Richard Lonsinger at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, holding a photo of himself as a child shortly after he was adopted.

Sam Yellowhorse Kesler/NPR

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Sam Yellowhorse Kesler/NPR

Richard Lonsinger at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, holding a photo of himself as a child shortly after he was adopted.

Sam Yellowhorse Kesler/NPR

Richard J. Lonsinger is a member of the Ponca tribe of Oklahoma, who was adopted at a young age into a white family of three. He eventually reconnected with his birth family, but when his birth mother passed away in 2010, he wasn’t included in the distribution of her estate. Feeling hurt and excluded, he asked a judge to re-open her estate, to give him a part of one particular asset: an Osage headright.

But the more Lonsinger learned about the history of the headrights, the more he began to wonder who was really entitled to them, and where he fit in.

This story originally aired on NPR’s Planet Money. You can read a longer version of Lonsinger’s story here. And you can check out more from Planet Money over on their feed. We recommend starting with this episode about a green energy gridlock.

The Code Switch version of this episode was produced by Jess Kung, edited by Leah Donnella, and hosted by Lori Lizarraga.