we have discussed today, we've gone through a little bit a very, very brief touch on the history of adoption. When I say very brief, it is extremely extremely brief because throughout history there are a lot of dates, there are a lot of things that have changed. One thing about adoption, adoption throughout history has changed as society has changed and laws change. And we go through the history and find that adoption was influenced by nobility, politics, wealth, bloodline, and race, and all of these factors leading to oppression and discrimination within adoption practices within the US. [Dominic] So, moving... I would kind of be remiss if I didn't necessarily talk about grief and loss in this process because we understand that any time a child is removed, they experience adverse childhood experiences. And through that process of grief and loss, we know that these experiences could definitely be overshadowed if they're not addressed, and they could be perceived as symptoms of various mental health diagnoses. So with adoption competency professionals and also parents and individuals who serve adoptive families, post adoptive families, and biological families, this gives them the opportunity to be able to employ specific techniques to be able to work with those youth, work with those families, to be able to help understand those loss and trauma in the process and navigate through that grief, which is why it's important to kind of understand those 18 domains of adoption competency. We've only focused on the history today, but as we stated previously, we have a previous recording of adoption competency and the objective is to provide more information to help enhance the education around adoption competency as we move forward through this process. [Lynn] Now moving to the future of adoption. The future of adoption basically relies on all of us and every person that has been touched by adoption, whether in their professional life or in their personal life. Adoption competency helps to address the issues created by the past within adoption. And also as we shared a video on the Haaland -- well, the Brackeen and Haaland case, there are upcoming changes. So please stay informed, because all of this information is very, very important and pertinent to the progression of adoption and where we go from here. So we're nearing the end of our time today. But before we end, we want to address any questions that were put into the chat or any questions that anyone has at this time. So, please type your questions into the chat and we will try our best to answer them or direct you in a place to where we can find your answers and we can be of support. So do we have any in the chat? Any questions or anything that came through, Toya? [Toya Bell] Nope, not at this time. We have not. [Lynn] Okay. Thank you so much. [Bonni] We do have some good, good discussion and some responses to different things in the chat as well. And one thing I just wanted to point out. First of all, way to go Lynn and Dominic. Thank you guys so much. It was an incredible presentation. I learned something and I've been studying adoption for a long time. So I am super, super impressed and grateful. We do have a question now, in the chat. [reading] "Do we know what state originated with the ICWA Supreme Court case?" And Christy is fast on the draw responding with Texas. That it originated from Texas. Hey Lynn, I'm wondering if we can stop sharing the screen so we can see everybody's face. Awesome. Thank you. ::Attendees visible:: I also welcome you to unmute if you are interested in, and I'd love to hear just, reactions or thoughts of like what does this mean? Lynn and Dominic have done fantastic job of telling us what it means in the understanding of adoption as a whole. But what has it meant to you listening? And did you learn something? Was there something that you had not heard before? [Rae Scott-Petit] Well, the parallel between the orphan trains and slavery. [Bonni] Yeah. Yeah. And the impact of what, I think when you study the orphan trains and you think about the impact of the orphan trains, we look back at some of this history, and a lot of times you can see that came from, it came from a desire to help, right? Like it came from this sense of, there's a lot of children out here that need something. Something better than they have. But it was just we didn't, we don't always have the full capacity to understand the unintended consequences of the things that we do, and I think that's the most important thing about looking back at the history, is that we can see, "Oh wait, you know what we were trying really hard there, but we missed all this stuff that actually really created a lot of harm." And so then we learn from it, and we can, and we've changed a lot of things, but we still have things to change. We still have things to learn, and I think that's the most important aspect and why adoption history is one of the competencies within the 18 of Adoption Competent Understanding, is we have to always be aware of what we've done, what didn't work, and then how we need to adjust and how we need to really support identity formation. That's, I mean, the beautiful thing, the more in-depth we go about adoption competency, the more you see that they all weave together, and everything is important. All 18 areas that we, if you remember that slide, that big picture of the of the lens that you look through, because the history, what we've learned from those things that we went over today, helps us understand how important it is for us to tell a child their history, tell a child where they come from, what their cultural background is, celebrate that, honor that, and help them weave it into identity, their identity formation and who they are. And also be aware of that there's potential for some additional trauma just from realizing when we do learn these things. Education is a big deal for our adopted kids, and when they learn some of these historical things that our country has been through, and the adoption process, even if it's not specifically talking about adoption, it can hit with our kids and be like, "Oh, wait, what does that mean for me?" You know, so being able to, to have that full picture and understand how all these things weave together is so, so important. Thank you, Rae. Anyone else? [Dominic] I don't know if anyone caught in one of the videos, one of the individuals stated that their past didn't matter. That they, when they were selected is when their life began, and that, I think, Dr. already mentioned as far as like, identifi-- uh, identifying their past and who they are before they're being, before they've transitioned to adoption. So I thought that was very interesting that it was presented in that manner, that they couldn't find their history. They didn't know where they come from, who they were, and that it only started when they started working in some of the fields and doing service for some of the other farms. [Lynn] In doing the research, I was really able to see the switch from adoption throughout history, going from protection of the child, working within the family, to political, to basically bloodlines, to race, to politics, to... and it's, it was a nice way of looking and seeing the evolution of saying, "Okay. Now we're at adoption competency. We're looking at all of these things at the, that have influenced adoption throughout the years, but within adoption competency and those 18 domains, we're able to address all of the trauma, all of the misbelief, the language, the exclusive policies, laws, thoughts, procedures within adoption to really be there for the And for the bio parents. You want to build that triad, that triad of good communication, support, encouraging environment, and professionals that can work in the field and be there for the family the way that they need to in alignment with those adoption competency, the 18 domains. [Sandi Gillett] I was just going to say one of my biggest things, is that adoption historically, and is still a problem now, has always been to meet the adoptive parents' needs, and not the other way around. And we, I work for a foster care agency, and so a lot of people come to us and that's what, they're coming to meet their needs, complete their family. And so, historically it was like well, we need child labor we need political things, whatever it is, and I mean, that is the one thing if I could change about adoption is to start looking at, adoption should only be to meet the needs of the child in need of adoption, you know, and not the other way around. [Catherine Darko] And I think that's what's really good to like see and understand why, like in Child Welfare and Permanency, we have a lot of children, especially our teenagers, who will refuse the option of adoption, right? They don't want it. And we try to keep pushing, we try to keep talking, and I think this is really helpful to just stop and try to like understand and respect that, you know, it's not their people, they want their people. [Sandi Gillett] Yes. [Catherine Darko] And that was really, that was a really strong point for me. [Chris Copeland] Well, and it talks about, to your point, Catherine, a lot of times in our experience in Child Welfare, when we get to that point when they turn 18 or they age out or whatever the case may be, or get adopted, or whatever. A lot of times when they turn, become an adult, they'll return back to the their parents originally, whatever condition that may or may not be in. So that, that happens more often than not, but I know that's a lot to do with the connection they have for their family and has alot to do with like, historical trauma and everything and you know, and so they're just trying to relate back to what they know and how they were able to do that. [Bonni] Yeah, such good thoughts. And I just want to pull, go back a minute to Sandi's comment about, that so often we're thinking in the history of adoption, we've looked at the needs of the adoptive parents, especially if you're looking at the orphan trains and they're like, "I would like a blonde, blue-eyed, seven year old male," you know, and shifting it to thinking more of the child's needs, which I think has been a big, major, and pretty pervasive shift. Now. I've worked in a private adoption agency, I've worked with Child Welfare for the past 20 years, and that's really been a thing that's important to everyone now is, look at the child first. I think another thing I just want to add to that is, The pers-- the entity, Lynn mentioned the triad we talk about adoptive parents, adopted child, and biological family, and most often the biological family is really totally left out of the conversation, right? And some of that is understandable, because with, when a child has been in foster care then there's some reasons why biological family is not always included in the conversation when the child is then exiting foster care for adoption. But the problem with us totally leaving them out, is that that impacts the development of the child. That child, so many kids that I've worked with in private practice -- not private practice. I'm sorry. In therapy, with -- who have been adopted. I can't think of a child who was not processing, "Who I -- where I come from." Like Catherine, you said that, "My people," right, and understanding, "their blood is in me." I mean, I've heard so many kids talk about that. If they don't know who their biological family members are, and if those biological family members are not spoken of in an honest, but then also respectful way, then that language is then, is a part of the process of identity formation of who I am. And I've had many, many children really, like one one kiddo I can tell you about specifically, she didn't know she was adopted for a significant chunk of her life, about eight years until she found her adoption papers, and when she started asking questions to find out, you know more about her story of "Why was I placed for adoption? Why am I here?" Her, the response that she was given, out of fear, it's an understandable place, the adoptive parents kept telling her, "It's so bad, you don't want to know." Because they were trying to protect her. They thought it would hurt more. But then that became such a destructive thought inside of this kid, where she then filled in the pieces of the puzzle that she didn't have with the information that she would assume. And so she thought, "If it's so bad I can't know, then I'm gonna go to the worst possible thing humans do, and that is a serial killer. So my biological family must be full of, a bunch of serial killers. So then what does that mean for me? I am, I'm evil. They're, that blood is in me." And so then what, what do kids do? A lot of self-destructive behavior. And so it was very, very challenging for us to stabilize her, to stop the self-harming, the self-destruction, to help her to just take breath, a breath long enough to be able to hear us help her process through some of the gaps in her story and start to come up with all the other alternatives. So that's another big piece to this is understanding the whole triad. I see, Lynn, you put the, that beautiful graphic in the chat. Could you explain more of what that is? [Lynn] I, in doing a little bit of research, I found this as the adoption symbol. The adoption symbol is a very complex, basically what it is, is the essence that adoption is around three essential groups of people. It is the birth parents, the adoptive parents, and the adoptee. The symbol is represented by a triangle inter-- intertwined with a heart. The adoptee occupies the top-most point, where, while the birth parents and adoptive parents take up the bottom two points. So it signifies that both the birth parents and the adoptive parents are placing the adoptees, which is the child's interest above their own, and that the adoptee in theory shares same communication with adoptive parents, birth parents. So we have a triangle with the heart. So I wanted to put that in there as Dr. Bonni Goodwin was speaking about the triad and how important that triad is. We are at 12:58. So. I put the link to the survey in the chat. Please, please complete the survey for us so we can know, receive feedback, know different topics that you would like to discuss in regards to adoption competency. And we do have other events coming up, and there has been a link put into the chat. That Toya put into the chat for OKFosters. That website has all of our events that are coming up, that will be discussing adoption competency, that will be discussing trauma. That will be discussing, we also have a book clubs that we're doing. We're going to be creating support groups for post-adoptive families. So we have a lot of things coming. So once you click on that link, keep and bookmark that page because it's going to be a whole bunch more stuff coming and we really truly enjoy everyone that came out today. Is there anything else you would like to say Dominic, or Bonni in close, in closing? [Dominic] Just thank you to everyone who showed up. If you have any questions definitely reach out to us, if you're having ideas of things that you would like to learn more in regard to adoption, definitely let us know and we'll do our best to get that information out to you. [Bonni] Same here. Thank you guys so very much. It is a great conversation. And again good job Lynn and Dominic. Fantastic. It was great, great information. Appreciate it. [Lynn] It's 12:59. We are there. Everybody enjoy the rest of your lunch. Thank you. [Dominic] Have a good day.