“Disastrous Adoption”? Representations of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Disability in Recent Native North American Writing

Abstract

Chapter 3 focuses on the adoption of children with a severe handicap, specifically Native North American children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The primary text examined is Michael Dorris’s The Broken Cord (1989), the autobiographical account of the adoption by a single father of a young Sioux child with FAS. Dorris’s account can be read in terms of what Marianne Novy has called the archetype of “the disastrous adoption,” an Oedipus-like tale of “disastrous” revelation. Critics of Dorris’s 1989 work point to the way he has framed his account within tropes of disaster, emphasizing the despair of the disillusioned adoptive father, and de-emphasizing the individuality and worth of his adopted son. Dorris’s work, moreover, can be seen as an instance of “out-of-tribe adoption” in that Dorris was not Sioux (he was, in fact, part Modoc). Since the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, there has been official recognition in US law that out-of-tribe adoption of Native adoptees by white families has threatened the integrity of tribal life, and that steps should be taken to support within-tribe adoption. Two texts by Native North American writers, Tomson Highway’s play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (1989) and Louise Erdrich’s novel Four Souls (2004) are then explored for their representation of Native children with FAS. In these texts the notion of out-of-tribe adoption is implicitly challenged and the benefits of within-tribe succoring are foregrounded.