The journey home: Sixties Scoop survivor discovers his Indigenous roots in the Yukon

Having spent his whole life in bigger cities, Jay Mitchell says he's still getting used to the pace of life in the relatively small town of Whitehorse. 

"It's a shock. I'm so used to city life," said Mitchell. 

He's also getting used to meeting new members of his extended biological family. He says people often come up to him on the street in Whitehorse and tell him, "you're my cousin," "you're my second cousin," or "you're my nephew."

Mitchell moved to the Yukon last May after discovering errors in his Sixties Scoop adoption papers and then learning the truth about his ancestry. He spent most of his life believing he was Métis, only to have a DNA test reveal that both of his biological parents were from Yukon First Nations.

Mitchell says he misses his wife and son back home in Oshawa, Ont., but he says they'll join him soon. He's grateful to the Kwanlin Dün First Nation in Whitehorse for embracing him and giving him a job, and a place to live, while he waits for his family. He is now a citizen of Kwanlin Dün, and works as a records keeper for the First Nation. 

Mitchell's family's move to the North is about building connections with his biological family, and finding support for Mitchell's 17-year-old son Nicholas who has autism. 

"We're doing this for my son," says Mitchell, "to make sure that, you know, there's family to take care of him, if anything happens to us."

A case of mistaken identity

Mitchell, 57, was born in Edmonton and raised there by his adoptive family before they moved to Oshawa. He was 10 years old when his mother told him he had been adopted. He says it was a shock. 

"I had no idea," said Mitchell.

His mother also then showed him his birth certificate which said Mitchell was Métis. That set him on a path to discover his cultural roots. 

"I went to Métis celebrations, and I met the Ontario Métis chief in Oshawa," he recalled.

When he was in his 50s, a health issue prompted a doctor to encourage Mitchell to try to learn about his biological family's medical history. That led to another surprise for Mitchell, when a DNA test and an ancestry research service revealed that he was not in fact Métis.

He learned that his biological family were Yukon First Nations members. He soon connected with his biological half-brother Jeffrey Kalles in Whitehorse, and eventually his two half-sisters as well.

Kalles describes the first time he talked on the phone with Mitchell.

"Hearing that voice, and just really realizing that's [my] big brother — it's surreal," Kalles recalled.

It was also surreal for Mitchell to learn about his biological family.

"The funny thing is that with my adopted family, I'm the baby of all the siblings — and in my biological family, I'm the oldest. It's kind of weird how that works," said Mitchell. 

Putting the pieces together

Through a Freedom of Information request, Mitchell was able to get his adoption records from the Alberta government and confirm the identities of his biological parents as Yukon First Nations. 

"I don't understand why they didn't put me as First Nations. It's kind of puzzling, but a lot of people say that things were different back then, in the '60s," said Mitchell. 

The Sixties Scoop refers to the practice from the 1950s to the 1980s of removing First Nations and Inuit children from their families and communities and placing them in foster care or adopting them out to non-Indigenous families. According to Sixties Scoop class action lawsuit settlement website, many claimants described being cut off from their culture and language. 

Mitchell says when he learned about the class action lawsuit he was told he didn't qualify because of his Métis status. By the time he found out the truth about his Indigenous ancestry, the deadline to join the claim had passed.

'A lot of people were shocked ... that I existed'

After moving to Whitehorse and reuniting with biological family, Mitchell learned there were two people he would not be able to meet: his biological parents. Dennis Ladue and Joyce Jonathan had both died a few years earlier. 

"A lot of people were shocked about who I was, and that I existed," says Mitchell. 

Duran Henry is one of Mitchell's cousins. He thinks Ladue would have loved to meet Mitchell. 

"I think he would have been surprised, and then just overwhelmed by joy and love," says Henry.

He says sometimes Mitchell reminds him of Ladue.

"The way he laughs and, you know, the way we joke around — he's just a happy guy, and [Ladue] was like that."

Kalles was also adopted and also never met Joyce Jonathan, his biological mother. But he says their parents live on through the siblings. 

"There are these idiosyncrasies — we didn't grow up together, but the way we talk and the way he looks around and stuff like that. I guess, when I talk to him and look at him, I just know, that's my brother," said Kalles. 

Mitchell says he can't wait for his family to join him in Whitehorse this summer. 

"Every day I miss my wife and son. My son and I do everything together," he said. 

Kalles says he's also excited to meet more of his extended family.  

"I'm going to retire here shortly, so I'll have a lot of time to hopefully show them around the Yukon," said Kalles.