A Gift From the Heart

About the Book

Mary recalls her childhood in North Dakota and her married life with Joseph and their children in Montana and Washington. Her childhood during the depression plus the humiliation and shame she faced being part Indian while living in North Dakota and being sent away to an Indian Boarding School in Oregon are central themes. Mary had her first four children on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

World War II meant a third exodus to Washington. Mary’s memories chronicle the new life encountered with a young family in a this new environment called the Pacific Northwest.

About the Author

Mary Sayers was born the fifth child in a family of ten children in North Dakota. Her father was German and her mother, Metis (half Indian and French). She married Joseph Sayers (a Metis) in 1938 in Poplar, Montana. She has lived in Port Orchard, Washington since 1941 raising her six children there. She lost her dear husband, Joseph, in 1998 after 60 years of marriage. She currently lives in an assisted living center due to Macular Degeneration. She is surrounded and cared for by her loving family.