Sandy White Hawk

Sandra "Sandy" White Hawk, Lakota name Cokata Najinn Winyan (born 1953), is a Native American (Sicangu Lakota) writer, speaker, and indigenous rights activist.

She is the founder and executive director of First Nations Repatriation Institute, the Elder in Residence at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she formed the First Nations Orphans Association, and she was named the 2017 Champion for Native Children by the National Indian Child Welfare Association

Early and personal life White Hawk was born in South Dakota on the Rosebud Indian Reservation,

White Hawk continued to struggle into her teenage years, beginning to drink and to do drugs. In the 1976, she gave birth to a daughter, Dyani White Hawk. Beginning in 1980, she entered recovery and got sober. On May 3, 1982, White Hawk and John Reynolds had a son, John Asher Reynolds. John dedicated his life to Dakota language preservation and land management, and died on October 20, 2024, at age 42.

In 1988, she returned home to the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, and to her people, the Sicangu Lakota. White Hawk shared, "When I first went home, my family actually said to me, ‘welcome home.’ My uncles sat me down and told me who I am".

First Nations Repatriation Institute White Hawk founded the First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI) in Minneapolis in 2012.

White Hawk has dedicated herself to promoting healing and reconciliation within her community. She has organized forums that bring together adoptees, fostered individuals, and their families, along with professionals. These forums aim to identify post-adoption issues and devise effective strategies to prevent the removal of First Nations children. Additionally, she founded a support group for adoptees and birth relatives in the Twin Cities Area, providing ongoing support and resources to those who need it.

Legal Rights Center of Minneapolis White Hawk serves on the board of directors for the Legal Rights Center of Minneapolis, whose mission is "to work with our communities to seek justice and promote racial equity for those to whom it has been historically denied".

Association for American Indian Affairs White Hawk serves on the board of directors of the Association on American Indian Affairs, which has served Native Country as a non-profit organization since 1922. The Association's primary objectives are protecting sovereignty, preserving culture, educating youth, and building capacity.

White Hawk has appeared on Red Hoop Talk, the organization's podcast. She was one of four guests for the podcast's Women's History Month episode.

Truth And Reconciliation Commission work

White Hawk was a commissioner for the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In February 2024, the academic journal, Child Abuse & Neglect, published a study titled "Longing to belong: The ambiguous loss of Indigenous fostered/adopted individuals." Indigenous Elder, White Hawk guided the study and contributed her expertise and experience to the project. She conceptualized the idea for the study, having spent many years facilitating adoptee support groups and welcoming home ceremonies in the Indigenous community. She also played a key role in developing the open-ended questions analyzed in this study and in collecting the original data.

In 2021, in an earlier edition of the same academic journal, White Hawk and the First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI) were cited in "Abuse after abuse: The recurrent maltreatment of American Indian children in foster care and adoption," where some findings published highlighted that American Indian children were "more likely to report physical maltreatment, sexual maltreatment, and spiritual maltreatment recurrence."

in 2015, An article from the journal, First Peoples Child & Family Review, first published "Finding their way home: The reunification of First Nations adoptees." The FNRI and White Hawk were cited in this study to help explain that First Nation adoptees have more than a biological or birth family to return to, but also ancestral land and a tribe. According to adoptees, establishing a strong connection with their extended family and community plays a significant role in improving the experience of reunification.

Writing White Hawk released a memoir, A Child of the Indian Race, in December 2023.

In her role as Founder and Director of the First Nations Reparation Institute, White Hawk participated at the 42nd Annual Protecting Our Children Conference in April 2024, put together by the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). During the conference, White Hawk facilitated, "a special meeting intended for American Indian and Alaska Native adoptees, former foster children, and birth parents. Birth parents are parents whose children were adopted out. Birth relatives are relatives who have a sibling, cousin, or other relative who was or is adopted out or in foster care." In her capacity as a trainer and speaker, White Hawk also led a group on Community Healing–Community Building.

On October 16, 2024, led and workshop called "Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation in Indian Child Welfare" focusing on the psychological outcomes for adoptees and former foster children, in an effort to provide a better understanding to service providers in the industry.

Tribal Training and Certification Partnership (TTCP) White Hawk is a consultant and community trainer for the Tribal Training Certification Partnership for the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). The Tribal Training and Certification Partnership offers training and certification programs to Minnesota's child welfare workforce regarding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act (MIFPA). ICWA is a federal law that mandates the involvement of American Indian children in specific cases. MIFPA is Minnesota's version of ICWA, which offers enhanced protection to American Indian children, families, and tribal nations. All social workers must possess adequate knowledge of MIFPA, a state law that is applicable to ICWA cases, to ensure its proper application. The TTCP also trains the Minnesota Guardian Al Litem Program.