Am I ILLEGAL?!? Navajo, pre-adoption life version from my adopted MOM

My Adopted parents: The Morrills. They're cute, no?
(click on picture to enlarge)

Leland,
We were told you had a younger brother named Christopher that lived with John Kirk and his wife.  I don't recall her name.  Their son (I can't think of his name, but he was maybe 5 to 8 years older than you) told me about Christopher.  I was taking him home from seminary in the seminary van.  I had you and Virginia with me.  You would have been 3 or 4.  I was thinking he was 10, but can't remember for sure.  He asked me if you were Leland Kirk.  I said yes.  He then told me your little brother Christopher had lived with them.  He said something like this. "One night when he went to bed, he was fine.  The next morning he was dead so we moved."

When we took you as a foster child, we were told your name was Leland Pacheco.  We were told later by a friend who was a friend of Andy Smith?, the legal aid guy, that your  name was Leland Kirk.

Hmm, legal aid might be another lead.

BIA welfare told us your mother was Linda Kirk and she was killed in an automobile accident.  Your father was unknown.

You told us when you went to visit the Kirks that they told you who the father was and I was thinking they either gave you or showed you a picture.

Our understanding of your relationship to John Kirk was this.  The father of your mother ,Linda, went off to California either before you were born or shortly thereafter.  At some point Linda's mother then married the brother to her first husband, Linda's father. That brother was John Kirk.  Then at some point Linda's mother died.  John remarried, and I think that was Ruth. John and Ruth (I didn't really remember her name) claimed you as a grandson. So in white man's ways, John was a step grandfather (and a step uncle), Ruth was wife of step grandfather.  Does that make her step grandmother?  I guess so.

I think for a short time you lived with John and his wife.  I'm not sure why you were then placed with someone else.  Welfare told us you'd been living with your grandparents in the sheep camp.  We later learned it was your mother's grandparents.  It kind of seems like their name was Pacheco, but our friend said Andy(?) said your name was Kirk.

it was there that you were in a fire.  Your (great) grandfather was blind. Your (great) grandmother went out with the sheep.  They lived in a hogan with an open fire pit.  You walked into the fire and was burned.  That was our understanding of why you were in the hospital for 2 months before being placed with us.

See if any of this makes sense to anyone.  Good luck.
Love,
Mom

*If you would like to contribute, have vital information that will help, please email lelandpmorrill@gmail.com using the subject line:Adoption: Leland Kirk