Grandpa Enders

My Grandpa Thomas Enders was a 6'4" full blood Blackfoot.

He worked for the railroad at Sayre Pennsylvania and was one of the children that were resettled in the early 1900's by the church.

He was taught English and was beaten anytime he used his old name or language and was indoctrinated into the protestant religion and punished if he even mentioned his own religion.

When my mom was four years old my Grandfather wanted to buy a farm just outside town. He and the entire family saved all of their money in a big pickle jar.

So with the price of the farm saved, my Grandpa, Grandma, and all their kids drove to the farm so it would be a family event to buy it.

When they arrived, the owner's wife told them that her husband wasn't home and that he would come to their house to discuss the sale.

So my grandparent's went home to wait.

My mother, being a normal little girl of about four, was playing with her doll on the front porch when the gentleman arrived.

As he walked up onto the porch, my mother asked him if he was the man that they were going to buy our farm from?

The man slapped my mom calling her a "filthy little half breed".

My Grandpa came running to the porch as my mother was laying on there bleeding from a broken nose.

Before he even opened the screen door the man was ranting on how he would rather burn that farm to the ground than sell it to a dirty, stinking, Indian.

I'd give it to a nigger before I'd let one of your kind have it!

By then Grandpa had closed the distance with this offensive brute. He drew back and punched him right in the mouth.

The guy flew 10' off the porch.

My Grandpa carried his little "Dimples" into the house and when he returned the man was gone.

The next day Grandpa was arrested.

The judge fined him for the entire amount of the farms price and sentenced him to 30 day's.

He taught his kids to say that they were white and not an Indian.