{"id":17201,"date":"2018-07-10T14:27:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T21:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=films&p=17201"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:32:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:32:56","slug":"dawnland","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawnland"},"content":{"rendered":"

They were forced to assimilate into white society: children ripped away from their families, depriving them of their culture and erasing their identities. Can reconciliation help heal the scars from childhoods lost? <\/span>Dawnland<\/i><\/b> is the untold story of Indigenous child removal in the US through the nation’s first-ever government-endorsed truth and reconciliation commission, which investigated the devastating impact of Maine\u2019s child welfare practices on the Wabanaki people.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wabanaki are the people who are there to greet the light, “the people of the dawn,” in the upper Northeast. For decades, Maine\u2019s child welfare system placed Wabanaki children in foster or adoptive homes under the presumption that assimilating into white society would improve their quality of life and give them a better future. Many children in the system suffered untold physical and psychological abuse. Their story brings to light how getting to the heart of the truth can offer a flicker of hope.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They were forced to assimilate into white society: children ripped away from their families, depriving them of their culture and erasing their identities. Can reconciliation help heal the scars from childhoods lost? Dawnland is the untold story of Indigenous child removal in the US through the nation’s first-ever government-endorsed truth and reconciliation commission, which investigated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":17202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1260,1239,1257,1225,1264],"class_list":["post-17201","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-civil-rights-2","topic-identity","topic-law-administration","topic-politics-and-government","topic-race-ethnicity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDawnland | Finding Reconciliation for Native American Child Removal | Independent Lens | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dawnland tells the untold story of indigenous child removal in which the stakes of family separation policy are no less than cultural survival.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dawnland | Films | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an untold story of indigenous child removal, the stakes of family separation policy are no less than cultural survival.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Independent Lens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-14T22:32:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dawnland-childhoodphoto-temp-sig-image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Dawnland | Films | PBS\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In an untold story of indigenous child removal, the stakes of family separation policy are no less than cultural survival.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/\",\"name\":\"Dawnland | Finding Reconciliation for Native American Child Removal | Independent Lens | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dawnland-childhoodphoto-temp-sig-image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-10T21:27:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-14T22:32:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"Dawnland tells the untold story of indigenous child removal in which the stakes of family separation policy are no less than cultural survival.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/dawnland\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dawnland-childhoodphoto-temp-sig-image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dawnland-childhoodphoto-temp-sig-image.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280,\"caption\":\"Georgina Sappier-Richardson (Passamaquoddy) holding her childhood photo; 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