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"The Past Never Vanishes": A Contextual Critique Of The Existing Indian Family Doctrine, Lorie M. Graham

American Indian Law Review

I don't know my own culture, . . . I am going to need your help in understanding . . . . Teach me, teach my children. These are the words of a forty-three-year-old Navajo woman on her first visit back to the Navajo Nation since her birth. Stolen as an infant, along with her twin brother, and adopted out on the black market, she was finally reunited with her family and community. Her journey home comes at a time when Native American nations are fighting proposed legislation and court-made rules that seek to limit the reach of the Indian …