Byron L. Dorgan - The Girl in the Photograph: The True Story of a Native American Child, Lost and Found in America.

Humankind has not woven the web of life.

We are but one thread within it.

Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.

All things are bound together.

All things connect.

CHIEF SEATTLE

Often we dont choose our journey; the journey chooses us.

Thats how this book began.

In 1990, I was reading The Bismarck Tribune at my desk in my U.S. congressional office in Washington, D.C. The front page included a story headlined: FOSTER HOME CHILDREN BEATENAND NOBODYS HELPING. It was about a girl named Tamara from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation who had been so horrifically beaten in a foster home when she was two, that, three years later, she was in full emotional retreat. According to her grandfather, she spent her time huddling in the shadows, singing television jingles as if they were hymns that might bring her into the light.

The article posed the question, Are Indian children being seized from their parents by Bureau of Indian Affairs social workers and practically sold into servitude as a way for the social workers acquaintances to collect a foster care paycheck? With rampant unemployment on the Indian reservation, had children become a government-sanctioned commodity?

The story was captivating. The questions were very important to me as a member of Congress from North Dakota, which has a large Native American population. But what captivated me was the large color picture that accompanied the story.

There she was, Tamara, a beautiful five-year-old with a short bowl haircut, hands clasped as if in prayer, glancing warily at the camera, a single tear running down her cheek, caught in limbo, certainly in darkness, facing an uncertain future. And so it is with too many children on the reservation.

That tear. Its not possible to see that photograph without it being seared into your consciousness. Oh, life can change you in an instant, all right. Tamaras life had been forever altered. So had mine.

According to the story, a Bureau of Indian Affairs Social Services document shows that Tamaras mother had her five children taken from her by court order after accusations of child neglect. At Tamaras foster home, safety was an illusion. She could have died.

During what was described as a drunken party at that home, she suffered massive injuries. Her leg, arm, and nose were broken, and some of her hair was pulled out at the roots. She lay suffering alone in a dark room for several days before social services officials arrived at the home and demanded to see her.

The Tribune story described how the social services representative finally rescued Tamara: As a foster child, Tamara was enrolled in the Fort Yates infant development program. Everything was fine at first. But then the case manager was denied access to the foster home for two weeks. Finally, she went to the foster home with two other social workers. They heard a radio, but nobody answered the door. After repeated knocking, they were finally let into the house.

At first the foster family wouldnt let the social workers into the bedroom where Tamara was laying. They said she had chicken pox. They let us see Tamara after about fifteen minutes, the case manager said. She was bruised all over. Her leg was wrapped in an Ace bandage. Something was wrong with her arm her toes were swollen.

I told them we would have to take her to the Fort Yates hospital It seemed like shed shut down. Youd look into her eyes and it was like she wasnt there.

Her grandfather was a former tribal policeman who, according to the newspaper story, was attempting to take legal action against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for what had been done to his grandchildren.

The news story reported when the children were removed from their home because of child neglect, they were placed in a foster home in the household of an extended family member.

According to the story, the two older children ran away from the foster home. One of them was caught and locked in a basement room with a Doberman pinscher.

Tamaras grandfather, who was still reeling over the loss of another five grandchildren in a fire, said, There was a crime that occurred here. Human beings were abused. But nothing was done.

Just another day in a forgotten corner of America?

It was impossible for me to read the story, look at the photo, and then set it aside. The photo of Tamara gnawed at me. It held great power.

Even before I read that story, I had long known of the danger that some foster homes on Indian reservations held for some children. Yes, I know many were loving homes that served the needs of the children in a safe and competent manner, but there were also others that failed. Horribly.

I had worked over many years in Congress to help Indian tribes find the resources to address serious problems, including the issue of safeguarding Indian children who were placed in foster care. It hadnt been enough. It certainly wasnt enough to offer safety to a two-year-old child whose serious injuries would plague her for the rest of her life.