Aspects of Life – Thoughts and Conversations
Last September I spoke with author, editor and blogger, Deborah Kalb. It was the first interview I had done regarding the writing of Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption, and it was eye-opening for me. I’d finished writing the book, but I had not spent a lot of time reflecting on it; after three years […]
Last month, Carter Meland, Ph.D., wrote a fabulous review for Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption, noting that there are many ways to be Native. Transracial adoption was one of them. This is an important point to make. Our families and communities have become fragmented due to the atrocities committed by the U.S. government […]
Recently, I was interviewed for a radio program in Missoula, Montana regarding my research on American Indian transracial adoption. It originally aired on Montana Public Radio (MTPR.org) Tuesday, December 11th 2012, on the program In Other Words, which explores experiences through a feminist perspective. The interview looks at American Indian transracial adoption and its intersection […]
The Land of Gazillion Adoptees podcast conversation with Susan Harness, author of “Mixing Cultural Identities through Transracial Adoption: Outcomes of the Indian Adoption Project” We had this podcast conversation with Susan Harness right before LGA went on its little hiatus. So, yeah. It’s about a month old. However, it’s far from being dated. Take a […]
Even in third grade, Susan Devan Harness knew she didn’t belong in the white world. She already was being called “squaw girl” by classmates. Harness drew suspicious stares and was followed by employees every time she entered a store in the Montana town where she was raised. But it wasn’t until she was 14 that […]
Interview with Tara Gatewood at NativeAmericaCalling.com Adoption is a part of the storyline of many Native families and individuals. As one Native author who experienced adoption first hand writes, there is power in identity. Many Native adoptees are adopted out of their culture and are raised in another. For some, the journey back home can […]
Susan Devan Harness is an American Indian transracial adoptee. This identity is unique in that it is situated in a very specific time and place in American Indian history. Unlike other transracial/transnational adoptions, American Indian children were adopted through colonization and assimilation practices on home soil, creating tensions of race and culture. Running from 1958 […]
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – American Indian trans-racial adoptees often find themselves at the intersection of belonging and not belonging in today’s society. Colorado State University cultural anthropologist Susan Harness explored issues of ethnic belonging, social hierarchy and social memory and their impact on adult American Indian trans-racial adoptees – like herself – who were adopted […]