Indigenous Children
Title: On Tribal Grounds: Indigenous Children Are Not for Sale
Subject: The illegal removal of Indigenous Children from their Families
Created: 2019
Medium: Graphic Design
Software: Adobe Illustrator CC
Dimensions: 48″x36″
Original Post: Print – Indigenous Children Are Not For Sale
Removal of Indigenous Children
“In the 1950s and ’60s, thousands of Native American children were adopted to white families. Because the adoptions were mostly closed, many of those children had unanswered questions about their birth parents and their identities.
Susan Harness of Fort Collins was one of those children. When Harness was 18 months old, social workers removed her from the Flathead Reservation in Montana and placed her with a white family. She wrote about the experience in her new book, “Bitterroot.”
Harness talked with Colorado Matters about how federal law concerning Native American adoptions has changed, and about the issues that still persist.
At one point, a third of all Indian children in the United States had been taken from their parents. Then, in the 1970s, Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act. The law put great emphasis on whether the child is a member of a tribe or eligible to be. Some say the act goes too far, though, and has been the center of several suits.”
– Colorado Public Radio, When Native American Children Are Adopted By White Families, It Isn’t Always A Happy Ending.
Download the 11″x8.5″ print (.pdf), On Tribal Grounds: Indigenous Children are not for Sale [Remix].
Close-ups
On Tribal Grounds
On Tribal Grounds is a series of artworks by Ihanktonwan Dakota artist David Bernie that addresses issues faced by Native American and First Nations communities when non-Native people access Reservations and Reserves.
Creative Commons License
On Tribal Grounds: Indigenous Children Are Not For Sale [Remix] © 2025 by David Bernie is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
