In Episode 98 of “Red Hoop Talk,” Jennifer sits down with Sandy White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota), a nationally respected advocate whose life story has reshaped how the country understands adoption, foster care, and the long-term impacts of Native child removal. Taken from Rosebud at just 18 months old, Sandy grew up far from her relatives, culture, and sense of identity. Her adoptive home was marked by racial, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse — a reality she now speaks about openly to expose the cost of family separation on Native Nations.

Sandy’s early adulthood took her into the Navy, where she found belonging among Black servicemembers who understood the experience of being racialized and displaced. Sobriety, ceremony, and eventually returning home to Rosebud became turning points in her healing. That journey — from survival to reconnect ...