February 21, 2018

Dear Family and Friends, Hello to all reading this blog. My husband and I are back in Wisconsin following two weeks out East to visit relatives and friends. We paid our respects to Barbara Smith’s gravesite. Barbara passed this past November, 2017 at the age of 99. She helped me with research on my book, Sky Woman Lives Me.  I left a replica of a turtle for her gravesite. The turtle represents my Oneida Turtle Clan. I wanted Barbara to know she helped me so much, she too, is always in my heart, as part of the Oneida Turtle Clan. After visiting her gravesite we went to lunch at a local Olive Garden restaurant  with Barbara’s sons, Geoff and Wayne and daughter in law, Helena. Ironically, the Olive Garden was a favorite place to eat for Barbara and my Grandma Millie! Ironically, Barbara wanted to meet my Grandma Millie. I suspect these two ladies are finally meeting in Heaven, maybe at an Olive Garden!  Below is Grandma Millie on the left, Barbara Smith on the right.

Grandma Millie

Barbara Smith

As I sit here typing this blog, I keep thinking of when I first met Barbara Smith.  In 2007 my husband, Chick and I met Barbara in Laurel Springs, New Jersey.  I share this in my book.  Her son, Geoff, was doing some gardening in the backyard of her home.  We told Geoff who we were and that we were searching for a Tomlinson Home my Great-Grandmother, Sophia Huff may have been a servant in.  Geoff told us he was a descendent and that his 88 year old mother, Cora Barbara Walker Smith was still alive and living in this old victorian home. Barbara was the daughter of Cora Tomlinson! Wow, I thought, we had finally found the home Sophia Huff lived in!  Chick and I were invited into the house to talk to Barbara and Geoff.  We learned that Sophia wasn’t a servant that lived in this home, another Indian girl named Grace Thumbo, resided here as a servant at the turn of the century.  I learned there were many Indian students from the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School who worked at servants (called Outings) for non-white families in the area. Barbara told us all about Grace.  She asked me if I knew what became of Grace Thumbo. I didn’t know anything about Grace, having just learned about her.  After talking with Barbara and Geoff for awhile, I promised Barbara and Geoff I would find out whatever happened to Grace Thumbo. Below is a photo of Grace that Barbara gave me. On the right is inscribed: Grace Thumbo-Mohave Tribe. A sweet girl who lived with us for several years.  Signed,  Cora T (Tomlinson) Walker (Barbara’s mother).

To all of you reading this blog, I need your help in finding Grace Thumbo’s descendants. Here is a bit more information about Grace.  Grace’s Carlisle Indian School Records stated she had attended other homes to be a servant after leaving the Tomlinson Family.  The records also state she was released from the Carlisle Indian School for time served as a student there. These are all false records. Grace left the Tomlinson’s with her brother in 1904.  He had traveled to Laurel Springs, NJ from Arizona,  to take his sister back to the Apache-Mohave reservation so she would not be assimilated into the white culture. I have learned that Grace married a man named Max Pelchu. She had a son, William Pelchu, while living at Camp McDowell, Arizona, a reservation for Apache-Mohave, Yuma-Apache, Tonto-Apache Indian Tribes. Camp McDowell is now called Fort McDowell. Grace later moved to Phoenix, Arizona and had two more children, Herbert and Paul Pelchu. If anyone reading this blog has information on Grace (Thumbo) Pelchu relatives, that they can share with me, this would so much appreciated. I truly want to contact Grace’s descendants to share how fond Barbara Smith and the Tomlinson’s were of her.

Above is a summary of what my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me, is about. This is a true historical story. It is available through lulu publishing.com at 25% discount. Here are a few indigenous people who write about the true, untold history of indigenous tribes here in our country:  Karen Warren-Teach Our Children True U.S. History, “No More Lies”; Theo Van Alst-Native American and American Indian Issues. Thank you for reading this blog. Share if you wish. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso  A Proud Member of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin