I have been working on the Spirit Lake Reservation since 1990. Back then, I wrote the first federal grant to tribes for Early Childhood Tracking with special education staff from all the reservations in North Dakota. I also wrote and taught the first course offered over the Internet by a tribal college. I think the fact that I was first on these things proves mainly that I am getting old.

I have a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of California. I lived in North Dakota for seven years, but moved back home to California after my husband died. I live in Santa Monica and usually work with my partners back in North Dakota by fax and email, but I do come to the reservations seven or eight times a year. I have four children, aged seven to twenty-three. My second child has epilepsy, which was diagnosed when we were living in North Dakota. She takes medication daily to prevent seizures. Since this works pretty well, she does not considered herself to have a disability unless it looks like it might get her out of helping around the house,

“I can’t do the dishes. I’m disabled, remember, I have epilepsy!”

In case you are wondering, this line does not work and she still has to do the dishes.