From Abuse to a Forever Family

I'm from the Mohawk tribe, my dad is from the Mohawk tribe. I came from Maine originally. I was born on February 13, 1939.

In the spring of that year, my grandmother came downstate to see us; we lived in a little shack. When she drove into the yard, she saw that my mother was hitched to a cultivator. My mother had a breeching strap across her chest with the tailpiece of a harness around her neck. She was pulling this cultivator, and my dad was walking behind with a whip.

When my grandmother saw that (she was a very kind woman), she just couldn't take it, and went straight into the house. She d...