Family unlocks years of cultural identity
‘We wanted to find out some answers, we wanted to tell her we loved her'
Family unlocks years of cultural identity
‘We wanted to find out some answers, we wanted to tell her we loved her'

HOLDENVILLE — It took one phone call to reconnect Ramona Karty to a family and heritage she lost more than 50 years ago.

Karty, 74, of San Diego, spent most of her childhood at the Murrow Indian Orphan's Home near Muskogee, knowing she had a mother who was still alive and siblings who also were at the orphanage, which continues today as a children's home run by Baptist missionaries.

The July phone call, made by a niece searching for answers of her own, unlocked years of Karty's past and cultural identity, and opened the doors to a future relationship.

Collen Jackson of Holdenville made the call on behalf of her mother, who died in 1999. Her mother always encouraged her to find her aunt. By the end of August, Karty came to Holdenville to be reunited with her siblings and meet the family of a sister she hadn't seen since she was a child.

"It was enjoyable knowing that I had so many relatives,” said Karty, who works as a waitress in San Diego.

Jackson said meeting her aunt for the first time helped her understand when her mother cried over her "beautiful sister” and fought to keep her own family together.

Jackson and her sister, Carol Harjo, grew up hearing stories about their sister or their mother's time in the orphanage. Their mother, Cindy Lee Bruner Harjo, also told her children they should look for her older sister, Ramona.

"She always told us that if we ever met her, we should tell her that she loved her very much,” Jackson said.

Cindy Harjo and her siblings were in and out of the Murrow orphanage throughout their lives. Their memories are fuzzy on why their mother Cora Mae Red Lowe sent them there, but they remember seeing their mother on a regular basis and seeing their older sister from across the room or passing in the hallway.

Most of Harjo's siblings were born in the 1930s — a time when many Oklahoma families, regardless of race, struggled to put meals on the table and to keep their kids in shoes.

For some parents at the time, orphanages were seen as a way to give their children a better life.

The children would be fed and educated, and wouldn't have to struggle just for a meal, said Marilyn Holt, a Kansas historian who wrote the 2001 book "Indian Orphanages.”

The perceived benefits for American Indian children were even greater, Holt said.

Cindy Harjo died in 1999 but passed her desire to find her sister on to her children. So when Jackson attended a family reunion for the first time in July, she was shocked to find out another relative had a phone number for Karty.

"We stayed up late waiting to call her that night, because the time is different there,” Jackson said. "We were so excited. We wanted to find out some answers, we wanted to tell her we loved her.”

Karty has spent most of her life taking care of herself.

While life consumed Karty, she was never forgotten. When her nieces called her for the first time in July, one of the first questions she had was, "What tribe do I belong to?” Jackson said.

The answer was Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

When Karty visited Jackson's Holdenville home, her memories of childhood quickly came back.

"It was like she had seen a ghost,” Jackson said of Karty's first meeting with younger brother Louis Bruner. "And then she called him by his Indian name, ‘Chaebonie.' It meant so much to us, we didn't know what to say.”

While Karty is still searching for people who knew her mother, she has stumbled onto her own heritage.

"I keep telling my sons, ‘If it weren't for you boys, I'd move out there.' But I'll be back and stay longer next time,” Karty said.

And she's already made requests for her next visit, Harjo said: "She wants us to teach her how to make fry bread.”

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