{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2025}} {{Short description|Initiative of the US government, 1958–1967}} The '''Indian Adoption Project''' was an initiative of the United States government that led to thousands of Native American children being adopted by white families.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Palmiste |first=Claire |date=2011 |title=From the Indian Adoption Project to the Indian Child Welfare Act: the resistance of Native American communities |url=https://www.academia.edu/31141445/From_the_Indian_Adoption_Project_to_the_Indian_Child_Welfare_Act_the_resistance_of_Native_American_communities |journal=Indigenous Policy Journal |volume=XXII |issue=1}}</ref> Officially the program led by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, United States Children's Bureau, and Child Welfare League of America placed 395 Native American children with white families between 1958 through 1967.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Glaser |first=Gabrielle |date=2023-05-16 |title=The Brutal Past and Uncertain Future of Native Adoptions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/nyregion/indian-child-welfare-act-supreme-court.html |access-date=2025-09-19 |work=The New York Times |language=en}}</ref> However, thousands of native children were adopted through other agencies during the same time period.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Randhawa |first=PJ |date=2023-06-23 |title='Indian orphan nobody wanted gets parents': The dark history of the Indian Adoption Project |url=https://www.king5.com/article/news/community/facing-race/indian-adoption-project-dark-history/281-a21a5d07-b405-4342-a6d7-ba3d0a01921f |access-date=2025-09-19 |website=KING-TV |language=en-US}}</ref>
While initially seen as an exception to the standard practice of race matching during adoption, Native American advocates reframed it as a continuation of a legacy of "genocidal policies".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Herman |first=Ellen |title=Adoption History: Indian Adoption Project |url=https://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/topics/IAP.html |access-date=2025-09-19 |website=University of Oregon}}</ref> Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 in response to stop the practice and make it harder for native children to be adopted by non-native parents.<ref name=":1" />
== Legacy == The Indian Adoption Project was criticized by Margaret Atwood and others<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Gilbert |first=Sophie |year=2019 |title=Margaret Atwood Bears Witness |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/margaret-atwood-bears-witness/600796/ |magazine=The Atlantic}}</ref> as "the kidnapping of indigenous children", although most children were removed from their parents care through legal process,<ref name="Bascom-2007">{{Cite journal |last=Bascom |first=Karen |year=2007 |title=The Logic of Exchange: The Child Welfare League of America, The Adoption Resource Exchange Movement and the Indian Adoption Project, 1958–1967 |journal=Adoption & Culture |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=5–67 |jstor=44755459}}</ref><ref name="Briggs-2012">{{Cite book |last=Briggs |first=Laura |title=Somebody's children: the politics of transracial and transnational adoption |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8223-5147-4 |location=Durham, North Carolina |chapter=The Making of the Indian Child Welfare Act, 1922-1978 |doi=10.1215/9780822394952-003}}</ref> The Child Welfare League of America continued to assist in the adoption of Native American children even after 1967 when the program was ended.<ref name="Bascom-2007" /><ref name="Briggs-2012" />
In 1978, Congressional Hearings found that "the wholesale separation of Indian children from their families is perhaps the most tragic and destructive aspect of American Indian life today,"<ref>H.R. REP. 95-13896, at page 9 (1978).</ref> leading to the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Graham |first=Lorie M. |year=1998 |title="The Past Never Vanishes": A Contextual Critique of the Existing Indian Family Doctrine |url=https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1318&context=ailr |journal=American Indian Law Review |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=1–54}}</ref>
In June 2001, Child Welfare League Executive Director Shay Bilchik formally apologized for the Indian Adoption Project saying "No matter how well intentioned and how squarely in the mainstream this was at the time, it was wrong; it was hurtful; and it reflected a kind of bias that surfaces feelings of shame."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Understanding The Indian Child Welfare Act |url=http://www.icwlc.org/education-hub/understanding-the-icwa/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150411014043/http://www.icwlc.org/education-hub/understanding-the-icwa/ |archive-date=11 April 2015 |publisher=Indian Child Welfare Law Center}}</ref>
== References == <references />
Category:United States federal Indian policy Category:Foster care in the United States Category:Native American history Category:Adoption in the United States