According to the introductory remarks this has been going on for many decades, in both the United States and in Canada. Government welfare workers encounter a family of indigenous people, most often living in severe poverty, and decide the children would be better off being adopted by a white family, to "Save them from a life of poverty". It is referred to as children being stolen, and I suppose that is accurate.
This six-part mini-series focuses on one such family. The introduction says it is a true story but the end credits has the usual disclaimer of fiction so I don't really know how true it is, but it certainly seems authentic to what did happen often.
Darla Contois, an Indigenous (Cree-Saulteaux) writer and actress from Misipawistik Cree Nation, Grand Rapids, Manitoba, Canada, plays the key role as the adult Bezhig Little Bird. She is adopted by a Jewish family, and raised Jewish, and named Esther Rosenblum.
Ther first episode begins when Bezhig and her siblings are small, maybe 6 to 8 years old. They are playing outside their rural home when a police car passes by, the young boy shoots a slingshot that hits and cracks the windshield of the car. The kids are taken away after a brief inspection of their home.
Much of the middle episodes deal with Esther growing up and receiving her education. Her Jewish adopted mother is fully her mother but Esther never gives up on her goal to reunite her original family. The ending episodes deal with Esther searching for her now adult siblings and her mother.
This is a very worthwhile series, hard to watch at times because of how unjust the whole thing was. I found it on DVD from my public library, a set of two discs.
This six-part mini-series focuses on one such family. The introduction says it is a true story but the end credits has the usual disclaimer of fiction so I don't really know how true it is, but it certainly seems authentic to what did happen often.
Darla Contois, an Indigenous (Cree-Saulteaux) writer and actress from Misipawistik Cree Nation, Grand Rapids, Manitoba, Canada, plays the key role as the adult Bezhig Little Bird. She is adopted by a Jewish family, and raised Jewish, and named Esther Rosenblum.
Ther first episode begins when Bezhig and her siblings are small, maybe 6 to 8 years old. They are playing outside their rural home when a police car passes by, the young boy shoots a slingshot that hits and cracks the windshield of the car. The kids are taken away after a brief inspection of their home.
Much of the middle episodes deal with Esther growing up and receiving her education. Her Jewish adopted mother is fully her mother but Esther never gives up on her goal to reunite her original family. The ending episodes deal with Esther searching for her now adult siblings and her mother.
This is a very worthwhile series, hard to watch at times because of how unjust the whole thing was. I found it on DVD from my public library, a set of two discs.