May 9, 2018

Hi to all reading this blog! It is a little over a month since I last wrote to you. Time flies and waits for no one or nothing! Three weeks ago there was a blizzard here in Wisconsin. Today, there is green grass growing, tulips and other flowers blooming and leaves are growing on the trees! Here’s a beautiful photo of Gladiola flowers Sophia Huff used to grow by herself. This was her favorite flower.

Well, the weather may be changing but what hasn’t changed is my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me. It is still available at 25% discount through Lulu Publishing. Here is a photo what the cover of my book looks like and a brief summary. I discounted my book because I didn’t write it for the money. I wrote it to share my grandmothers’ stories, since they are deceased and cannot. I have learned that I supposedly receive a $1 from Amazon for each of my books that Amazon sells. Amazon doesn’t discount my book 25%. I do through Lulu Publishing. To me, my story is priceless because it is history you weren’t taught in school! It shares with readers the true history of my Great Grandmother, Sophia Huff, of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe, and her relatives as they faced forced assimilation into the Euro-white culture by our U.S. Government in the 18 and 1900’s. I will share this story the rest of my life. My Oneida relatives were considered savages and needed to be assimilated Euro-white, forget their Oneida language and culture, and everything that was Indian in them. Assimilation was just a cheaper way, (instead of the Cavalry shooting Indians in war), for the government to solve what the government called ‘The Indian Problem’. Hum…what was the ‘Indian Problem’? The government really wanted the Indian’s lands and other resources. It is all about the land and still is today in the year 2018! My Great-great Grandmother, Elizabeth Hill- Huff-Denny’s parents (Antone and Esther) were forced, as children, to leave the State of New York to settle in Wisconsin. The New York Oneida Lands were given to white settlers to resettle on! Esther and Antone were relocated to the Oneida Reservation here in Wisconsin. Treaties were signed in 1821 and 1822 that specified an Oneida Reservation of millions of acres. However, these treaties were broken and the Oneida Reservation acreage dwindled to 65,400 acres. The government wants to take sacred land away from some parks in this country in this year 2018. Things haven’t changed!
Growing up in Wisconsin I wondered why reservations were established in the first place. Born and raised in Milwaukee and Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin I knew nothing of my Oneida background, much less reservations. I have learned that the reservation system was established as a way to offer some small consolation for all the land the government took from indigenous tribes.However, each time a valuable resource is found on land promised to indigenous tribes, a treaty is broken… ignored. Today, this is still happening. Though water is life to all of us, the government feels oil pipelines in Standing Rock South Dakota are much more important. Sure, right!? We can all live on oil and money! We don’t need water! Now, pipelines at Standing Rock and other places are leaking oil. It is 2018. But, things really haven’t changed for indigenous tribes in this country. See photo below.
I remember as a college student in the 70’s attending a symposium on Intercultural Communications. The room where this symposium was held was full of people. The speaker was talking about the various cultures in this world and how communication is so important for all of us, no matter what race, nationality, religion, etc. All of a sudden this older man stands up and says loudly that American Indians fought among themselves, spoke many Indian languages and couldn’t understand each other because of their language differences and savageness. He then said that Indians don’t exist today. Wow! I was floored and didn’t know what to say or do. Here I am in my 20’s, and ashamed to stand up and say, ” I am Indigenous and exist”, sat and said nothing. At that time I was very prejudice of my Oneida self and ashamed to be Native American Indian. I talk about this in my book. Now, I wish I could take my wisdom I have today, back in time to that 70’s symposium and tell the man how wrong he was and still is. It is 2018 and people think Native American Indians don’t exist…or don’t count because there are so few of us left. Some have no clue what an indigenous person looks like! As I mention in my book, if Richard Henry Pratt, (The first supervisor of the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School), were still alive I would tell him he hasn’t killed the Indian in me. Since I am still here, I share this story with all of you until the Creator takes me away to Heaven! Thank you for reading my blog. Please feel free to share this if you wish. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, a proud member of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin