My bloodline can be traced back to Chief Spotted Elk (a.k.a. Chief Big Foot’s band), the band that was almost completely massacred at Wounded Knee. My family, the Oglala’s, is Crazy Horse’s band. I have one sister that is three years younger than me and five half-sisters and one half-brother that are all older than me. Until I had my accident, I was unaware that I had other siblings. My little sister Gaynelle and I were taken by the state of Nebraska in 1965 at the ages of six (6) and three (3) respectively. The same family adopted both of us in 1966, but things didn’t work out for me. My sister and I were separated. I wouldn’t see her again for sixteen (16) years. I bounced around the foster care circuit until I was placed in a home in Omaha, Nebraska. These people showed me “unconditional love”. Although they were poor and struggling with three children of their own, they made a place for me. I loved it there, but the Lord had other plans for me. When I was nine(9), a family in Grand Island, Nebraska saw my picture and said that they knew I was meant for them. So in 1969 I was adopted. Again, as I look back I can see how the Lord God was directing my life. I was going to another loving home, with God loving people, but I had already been damaged. I felt abandoned by God. Some very bad things had happened with the first family who had adopted me. The good reverend was not what he appeared or presented to the public. By the time I was adopted by the second family, I had become very rebellious. My new family was Episcopalian. I was an acolyte for six (6) years. When I turned sixteen (16), I didn’t have to attend mass every Sunday anymore. I found drugs and befriended the “demon” alcohol. We were fast friends for too many years. I have never been able to let myself become part of any family. I always felt alone. By the time I found my way back to the reservation at age nineteen (19), both my mother and father had passed away. My “real” family was gone. No one told me that I had any siblings. I was sixteen (16) when my adopted mother passed away. Her passing was “the last straw”. I no longer listened to anyone. I was in and out of juvenile court, detention, and jail. My father told me that he wished I had been a “good boy” and with a tear in his eye he told me that my mother had died of a broken heart. These were heavy words for an already heavy-ladened heart. I’ve carried that for a long time. In 1979 I was blessed with a daughter. She just turned 29 yrs. old. I lived a very wild, ungodly life. I was given completely over to my own pride, lust, anger, and lasciviousness. It all caught up with me in 1996. I was drunk and coming in and out of blackouts. I wandered aimlessly for years. I rode freight trains for seven (7) years. I drank heavily and would come out of blackouts riding on a train without any clue as to where I was going. Again, it is my belief that the Lord God was watching over me in all of those train rides, drunk, even partying in box cards, or on the back of a grain car and passing out. In 1996 a stumbling block was set before me. I was in Klamath Falls, Oregon on January 2, 1996 watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers win the College Football National Championship at a bar I frequented while I was in town. I don’t remember leaving or where my friend went. I came out of a blackout and I was at the Southern Pacific Railroad Yard. I thought I heard someone call me, and I turned around to look. That is all I can remember. The next voice I heard was someone saying “My God, he’s still alive!” I had been lying between two rails and a Southern Pacific freight train had run over me. I lost my left arm at the scene and my left leg would later be amputated below the knee because my foot was too mangled to save. I lost three toes on my right foot and my spinal cord was severed at T-3, chest level, which left me completely paralyzed. I died at the scene of the accident, was revived, and died again in the emergency room at which time the medical examiner pronounced me “dead” and signed the death certificate. I knew nothing of this until months later when a doctor at OHSU told me he was in the ER when I was brought in from Klamath Falls. Apparently someone saw my chest move at the ER in Klamath Falls and checked me once more and found a weak pulse. (Praise the Lord!) I remember being in a big open space and being bathed in soft yellow light. I felt great; I looked up and saw what looked like two eagles circling. In the next instant one was standing next to me. It was not an eagle, but a Man. He touched my shoulder and I saw myself floating down to the ground. I heard talking but I can’t remember what was said. Even after all of this, I was still rebellious and went right back to my wicked ways. I had another stumbling block put before me in 2000, but this time I repented and turned my life over to God and asked Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior. It has been a real challenge, but with the strength and will of my Lord God in heaven, I will overcome. In 2005 a brother in Christ took me to a conference here in Portland that was sponsored by Frontier Missions. It was great and two years later I had the chance to do some volunteer work at the Frontier Missions Warehouse. I didn’t have a lot to do because I only have use of my right arm, but the staff here at FMI was very caring and accommodating and I kept busy. I prayed for an opportunity to do more, and the Lord blessed me with the job of answering the business phone three days a week. I also get to help the wonderful ladies at the thrift store. I thank my Father in heaven, for He truly is an awesome and loving God. And… as crazy as it may sound to you, I am more of a “whole” person now, than I have ever been in my life! | 
