Hearts On The Ground: Bring Lakota Children Home

as a mom you want to be able to protect your kids and when you're stripped of that I didn't know how to be without my kids I still don't this is South Dakota so they had warehouses full of Indian kids and they're still there today I mean Indian kids after any kid was taken away from their parents and for your adoption the state can come in and take kids any time of the day any time of the night so there'll be more children going to the master room that's how it works that's how abusive these foster homes are they took the boys exactly one week after Eden's first birthday that was the hardest thing thinking about them waking up the next morning not knowing where they're at crying thing was happening so fast they took my boys they took they took my old lady they took me they they stun gunned me that night I had scars up and down my legs I was beaten I was thrown in a Cell and when I got up my whole life was turned upside down what was really about that night wasn't so much what I was going through you know it was what what didn't happen that was supposed to happen I mean according to the laws that are that are in place today whereas if a family member is present they can take the child well there wasn't one - there was like three or four older Native American adults that weren't even a part of the situation we're in that were that could have taken took in the children the police the police immediately told them no these kids are going to DSS when they took my grandson's I came to see what was going on and I went to see the the two boys after social services with my son well when I told the court that I was the grandmother and I was there to get my grandsons to take him home they told me I had to adopt my grandsons and before I could see them I had to take fostering and adopting classes I did everything they said I complied with them I did their classes I did the home visits I got in a house I rented a house so you know what they can they can pull all these little strings and Yuri are the puppets and what we do doesn't matter anyway you know they could give us a loop we'll jump through that but it then is doing something good no matter what we do it's never gonna work that day in court severed our rights and then I was expected to go and say goodbye I was told I had an hour to say goodbye to my kids and tell them that you love them and it's not their fault I have an hour with my kids can you tell you want me to tell them that I'm sorry I just wish they'd give my grandsons about you know if if there was guns if there is big drugs if there was prostitution or all that yucky stuff going on in my son's home I could see them you know taking the children away but over just some argument and fighting to break up this family the goal of social services of DSS is not to tear families apart it's for reunification of families and keeping that family unit whole so why aren't they doing that here in South Dakota if you're if it was being followed no native child shouldn't be placed with a non-native family now that they're bad but it should be they should be with their own with their people with their to learn their culture to learn their history who they came from hopefully where they're going to and they should be always around they're Jewish by either family a child believes that his father and mother are strongest people in world do parents take care of them and you know all nutrients that makes them respect them and appreciate them whenever they think their parents are strongest people in the world then DSS come and slap some sight and you know it says you're doing that wrong after dress and you either straighten up I'm gonna take these kids away put you in jail and all the respect the old appreciation it's all gone they were giving me these drugs like you know Prozac and two other ones I didn't even know the names of which scared me because I don't even know what I was taking you know they just basically said hey take this and if you didn't take it they would physically restrain me and throw me in my room and not let me you know you know for extended period of time until I wanted to take the medication I don't remember any doctor you know sitting down and saying this is what you're taking anything they just kind of like conveniently come up to me and say hey here this is a new court-ordered you know medication that you have to take because of such-and-such whatever you know behavioral report or whatever and then be like this is what you're taking now and they I didn't see a doctor I didn't have consent my mom didn't have consent they basically just said you take this or you're in trouble someone you were taking when you're little why were you taken away I know they taught me well what they had told me was that my parents don't want me anymore pretty much well that my mom don't want me anymore and that nobody really cared at the time yeah you from your mom from your family what did you want more than anything Oh to be honest when I was in placements and stuff like that I just wanted to die to be honest some kids I'm overage right now that are living in dire straits that are our Caucasian they're left there you put a Indian or indigenous person same exact situation 100% of the time they're gonna get taken and told they're unfit push for a parental right termination I feel like is I have to go to the hospitals and give these booklets out to these Indian girls to tell them this is what you need to do if you ever get your kids taken away here you have a manual for learning how to breastfeed and all this kind of stuff well here's a manual to get your kids back they make money off of our kids the more Indian kids they have in the system the more money they get every day I you know I go through this every day you know I I don't cry every day I don't bust it up every day but every day in my heart you know I I know there's something wrong something that isn't right you take a man's firstborn son away from him firstborn son my pride and it's tough to I've pride anymore like what they've done to that mother and they've done to myself and I can't even see my grandkids how do you undo blood how do you undo that how can you say those are no longer members of your family how could they undo that there's a there's a saying our nation is not lost until all of the hearts of its women are on the ground they may be broken tonight on the ground yet and piece by piece we're picking them up fighting them back together until then all we can do is hold it close and hold the babies we have closed

Channel: ProgSourceCom

Views: 51,710

Rating: 4.908092 out of 5

Keywords: Progressive Source Communications, LPLP, Lakota Peoples LAw Project, Kalyanee Mam

Id: jEsz7z74oqM

Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 16 2013