Indian Boy (Part 1 of 5)

The LDS Church sponsors an Indian Placement Program where Indian children from the reservation would come spend the school year with families in larger cities where there were better schools. In the summer these children would go back to their families on the reservation. One year, my family took advantage of this program, and we had an indian Boy come live with us.
In 1971, there were more Indian children who signed up for the program than there were families to host them. The church leaders made a general announcement in all the congregations asking for families to take in an Indian child for the school year. My parents decided to do it.
A social worker named Bishop Brown came to our house to check us out. He wanted to see if we were right for the program. I guess we passed, because he started to tell us what to expect. We requested a boy but we weren’t sure who we would get. It was still several months before the Indian children would arrive.
Bishop Brown made a joke about the boy’s name. He knew from his interviews with us that my name was Billy, my dad’s name was Bill, and my Grandpa’s name was Bill. He said, “The Indian boy’s name definitely won’t be Bill.” I imagined that he would be named Waka-Poo or something like that, and he would carry a bow and arrow.