Adoption’s Hidden History: From Native American Tribes to Locked Lives

Adoptions are finalized daily across America. Like the root system of a giant oak, tentacles of its history are submerged in years of human experience. Native Americans adopted children and adults into their tribes before pilgrims settled in the New World. Early-day adoption advocates took detailed notes of tribal organization leading to adoption's acceptance by the general population. Using Oklahoma as an example, this study details how state leaders promoted adoption as a way to cope with an expanding number of orphaned and neglected children, as well as unmarried, pregnant women. Instead of tightening adoption laws to protect children, legislators established amended birth records and sealed the child's original name, date and place of birth. "Adoption's Hidden History: From Native American Tribes to Locked Lives" gives adult adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents and adoption professionals many "aha" moments. It is the back story of every adopted person.

Mary S. Payne is an adoptee and an adoption rights advocate for people who were adopted as children. She has been a private investigator for over 15 years and has served as an Oklahoma Department of Human Services confidential intermediary since its inception in 1997. She has also testified about the impact of adoption before various state legislative committees. ＂There’s a taboo of silence surrounding adoption. Even now, as an adult, I find it difficult to talk about. ’Adoption’s Hidden History’ is my coming out. I was adopted in the 1940’s, after 18 months in foster care. My parents were told I would be ’just like their own child.’ While trying to fit in, I continued to feel broken even into adulthood. Getting a copy of my pre-adoption birth record brought a sense of wholeness. After researching my own story, I was consumed with learning every event that precipitated changes in adoption law impacting all adoptees. This book and its companion volume, ’Adoption’s Hidden History: Steps to Sealing the Records, ’ is the result of that incredible journey.＂