Healing Ground, Part One and Two in Healing Ground

Healing Ground, Part One

In Flagstaff, Arizona, Frederick Seaton, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, was pushing the “termination resolution”, designed to grant, at long last, full citizenship rights to Native Americans. The law had been passed in 1953, but it would take until the early 60s to get it fully implemented. The Native Americans didn’t fare well. A lot of their land was purchased by the government for national park land. Some was bought up by private entities unrelated to the tribe, but the highest bidder could be out maneuvered by a matching bid from a Native American.

The government recognized the need to prepare the next generation for job skills to gain employment off reservation and began a well-intentioned program to place young Native Americans, aged 18 to 35 in vocational schools around the country. Younger children were moved to public schools, some in day schools; others in boarding schools. The Bureau of Indian Affairs considered this relocation program beneficial to those seeking employment off reservation. It was well intentioned. The same office also sought to create or expand businesses both on and near reservations in order to provide employment.

Lorraine Lightning’s family was too big, according to the government, so in 1970, officials came to her house and took away her two youngest children, newborn Susie, and Nancy, not quite one year old. Social Services in Minnesota wanted to take a son, Leslie, too, since he wasn’t in school yet, but Lorraine was able to negotiate and kept him with her. Lorraine paid a dear price to keep him, though: older daughter Dee was sent to New Jersey to live with an uncle so that Les could stay with her.

As barbaric as it sounds today, this was not an unusual practice at the time. Social Services felt the children’s lives would be better if placed elsewhere. Susie and Nancy, you see, did not have the same father as their six older siblings. Since Lorraine received services from Social Services, including welfare, her life’s choices were accountable to them.

Zeboriah James Lightning, Lorraine Elizabeth Lightning’s grandson, offers the Native American perspective: “To say the least about social services is to say that they are not connected with the socializing portion of what their jobs are … I see that Welfare does have possible positive outcomes, if you lay down the rest of your life's obligations to make sure you do exactly as they request.” He also reminds the rest of us that progress is inevitable: “I know this has always been the way so it would be tough for a change, however time is about change, and change comes with good or bad outcomes depending on where the community puts its efforts.”

In 1970, though, the power rested with the government, as it had since the days of Jefferson, and Lorraine Lightning was forced to relinquish her two youngest daughters. Both children were placed in separate foster homes with the intention of adoption. Susie, after staying in a series of foster homes, was eventually adopted by Tom and Sallie Wygant of International Falls, MN. They changed her name to “Beth”. Nancy, too, was adopted into a loving family in East Grand Forks, who adopted two other children, as well. Nancy, renamed “Christie”, was the only Native American in her adopted family, though.

The two girls led similar lives, but Christie’s wasn’t as happy as Beth’s childhood had been. Both girls had been told early on that they were adopted, but Beth’s parents embraced her ancestry, taking her to pow wows and teaching her to be proud of her heritage. Christie’s parents tried to instill a sense of pride in her, but the community in which they lived sent a message of intolerance.

Christie had a rough time growing up. The only Native American in her school, she was made very aware of the difference in her skin color. The other children had blonde or light brown hair, probably due to Norwegian or Swedish ancestry, Christie’s hair was dark and shiny.

The children were cruel, cutting her hair in one instance; but the most humiliating moment was the day they tied her to a flagpole and did an Indian dance around her. Later, when she asked her adopted brother why he hadn’t helped her, he replied that she was just a squaw. Christie longed for an older brother who would protect her.

Sixth grade was made easier when her teacher worked on building Christie’s self-esteem, praising her and telling her she was pretty and encouraging to show everyone how much better she was than they were. Christie didn’t feel much pride, though. She knew how people treated her. How could she possibly think herself better than anyone? By the time she was 16, she was acting out.

Healing Ground, Part Two

Christie’s adoptive mother began to help her in her search for her heritage, but they seemed to run into roadblocks everywhere they turned. Neither of them knew at the time that it would take twelve years of searching and many dollars sent to various agencies before a simple letter became the key that unlocked the door to all of their unanswered questions.

In the meantime. Beth’s family had moved several times during these years, but eventually Tom, who worked in the Customs Department, was transferred to Warroad, Minnesota and the family settled there. Beth made many friends in high school and lived a typical teenager’s life, which included babysitting and, later, working in a nursing home. Still, she looked closely at people, wondering if she was related to them.

Her parents had divorced, but Tom had given his word to his adopted daughter years ago and when she turned 18, he began to make inquiries that led him, oddly enough, back to a woman who lived a block from his house. The information he’d received weighed heavily on his shoulders, though. Beth had been the result of an affair. Tom was torn. He wanted to help Beth, but he was also concerned about the birth mother’s wishes. Perhaps she did not want to have any contact with Beth.

He tried calling the woman’s house but received no answer for two days. Finally, on Sunday night, Tom spoke to the woman whose baby he had adopted eighteen years earlier. Cautious, he did not give his name, but stated Beth’s birth date and asked if it meant anything to her. He quickly assured the woman that if the date had no significance or if she did not want contact, she would not hear from him again.

He needn’t have worried. Lorraine Lightning had been searching for her daughters for years. She was thrilled that one of them had found her. She asked for pictures and Tom gathered some up and walked over to her house. Then he called Beth, now living in Michigan, now pursuing a nursing career and raising her daughter, and gave his adopted daughter her birth mother’s phone number.

For Lorraine, the joy was bittersweet. There was a reason for her absence the weekend Tom Wygant had called. She’d been up in the Northwest Angle, participating in a Pow Wow, a going away ceremony, for her son Tom (Sargeant), who had died in a boating accident on Lake of the Woods a year previous. Beth’s presence helped to fill the void.

As Beth and her new found family began to compare notes, many other coincidences revealed themselves: some of Beth’s high school friends were actually cousins, she babysat three doors down from her biological mother’s home, and, most astonishingly, she had unknowingly cared for her own grandmother when she worked in the nursing home.

Lorraine was not done with heartache, though. Soon after Beth reentered her life, Lorraine was diagnosed with terminal cancer. After Lorraine’s death, Beth kept in touch with her siblings and discovered another surprise: a sister no one had mentioned: Nancy. Beth’s siblings assumed she knew. They, along with their mother, had been searching for both girls for years and even though Lorraine was now gone, they still wanted to find the other missing sister.

In the meantime, they decided to have a family reunion at the next Pow Wow. Older sister Bernadette, more affectionately known as “Gidget”, made arrangements to meet with friends over breakfast to discuss the planned festivities. During their conversation, Gidget made an offhand comment that the only thing missing was Nancy, and it led to her explaining her family history to her friends. Little did any of them know how important their conversation would turn out to be!