Blended family tree branches to Port Townsend

PORT TOWNSEND — Seven years ago, Joleen Siyaka packed up the car and her four children and drove to Sisseton, S.D., to see her father.

On the last day of the visit, her stepmother took her aside and said, “I have something I want to show you.”

Handing her a piece of paper, the stepmother said she had interviewed Siyaka’s grandmother on her 90th birthday and written down the names of her Dakota ancestors.

“I spent the rest of the day copying it,” Siyaka said.