Chapter 14

Now came 20 hours of solo. Hineahuone Te Wherowhero had a major advantage over her classmates; she had her own plane.

One inquires: Where did a Maori Princess from a poor family find enough money to support her own aircraft?

It actually started at the school entry application. It's pretty easy to be admitted to Junior College but it still takes money ... so ... Miss Te Wherowhero applied for student assistance as soon as she established residence in Holland. One question on the application asked if she was indigenous. She could answer it only one way ... yes ... She was indigenous. The application didn't ask where that indigenousness originated. She was indeed Native. Had there been an entry requesting race or national origin she would have had no difficulty making the proper responses. A list including Polynesian as a choice would have helped ... there was, after all, Hawaii ... and American Samoa ... that might have helped but no ... there was only indigenous to check.

When the great computer found that checked box, it hesitated just long enough to kick her application to HAND ONLY and her paperwork went to a separate section ... Native American as a term had yet to be designated. Indigenous meant Indian. The Indigenous Peoples of North America were hot to enroll their children in college ... how better to defeat the white invaders than by the white courts.

The name confused the reviewers ... Te Wherowhero ... the reviewer shrugged ... some obscure meaning surely ... but Hineahuone? What on earth? In the way of ethnocentric western europeans claiming to be Americans, he decided she meant Hermione O' Where, wrote that in where the form said Corrections and passed it on to the next person.

"That can't be right ... Hermione O' Where ... she must be Hermione O'Hara." And that was put in the corrections too.

The paperwork was eventually finished, she was authorized a full ride minority set of grants and student loans and acceptance of admission was sent to her address ... Grace and David's address.

Now the Feds ... Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) ... gets into the mess. Hineahuone was off flying..."She's away," said Grace to the BIA Agents who came visiting. "What's this all about?"

"Hineahuone Te Wherowhero does live here?" Said Miss Stuffiness.

"Yes."

"This is a rather impressive estate, where does she sleep?" and nothing else would do but Grace had to show the agents the house.

"She's not a servant?"

"Treat her like a member of the family," said Grace as she opened the door to the second floor bedroom. The bed was huge, the furniture was all Grand Rapids made from the turn of the century, the closets were checked ... the clothes were new and expensive.

"Surely, Mrs. Anderson, this is your room." Stuffiness was getting nosy.

"Nope, our room is down the hall," and they had to see that.

"Good God," exclaimed one of the agents. "It's bigger than my whole house."