Obituary - Dorothy T. Kinsey, (Esin Ha "Kills Good")

Dorothy T. Kinsey, (Esin Ha "Kills Good") of Hays, 92, passed away Wednesday, March 7, 2018, at Northern Montana Care Center due to natural causes. 

A wake will be held at the Mission Rec Center in Hays starting with a rosary at 7 p.m. today, Friday, March 9, 2018, and a funeral Mass at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 10, 2018.

Holland & Bonine Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements.

Please visit Dorothy's online memorial page for a full obituary and leave a message of condolence for her family at http://www.hollandbonine.com/.

Dorothy Thelma Main was born Feb. 14, 1926, on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation near Hays, Montana.  Her parents, Thomas Main and Mae (Filesteel) Main, were proud members of the AhAhninin (Gros Ventre) People.

Dorothy attended 12 years of school at Saint Paul's Mission School and following graduation she began nurses training at the old Sacred Heart School of Nursing in Havre.  Her father, Tom who was the chairman of Montana Tribal Leaders at the time, asked her to go to the State Capital in Helena to work for Sen. Mike Mansfield.  She served as a stenographer for Sen. Mansfield and worked at the State Capital in the 1940s in the railroad department, what is now the Department of Transportation.

In 1957, Dorothy married Robert John Kinsey from Ryegate, Montana. They had three children, Daniel, Linda and Matthew.

Dorothy worked at the old Indian Health Service Hospital in the Public Health Nursing Office in the late '50s and '60s.  Dorothy served on the Reservation Wide Education Committee and worked at the Fort Belknap Education Department in the '70s.  In the late '80s she decided to try some college and graduated from what was then Dull Knife Memorial College Fort Belknap Campus, earning an associate degree in business.

In her later years, Dorothy worked in the Harlem Public Schools and Hays-Lodge Pole Public Schools as a bilingual and cultural teacher.  She worked up until her early 80s until her eyesight started failing.  She spent the last years of her life in the Northern Montana Care Center in Havre, MT, where she developed many close relationships with her caretakers.

Dorothy was active in the Cum Christo, Lay Ministry and the Sacred Heart Parish at Fort Belknap Agency. 

Dorothy joins her siblings Henrietta, Thomas Jr., Rosie, Elmer, Marie, Myra, James, Harold, and Opal; son Matthew; parents; grandchildren Charles and Joy in paradise. 

Dorothy is survived by her brothers Gerald and Jerome Main; son Daniel Kinsey andodaughter, Linda Kinsey, as well as many grandchildren, great grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews.  She cherished her family, extended family and community.