Sandy White Hawk

Sandy White Hawk "Cokata Najinn Winyan" is a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. She is a writer, a speaker, and an activist. She is the founder and executive director of First Nations Repatriation Institute, the Elder in Residence at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she formed the First Nations Orphans Association, and she was named the 2017 Champion for Native Children by the National Indian Child Welfare Association

Early life
White Hawk talked openly in an article section titled, "A History Of Removal," referring to a time when Native people were taken from their birth families and put into boarding schools. “I cannot imagine the entitlement the social worker must have felt to walk into a family and just take a child,” she shared, adding, “I cannot imagine how emasculating it must have been for our men to watch that happen, and not be able to do anything [for fear of arrest]. My uncle remembers the social worker driving into our driveway, getting out of the car and taking me.”

As a child, White Hawk was adopted from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota to non-Native Wisconsin parents. In her book "A Child Of The Indian Race," she described in vivid detail the experience of being torn from her birth parents, and being put into a red pickup truck. The title of the book came from her adoption papers, and how they listed her as "a child of the Indian race." White Hawk was adopted into a white family and an early age. In 1988, she returned home to the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, and to her people, the Sicangu Lakota.

White Hawk shared, “When I first went home, my family actually said to me, ‘welcome home.’ My uncles sat me down and told me who I am.”

First Nations Orphans Association
Just prior to chapter 9 of Sandy White Hawk's book "A Child Of The Indian Race: A Story Of Return," she shares a story of the day she was given her Lakota name, Chokta Najinn Winyan (Stands in the Center Woman). There are many mentions of Chris Leith of Prairie Island Dakota. He was a well respected man, who had earned the right to wear a headdress, something only for those with great honor can wear. In this book he had been described as a great friend, who also advised on matters of the spirit. She shared with Chris, a vision she had. One where she saw fostered and adopted adults would be welcomed home with a song.

In this story, White Hawk writes about her idea for organizing a Welcome Home Powow for adoptees, and how her visions, friendships with spiritual guidance were the essential building blocks to forming the First Nations Orphans Association.

First Nations Repatriation Institute
The primary objective of the First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI) is to provide a support system for First Nations individuals affected by foster care or adoption. FNRI aims to assist them in returning home, rediscovering their roots, and reclaiming their cultural identity. Additionally, the Institute strives to enhance the abilities and expertise of practitioners who work with First Nations people.

White Hawk has dedicated herself to promoting healing and reconciliation within her community. She achieves this by organizing forums that bring together adoptees, fostered individuals, and their families, along with professionals. These forums aim to identify post-adoption issues and devise effective strategies to prevent the removal of First Nations children. Additionally, Sandra has initiated a support group for adoptees and birth relatives in the Twin Cities Area, providing ongoing support and resources to those who need it.

Legal Rights Center of Minneapolis
White Hawk serves on the board of directors for the Legal Rights Center of Minneapolis, whose mission is "to work with our communities to seek justice and promote racial equity for those to whom it has been historically denied.' The LRC was founded in 1970, by the efforts of Syl Davis (Northside Black community activist), Clyde Bellecourt (American Indian Movement), Doug Hall, and with assistance from Peter Dorsey.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Public Defender's Office was unable to cater to the needs of low-income communities and communities of color effectively. As a result, there was a growing desire for a law firm that could serve these communities as an alternative. This was due to the public defender's office being overburdened and not held accountable for protecting the needs of its clients in many ways.

Association for American Indian Affairs
The Association on American Indian Affairs has served Native Country as a non-profit organization since 1922. The Association's primary objectives are protecting sovereignty, preserving culture, educating youth, and building capacity. It was established to steer federal policy away from assimilation, termination, and allotment towards self-determination, self-sufficiency, and sovereignty. With over 100 years of history, the Association has been advocating for national issues that support culture and sovereignty while also working closely with Tribes at the grassroots level to help implement programs that have a direct impact on people's lives.

The Association is led by a Board of Directors composed of Native Americans from different parts of the country, including Sandy White Hawk. As a membership organization, the Association speaks with a collective voice of Native and non-Native members to safeguard sovereignty, protect cultural heritage, promote education among the youth, and enhance the community's capacity.

The organization launched a podcast series named "Red Hoop Talk". The podcast features various special guests, panels, and open talking circles to discuss the ways in which Native individuals strive to preserve their culture and promote "self-determination and sovereignty for Native Country." White Hawk was one of 4 guests in an episode of Red Hoop Talk's "favorite women" for Women's History Month.

Truth And Reconciliation Commission work

 * Commissioner for the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
 * Honorary Witness of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools in Canada.

Cited in studies
Sandy White Hawk has been cited in numerous studies focusing on the reunification of American Indian families and the experiences adopted and fostered individuals where victimization had played a significant role in the prediction of reunification. She was cited a study exploring the differences in the social connection to tribe and tribal enrollment of American Indian fostered and adopted adults in 2018 in Children and Youth Services Review. The study showed that reunified participants were 8 times more likely to be enrolled

In February 2024, the academic journal, Child Abuse & Neglect, published a study titled "Longing to belong: The ambiguous loss of Indigenous fostered/adopted individuals." Indigenous Elder, White Hawk guided the study and contributed her expertise and experience to the project. She conceptualized the idea for the study, having spent many years facilitating adoptee support groups and welcoming home ceremonies in the Indigenous community. She also played a key role in developing the open-ended questions analyzed in this study and in collecting the original data.

Also in 2024, The Experiences of Adopted and Fostered Individuals Project conducted an analysis of data collected from 70 Indigenous individuals who had been fostered or adopted and went through reunification during their adulthood. To examine the experience of reunification, researchers employed inductive thematic analysis on the open-ended survey data provided by the participants. The study and its findings were published in volume 148 of Child Abuse & Neglect. White Hawk and her organization, FNRI were cited.

In 2021, in an earlier edition of the same academic journal, White Hawk and the First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI) were cited in "Abuse after abuse: The recurrent maltreatment of American Indian children in foster care and adoption," where some findings published highlighted that American Indian children were "more likely to report physical maltreatment, sexual maltreatment, and spiritual maltreatment recurrence."

in 2015, An article from the journal, First Peoples Child & Family Review, first published "Finding their way home: The reunification of First Nations adoptees." The FNRI and White Hawk were cited  in this study to help explain that First Nation adoptees have more than a biological or birth family to return to, but also ancestral land and a tribe. According to adoptees, establishing a strong connection with their extended family and community plays a significant role in improving the experience of reunification.

Speaking engagements and training
White Hawk has been on panels and has spoken a numerous conferences across the United States. She continues to tell her story and advocate for others. In November 2023, she was the Keynote speaker at Washington State's Fourth Annual Indigenous Children Youth and Family Conference.

Tribal Training and Certification Partnership (TTCP)
White Hawk is a consultant and community trainer for the Tribal Training Certification Partnership for the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). The Tribal Training and Certification Partnership offers training and certification programs to Minnesota's child welfare workforce regarding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act (MIFPA). ICWA is a federal law that mandates the involvement of American Indian children in specific cases. MIFPA is Minnesota's version of ICWA, which offers enhanced protection to American Indian children, families, and tribal nations. All social workers must possess adequate knowledge of MIFPA, a state law that is applicable to ICWA cases, to ensure its proper application. The TTCP also trains the Minnesota Guardian Al Litem Program.