Some people have questioned my own path to Cherokee citizenship after the Warren letter. I have nothing to hide. My father was adopted pre-ICWA by a white family. We have gone through the slow, painful process of reconnecting & reclaiming citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.
I have written about it extensively. First, here in Indian Country Today: newsmaven.io/indiancountryt…
And then in Critical Ethnic Studies Journal, here: pepepierce.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/pierce…
And I spoke about it recently in the Teen Vogue article, here: teenvogue.com/story/cherokee…
I am part of the group of Native people who was removed from our communities. And never once, not ever, have Cherokee people said that I do not belong. Rather, my kin always said they were waiting for us to return. This is my own story, but there are thousands like it.
This is what makes Warren's appropriation of Cherokee heritage so insidious. Stolen Generations, the 60s Scoop, Lost Birds, we have to deal with people constantly questioning our "authenticity". And that is a racist, colonial way of denying our right to return to community.
My return to Cherokee community is a decolonial act. It is an assertion of Cherokee sovereignty. It is not, as some might think, flippant or opportunist. It has been profoundly difficult and slow and painful. This is the pain of colonialism that I bear in my own body.
So, for Native adoptees, children of Native adoptees, I see you. We see you. I'd recommend: Susan Devan Harness's memoir, Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption. Sandy White Hawk's tireless activist work, and Margaret Jacobs's history: A Generation Removed.
