Michael Dorris’ Adopted Daughter Claims Sexual Abuse

Michael Dorris’ adopted daughter claimed he sexually abused her as a child in a lawsuit filed Thursday, two weeks after records of a police investigation into similar allegations against the late writer were sealed.

Madeline Hannah Dorris, 21, also accused her adoptive mother, poet and novelist Louise Erdrich, of negligence, saying she knew or should have known of the abuse.

Madeline Dorris, one of three children adopted by Dorris and Erdrich, is seeking an unspecified amount in excess of $50,000, plus costs. She is suing Dorris’ estate.

Dorris, who committed suicide in a Concord, N.H., motel on April 11, left a will providing for his three biological daughters with Erdrich. But the will excluded his two living adopted children and Erdrich, who was divorcing him.

Dorris attended St. Paul’s Mission on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana and lived in northwestern Montana near Kalispell until a year or so ago. Dorris also spent some of his early years in Washington and Idaho.

The towns of his youth included Tekoa, Plummer, Dayton, Coeur d’Alene and Tensed.

Earlier this month, a judge ordered that police records in an investigation of sexual abuse allegations against Dorris be sealed without revealing who made the allegations.

The Boston Globe, however, reported shortly after Dorris’ death that it had seen the police records and that the allegations involved one of the couple’s three young daughters.

Attorneys for Erdrich and Dorris’ estate did not immediately return phone messages Thursday.

Dorris also adopted two sons, Jeffrey and Reynold Abel.

The lawsuit said Dorris began sexually abusing Madeline Dorris when she was 5 and continued until she was 12 and was sent to live at various orphanages and boarding schools.