The positive capacity of people to cope with stress and adversity.
Light at the end of the tunnel.
Leland Pacheco Morrill, born Leland Kirk
The search I and many Navajos and other Native americans have achieved, and those who will endure to retain U.S. Citizenship and legal status in the fifty States of America because of the Real ID Act of 2005 is one that proves we as natives to this land are resilient, enduring, here to stay and will identify ourselves over and over again regardless of any assimilation tactic placed upon our native nations, be they individual or otherwise.
I'll start from my own experience. If you've been reading my notes you've obviously felt my raw anxiety, stresses, and roadblocks that have been overcome. If you haven't read my notes...please, I invite you to. I started out back in 1984-85 as a freshman at Brighham Young University in Provo Utah 18 years old and hearing the name of an Aunt Ruth, who happens to be Ruth Shirley-Kirk married to my biological mothers fathers brother John Kirk (Great Uncle). I'd also heard the name Linda Kirk as my biological mother. No documentation at that time was presented with the hearsay from my adopted parents, or from any legal standpoint either. As some of you readers know from previous notes written on this page/blog: my Final Judgement of Adoption did not have an Indian Census number on it, did not name my biological parents by name, nor was my birth date ever mentioned nor percentage of indian blood. The judge, Joe G. Bennalley of the Trial Court of the Navajo Tribe also did not follow through and order a birth certificate or affidavit as a representative of a Nation. This was my starting point 25-26 years ago. From that point over a span of the decades including the 80's, 90's, 2000's and 2010's, I built up my evidence by first finding out some of the Navajo's I attended university with were related and then with further questioning finding out the names of relatives that matched & finding out where they lived. I went and visited in the Spring/Summer of 1985 my Aunt Ruth Shirley-Kirk and also at that time met my cousin Calvin Kirk who to this day I understand still remembers that awkward encounter.
From there my search wained a bit as I started to work on self, finding my place, working and living life. In September 1989 with a few friends, Freddie Tsosie and if recalled correctly, Everett Chackee and Anderson Thomas, we travelled to the Navajo Reservation on vacation. Everett and Anderson both had to go to the Gallup Indian Hospital so we spent the day there. Yes, all day. That was normal to them. While there, just on a whim, I decided to see if there were any medical records for me there so, I checked and sure enough found out I had been there from 1969-1971 under the name Leland Kirk. So, I filled out the needed paperwork and obtained copies of my own medical records. Little did I know how valuable the short three year record from 1969 to 1971 would become decades later in my search to retain my own legal status in the United States, the right to have a State issued identification card and State issued drivers license, the right to be employed, and all other rights taken for granted IF one posesses that valuable plastic State issued card.
Yes I had to read the fine print, figure out a timeline of my life for those three years, talk to U.S. Senators, U.S. Commissioners, write anyone who I figured out might have any knowledge about who my parents might have been, etc. Then came the internet. I became increasingly amazed at how information can be traded at lightning speed. How tools such as blog/Facebook Page, GOOGLE, County Property Records, web resources such as the LDS Church Family History Library, The National Archives could be manipulated and useful in my search to regain my lost identity. I had two lost identities by now, one created by the Real ID ACT of 2005 where I needed to prove my United States Birth, even though I'd only been told a place of birth, which I now no longer use as Fort Defiance Arizona has replaced that, and also that of my Native Nation, Dine, or Navajo.
Resilience, hard work, years of sleepless nights, great friends, new found relatives all who empowered and energized me by helping prod me along when I became weary, upset, fatigued by the process of research research and more research and every roadblock, intersection along my path to finally obtaining my Navajo Nation Birth Affidavit. Yes, at some point I found the light at the end of the tunnel & walked through it with new found knowledge and understanding of how resilient one person can be, with the aid of a whole city/village of people helping me along. Yes, I asked for alot of help along the way. Sometimes there was no answer, sometimes I didn't know the answer was already there, but just needed interpretation, and sometimes, I admit, I bluffed a little just to see if another potential source could confirm my findings and then provide more based on them and if I traded information. Knowledge is power. I found out that to be key.
Part of what really helped me along was writing every little detail down, first and last names, phone numbers, email addresses, links, times and dates of when and who was spoken too and the details of each conversation. I have boxes of information needing to be sorted through, and the process written down how I arrived at each stage so when others ask me what the next step is, my turn to assist kicks in. Green light.
Today is Grateful Friday, and yes, I am grateful to all who have helped me. Those from the Navajo Nation, State Public Social Service departments, DMV's, politicians, attorneys, family both adopted and biological, and above all FRIENDS who stuck by me when it seemed like I had the loosing cards but in the end didn't. Perhaps bluffing a lil helped during my own experience, but I won out and now have that Certificate of Navajo Indian Blood, CIB, and a Navajo Nation Affidavit of Birth. It took a village of people. To that village of people: I am grateful, thankful and ever humbled by the immense process I can now look back at as I start my new life.
Next week I am interviewing for a position with the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe, a new life I hope, of serving native people and helping to make our United States and our Native Nations more cohesive, and a better place to live and thrive.
Please read my other notes and comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment