House Made of Dawn by M. Scott Momaday

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110996.House_Made_of_Dawn


Momaday brings the story of a war veteran suffering from PTSD to life in this Pulitzer Prize winning novel. As the story unfolds the reader catches the truth about how the indigenous people in this country have been treated by the American military to fight their wars and then return to reservations to be forgotten and die.

A Melungeon Story - Forward

The following is the forward from my book A Melungeon's Story - A Descendant of America's First Melting Pot. This is copyrighted material so do not share without permission from the author, Brenda Duffey.

A Melungeon’s Story – A Descendant of America’s Original Melting Pot ©

Forward

                I had never heard the word Melungeon until after I published my first novel The Peacemaker in 2009. I was attending my college reunion in Louisville, Kentucky just after publishing the book and was on a cross country tour promoting the book while stopping in Louisville to visit family and attend the reunion. I was discussing the characters in my book with a friend and had explained that the characters, although fictional, were based upon characters from family stories from my own ancestry.  I told him of my belief that I was of mixed heritage and had spent most of my adult life trying to uncover family secrets that prevented me from understanding who I was and what my place in American society was. My friend then asked me whether I knew about the Melungeons.  I confessed I had never heard the word, but when he told me about this group of people, I realized that I was, indeed, a Melungeon. 

                The origin of the word Melungeon is as mixed as the group of people it represents.   Some scholars say the word comes from the French word, mélange, meaning mixture. Other possibilities include: Afro-Portuguese melungo (shipmate), Greek melan (black), Turkish melon (cursed soul), Italian word for eggplant melongena (referring to black skin), and the Old English term malengina (guile or deceit).  No matter the origin, Melungeons have historically resented the word which they considered a racial slur. In recent years, however, as closed doors are opened, Melungeons such as me are beginning to view the word with a sense of pride because we are, indeed, the original melting pot of this country and the hope to finally eradicate separation based on race.

  The Lakota word for black is Sapa. Using Saponi as a name may have actually been the Lakota reference to the Eastern Seaboard Blackfeet. In Lakota the word is Si-Sapa. In the oral histories of the Dhegihan Sioux (Osage, Omaha, Ponce, Quapau, and Kew) the Si-Sapa migrated from Ohio to Virginia chasing out the rival nation they called the Doeg – the Algonquin tribes of Pow Hantan or Nanticoke.  Powhantan was the father of the Indian Princess Pocahontas. These stories say the Blackfeet lost their land to the Tuscarora in the first of the Indian Wars of the early 17^th Century and then started moving north and west in search of land.  

                The Saponi were probably the same as the tribe inhabiting the land around the Potomac River in 1608 near the colony of Jamestown and present day Charlottesville, Virginia mentioned by Captain John Smith in his reports to King James.  Decimated by disease and constant warfare, the Saponi and Tutelo moved to settlements outside Ft. Christiana in Virginia in 1711 under the protection of Virginia Governor Spotswood. After Ft. Christiana was abandoned and the Saponi lost this protection, the Saponi and Tutelo migrated to the western edges of Virginia and Carolina colonies in what is today Tennessee and Kentucky. There they lived with the Catawba Indians that inhabited the land on the Catawba River in what eventually became Rock Hill, South Carolina.  In 1753 a group of 14 men and women left the Catawba Nation to migrate to western Pennsylvania to become part of the Cayuga tribe, one of the six nations of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.  By the end of the 18^th Century the Saponi disappeared from history and was considered extinct. In the 20^th Century remnants of the tribe in North Carolina have tried to assert cultural identity but none have recognition as a tribe with any rights to benefits.

 Uncovering this history of the Saponi or Blackfeet corresponds to a family story told by my father that his great grandmother was a “full blooded Indian squaw” of the Blackfeet Nation. I have identified this great grandmother and am sure she is the Native American connection in the family. There are a lot of unexplained gaps in her ancestry.

Louisa Jane Wilkerson was born in 1844 in Hart County Kentucky and died in 1931. Louisa was listed in the 1930 census as Jannie Puckett aged 88 living with Andrew Jackson Criswell and Annie Puckett Criswell in their home in Leitchfield, Kentucky. These are my paternal grandparents. My father was born in 1914 so he was old enough to remember his grandmother and her stories about her ancestry.  My father was proud of this heritage along with his Scotch Irish ancestry and continually repeated those stories around our family dinner table when I was growing up in Louisville, Kentucky in the fifties and sixties. .

                Family records indicate a lot of migration to northern Kentucky into the Appalachian area of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky by the Criswell branch (as well as Tomes) of my family tree.  The male members of the Criswell and Puckett lines trace their ancestry back to England, Scotland and Ireland. It is my belief that these men were of Scotch- Irish descent and came to the New World in the second migration from Europe as indentured servants who eventually gained their freedom.

My research indicates many of those in the Criswell line were probably Ulster Protestants of Ireland who received land grants in the Northwest Territory from King James I to fight with Britain in the Indian Wars of the 18^th Century and later to support Britain in the American Revolution. The area of Ulster in Ireland is what today Northern Ireland.  King James the First of England had been King James VI of Scotland when Queen Elizabeth died without an heir to the throne. When James became King of England, Ireland and Scotland, he ceded a lot of land in Northern Ireland to Anglican Scots to take a hold of land in Ireland for the Anglican Church.

The first Criswell ancestor that I have identified in my lineage is a Robert Creswell who was christened in July 1602 at St. Michael Pater Noster Church in London. Marriage records and birth dates of his offspring are from Ireland and Robert Creswell died in Ireland. The American birth, marriage and death rates for the Criswell family locate the line in Maryland and Pennsylvania until David Criswell receives an inheritance of property in Owen County, Kentucky.  Marriage and birth and death dates for many of their wives are nonexistent which me to believe these were common law marriages and the females of unknown heritage were quite possible of Native American or African American descent   who disappeared into the western European culture of their husbands but physical characteristics were obvious so moving a lot in search of land and freedom was quite common.

Records indicate that these Melungeons eventually settled in the Cumberland Gap area of Southwestern Virginia, East Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky. The Melungeons were continually moving west seeking opportunities denied to people of color. “You turned white when you moved west.” According to The Melungeon People – An Appalachian Mystery, “it is very likely that the native lines came through the female lines.”  Family secrets, unexplained physical characteristics and gaps in ancestral lines are prime examples of a mixed heritage and all of these are part of my ancestry.                

The most telling physical attribute that led me to pursue a connection to an African American heritage was my father’s jet black (what was left of it when I was born) wiry, curly hair. My father had a dark, olive complexion that one of my sisters inherited. Of all of my siblings, however, I believe I exemplify the physical characteristics of a mixed race.  My hair was strawberry blonde when I was born but turned to red and then a deep chestnut color by the time I was a teenager. I had ringlets of curls like Shirley Temple and freckles. When I read James Michener’s The Covenant in the 1970’s I learned that one of the tests for African blood was the appearance of freckles. Had I been living in South Africa I would have been labeled “colored.”  The skin that is not freckled turns a deep red when exposed to the sun; it never really tans and I have a condition known as vitiligo – a loss of pigmentation that leaves white spots on the skin.

Other evidence that I have found includes records of mulatto Criswells living in Pennsylvania during the ante bellum period preceding the Civil War. I have found what I believe to be a cousin. His name was David Criswell and he served in the 54^th US Colored Infantry Regiment founded in 1863 after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. He was killed at the Battle of Charlottesville, VA in 1864.

As further evidence of my spotted ancestry, I have found English ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War and took part in the Indian Wars during the War of 1812. One of my more colorful ancestors was a man named Davy Crockett Puckett. Ironically, my paternal grandfather’s name was Andrew Jackson Criswell.  I have ancestors in the Puckett line of my ancestry who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War attesting to the fact that Kentucky was indeed divided and the term “brother against brother” is quite fitting for the Civil War in Kentucky.

Perhaps my father’s hesitancy to talk about any African American connection was due to the way he and his family was treated during his childhood. He was bullied and spit upon during his early education (he left school in the 6^th grade to help support the family) as his peers constantly ridiculed his heritage with the racial slur “nigger in the woodpile” somewhere. I did not learn one family secret until after my father died and learning that helped explain a lot about his deep seated anger toward his mother.  

Sometime in the 1920’s or 30’s either just before or after my grandfather died (he died in 1933 and was much older than my grandmother), my grandmother had an affair with a black man and bore a child. That child lived with the African American community in Leitchfield and my grandmother eventually went to live there after her husband died. In 1952, when I was six years old, my mother insisted that my father go to Leitchfield to bring his mother to live with us in Jefferson County. It was a difficult time for him and I am sure that is what led to his nervous breakdown shortly thereafter. My grandmother lived with us until she died in 1957 and although she lived with us, I never really knew her nor did I have the opportunity to hear any of her stories which I regret. 

As I have grown older and started to uncover these stories, I have found a sense of pride in my heritage even if it led to being on the outskirts of the American Dream and living in the South with the labels of poor white trash, redneck, or hillbilly. The Melungeons were the first descendants of the American melting pot but have faced isolation and poverty denying them the American Dream they have pursued for centuries.  Writing this story has been the culmination of my own journey to discover who I am, why my family was trapped in poverty and burdened with “dysfunction” for most of my life. Discovering my history and roots has finally led to a sense of pride in who I am as a descendant of the culture that not only defied the boundaries of race and disenfranchisement but also played a huge role in the settlement of this country and building the United States of America. In sharing my history I hope to make a stand for those people of mixed heritage who are the true Founding Fathers and Mothers of this country.

Indian Corn (Maize) Tortillas

Indian Corn Tortillas

The tortilla is nothing more than a roti (a round, soft unleavened flat bread) made with maize (Indian corn) flour. Indian corn was the corn grown by the Indians of the North American continent and was part of the Three Sisters (corn, beans and squash) that was the basis of the diet. Maize flour is naturally rich in fiber, antioxidants, vitamin B, omega 6, unsaturated fat and vegetable protein. The tortilla is the basis of all Mexican dishes and using maize flour makes them far healthier than the processed American ones.

To prepare:

Ingredients for 12 servings:

1 cup maize flour

¾ cup plain flour

3 tsp. oil

¾ teaspoon salt

·        Mix flours, oil and salt with enough warm water to make dough.

·        Knead the dough well and keep for ½ hour then knead again.

·        Roll out the dough into 6” (150 mm or 225 mm) diameter thin rounds with the help of a little flour.

·        Cook lightly on a tava (griddle) and set aside. Serve warm.

Geronimo and New Pangaea

I was watching a program on Native American Women Warriors last night on the North Carolina Channel (after Dancing with the Stars) :). I was impressed with the entire documentary and have spent most of the morning looking for it so I could re post it but to no avail. Although I would prefer posting the actual film, I will summarize the points I found most pertinent.

The narrator was a Native American female veteran who was sharing her experience in the Middle East and talking about the perspective of the warrior women in her culture. I believe she was Kiowa, Comanche and Sioux (from the Plains People). Traditionally, female warriors were the protectors of the culture and were not hesitant to fight as needed. Today, that tradition is being followed in another "war." That war is the fight to save the culture through pow-wow's and currently, the fight against the Keystone and DAPL pipelines crossing their land and threatening their water supply. As the Native veteran was talking to an Iraqi officer during the pow wow,  she mentioned a figure well known in American history for trying to save his land in the late 19th Century - Geronimo. 

Upon hearing the name Geronimo, one of the Iraqi leaders indicated he knew of this person.  Evidently, people in the Middle East are familiar with him and the military leader asked a lot of questions about him. As I watched this, I thought, could the struggle of the indigenous people in North America be something that brings cultures of the Middle East together to start working toward deescalation of war? Maybe the "whole world IS watching" and listening to the voices stilled so long ago in this country in the name of freedom and carrying the "white man's burden." The women warriors could be the ones who make this happen. It is the women of Plains' people who are carrying the message, first at Wounded Knee and then at Standing Rock.

One of the most poignant events that I recall from Standing Rock was the gathering of over 4,000 American veterans, many of them Native Americans, who came to serve and help and apologize for the atrocities committed in the name of freedom that eliminated their culture and way of life. The new banner of freedom that these protesters carried at Standing Rock was "Water is Life." For this, they were maced and rounded up and put into jail. Chase Iron Eyes and others are still defending themselves in court in 2019. Leonard Pelitier is still in prison for so called violence against the United States in the confrontation at Wounded Knee in the 1970's. Wouldn't it be interesting if the military leaders from the Middle East became familiar with this story as well as the story of Geronimo? Maybe they are as the warrior women of the Plains' cultures keep the stories alive for the whole world to see.

Origin of the Horn of Plenty

One of the traditional Thanksgiving decorations is the Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty. The English word is derived from the Latin  cornu meaning horn and copia meaning plenty. It has become a symbol of abundance and funnel shaped baskets appear on Thanksgiving tables across the country with fall gourds, squashes and Indian corn - none of which ends up on the Thanksgiving table, and it is highly doubtful most people could even identify these nutritious foods let alone eat them. Experts give credit to the origins of this symbol to interpretations of ancient Greek and Roman myths invoking the struggle of the gods and goddesses for power. Just as the Pilgrims are given credit for the first Thanksgiving, credit for the symbol is also given to the English settlers of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. However, I prefer another myth as the origin of this symbol.

Around the 11th Century the nomadic tribes of the Eastern Woodlands Indians of North America were facing extinction due to famine and endless war for control of the abundant virgin forests and the riches found there. An Onondaga chief named Ayowenta ( Hiawatha) sat on the banks of Lake Oneida in what is now the Great Lakes Region of upstate New York grieving the loss of his family and the condition of the few members of the tribe that remained. He looked up to see a vision of one who would become known as The Peacemaker who convinced Ayowenta to travel with him to bring a message of peace and prosperity to the tribes by coming together in peace. Six tribes joined this Confederacy called the Iroquois Confederacy that set forth a government that would bring peace and prosperity to the region. The six tribes joined in a loose league of friendship that was based on these principles:

• Land stewardship instead of ownership.
• Empowerment of women.
• Consensus to settle arguments instead of warfare.
• Setting aside public lands to be used by all the tribes with the basic principle of take only what you need and leave the land better than you found it.

Living in this way, the Confederacy became the most powerful and prosperous group in North America at that time. Although not all tribes joined the Confederacy, principles of land use and sharing were followed by most of those groups who were farmers. As the culture developed many myths about creation and God developed and were passed onto the children of the tribe. One of these myths concerned the Great Mystery (Father Sky) who inhabited the heavens above the clouds and who worked in harmony with Mother Earth to keep a continual supply of food for the people. 

The Great Mystery created an opening in the clouds in the shape of an upside down tornado. The vacuum created pulled great quantities of food that spilled out of the opening onto the ground below. The belief was that this funnel had to be continually emptied to keep the supply flowing. Therefore, at the Harvest Celebrations food was carried into the center of the village in baskets that were emptied and put into the great storehouses to be used by everyone. Prayers of gratitude, smoking ceremonies and burning of sage were also a part of the ceremony. Perhaps the Pilgrims took part in one of the Harvest Celebrations at the end of their first year in Plymouth Colony during which over half of the original settlers died from exposure and starvation. If the indigenous people had not welcomed them in peace and taught them how to farm, the Pilgrims could have easily been defeated. Despite what the experts say about the origins of Thanksgiving and its customs attributing these to the Pilgrims, I believe these customs came more from the Native Americans. You already know the "rest of the story."

Earth Day and Martin Luther King Celebration Instead of War

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is coming to the nation's capital on April 4th
 to mark its 70th birthday. Instead of celebrating NATO's anniversary, a growing 
organization is throwing a peace fest to offer alternatives
 to the largest military alliance in the world. 

While championing peace, NATO has repeatedly violated international law 
by bombing Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Libya. 
This is not humanitarianism. Bombs do not champion peace; they kill citizens 
(women and children), destroy infrastructure such as bridges, power plants, 
and local businesses. World Wars I and II did nothing to stop this from happening 
and repeating the same does nothing to break the cycle. 

Decades later the Balkan area is still reeling from billions of dollars in damage 
and an outbreak of cancer from the 6 tons of uranium bombs dropped in the country 
in the 1990's. Princess Diana of Great Britain brought these truths to the forefront 
of the world during her visit in the 90's walking around land mines.
The war in this region never obtained the United Nations Authorization. 
NATO now accounts for three-quarters of military weapons dealing on the globe. 

War is the leading contributor to the growing refugee crisis around the world 
as well as a climate crisis. War militarizes the police which is a top cause of the 
erosion of civil liberties and a catalyst for racism and bigotry. 
April belongs to Martin Luther King and Mother Earth. Instead of saying "happy
birthday" to NATO, celebrate peace to honor Martin Luther King's speech 
against war on April 4, 1967 one year before his assassination.

 http://www.spiritofmaat.com/messages/oct7/mlk.htm 

April is also Earth Day month. Those concerned about Mother Earth and 
in favor of a new policy toward the treatment of the earth should also celebrate 
by being in Washington and speaking to their representatives about their desires 
for better treatment of the earth that sustains us all by doing away with war and 
tturning our weapons into "plowshares."

Ari Ara and The Way Between

"The Horns of Monk's Head bellowed low and sonorous. Ari Ara skidded to a halt. . . The Horns announced the change of seasons. Autumn had arrived. She (Ari Ara) leapt across the black rocks of the High Mountains. The wind flung back the hood of her thick, black wool shepherdess cloak. Her red hair burned bright against the steep slopes. The sky blazed cold blue. The wind nearly knocked her off her feet."

Thus, Rivera Sun introduces the superhero of her dystopian series "The Way Between" and its sequel "The Lost Heir." http://www.riverasun.com/the-way-between/  In these two books Ms. Sun has created a world filled with all the adventure and fun of  mystics, martial arts and magic contained in "The Hobbit," and "The Ring Trilogy" and the "Harry Potter" series but with deeper messages about the struggle between good and evil like the Star Wars saga without creating losers. As Ari Ara (Not This, Not That) struggles to find the truth of her past and the people with whom she belongs the way Oliver Twist and Huckleberry Finn did in the works of Dickens and Twain, she becomes the leader of a world of orphans and misfits dealing with bullies and powerful adults who have the power of Attar- warrior force.  With the help of the Fantan Grandmother, leader of those who practice Anar (peace through avoidance) the old warrior Shullen, The Great Lady, young nobles in Mariana Capital, and dress makers and hawk keepers she stumbles upon Azar (the way between) to lead all toward unity and the dissolution of war.  

This series is a must read for students in grades 5-8. Young adults will find endless entertainment in the adventure but also realize the story is showing them a way to deal with bullies, gun violence and poverty that has been the world of children since the days of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Parents would enjoy reading this story aloud with their children as well. There are not enough superlatives to describe this series so I will use the words of authors of the Marvel Comic heroes that best describe it - Wow! Bam! and Pop!