Adopting Native kids off to non-Native families was at the time regarded as in their best interest. Nobody had any notion of 'cultural genocide' in the 50s and 60s. When Jean Chretian was minister of Indian Affairs, he felt he had to more than just play lip service to Native welfare, so he adopted an 18-month old native boy. Does anyone really think he did it out of malice? The boy's mother
doesn't think so. She lived in a tiny house with 12 brothers and sisters and an alcoholic father when her son was born, and figured he would have a better life elsewhere.
It was a bad policy, in hindsight. But it wasn't a malicious one.
We face a terrible dilemma when it comes to the welfare of Native children. The choice is often between leaving them in toxic and abusive homes, or taking them out of their communities into family services or non-native adoption. It would be nice if there were lots of native families looking to adopt native children, but there aren't.