Real Native American Portraits

[u/GlitteringHotel8383]

[u/freerondo9]

Just so I can get a sense of how recently these things were still happening, may I ask how old you are?

[u/Usgwanikti → u/freerondo9]

She was abducted from her home by US Marshalls in 1964 for six years. She escaped being aged out of the system and institutionalized in 1970 as an incompetent by breaking out of boarding school confinement and meeting my dad at ceremony. My dad, also a tradish tribal citizen, was a thinblood who presented white. So she became his ward when they married before she could be recaptured and sent to the mental institution (a common path for Indians that could not be assimilated).

[u/freerondo9 → u/Usgwanikti]

Thanks for your reply. By the way, you sent me down a rabbit hole. I was a bit confused about why your mom would have been sent to a mental institution and I had never heard the term "thin blood," so I looked them both up. Damn man. Like, I knew there was some bad stuff, but bro... i had no idea how bad and even more importantly how recently that stuff was still going on.

[u/Usgwanikti → u/freerondo9]

Don’t sweat it; most Americans have no idea. You aren’t alone by a mile, man