The Sixties Scoop: The Real Deal

          It is no question that Aboriginal people have gone through great turmoil ever since European contact. However, during a time in the 1960's, countless Native parents went through the ultimate suffering of losing their children, who were forcefully taken from them and adopted into more “suitable” families. A consensus was held among the white community that primitive and culturally stumped Aboriginal parents were unable to provide proper care for their children. People’s colonialistic mindset fueled their belief that, for the benefit of Native American children, it was best that they were liberated from their "barbaric" traditions and placed into a home, where they could attain a proper education, mature into “civilized” adults, and assimilate into a more "sophisticated" lifestyle.

          Such an isolation from their original roots led transracial adoptees to feel segregated from society. Aboriginal children did not possess knowledge of their Native American cultures, since they were brought up in families that neither knew, nor cared about building a positive understanding of one’s heritage. Simultaneously, Aboriginal youths did not integrate very well into the white, middle-class, suburban communities they were placed in, and were frequently moved from foster home to foster home. Native children were often taunted and discriminated against, due to their differences. Consequently, many developed uncertainties towards their own identities, since they felt that they fit in to neither ethnic group.

          Unfortunately, abuse was not an uncommon occurrence in the foreign homes of these children. Many foster parents treated Native children with little concern for their dignity or well-being. They were frequent victims of slave labour and sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Constant exposure to such mistreatment resulted in low self-esteem amongst these individuals, since they began to feel as though they actually deserved this brutality. As a result, adoptees were traumatized to such an extensive degree that they resorted to alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and suicide as ways of numbing their pain.

          However, not all hope is lost for the victims of forced adoption. Organizations such as Origins Canada are attempting to facilitate the cultural "re-integration" of the lost Native children to their rightful families. On their website, they state: "There are lots of adult adoptees searching for families, and families searching for adoptees. As a result, several First Nation/aboriginal reunification programs have sprouted up in Canada" (originscanada.org). Along with these helpful programs, there are two known lawsuits that have come about in the past 3 years. It can only be hoped that once they are addressed, the victims of the Sixties Scoop will have finally been brought to justice, and, perhaps, brought to their true homes.

Timeline of the Sixties Scoop

1966	The Canadian federal government, alongside the government of Manitoba, implements a child welfare system to 14 Aboriginal bands in southern Manitoba, thus marking the beginning of the Sixties Scoop.
1971-1981	Over 3400 Aboriginal children are sent to become implemented into white families.
1981	38% of the adopted Native children are sent to the United States.
1983	The numbers of Native adoptees are at their peak in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
1990	By this year, a total of 11,132 children have been adopted as a result of the government's child welfare system.
2010	A lawsuit is filed against the federal government by native groups in Ontario.
2011	A similar lawsuit is filed in British Columbia.

Statistics of the Sixties Scoop and Subsequent Native Adoptions

v    In 1955, there were 3,433 children in the care of British Columbia’s child welfare branch, only 1% of which were of Aboriginal ancestry.

v By 1964, 1,446 children in the care of British Columbia’s child welfare branch were Native, which was 34.2% of all adopted children in B.C. at the time.

v Over 3,400 Aboriginal children were shipped away to adoptive parents in other societies, and sometimes in other countries between 1971 and 1981 alone.

v During 1983, Aboriginal children represented 40% to 50% of children in care within the province of Alberta alone.

v 60% to 70% of children in care in Saskatchewan were of Indian descent in 1983.

v In 1983, Native American children constituted 50% to 60% of children in care within Manitoba.

v Statistics from the Department of Indian Affairs reveal a total of 11,132 Canadian-status Indian children adopted between the years of 1960 and 1990.

v Aboriginal children were 4.5 times more likely than non-Aboriginal children to be in the care of child welfare authorities in 1983.

v 70% of Aboriginal children that were adopted were placed in non-native homes.

v In 1981, 38% of adoptions among Indian children were assigned to parents residing across the Canada-United States border.

v 17% of Métis adoptions in 1981 made a placement in the United States.\

v Throughout 1960-1980, 3000 children from Manitoba were adopted to Non-native homes.

v In 2008, 51% of all children in the care in B.C.'s child welfare program were Aboriginal, even though Aboriginal people comprised only 8% of B.C.’s population.

v Approximately 27,000 aboriginal children were placed in foster care in the year 2000.

v 85% to 95% of aboriginal trans-racial adoptions ultimately fail by the time the adoptee reaches adolescence.

Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child

Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child by Alanis Obomsawin, National Film Board of Canada

Between 7:50 - 13:00, substantial information is given about the case of a young boy named Richard Cardinal, who committed suicide on account of the badgering depression of his life as a foster child.

Works Cited

Obomsawin, Alanis, dir. Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child. 1986. Film. 

20 Oct 2012. <http://www.nfb.ca/film/richard_cardinal/>.

Dolha, Lloyd. "First Nations Drum." First Nations Drum. (2009): n. page. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/?s=sixties scoop>.

Hanson, Erin. "Sixties Scoop." Indigenous Foundations. University of British Columbia, n.d. Web. 20 Oct 2012. <http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/government- policy/sixties-scoop.html>.

Manitoba. Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission. Child Welfare. Web. <http://www.ajic.mb.ca/volumel/chapter14.html>.

Sinclair, Raven. "The 60's Scoop." Origins Canada. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct 2012. <http://www.originscanada.org/the-stolen-generation/>.