She was trying to pull her life together.
It was a weekday when she drove up to the offices of the Arrest program for abused women in Fort Belknap.
Long Knife visited Heppner's home the next day. After she arrived, two young men drove into the yard. One held a can of Budweiser in each hand - one full, the other still had a swallow.
Heppner later identified them as friends of her boyfriend. They were checking up on her so they could report back to him, she said. She complained about their visit in tribal court when she and her boyfriend appeared before Associate Judge Marlene Stiffarm at the Fort Belknap Community Court.
Everything had been OK a week earlier. But then the couple started fighting over beer, cigarettes and another woman. As she sat in court, Heppner's eyes carried the weight of misery. A gray sweatshirt hung on her tired body.
She told the judge her boyfriend took a washer and dryer from the home they share. The judge reminded him Heppner had temporary use of the house and the property in it.
“Anything you removed after the petition was served, you will return,” said the judge.
She also reminded him he wasn't allowed to harass or stalk household members. Finally, she told him he had two weeks to get his possessions from the house.
The hearing was over in about 20 minutes. Delina Cuts the Rope, an Arrest program anti-domestic violence advocate, sat at Heppner's side in the courtroom. She talked inaudibly to the visibly shaken woman.
Heppner had been with her boyfriend for six years. But usually, she was the one getting kicked out. Then she found out she could file for a protection order to keep the 6-foot-3 man at bay.
Heppner called tribal police when he started getting abusive.
The couple also had been fighting over their daughter. Heppner remembers when she became pregnant.
“He said he'd be a dad to her.”
She paused: “Yeah, but not lately.”
Heppner's saddened about the world her daughter lives in.
“All she can say is, ‘Dad drinks beer.' ” The little girl also understands an argument when she hears one.
“She gets in the middle and puts her hand over our mouth,” said Heppner.
While Cuts the Rope and Heppner talked, the child's father left the tribal building. Judge Stiffarm was gone, too.
Heppner sat at a table in the courtroom, unsure about her future. “I should leave here.”
She finds solace with thoughts of her daughter. “My little girl is my guardian angel. If I didn't have her, I'd probably have OD'd myself.”
In 1997, meth use dragged her down. She received treatment.
Heppner pulled up the sleeve on her sweatshirt inside the empty courtroom. The inside of her arm was scarred by needles.
Happy thoughts about her daughter quickly soured. She thought about the days ahead for mother and child.
“It's going to kill her not to see her dad. He's probably going to drink more and more and probably have a heart attack.
“I don't know if she could handle that.”
Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian and other Lee Enterprises newspapers. Reach her at 406-523-5299 or jodi.rave@lee.net
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