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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 1999)
. .fflSSSSfftT:«K^ f.%5v. :.•, I mmsimmmmmmmmssmmmesmmmmmmmi in wuh an. oal Ihe York ihildren. _ in a newspaper article. By then the adoption was final, and Grace had no recourse. v; The Reeves family Randolph Blackbird was placed with Dem and Barbara Reeves in Central City in November 1959, and on Dec. 30, 1960, he became Randolph Kirk Reeves. '>'»"■ The Reeves family, who are members bfV Quaker community, had applied to adopl a child more than a year earlier. ^ v' ^ Because they could have children of theirown, Don Reeves said, they were not high on the list. “We forgot about it and had another youngster of our ownf Reeves said. “Then they showed up with Randy Jlpriay” r % The Reeves had five children: two of their own; Randy and two more adopted children. “Randy was accepted by our extended family. and the community,” Reeves said. “He was always one of our kids.” Randy Reeves’ situation was unusual among American Indian adoptions, because the Reeves family provided a caring environment and present ed his heritage in a positive tight. “Now we realize that everyone underestimated the trauma of taking these kids from their home,” Don Reeves said. “But there is no hard evidence of this trauma in Randy’s life.” Don Reeves said Randy Reeves had some nor mal teen-age problems, but nothing unusual. The Reeveses sought counseling for him after he ran away at 14. and doctors found that Randy Reeves was “confused about his role in life. “Somehow he (Randy) has rejected being adopted by a white family, and although he doesn’t Id IK IUU 1I1ULI1 dL WU St, he feels different from his adoptive parents and on many occasions has rebelled against fbat,” said Ted Kawa, afisy chiatric social worker, in a letter to the proba tion officer who pre pared the pre-sentence report for Reeves’ cas6. Besides those pre conclusions, been little of the on Randy : yHe attend the haa Deepspsen trom their tarmiies revealed a con-’ sister pattern of psycho-social dysftmction.' v "Something on the inside is broken, and they can’t form bonds with other people,” said Carol Locust, the scientist who conducted the study for .^University of Arizona. .Jllniose taken before their fourth birthdays were loudest hit, she said. |g|t. Locust called these children “split feap^jjpp because they were split #om their heifeger^% W In all of the surveys, not one respondent Said Itheir parents had adopted the child because fey Wanted him or her, Locust said. _ ... - “Violence and theft were common among the split feathers, and sopie of the respondents were in prison,” Locust said. Today Phillips is in Washington, D.C., working with the Native Youth Alliance to Create a foster care system run by American Indians for American Indian children feen from their families. “I want to establish a safe place for our kids to go if they can’t be with their parents,” Phillips said. Ideally, the homes would be on a ranch or farm „ setting where children could work the land, he said. Phillips wants American Indian children to realize all the opportunities there for them and to gain an appreciation for their heritage. He doesn’t want them to be robbed of their cul ture like he and Randy Reeves were. “I don’t want our children to think that prison is the only place for them to go.” I eeves’ fate