71-year-old ’60s Scoop survivor meets sister she didn’t know existed

Marie Miller always thought she was an orphan, but she reunited with a sister she never knew she had earlier this year.

Marie Miller always believed she was an orphan.

It was only later the Calgary woman learned she was taken as a baby from her grandmother’s arms as part of the ’60s Scoop in Winnipeg.

On Tuesday, she finally met the sister she never knew she had — Sally Tripp.

“I can’t believe she’s here,” said Miller, now 71.

“She’s not going home, (but) if she is going home, I’m going home with her.”

“It’s really happening. (It’s) unbelievable,” said Tripp, 72.

The ’60s Scoop was a time from the 1950s through the 1980s when Canadian government policy allowed for the removal of an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Indigenous children from their families.

They were then placed in non-Indigenous homes.

At just two years old, Miller was put in a foster home in Selkirk, Man.

The home she ended up in was less than 40 minutes from where her birth family lived.

“I went to school with some of my relatives and didn’t even know it,” said Miller.

“I was just very alone; I was pretty much on my own.’”

One of her earliest recollections is playing with a doll in a big house with a sunken living room at age nine.

Miller described her childhood with her adoptive parents as unpleasant.

“They were not kind to me growing up at all,” said Miller.

“They were very standoffish toward me. There was no kindness or warmth at all; I never felt it.”

‘I needed to be with my own people’

Around 12 years old, she knew she “didn’t belong” in her adoptive home.

“It was just a feeling I needed to be with my own people,” she said.

“They would constantly tell me that I was nothing but an Indian and that I was never going to be anything.

“I knew early on I was not comfortable in this home.”

She struggled for years to connect with her birth family via adoption records or any information she could glean from her adoptive parents.

“When all this came out — that it was wrong to take these children in the first place — that’s when records started to disappear and any of the illegal adoptions or shady adoptions were covered up,” said Miller.

After some reluctance, her husband convinced her to use Ancestry.ca for DNA testing.

‘Almost stopped breathing’

After sending in her information, a cousin popped up, and they connected.

She then took her birth certificate’s long version, where she matched an address in Winnipeg where her birth mother lived after she was born.

“My cousin almost stopped breathing,” said Miller.

“She said, ‘That’s where I used to live. That was our grandparents’ house.’”

The home remained in the family.

Miller was given a list of potential family members, who all turned out to be related.

While connecting with her cousin, she verified blood relations to Miller’s father.

It was one of her cousin’s sisters who told Miller she had a sister.

“I said, ‘Give me her number,’” said Miller.

Miller connected with Tripp on Jan. 17, and the two learned they previously crossed paths.

“We both were at the Winnipeg roller rink at the same time; we both went to Midtown Buffet at the same time,” said Miller.

For Tripp, it has also been a welcome moment meeting her younger sister.

Tripp has extensive knowledge of the family history and says both she and Miller were put in adoptive care in 1955 by their mother, who has since passed.

Their father came to rescue both from adoptive care before they were put up for adoption.

Then, as Tripp tells the story, the authorities came to their home and decided the family could look after her, but the family was not fit to handle Miller and took her from her grandmother’s arms.

Tripp has been looking for Miller for a long time, and Tuesday’s gathering in Strathmore, Alta., brought her closure.

“That first phone call was over 3.5 hours,” said Tripp.

“To find her after all this time. And, you know, the sad part is she didn’t know she had a family.”

The two sisters are set to head to a family reunion in Selkirk on June 28, where they’ll meet with dozens of family members.

“I can’t wait; I got the camper packed,” said Miller.

The two share other half-siblings, but they are each other’s only full siblings.

Miller does have an appointment to get her status card while attending the family reunion, for which Tripp will vouch for her.