I was born at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1944, an Indian Boarding School, in a small one-bedroom apartment, with my mother, my oldest aunt, and my grandmother, members of the Chickasaw Nation. My grandmother worked in the post office, and my aunt was a secretary. My father was in the Navy.
When I was two, we moved to the Panama Canal Zone, where my father had been stationed. My mother went to work as a secretary and joined my father working on the Panama Sea Level Canal Study.
As my parents were born in material poverty, they both worked full-time so they could build a future for my sister and me, as many parents do and have done. When I was in Panama, my live-in caretakers were Caroline, an African Grandmother from Jamaica, and Dominga, who is with me below, of Emberá and African background.
They were my primary caretakers. As well, my father and mother gave me all the love they had when they were not working. This is why our African relatives have always been part of my soul.
