My Tribe is... A Tribe!

Friends,

Big Spring, Husband to my Great
Great Grandmother

Since my last post, I have made some incredible discoveries about myself, and where I come from. Some of these discoveries have been good, while others are what they are. Perhaps the greatest discovery is that after forty-three years, I have discovered that I have a whole family that I never knew. Adopted from birth, I already have a "story." I already have my "people," as I have written on in my post "All Good Things," last September. I know where my values come from, my work ethic, and my love for the outdoors. What I didn't know was where my hair went once I turned thirty-five, or whether I "have my mother's eyes..."

Well, it turns out, that I do.

I have found my birth parents, and actually met my biological uncle and his wife, two wonderful and amazing people who opened their home to my

tribe and shared with me not only their hospitality, but some images of my history as well. It seems that my humorous label for the population of small people I am responsible for raising is a more accurate moniker than I thought. 

Big Spring and his uncle,
the warrior Wolf-Eagle.

As I await the meeting with my biological mother (a wonderful woman who has remembered my birthday every year for over four decades) who will arrive in just a few short weeks, I devour the books she has sent me about my maternal lineage. There are thousands of pages to read, and the names and the dates are overwhelming. My uncle stated that he was the first in the family to have been born outside of the Federal Reservation established for the Blackfeet People near Browning, Montana. I see my mother's eyes in these pages, the same eyes I see when I look into the mirror, or into the faces of my children or the pictures of my newly discovered nieces and nephews. 

But the blessings of being descended from such a proud and noble people has its downside. I have discovered that diabetes and high blood pressure also come with the genetic package. I am discovering daily what the different physical sensations I have observed over the years mean to my body, as I learn to adjust to my body's issues with sugar. It isn’t the end of the world, but it did give me cause to pause for a moment and reflect on my mortality, and my quality of life.

I am not afraid of death, or of dying. I have experienced the power of that transition with two of the most important people in my life, my maternal grandfather, and my oldest daughter. Both of these experiences left me not with a belief, but an intuitive knowledge of life and what lies beyond. There is nothing there to be fearful of. As the Siksika Chief Crowfoot said, “Life and Death are no different, they only appear that way.”

If anything, these new discoveries have given me the opportunity to embrace life, and really enjoy it.

Hell, I may even learn to dance.

I still identify as that "Michigan Farm Boy," and forever will. But I would be lying if I said that I haven't felt the Spirits of my Ancestors throughout my journey to this point. 

We are still savages.