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'
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By Julie Bisbee
Published: September 10, 2007
HOLDENVILLE — It took one phone call to reconnect Ramona Karty to a family and heritage she lost more than 50 years ago.
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Searching for roots
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.
Perceived benefits
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.
Creating bonds
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.”
Related Topics:
Culture and Lifestyle, Family

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