Born in the missionary section of the [[Red Lake Indian Reservation]] in 1929, Nordwall was the son of a Swedish man and an [[Ojibwe]] woman.<ref name=Chron/> When he was five, his father died, leaving his mother no choice but to send him and four other children away to [[American Indian boarding schools|boarding schoolschools]]. He attended the [[Pipestone Indian School]] in Minnesota<ref name=Chron/> and the [[Haskell Institute]] in Kansas, where he took advantage of the time to improve many skills that would help him later in life as well as escape the [[Great Depression]], famine, and disease that was running rampant on reservations at the time. There he met his future wife, the [[Shoshone]] Indian Bobbie.<ref name=film>{{Cite web | url=http://sittingbullfilm.com/CW%20story%20synopsis.html | title=CONTRARY WARRIOR - The Life and Times of Adam Fortunate Eagle | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610195526/http://sittingbullfilm.com/CW%20story%20synopsis.html | archive-date=2016-06-10 | website=sittingbullfilm.com}}</ref>
