Sandy White Hawk "Cokata Najinn Winyan" (born 1953) is a Native American (Sicangu Lakota) writer, speaker, and indigenous rights activist.
In her memoir, A Child Of The Indian Race, she recalls being forcefully removed from her birth parents and being put into a red pickup truck by a social worker.
White Hawk's founding of the First Nations Orphans Association was inspired by a vision she had of fostered and adopted adults being welcomed home with a song.
[9] 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".
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.
[14][15] In February 2024, the academic journal, Child Abuse & Neglect, published a study titled "Longing to belong: The ambiguous loss of Indigenous fostered/adopted individuals."
She conceptualized the idea for the study, having spent many years facilitating adoptee support groups and welcoming home ceremonies in the Indigenous community.
To examine the experience of reunification, researchers employed inductive thematic analysis on the open-ended survey data provided by the participants.
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.
During the conference, White Hawk facilitated, "a special meeting intended for American Indian and Alaska Native adoptees, former foster children, and birth parents.
[21] White Hawk is a consultant and community trainer for the Tribal Training Certification Partnership for the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD).