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[HinTamaheca]

...However, Black Robe has more to do with the Eastern cultures from which my heritage stems....

If you don't mind my asking, are you by chance from Maine or Vermont?

[Wabanaki Man]

No, but my maternal grandfather's family was from Portland, ME. His mother was said to be full NA and very beautiful. These two factors caused her much grief in the family. Her husband, my great grandfather, was a fairly properous sailor in the China trade. The matriarch of the family was said to be jealous and hated her. A rumor that my great grandmother was unfaithful was started. Big Auntie cast her out while Parney was at sea. My grandfather was taken from his mother as an infant and raised by the matriarch. His true heritage was denied him--and now me in turn.

However, my mother always said I am just like her father in so many ways. I love to--no, I live to hunt and fish. It is like breathing to me. So it was with him. I also look uncannily like my great grandfather Parnie's tin type picture.

My inner spirit, race memory, or whatever you want to call it has always shone through and has led me to live my life far differently than many of my relatives. I have values, insights, and feelings not common to them. I think my great grandmother and I would have been close. Perhaps we are for all that. Was-te.

[HinTamaheca]

The reason I ask, is that I lived in Massachusetts and New Hampshire years ago. I have some Abenaki friends from St. Albans, Vermont, and others from Clinton, Maine.

[Wabanaki Man]

I've made the acquaintance of a number of Northern Algonquin people. My mother's European side of the family has been in the Southeastern Canadian/North New England area for over 350 years. we have French/NA, Scotch/Irish, English, and NA roots from her ancesters. There could be other influences I don't know about. We are a fairly mixed people. This is true for most of the older established families from that area. I also now know some Mashpee and Massapoag folks now.

Interestingly enough, there is evidence that Europeans were visiting the Southern New England coastal fishing grounds far longer than traditional history claims. Cape Verdean and Portuguese Celtis fishermen might have been coming for well over 4 millenia to fish the banks. If so, they almost certainly would have had to establish seasonal fishing camps to dry and salt their catch on the Cape Cod and other NE beaches. There almost certainly had to have been some social interaction with native peoples if this is all true. Many of the Algonquin words and terms share ancient celtic and archaic Norwegian root words.

So how did these ancient fishermen know of the abundance available? The knowledge could be far older than 4000 years by a considerable amount of time.

Ancient NA legends also point to social interaction having been going on far longer than the post-Columbus era it would seem. Many of the Northeastern woodland peoples have stories of ancient contact-- some good, some not so good. Tales of warning and forboding are common. This could indicate that pre-columbian Europeans may have been inadvertantly introducing biological pathogens and social concepts into North America longer than is commonly thought.

The idea could help explain a large number of things--like the origins of Kutkutclan or Quetuquatl (spelling?)the feathered serpant who was said to fair and redheaded. The serpant could tie in with the Hiawassee mythes and the earth mounds. the Mayans were slavers. They may have raided well into the north. If so, they would have needed fortified outposts to do so. The successful revolt Hiawassee waged against the power of the serpant may have been one of factors that doomed the Mayan civilization. No new sources for slaves, no labor. No labor, no food.

The vikings and other later middle age European explorers might have been using pilot logs and sea charts far older than we know. Not all is as it would seem to the established historians.

I think there is still much left to uncover and to understand. The human story is a long one and far from simple. And so it goes.

[Nikki]

Medicine River, followed closely by Clearcut

[Magaska]

Pow Wow Highway
Fast Runner
Thunderheart
DreamKeeper
The Snow Walker
Son of the Morning Star
Black Cloud
Smoke Signals
Dance me Outside
Skins
Christmas in the Clouds
Man called Horse
WindWalker
Dances
SkinWalkers
Coyote Waits
and my new one
Hank Williams First Nations.

[Brownbear]

Thunderheart     Watched it again last night.  It was on AMC.

[Magaska]

me too... and i even own it.. and still watched it on amc..

[Brownbear]

I used to own it too, until I forgot who I loaned it to.  I've seen Smoke Signals and Skins, but Thunderheart still is a fav.

[Magaska]

Christmas in the clouds is a great movie if you havent seen it... you will love Graham Greens character.. funny!

[Littlemocassins]

Hiya,
My favorite native film has got to be either soldier blue or bury my heart at wounded knee.
I got a few really that i love lol.
Love and light,
Little Mocassins!
Mitakuye Oyasin.