Rep. Christina Haswood, a Lawrence Democrat and member of the Navajo Nation, wants to solidify Indigenous rights in the state’s child welfare system, attempting to reduce inequality in a system long beset by racial and cultural disparities.
The United States has a long history of removing Native American children from their families and communities, stripping their cultural identities. Now that a 44-year-old protection is at risk, the threat of regression is ever present.
Three local Native adults who were adopted into white families as children shared their stories about the effects that cultural erasure has had on their identities and senses of community.
