Looking for Lost Bird: A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots

By Claire Safran and Yvette Melanson

Book Overview

Adopted on the black market, Yvette went to live with an affluent older couple in New York. They filled her days with piano lessons, ballet and art classes, and wished her sweet dreams in a canopy bed. But then love faltered, replaced by grief and rejection. Striking out on her own, Yvette went to Israel and sought comfort among Kibbutz friends and army comrades, then returned to the states, no closer to finding peace with herself. With deep yearning and wry humor, Yvette tells of finally finding her reality--a truth that she could never have conjured for herself. Moving to a hidden corner of the Navajo reservation, she is met by strangers who say they are her family. In the mystery of their ceremonies and in the daily rhythms of reservation life, she learns about Navajo spirituality, about medicine men and Changing Woman, about winds that whisper and ghosts that walk. This is the story of a woman yearning to fit into an unknown heritage. Even as she learns to weave Navajo rugs, she looks for ways to intertwine her Jewish faith and the Navajo one to lace the Biblical story of Adam and Even with the Navajo tales of the corn people. Exploring the secrets of identity and the meaning of family, she measures the ties of upbringing against the tug of blood. What she finds is faith, in all its forms, and love, in all its faces.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380976013
• ISBN13: 9780380976010
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: William Morrow
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Looking for Lost Bird: A Review

Looking For Lost Bird:A Jewish Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots.Yvette Melanson with Claire SafronBard Books. 233 pages. $22.00By Elliot FeinLooking For Lost Bird is a true story that is disturbing yet compelling. A Native American Navajo Indian woman gives birth on her reservation home in Arizona to twins, a girl and a boy. During their infancy, both children get sick. The mother takes the children to the nearest local hospital for a diagnosis.Hospital staff members instruct her that they will need to keep the two children over night for observations. When the mother returns the next day, the children are gone. The hospital has no record that they were ever admitted.The kidnapped infant children are each adopted in Florida by two different families. One of the families is a young Jewish couple that lives in a New York City suburb. Looking for Lost Bird is the story of the Navajo girl, Yvette Melanson, who is raised in that Jewish household.As an adult, Melanson discovers her Navajo origins and searches for her family roots. She finds her family (minus her mother, who died of a broken heart grieving for two lost children) still living on the Navajo reservation in which she was born. At the age of forty-three, Melanson decides first to visit her birth family in Arizona, then to move there permanently with her husband and two children.While adjusting to the reservation, Melanson learns and begins practicing the religion, culture, and way of life of her birth family. In this process, she abandons many of the Jewish cultural practices (but not necessarily Jewish values) in which she was raised.Melanson's Jewish parents (particularly her mother) provide a loving and caring environment for their daughter. In Yvette's recollection of how she was raised, their warts do surface, particularly the shortcomings of her father. After her mother becomes ill and eventually dies during her teen years, the father changes into a different, less appealing character.Melanson never reveals whether her Jewish parents knew about her Navajo origins. The reader is left to speculate whether the knowledge, if known by her Jewish parents that she was stolen from a Native American Indian family would have impacted their decision to adopt.What is surprising in the telling of this life story is the absence of any form of anti-Semitism by the author. When Melanson writes critically about her mother and father, she writes about them as individuals. She does not associate her criticism of them with Judaism as a faith tradition.On the reservation, when she begins taking on Native American Indian ways, Melanson naturally compares Navajo culture to Judaism. In this comparison, Melanson writes with respect, affection, and even admiration about the religious tradition in which she was raised.Melanson tells her life story (with the help of Claire Safron) with compassion, humor, and eloquence. I recently led a book club at my synagogue. A member of the club recommended

Wonderful story about loved ones being reunited!

Like many of the readers I couldn't put the book down until I read it from cover to cover. While reading the story I found out these people were my extended family! I know everyone mentioned in the book. As a youngster I remember the crusade of Aunt Desbah, Uncle John and others in finding the twins who were stolen as babies. I wept at the end when Yvette participated in the holy Hozhoji ceremony to be reunited with her birth place, family, culture, and environment. Very moving!Aunt Betty, Yvette's biological mother lived a very brave life as she longed and searched everyday of her life wanting to be reunited with her twins. May God bless her soul.

A beautiful journey of soul and spirit

I read this book from cover to cover in a few hours and wished it had gone on and on. It is a poignant yet heartwarming story of an American family. For many years our Native American people suffered immesurable pain as their children were stolen from them and often lost forever. This is a "happy ending" story of a joyful reunion! The emotions in all of the family members are deeply felt. Lost children are returned to their roots and the depth of love of these family members for one another is beautiful. This book is wonderfully written!

personal review

Yvette's oldest daughter Heather is my best friend...I bought the book with my own money and after reading this book right after I met Heather, I learned respect for them. Yvette is a second mother to me and it is amazing what she went through. Although the editor messed up some facts....99% of it is honest, its amazing what cold hearted things can happen to nice innocent people...

Enthralling story written from the heart!

LOOKING FOR LOST BIRD is an extreamly well-written book. Yvette takes us into the private details of her life - from growing up in a loving Jewish household, to her trials and tribulations as a fighter in Israel, to the difficult and rewarding search and homecoming to her "true" birth family. It was emotional to follow her journey on the roller coaster of life. She lets you in on the intimate moments of Navajo life, and how she was able to mesh it with her own ingrained beliefs. You find yourself laughing, crying, and wanting to encourage her family (both of them!) not to give up. I couldn't put it down! Living in Arizona, this book opened a new world for me - one I want to learn more about!