My name is Jacqueline Davis. I am one of six siblings affected by a decision made by the state of South Carolina. I am a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and my grandfather is Chief Dave Bald Eagle. My father, who is African-American, met my mom and married her while he was stationed in the Air Force. They eventually moved off the reservation to South Carolina. Their lives changed one day when my mother applied for WIC and the nurse realized that she spanked her children as a form of discipline. Their children were taken and placed in foster care. We were split in pairs. The charges were piled on, and our parents lost custody. The Bald Eagle family offered to take us on the reservation and for reasons I still don't know they were told our case had nothing to do with ICWA. I can remember my parents coming to visit us for years.

My mother would show us beadwork, and bring us hairpieces and other handmade gifts from our reservation. She would tell us what each color meant in the beadwork she had made. Then we would go back to our foster home, where we were being abused emotionally and physically. I was a teen when DSS cut off visitation. I can remember trying to make myself look more "black" because I felt like it something wrong with being Native American. I would cut my hair, put product in it to make it look coarse and threw away my hairpieces. I would just try anything to make myself fit because as I child I didn't understand what was so wrong with me. Our family was completely torn apart because no one would swallow their pride and admit they had made a mistake. As adults, the six of us have a void in our lives that no one can go back and fill. We have reconnected with each since 1999 and we still do not have answers as to why this happened to our family.