by Leland P. Morrill Adopted Native American Citizenship Affected by The REAL ID Act of 2005 on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 1:06am
How many have heard the saying:
“Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,Send these, the homeless, temptest-lost to me.”
Seems illusive at times. Especially knowing I fall under a new law enacted January 01, 2010 called The Real ID Act of 2005, written by James Sensenbrenner which requires a State issued Birth Certificate or reason for legal presence in the United States. At this point I have neither...even though I was adopted out of the Navajo Nation through the Chinle Arizona Tribal Court. Well, I certainly am not one to just lay there and be silent. Hence this Facebook Page and my blog on Blogger.com... if you scroll down the facebook page you'll see links to it at the beginning entries. My friend Sarah suggested I create a page & my friend Rick helped create the notes after I asked him if he knew how. Yup he does.
You know, sometimes by preparation, hard work, some great friends, natural relatives most take for granted, a hella-lotta endurance, sheer willpower, the will to never give up, knowing if I do, my United States Citizenship is at stake. Many have asked along the way, where will I get deported?!? A Navajo adopted from the Chinle Arizona Tribal Court system.
The Tucson Sun newspaper did a story on it entitled: Where do You Deport The Navajo?!?
Beats me where would I be deported to. I can only think of one place that makes sense. Mexico. Reason for that is because I currently live in California, a border state & guess what country borders Arizona?? My adopted mother had a saying that's itching in my ear right now:
"I'll give you ten guesses....and the first nine don't count"
Still makes my laugh to hear that rolling around in my brain twenty seven years after I litterally flew the coop on Continental Airlines.
Another quote comes to mind...Ted Kennedy said it in the 80's and then referred to it again in 2008:
"the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die"
The dream shall never die, that's the part of the quote that always has come back to me...it never dies.
I've worked hard on getting as far as I have and now I am at a new phase in my research...the DREAM PHASE.
It never died.
In this dream many angels showed up...just like in life. I looked back & saw many times only one set of footprints, and they weren't mine. I was carried somehow. I must admit, this blog/page has been my greatest reward. It's helped me stay sane when things have been insane.
Example of insanity: I'm Navajo, as "American" as you can get, born within the borders of the United States, adopted out of the Navajo Nation, a court in Chinle Arizona, undocumented and 40 years later having problems retaining my United States citizenship, fighting to get a "temporary" paper State issued Identification. Twenty two years of my own personal research at a huge time and monetary expense. How did I do this? Wasn't just me...angels helped.
I just filled out a Navajo Nation Application for Membership & also a Navajo Nation Application for Services. Services. Do you know what they were?? Basic things most Americans take for granted. I even went to see an attorney today, turns out she's from some nation in Africa and she has an ID card. She has more rights than I have to live in this country. The rights I checked off on the "Application for Services :
- New Enrollment
- Certificate of Navajo Indian Blood
- Affidavit of Birth
I am applying to a Nation for enrollment that adopted me out. It's documented as my Final Judgement of Adoption in the Trial Court of The Navajo Tribe, Judicial District of Chinle Arizona. Yes the Arizona part gets me as I read the insane article listed above: "Where do You Deport The Navajo?" Also, the fact that in 1971 my adopted mother applied for a birth certificate through the Navajo Nation & today it sits in a folder that Alisia Milford & Leonard Benally of the Navajo Nation Vital Statistics in Window Rock Arizona both acknowledge is there. Nothing was done with that application for birth certificate. Nothing. Insanity strikes again
It's interesting I live in Los Angeles because at 8:58 a.m. Tue, Mar 22, 2011, I get an email from one of my sources I've "traded" information with:
"Linda's student case file does mention that she is living in Los Angeles in 1961. You may be able to find a death certificate for her in the Los Angeles County. Their contact information is at http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/dca/dcadeath.htm."
Yea...I live in Los Angeles, it's now 2011, exactly 50 years after my natural mother, Linda Carolyn Kirk had lived here. You want to know where the LA Coroners office is? Mission Blvd. I can walk there from where I live. Yup...and it isn't too long of a walk either. Wonder where she lived? It would be interesting to know. You know what I've always told people about why I moved here?
"Los Angeles was calling my name. I moved here because this is where I belonged."
Another wierd coincidence, I moved onto a street where I got lost in the early 1990's. I remember one time I went to visit my neighbor Francis at the end of the street after moving here. As I waited at the corner, I recognized the house I was standing by was the same house where I had gotten lost and slept in my car in the early 90's after getting off the I-5 Los Feliz Blvd exit. I had moved to the same street, one block down from where I'd gotten lost and woke up one morning & then had found my way back to The Best Western where I was staying. Yup Los Angeles called my name...my Bali Ha'i.
So now that I've turned in my paperwork...it's the wait. What's next. Oh, yes then there was the idea of DNA testing. I called DDC DNA Diagnostic Center at 1-513-881-7800 (800-613-5768) and talked to CASE SPECIALIST/Service Consultant "Les" & he had to check. The Navajo Nation IS NOT on their list to accept DNA Testing for membership into their tribe. It was a great idea voiced by one of the people on this page and my Aunt Ruth both on the same day.
I think for now I'll wait, concentrate on my professional life. selling window coverings. My New Blinds...it need my attention http://www.mynewblinds.com/ My litle brother answers the phone there. All in the family. funny that this whole blog/page is about family...not the Morrills so much as to reclaiming my Kirk and Pacheco heritage. Right now more the Kirks.
Thanks for reading...yes I've been rambling, maybe you got more out of it than I. Sometimes it's therapeutic to just write rambling nonsensical phrases & hope somewhere down the road it makes sense. Feel free to comment. AND LIKE MY PAGE! Thanks.
If you have quetions, PLEASE ask. After 22 years of my own research, I prolly can fish up a few answers.
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