Where to begin? This is a program that I had little to no understanding of as a child. I was simply told that we would have a foster child/sister coming to stay with us through the school year. She would be full-blooded Native American, Crow in this case. She would go to school locally and attend church with us. She would be treated as any member of the family would. She was our sister. Until summer, when she would return to the reservation in Montana.
The Indian Placement Program was a church-sponsored program that placed Native American students who were baptized members of the LDS church into foster homes of LDS families during the school year. These students attended majority-white public schools, rather than the Indian boarding schools or local schools on whatever reservation they came from.
Why, do you ask? Let's ask Wikipedia, who can say it so much better than I can...
"The program was developed according to LDS theology, whereby conversion and assimilation to Mormonism could help Native Americans, who had been classified as Lamanites in terms of theology in the Book of Mormon."
About 50,000 Native American students went through the program. Felicia Big Hair was but one of those. She came from a Crow reservation in Montana. I can only speculate as to her age when she first came to us, I would guess she was 13 or 14 years old. I remember asking my mom why she was with us, and my mom summarized by saying that she was sent to us because life on the reservation was hard and her family could not care for her. She told me that the kids were not taught manners and that they were allowed to curse and spit in school. I remember thinking that was crazy and it was such a good thing she came to our house to learn how to behave.
The objective of this program was the "assimilation and 'whitening' of Indian children as a divine imperative outlined in the Book of Mormon". The members and leaders believed that by "educating and assimilating Indian children into Mormon culture and religion they could be 'lightened', thereby breaking their Lamanite (dark-skinned) 'curse' and restoring the prophecy of their redemption". Spencer W. Kimball, the prophet of my childhood, played a large role in this program. He gave a General Conference talk and said that Natives who participated in the program were gradually turning lighter, becoming "white and delightsome". He claimed that Navajo placement students were "as light as Anglos" and, in one case, several shades lighter than parents "on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather".
Well, to say that I understood NONE of this as a 9-year old would be a huge understatement. I didn't even affiliate her presence in our home with the church. Felicia spoke Crow, which I thought was super cool. She was a bit manipulative in terms of using my mother to make me jealous, which I didn't like. We shared a room when she was with us. Sometimes we shared a bed. She was often kind and sometimes really cruel. To this day, she is the only person I have gotten into what I would call a 'brawl' with...hair pulling, strangling, hitting, biting. I wanted her to like me, and I wanted her to leave - all in the same breath. I remember her being a promiscuous teenager, coming home with hickies at times. She argued a lot about school work and my dad stayed up with her on countless nights to try and help her understand a math concept. He would get out the jar of pinto beans to illustrate concepts to her. When I said goodbye to Felicia for the last time, I did not know it would be the last time. She may have graduated out of the program, she may have run away or refused to participate any longer. I have no idea. She just kind of came into our lives and then left.
Looking back on it all now, with a full understanding of the program and it's purpose, I am left with a sour taste in my mouth. I am certain that my parents thought they were doing the absolute right thing by bringing her into our home. After all, they paid for the privilege of participating in the program, and my parents never had much money. The program is extinct now, thank goodness. I am left to wonder whatever became of Felicia. I hope she found joy and peace and a deep love for the culture from which she came.
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