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"All right From now on, I will refer to you as Lady Josephine," Samuel said with the faintest of smiles

"No how about I just make it my secret Navajo name and only you and I will know it," I said, conspiratorially

"You are the furthest thing from a Navajo " Samuel scoffed

"Well, what if a beautiful Navajo woiven me a Navajo name? Even if I had blond hair and blue eyes?"

Sa "I really don’t know," he confessed "I’ve never known a Navajo who adopted a white baby I’et to a white baby" Samuel’s countenance darkened "Luckily, every Navajo child that is born belongs to his mother’s clan, so I am a Navajo, no matter who my father was"

"Did you ever know your father?" I asked quietly, not liking that Iit either

"I was six years old when he died I res about him He called me Sam Sam, and he was tall and kind of quiet I remember my life before he died and then after he died ent to the Indian Reservation I hadn’t lived on the reservation before It was very different than the little apart in I spoke Navajo because lish too, which made school easier when I started at the school on the reservation My mother never talked much about my father after he died"

"Do you think itabout my own mother’s death and how hard it had been for est ti The Navajo believe that the only thing that is left behind when a person dies is the bad or the negative parts of their spirit They call it chidi and when you talk about the dead it invites the chidi So…we never talked about him much I know she loved hi, she read to iven her I think itabout him She became a Christian when she married my dad, but within a year or so after his death she rejected it She has becory and bitter She didn’t kno to live off the reservation without my dad, and when he died, she went back, remarried, and I’m sure she’ll never leave"

"I don’t knohat I would do if I could never talk aboutabout her helps me remember her It makes me feel close to her"

"Your mother died?" Samuel’s voice rose in surprise

"Yes" I was a little stunned that he didn’t know I had just assurandparents knew "She died the suged a little, "I guess I’s about her Like the way she shed, the way she said "Josie Jo, to and fro" when she pushed ? I think that makes you unlucky She died and you don’t have a htened a little as he waited for me to respond