If you have Native American ancestors, there is a chance that you may have a hard time locating information about one or more of your relatives. People in your family may refer to these mysterious folks as “Lost Birds” and they may be unable to provide you with any information about them because they have had as difficult of a time locating that information as you have.
The story of the Lost Birds is a tragic one. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, the Child Welfare Association and the Bureau of Indian Affairs got together and began a program of removing Native American children from their birth parents because they believed that the children would be better off if they were raised by non-Native parents. Of course, this thinking was shamefully incorrect and children were removed from parents that were perfectly fit to care for them. The Lost Birds often grew up knowing little to nothing about where they came from and once their past came to light it was difficult for them to find their way back to their birth parents and ancestral communities.
Fortunately, since the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, Native American tribes have been able to participate in matters of child welfare so that children could have their needs met by others within the tribes instead of being removed from their culture. It is unfortunate that the legislation was not passed sooner because the wholesale removal of Native American children from their birth parents for such a long period of time resulted in a large number of Lost Birds. With the increase in the amount of family history information available online, Lost Birds and other people with Native American ancestry that would like to find their family members are increasingly able to do so. I was able to find stories online about Lost Birds who had found their way back home, and I am glad that at least some of them made it home in time to meet their birth parents.
Photo by Robb on morguefile.com.