The Broken Cord

In his 1989 autobiography, The Broken Cord, Michael Dorris details his experience of becoming an adoptive father to a three-year-old Native American boy with fetal alcohol syndrome. Through his paternal lineage, Dorris is part Native American. In 1992, the book was made into a for-TV film that aired on ABC.

The book starts out in 1971, as Michael is a young, unmarried anthropologist in his twenties. About to start on an exciting academic career, Michael suddenly decides that he wants to become a father. Though he has no partner, he applies to adoption agencies and is eventually approved. Soon after, he is informed that a three-year-old Native American boy is available for adoption. He is also told that the boy has severe mental deficiencies, but Michael’s desire to become a parent is such that he is undeterred by this news and agrees to take the boy straight away. Michael flies from his home in New Hampshire to the adoption agency in Pierre, South Dakota. Here, he meets his son for the first time, a smiling and affectionate boy whom he calls Adam.

Adam is small for his age, but immediately affectionate towards Michael, calling him “daddy” the first time they meet; they form an instant bond. The boy has serious health issues, both physically and mentally, including curvature of his spine and a smaller than normal cranium, disproportionately large joints, and he is subject to seizures. The first time he experiences a seizure, it is so severe that it nearly kills him; he is then put on medication to prevent the recurrence of severe seizures. A slow learner, he seems to be incapable of retaining the information that he is given. By the time Adam is five, he has not yet been properly toilet trained or learned to tie his own shoes. His lack of progress proves frustrating to his day-care supervisors as well as his adoptive father.



The book goes on to describe the next ten years of Michael’s life, in which he becomes the head of the Native American Studies Program at Dartmouth College, forges a career for himself in the academic world, marries the part-Native American novelist Louise Erdrich, and adopts another son and a daughter. Michael persistently works with Adam, determined to teach the boy and desperately seeking a sign that Adam is gifted in some way that compensates for his detriments. In spite of his slow learning process, Adam’s teachers adore him and often pretend to see signs of progress, giving his father some glimmer of hope. Michael rejects the idea that Adam is mentally retarded, insisting that he is just slow, due to the fact that his birth parents were both alcoholics, his mother no doubt drinking while Adam was in the womb, and abandoning him shortly after his birth.

Michael describes his journey toward accepting his son’s deficiencies, believing that due to the abuse that Adam had suffered as a child, he was just behind children who had been given a better start in life. Michael firmly believed that if he could just identify what was preventing Adam from learning, then he could find a solution to help the boy. He refused to accept the diagnosis provided by multiple evaluators that Adam’s cognitive abilities were permanently limited.

While visiting a Sioux community in 1982, Michael noticed three young boys who looked remarkably similar to Adam. He realized that all of these boys suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. As suspected, Adam’s mother had consumed alcohol during crucial stages of her pregnancy, permanently altering her child’s development. This realization forces Michael to accept that Adam would never live a full life and would never be a “normal” child.



After coming to terms with the cause of his son’s affliction, Michael began researching the condition, traveling to conferences, and doing whatever he could to gain a better understanding of FAS. He came to understand the complicated link between FAS and Indian communities. He became enraged with the role of whites in introducing alcohol to Indians in order to take advantage of their drunkenness to usurp their lands and strip them of their rights. Michael was also frustrated with the fact that, in spite of identifying the cause of his son’s behavior, he could not find a cure. Once a child is born with the problem, only palliative measures can be applied.

As Michael conducts his research, Adam grows older, until he is almost the age of legal maturity. He is no more responsive or aware than he has ever been. Adam cannot be relied upon to perform even basic tasks by himself, and the idea of him sustaining employment or independent living is doubtful. The book is heartbreaking in its conclusion, as Adam proudly announces to his father that his coworkers have informed him that as he has turned twenty-one, he is legally able to drink.