Her name is Barbara Jean Stevens. She is a member of the Passamaquoddy tribe located on a Reservation in Indian Township, Princeton, Maine.

I am estimating, but I believe there are less than 100 full blooded Passamaquoddys left, in fact the Tribe's Council decided to add a certain amount of membership to all tribe members that are on the Census to keep the Passamaquoddy blood line from fading away.

Barbara left the reservation at a young age for personal reasons which she took to her grave. Whatever it was must have been pretty bad for her last dying wish was to not be buried on the reservation. She married, had four children and settled in Mississippi. Many years later, she moved to Louisiana and had two more children and lived there until her death in 1998.

She returned to the reservation for a couple of years but unable to cope with things going on there, she returned to Louisiana.

Just to give some background on the Passamaquoddy Tribe, known as the People of the Dawn, if you are a native Passamaquoddy you can be buried on the reservation with theTribe paying the entire bill. They will even provide transportation for immediate family members from out of state and the memorial service. If you die out of state they will pay to have your body brought home at no cost to the family or the decedent's estate.

I think that is very generous of theTribe to take care of their own, not only will they pay to have you brought back to Indian Township, they even pay for family members to come too.  Again very generous.

But what happens if your choice for your final resting place is not on the Reservation? What if something so bad had happened to you as a child that you never told a soul and took that secret to your grave? Trying to put the pieces together from what little she ever did mention from her childhood has not worked. Nobody knows what happened and never will. Her only wish was not to be buried there. Maybe that was her way to keep her dignity. That wish was granted.

Barbara chose to be buried in New Orleans, Louisiana and by choosing to do so, the tribe refused to help. It was now the responsibility of her six children to take care of the arrangements, and rightfully so. None of them having much money they were able to afford her last wish by keeping her in New Orleans. The sad part of the story is she is buried in an unmarked mausoleum. Being New Orleans is under sea level she is basically in a wall with no headstone.

So the generous Passamaquoddy Tribe has left one of their last full-blooded native women in an unmarked grave-I thought they were supposed to take care of their own?

As the wife of this very special women's son I am writing his story as he wrote it himself. It bothers him tremendously to know with no headstone, she can not be recognized nor can she rest in peace.