By Lila Mehlhaff
 
"Indian people remember which families they come from and understand the importance of those ties." – Ben Nighthorse Campbell
 
A common thread to the Native American experience is the importance of family and the role that it plays in each person's life.  It would be unusual to meet someone of native heritage and not have the question of not only which tribe they hail from but who their parents and grandparents are, pop up in conversation.  Many relatives have been discovered in such encounters.
          Former United States Representative and Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado has experienced this and it makes him very happy.  Of Northern Cheyenne descent, he recounts reconnecting with the patriarch of the Black Horse family from Lame Deer, Montana.

(Read more in the Winter 2009 issue…)