“This law has helped us return home,” said Ms. White Hawk, who is also the author of “A Child of the Indian Race,” a memoir. “It has helped us to reclaim our spiritual wealth as Indian people.”For Mr. Stearns, the road to connect with his Navajo self was long and uneven. “His long hair made my mom suspicious,” Mr. Stearns said. Mr. Stearns said that his parents, who are both dead, never hid his adoption, and were proud that he was Navajo. “They were in it to show the love they had to a kid.” But Mr. Stearns could never breach a more personal chasm.

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