Otakuye Conroy-Ben (Oglala Sioux) is the oldest of five children born to Vina and Arlo Conroy, and is originally from Porcupine, South Dakota. Located in Shannon County, the third poorest county in the United States. It is where Dr. Conroy-Ben lived for the first five years of her life in a small one-room house that had electricity but no indoor plumbing. Her Lakota name, Titakuye Ota Win (Many Relatives Woman) was given her by her grandmother.

Because her parents were among the roughly 80 percent on the reservation who were unemployed, they moved to Rapid City where both found work at...