This First Person article is the experience of Shaylene Lakey who grew up in foster care. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

I am Blackfoot from Siksika Nation. 

There was a time in my life when I was so ashamed of who I was that if someone said I looked Latina or Italian, I would have just said, “Yes, I am.”

My mother was Blackfoot. She was always somewhat mythic to me, someone I never got the chance to know. She was adopted as a baby. She died when I was five. Growing up, everyone who knew