Category: Indian Freedom of Religion Act

Indigenous Adoptions

Over 400 men and women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who were adopted by American parents from Chile during the reign of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) are finding each other. They are learning that their biological mothers were told that they had died in childbirth, and that their numbers might be in the thousands. It was apparently an effort by Pinochet to reduce the numbers of poor children and bring in US currency, an effort aided and abetted by Chilean bureaucrats and medical personnel. Read The Article

Alvin at the Holy Days–Indian Freedom of Religion

I had a phone call the other day, from a retired pipe fitter in Seattle who discovered Cayuse roots years ago, made friends with some Lakota people, and now puts on a Blue Mountain Sun Dance near here each summer.

I met him on Facebook—this might be a first for me—when I saw a post about a coat drive for people on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Turns out that Alan Cliff has been collecting coats and blankets and will make a run to the Pine Ridge after the first of the year. Our Rotary Club here does a “coats for kids” program, and I thought we might be able to help.

At any rate, Alan called me, and in the course of the conversation I mentioned that Alvin Josephy was my mentor and that I am now custodian of the Josephy Library. Alan knows all about Alvin, especially about his 1969 “white paper” for the Nixon Administration advocating Indian self-determination. Read The Article