Beautiful Michelle hanged herself in a closet

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“Lisa you can and are free. Free to go on, free to thank God for your life with Roland...free to learn from the craziness and free to take what you can and to leave the rest in God's hands.”

How beautiful, wonderful, comforting those words are.

I respond: “You are right - the memories pain me, but even so, I do thank God for my life with Roland. He actually asked me before he died how I felt about our life together. And I actually had an answer ready—because I'd been thinking about it for awhile.

I told him that we had traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We’ve lived in Canada and helped out at a Children’s home in Mexico. We’ve owned businesses and we’ve been on welfare. At times we had little or no food - and other times we ate at some of the finest restaurants. We have slept on dirty floors with dirty blankets in tribal housing, and we have stayed in upscale hotels on Capitol Hill in Washington DC and in Windsor, BC. I told him our life had been full. He seemed to relax into his pillow upon hearing me say it.

We felt just as comfortable talking to a drunk on Franklin Ave. as we did talking to a US Senator. I've called a US Senator looking for my husband, who was in his office at the time. The Senator made a real joke of it, as he handed Roland the phone, about how I can track him down anywhere. And...I've had an impossible time finding my husband on the reservation just after our son was born. No one would hand the phone to him then, as they were drinking with him.

A law professor and a state legislator both helped carry Roland’s casket. A retired US Navy Submarine officer carried Roland's body back to the reservation in the back of his pickup.

Who would I have been without all those experiences?

It's the truth, isn't it? Who would I have been if I had married an average man and lived with two cars and 2.5 kids in the suburbs? Really - would I even be a Christian right now? Because it was Roland that essentially led me to Christ.

And ...as I correspond with the various families that write to CAICW...how would I even begin to understand them and their fears if I hadn't been there myself? I am able to write two simple words that mean the world to them... "I understand."

And it is with that background: the birth mother to five members, the adoptive mother of one, the legal custodian of three, the step mother to four, and aunt to innumerable members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe - and as a former licensed Day care provider, foster care provider, as well as registered nurse - I am able to ‘withstand the barbs of the enemy’ and stand tall whenever anyone tries to call me a racist for speaking up on this issue.

I can unashamedly stand up and say what many others can't bring themselves to say - because I don't care what names they call me. And I can speak loudly. And I can help that no more children be treated as chattel for the benefit of a corrupt tribal government.

The idea some have that children "belong" on the reservation is racism at its core. It ignores who the child might factually be, who the child is connected to, what the child really wants and, importantly, what the child’s best interests are. It’s well known to everyone that the high school drop out rate, drug abuse, crime, fetal alcohol rate, child abuse, corruption, child neglect, sexual abuse, violence and suicide, etc. is so high on many reservations that no Congressman would ever willingly send their own child to live there...yet everyone is supposed to just go along with the lie that children of heritage must live with it because tribal and federal government say so. It’s not only insane but criminal.

I'm not going to diplomatically dance around so as not to step on toes. Kids are dying. Beautiful Michelle hanged herself in a simple closet, where all she had to do was stand up to save herself.

Others have died of overdose, accident, and violence.

So you are right. I have a job to do, and it is because of my life with Roland that I am able to do it.

- to be the loud-mouthed, angry witch that I am.

Bless you My Friends, you’ve been so good to hang in there with us through all these tough years.

Merry Christmas!

Read "Dying in Indian Country"

Letters from Families, asking for Help - Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare

Dying In Indian Country

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Roland J. Morris Sr. kept his tribal culture at heart as he taught his children about wild ricing, hunting, fishing, family history and some Ojibwa language. He did this, despite having lost all trust in the reservation system. He’d watched too many family members die tragic, violent deaths and had come to believe that current federal Indian policy and the reservation system itself was responsible.

Tribal leaders tell the public that the reservation system must be maintained or all will be lost. They claim that no one understands Indians, and this system has to be preserved as the only viable way for tribal members to exist in happiness. While they are saying this, violence, crime, child neglect, drug and alcohol abuse, and Fetal Alcohol effects are epidemic on the reservations. Further, at the hands of their own governments, tribal members experience denial of civil rights: freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly. They experience cohortion, manipulation, cronyism, nepotism, criminal fraud, ballot box stuffing and have even been robbed of their own children.

We are all aware this is happening, but refuse to admit out loud. For some reason, it's much easier to blame white America, history, and poverty for the problems.

Need a close-to-home example of how liberal, socialist policies within our government currently affect U.S. citizens?  Read Roland Morris's story. Read about his family - a beautiful 16-year-old niece hanging herself in a closet, another dying of a drug overdose in a public bathroom, a brother stabbed to death on the reservation, a four-yr-old left alone for a whole night at an inner city park, a two-yr old beaten to death by his mother, and more - and find out why this tribal elder traveled to DC over and over again to fight tribal sovereignty and the well-compensated Congressmen who support it.

Dying in Indian Country - A Family Story - http://dyinginindiancountry.blogspot.com/
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Facebook ICWA Discussion Page and Cause -

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We have now set up a Facebook Page for the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare as well as a "Cause."

Harmful Indian Law affecting children and Families in both USA and Canada - Read the letters from birth parents, grandparents, foster families, pre-adoptive families concerning their multi-racial children who are being negatively affected by the sometimes illegal misapplication of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

Though proponents of the ICWA argue that the act has safeguards to prevent misuse, scores of multi-racial children are being negatively affected by application of ICWA. Across America, children that have never been near a reservation nor involved in tribal customs are routinely being removed from homes they love and placed with strangers chosen by tribes.

As most of our friends know - my husband Roland and I began CAICW org prior to his passing in 2004. For several years now, as we have moved from Alberta to Montana to North Dakota, and as I have been dealing with the raising of several teenagers on my own, I have been unable to give CAICW my full attention. However, we have continued to receive many letters from families in need of help and the board and I have attempted to support and encourage them as best we can with what little we had.

Now we are organizing a lobbying trip to DC in January, where we will meet with Gary Bauer of the American Values or, Dr. William Allen, the former Chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights, Senator Tom Coburn's staff, and many more.

Please read the stories of various families at http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html.   If you have time to help me update letters - as well as the website itself - please let me know.

1. Jn 3:16 - God so Loved the World, that he gave his only begotten son..that all might live. Jn 14:1-14 Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life...

2. CAICW: Christian Ministry as well as Family Advocacy, is interested in the total well-being of the individual and Family.

3. CAICW: only nat'l org advocating for families who have lost or are at risk of losing children due to misapplied and sometimes illegal Indian Law.


Letters from Families: http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html


Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christian-Alliance-for-Indian-Child-Welfare/105558148606


Home Website: http://www.caicw.org


Facebook "Cause:" http://www.causes.com/causes/537834



CAICW - Christian Evangelism and Ministry - Gal. 2:10, “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."
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Happy Birthday to an Exceptional Man

Roland John Morris, Sr.
July 1, 1945 – June 9, 2004

Roland Morris, Sr., 58, ascended to heaven on Wednesday, June 9th after a four year fight with cancer. Roland, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, was born July 1, 1945, in Cass Lake, MN. Ojibwe was his first language, and he grew up fishing, hunting, and gathering wild rice with family and friends. He also played intramural basketball, worked hard in the woods, spent time in a foster home and various jails, drank, smoked, and played guitar with friends at various bars.

Roland went to college in Kansas and was a draftsman for a short time before becoming an upholsterer. While he struggled with many difficulties in his early years, he was a perfectionist with upholstery and throughout his life performed his craft well.

After a life changing spiritual experience with Jesus in 1988, Roland moved his second family to Ronan, Montana to be near his cousin and Christian evangelist, Frank (Scotty) Butterfly. There, in 1992, Roland and his wife, Elizabeth, created Montana’s first patient transportation service, Mission Valley Medicab. They also helped instigate the Montana Passenger Carriers Association and the charitable organization, Valley Missions, Inc., all without tribal assistance.

Roland taught his children about wild ricing, hunting, fishing, and a little of the Ojibwe language. But the biggest, strongest desire of his heart was that his children, grandchildren, and entire extended family come to the saving knowledge and acceptance of Jesus Christ. Having watched many friends and relatives die physically, spiritually, and emotionally from alcoholism, violence, and suicide, Roland could no longer stand aside and do nothing. He was concerned for the children and felt distress at the attitudes of many adults within his community. He wanted the self-destruction to stop.

Roland’s relationship with Jesus coupled with his conviction that much of the reservation system was harmful led him to some amazing life experiences. Actively opposing much of federal Indian policy, Roland served as President of the Western Montana organization All Citizens Equal, was a board member and Vice-Chairman of the national organization; Citizens Equal Rights Alliance, was the Secretary of Citizens Equal Rights Foundation.

He also ran as a Republican candidate for the Montana House of Representatives in the 1996 and testified before the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in April,1998, the Minnesota Attorney General in 2000, and numerous Mont. State committees. With his family, he also had a private meeting with a member of the President’s Domestic Policy Council May, 2002 in Washington DC.

As time progressed, Roland became more convinced of the importance of Jesus in his life. So in 2000 he attended a year of training at the Living Faith Bible College, Canada. Over the last three years, he and/or his family went on mission trips in Canada and Mexico. During a 2003 trip to a children’s home in Juarez, Mexico, he fixed most of their dining hall chairs, taught 6 boys how to upholster, donated materials, and preached a Sunday street service.

Through the years, he has appeared in numerous newspaper articles across the country. The last article he appeared in was on Friday, May 14th, in the Washington Times. Reporter Jennifer Lehner wrote, “the ICWA [Indian Child Welfare Act] protects the interests of others over [Mr. Morris'] grandchildren,” and “Mr. Morris said that once children are relocated to the reservations, they are subject to the corrupt law of the tribal government. Instead of preserving culture, he said, the tribal leadership uses the ICWA to acquire funds provided through the legislation.” Ms. Lehner quoted Mr. Morris as saying that the law is “supposed to help children, but instead it helps tribal governments.”

Finally, in February, 2004, he and his wife founded the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare. The purpose of this was to encourage preaching, teaching and fostering of the growth of the Christian Faith in all places, encourage accountability of governments to families with Indian heritage, and educate the public about Indian rights, laws, and issues.

Roland praised God to the very end. When his final struggle began, several of his friends and family were praying with him. When those present sang old-time hymns, he raised his hand in the air for as long as he could. When “I Surrender” was sung, he sang the echo. While Pastor Kingery sat next to Roland, holding his hand, Roland looked him straight in the eyes and pointed his other hand up to heaven. When he passed on to greater life, his good friend Marvin Bauer was softly playing Gospel songs for him on his accordion.

Roland is survived by his wife, nine children, twelve grandchildren and a great grandson. Also important to his heart was his “special” son, Jesus Garcia, in Juarez, Mexico. Surviving brothers include Harry Morris and Steven Jones; and sisters include Clara Smith, Bernice Hurd, Sharon Goose, and Christine Jones, as well as numerous nephews and nieces and his great cousin, Scotty Butterfly.

Roland was preceded in death by his parents, Jacob and Susan Jones; siblings Thomas and Wallace Morris, Robert, Martin, Caroline, Frances, Barbara and Alvina Jones, Loretta Smith, and grandson Brandon Kier.

Roland’s loving friend, Jim Ball, crafted a beautiful casket for him as a gift. Funeral services were at the CMA Church in Ronan, MT, on Sunday, June 13, 2004 and the CMA Church in Cass Lake, MN, Tuesday, June 15. Internment was at Prince of Peace Cemetery. He is strongly remembered for his strength, character, and love for the Lord Jesus.

Roland, our husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend; We Love you and Miss you so very much. You are with God now.

Gi gi wah ba min me na wah

Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare
Independent Indian Press
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Federal Indian Policy Says THIS is BEST for children?

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Many Families of American Indian Heritage do NOT want their children raised on or near Reservations.  Ours is one of them.  Here are the facts. 

- Federal statistics have shown that for years that children that live on or near reservations die at about twice the national rate. Quoted in a Dec. 7th edition of the Oregonian, Jon Perez, a director of behavioral health at the federal Indian Health Service, stated, “What you have are developing countries right in the heart of the United States. Each has a history of neglect and a legacy of trauma that explains these disparities. We need this history not as excuses for the disparities but as a need to intervene.”


Yet, Federal Indian policy and tribal governments keep telling everyone that the reservations are the best places for children of tribal heritage, and mandates that tribal government has juridiction over children in cases where they are in need of care.  Why?  Are their lives less important than other children's?

The Minneapolis Star and Tribune, on April 25, 2004, offered the following statistics for one Reservation county:

*Cass County, where most of the reservation's people live, ranked last among 77 Minnesota counties in a 1999 government study that measured the health and safety of children.


*In 2002, Cass County had the state's highest percentage of children living in foster homes and other county-supervised care. Most of them were Indians from the reservation, taken away from their parents, or given up by them, because of abuse, neglect or delinquency.


*A statewide study of ninth-graders in the mid-1990s found that Cass County had the highest rate of heavy drug and alcohol use and the highest.

Yet, in 2009, a baby boy was taken by the government from his safe, loving adoptive home in Utah and placed into the care of this very reservation.  Why?  Who benefited from that move?  Certainly not the little boy! 

And if a child's heritage is as important as tribal governments keep claiming it is, why does the federal government believe that only a child's tribal heritage is important?  Most enrollable children are less than 50% Indian heritage!  Why does the tribe have a right to interfere with children that are living in homes that better reflect their full heritage?

The statistics, after ten years, must be even greater now for interracial marriage...and interracial co-habitation and interracial flings....

But this isn't about drawing a line to decide how much pedigree is necessary for tribal government to lay claim in a child.  Any American citizen, no matter what percentage of tribal heritage, has a right to say "no" and choose not to be involved in the reservation system.  Blood Quantum should not rob anyone of that right.

Roland John Morris, (passed away) was 100% Minnesota Chippewa, but did NOT believe in the Reservation system or federal Indian policy.  He believed the reservation is killing people, emotionally, spiritually, and through that - physically. Drug addiction, alcoholism, abuse, etc.

He believed Men need to feel needed by their families, and as long as government taking care of everyone - helplessness and despair reign.  

He DID fight system politically. He spoke out against federal Indian policy, the reservation system, and in particular, the Indian Child Welfare Act.  For that, he was called a racist.

- The 2000 census told us that there were 4,119,301 American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States and 562 federally funded tribes. Approximately 75% live outside the reservation, with about 55%  residing in metropolitan areas. Only about 25% of tribal members live on reservations. Most have chosen to leave.


- Further, reservations are not populated by just tribal members. As of the 2000 Census, as much as 45% of reservation residents are non-Indian. In fact, on 30% of the reservations, the number of non-members is equal to or greater than the number of tribal members. The incidence of inter-racial marriage is high. The Montana Supreme Court, in Skillen v. Menz, wrote, "…interracial marriages are a fact of life, and, as with other marriages, so are interracial divorces and custody disputes over the children of those marriages.

The Indian Child Welfare Act is a travesty of Justice and needs to be rescinded.

Visit  Independent Indian Press - Conservative tribal members, speaking their minds
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