Little Joe wasn’t surprised when he discovered he was Native American. He had brown eyes, dark hair and some of his friends called him “Chief.” On his 13th birthday he decided to find out who his birth parents were. He had a good adopted family who provided him with an excellent education and a healthy life. But he wanted more.

His parents had passed away and he had no close relatives. He needed to know what Indians were really like. He felt the cowboy and Indian movies and brief mentioning in history books didn’t expose the essence of Indian culture. But that was all that 97 percent of Americans knew about Indians.

Little Joe felt lucky to meet one of his tribal elders and learn about tribal culture. The first thing his elder said was,

“It is traditional for you to call me Uncle.”

“Why Uncle? I heard Grandfather was used in movies.”

“Some tribes use Grandfather. But in our tribe if you are not referring to your relative Grandfather means Creator-God.”