Editor, Daily Press:

I have long, straight black hair and two legal birth certificates. My grandmother never stopped searching for me because her daughter was stolen from her, as well as me. My grandmother died, but not before she told me what I already knew, I am a Lost Bird.

Cultural genocide is insidious. It is more dangerous, craftier, operating in a slower, not easily apparent manner than the actual, physical thing. The United States government was/is counting on that even back in the late 1950s and up until the mid 60s. Who knows but what on some sick level, well, many of us do know that the U.S. government continues to operate in the same, insidious fashion on some other or same level today.

I am full-flood Keetoowah Cherokee, UKB. I know this because my grandmother affirmed to me this before she died. She never stopped searching for me, even when my mother could not. Yet, I already knew and know who I am because of the dreams my ancestors gave to me. Now, I want to claim my heritage for my daughter, but I cannot because the U.S. government does not recognize those of us who survived their cultural genocide. My grandmother, Audrey, slipped through their fingers, and I cannot catch what is rightfully mine for my daughter.

When the U.S. government took me from my mother and father, they murdered my father, drugged my mother and placed me in a “good, Christian” home with a new birth certificate and new cultural heritage. Subsequently, my hair and skin colors did not match up. Subsequently, my mother turned state’s evidence on Costa Nostra and was placed in a witness protection program, since she was then “valuable” to the U.S. government. I do not know if she is alive. My father is still dead.

My grandmother told me that the dreams and feelings I have had regarding my heritage are consummate with reality. She took this knowledge to her grave and left me to remember my understanding and strength within myself. This I do understand and acknowledge. Her spirit lives in me, a transient heir and representative of my family. Now, how do I pass this legacy to my daughter, who already feels the same pull to her cultural calling?

Can the same U.S. government grant me the answer to this question? This government now requires that I serve on their jury, yet they cannot even get my legal name correct on my driver’s license after three consecutive attempts/corrections. The appeals board contends no injury to this infraction. No surprise, never in the history of this U.S. government has one single Native American treaty been honored, especially with the UKB. This is not, and for over 500 years never really has been, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Kristina McDaniel, Ph.D.

California