Great Grandmother's Blog

jack d. forbes, red blood

I'm finally getting around to reading jack d. forbes, university of california, davis, professor of native american studies.  I'm starting with one of his scholarly books, "The American Discovery of Europe" and also his only novel, "Red Blood."  I am really impressed by the novel.  It is written in the peripatetic motif popularized in the English tradition by Smolett, but found also in that sperm-seed of western literature, Don Quixote. So, nothing much happens, there is no suspensful 'plot,' but the protagonist, Jesse, travels around and meets different people of various native american backgrounds, reflects on what he sees, and gains insight into what it means to be native american, or part-native american, at this particular juncture in time. 

It seems to me he covers every possible permutation.

It's a great loss that Jack Forbes has recently died, in February 2011, because he was clearly a man of great insight with a basically gentle attitude toward differences, a lot of love, compassion and intelligence.  A jewel.  He was of Powhatan-Renape and Lenape background, which may mean he looked more brown or more white than the popular conception of what 'Native American' looks like.  He writes a LOT about all the various shades of color and subtleties of feature found in our population.  Young white readers, in particular, (from what I've seen in the comments on blogs that deal with these issues) often find this kind of writing 'racist,' but really, it's just revealing the racism that is already there in our society, but goes unacknowledged.  There's been a fairly large acknowledgement of the racism heir to the plantation-slavery of Africans prior to the Civil War, but there is less awareness of the widespread slavery prior to the rise of the South's cotton industry.  Slavery or indentured servitude were very common throughout the thirteen colonies and early states and involved white, black and red persons, who often united in bands of community and through marriage.  Their descendents, along with the descendants of many later immigrants, form the 'unentitled' masses of America. 

For people who fall into that latter category, 'Red Blood' is a helpful book.  For people like myself, with perhaps only a smidgen of native blood but a fairly wide streak of influence from the native forbears, it is comforting to see just where these influences come from, and that we have a sort of 'right' to our beliefs and our lifestyle.  We are not simply somehow defective white people or 'anti-social' or whatever label might have been applied to us in our difference.  We are not simply 'black' Americans, either, but that is someone else's story to tell, not mine. 

For myself, to look at me, I understand why no one would credit that I am part-native american, or part African, even though my dna tests show that, and my family (barely) acknowledged it, regarding it as something too precious to share abroad, only eliciting criticism, ridicule or negativity.  Rather, our truth was like a precious pearl kept secret in a special container deep inside our home.  Anyway, I'm not going to try to convince anybody - about myself, I mean.  It will be a fairly private thing for me, and an online post doesn't really change that.

I look forward to reading more Jack Forbes and I encourage you to read him too.

familiar american story

i decided to include a rather lengthy excerpt from the preface of a book called "Native American Wives of San Juan Settlers," by Karen Jones-Lamb.  i resonated with many of the passages in this book, and i have long believed that stories very similar to these were common throughout the 'american' continent, especially in the areas of chesapeake and delaware bays where my mother's people were from.  in my opinion, this is the story of the earliest american pioneers who lived near the great bodies of water, the oceans and to a lesser extent the peripheral rivers and streams of the continent.  please, read and enjoy.

"my interest in Native American wives of the settlers of the San Juan Islands goes back to my childhood at Decatur Island.

"my father, William Jones, was 1/4 Tlingit and was fond of his mother's family; she and her siblings being 1/2 Indian as substantiated in all census records.  They resided most of their lives in this county.  Dad always talked of his 'Grandma Reed' with warmth and personal pride.

"unfortunately, I only have known those people through letters and photos and Dad's remembrances for they had all died prior to my birth.  I did know Uncle Joe Reed's wife, Auntie Ella Moore Reed, whose ancestry on her mother's side was Native American as well.  Knowing her and having me Mrs. Lemaister, a descendant of Mary Brown, a full blooded Native Americn from Lopez, gave me a real admiration for these special women.

"the most fulfilling part of my research has been visiting old friends and meeting descendants of the well-loved friends of my parents and grandparents.  Many were people I have always known of.  Some have helped identify old photos of my families and have brought to life information in old letters and autograph books by their recollections of the past.  I will never forget nor be able to repay all they have done to help me sort out my memorabilia.

"Many Native American families were connected with one another in friendship and marriage from the 1850's on into the early 1900's.  In the earliest part of the pioneer era from 1855-1885 most wives were Native American.  Many descendents of these families are still in touch with one antoher whether they reside here, on on private mainland properties or on the reservations.

"Some families were raised more in the white ways and others in the Native American traditions.  The women I have chosen to write about in Volume I have come from various islands from Waldron to Guemas and have contributed to the unique historical development of The San Juan Islands.

Native wives blended aspects of their original culture with that of the man they chose as their lifemates.  That in itself represents a markedly adaptable personality.  Most marriage survived which is a testament to the good personalities of the women.  They were beloved in their communities by their neighbors, children and grandchildren.  In my own childhood I always knew of Auntie Chadwick, who was not my aunt and Mtoher Brown who was no relation to me.  On Decatur, no one spoke of Mrs. John P. Reed or Mary Reed or Tacee Reed, (her Tlingit name) but of 'Grandmother Reed.'   By this, she was always lovingly referred to by all of the island residents.

Respect was indeed due them.  Their relationships and marriages were long lasting.  One settler whose Indian wife died decided to marry a proper and prim English girl only to quit that marriage and to look for another Native American wife.

In such difficult times, isolated from the mainland these women could make do without luxuries and could preserve and use the foods of the land and the sea and the beach.  Many of their food preparations in the realm of seafood are still used in the islands today.  Some made baskets and some could sew and others did fancy embroidery and lovely crochet work.  Many could draw.  Most could hunt with rifles and did, to help feed their families.  Many taught their daughters.  Indeed, when I think of my great aunts it amazes me that those ladies whose crocheted doilies are at my home and whose beautiful velvet autograph books and photo albums the height of femininity, grace my bedroom are also the stern rustic women in the photos standing beside a nicely hunted 2 point buck.  They were indeed unique women in a rapidly changing world.

"Most importantly, in what the great Chief Sealth called the 'change of worlds' these played vital roles in the development of The San Juan Islands.  Because despite sweeping changes in their lives they seem to have remained friends with other Native wives throughout their lives.  Some became good friends to early white wives that lived near them but even after the influx of white women after 1880 there was a cohesiveness among the Native families who had known each other for so long.

"It must have been odd for them to have lived in the natural and spiritual world of their tribes and to see th coming of the steamers and the industry, high fashion, formal homes and gardens now supplanting their canoes and longhouses and entire way of life.  In these islands especially it must have been a source of pride that their people were often times still the most reliable navigators and fishermen and fisherwomen.  Self-sufficiency belonged to them.

"It is fitting now to honor these women with one foot in each world who are so responsible for the survival of many early island husbands and children.  It is fitting to honor the love they and their husbands and children bore for each toher and the lasting contributions they have made here.

"This book will not be perfect.  It will just be an attempt to honor that love and will hopefully lead the readers to even more interest in pioneer San Juan Islanders."  (pages 1 and 2)

red cedar basket

 

I received this red cedar basket in the mail yesterday from my friend, artist Mary Snowden of Anacortes, Washington, ceremonial weaver and sculptor.  I had commissioned the basket and requested a dragonfly theme, because of a very early dragonfly experience i had myself at about age five that has stayed with me.  i was standing back in the marshes, where i was not supposed to go alone, of course, and was visited by a very large, camoflage-colored dragonfly with heavily netted wings.  He perched on my upper arm, covering almost the entire length of it, and I had no idea what it was.  It was a sort of alien-encounter for me, and I was terrified. We stood that way together for what seemed forever.  I finally closed my eyes and prayed that it would go away, and when I opened my eyes it was gone.  I felt relieved, but kind of missed it too.  It was a sort of heightened experience of the marshes and of nature in that environment, and of the deep mysteriousness and terror of life.  my mother felt a deep reverence for the marshes, which i feel is a value handed down from our native ancestress.

Here is what Mary wrote to me about the basket: 

"Dragonfly and the Four Directions" basket 2010

(Red Cedar Bark, Raffia, Dentailium shells (a symbol of wealth and memory, precontact, on the NW Coast here it was First Peoples trade 'money'), Green Wooden Beads, Fire polished Glass, Carnelian Beads, Mother of Pearl Beads, Glass Beads, Trade Beads.) 

"The Dragonfly is an ally through mysterious times and will show us the way through illusion, and lead us ultimately to our own inner truths.  Dragonfly medicine is very important. Dragonfly's can be found on every continent of our Mother Earth.  They are a precious part of our Mother Earth's gift to us as one of our winged significant teachers and helpers.  Thank you Dragonfly.

"Red Cedar Bark is sacred and essentially priceless.  Not every cedar tree can be gathered from, making it rarer.  Then after the bark is gathered traditionally ( a good hike in the forest), it sets for one year.  Then the process of slowly paring it both horizontally, and vertically begins.

"The cedar is very powerful when gathered from a living tree, which continues to live, and essentially, your basket is alive.  There is a saying here on the Northwest Coast in Indian Country, "Be good to your cedar, and your cedar will be good to you" It is the considered the most sacred 'powe/healing' element here in the NW, and cedar storage boxes are used to house ceremonial items.  It is also is the symbol of Red face Paint (the healers). The inner bark of the red tree can only be separated from the tree, only a few weeks of the year.  Any other time, it is solid wood, with no divisions in its tree Cambrian.  During this special time, it separates itself for the people.  It is highly revered."

I found what Mary wrote about the dragonfly to be very meaningful.  i've read quite a few 'takes' on the dragonfly's medicine, but this one certainly rings true to me, and has been proved out in my life as I approach sixty.  An interesting age for this basket to come to my home.

 

into the wilderness, by sara donati

Just want to note a series of historical novels by sara donati that chronicle (fictionally) the many people of early new york state, including native americans and white 'adopted' natives, and part-native 'myxt' people that parallel the people of our area who used to be called (possibly pejoratively) 'delaware moors.'

The first novel is titled 'Into the Wilderness' and is set in the late 18th century, and features British, Scottish, German, French, Mahican and Mohawk peoples.

Her story-telling is engaging, her settings beautiful - it's a book to lose yourself in, making for great winter reading.