2019 High Plains Book Award (Creative Nonfiction and Indigenous
Writer categories)Â 2021 Barbara Sudler Award from History
Colorado In Bitterroot Susan Devan Harness traces her
journey to understand the complexities and struggles of being an
American Indian child adopted by a white couple and living in the
rural American West. When Harness was fifteen years old, she
questioned her adoptive father about her “real” parents. He
replied that they had died in a car accident not long after she was
born—except they hadn’t, as Harness would learn in a
conversation with a social worker a few years later. Harness’s
search for answers revolved around her need to ascertain why she
was the target of racist remarks and why she seemed always to be on
the outside looking in. New questions followed her through college
and into her twenties when she started her own family. Meeting her
biological family in her early thirties generated even more
questions. In her forties Harness decided to get serious about
finding answers when, conducting oral histories, she talked with
other transracial adoptees. In her fifties she realized that the
concept of “home” she had attributed to the reservation existed
only in her imagination. Making sense of her family, the American
Indian history of assimilation, and the very real—but culturally
constructed—concept of race helped Harness answer the often
puzzling questions of stereotypes, a sense of nonbelonging, the
meaning of family, and the importance of forgiveness and
self-acceptance. In the process Bitterroot also provides a
deep and rich context in which to experience life. Â
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