November 5, 2018
Dear Family, Friends and Everyone else reading my blog,
Hello! I hope all had a Happy Halloween. The leaves are almost all down and we are supposed to get snow this weekend!
November is Native American Heritage/History Month. As a member of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin, I intend to honor this month by sharing my grandmothers’ stories (and mine) from my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me. My book definitely explains why I am just now learning about my Oneida Culture and why I was never taught my own Oneida Language. Realizing at around fifty years old that I was one of many indigenous people in our country colonized Euro-white. Why? I researched for fifteen years and then wrote my book. I wrote to share the real story, set the record straight and give people the true history of what happyed to indigenous tribes here in our country. Here is a photo of the cover of my book. It is available at 25% discount through lulu.com. If you want to pay more money, buy it at Amazon, etc. 
October seems to have flown by. Time waits for on one! I was able to attend two conferences commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the closing of the nation’s first Indian Boarding School, Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School. I shared how my great-grandmother and her sister were forced to attend Carlisle to be assimilated into the Euro-White culture in 1891. I had researched how Carlisle Indian School (set up in 1879 until 1918) was the first experiment by the government to assimilate Native Children into the Euro-white culture. My Great Grandmother, Sophia Huff and her sister, Lily were part of this experiment. I learned that most Indian Boarding Schools in this country were set up to assimilate Indians to the Euro-white culture. Here it is the year 2018 and this assimilation experiment has caused pain and heartbreak to many indigenous people in our country. So I was honored to talk at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Conference held this October in Carlisle, PA. I met many other indigenous people, like me, who knew little about their indigenous culture. The conference was excellent! I sincerely thank NABS (National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition), staff and Christine McCleave for having this long overdue conference. Attendees heard indigenous people share their stories of what they or their descendants experienced as a result of the government’s boarding school assimilation experiment. No wonder I never knew much about being Oneida. My ancestors weren’t permitted to share their indigenous culture to their future generations, thus, I and many, many descendants have been colonized white. This conference was very moving and emotional. Sharing our stories has given us the chance to work to heal our hearts! We all need to share our stories to let the true history come out! Most people have no clue about the government’s boarding school assimilation experiment which was to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”
The second conference, Carlisle Journey’s was held a few days later at the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle, PA. I sincerely thank Barb Landis for allowing me to share my Great-Grandmother Sophia Huff’s story as a student at Carlisle and her ten years as a servant for Quakers in New Jersey. Her sister, Lily, was listed as a student at Carlisle. However, Lily only spent three days at the school and then was sent out to be a servant in the countryside for a non-white family. This conference was also very emotional as indigenous people shared stories of their ancestors attending boarding schools to be assimilated into the white culture. This conference taught me a lot and gave me the opportunity not only to share my book, but to meet other indigenous people in this country who also had stories like mine to share.
I have been to the grounds of the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School three times now. Most of the original school buildings are torn down, gone! When visitors come to this area, they see a Army War College now on the grounds. To visit, one has to show an ID and check in with Army personnel first. Once on the grounds after being allowed on them, the very first thing every visitor will see is the Carlisle Indian School Cemetery. Then you can walk the rest of the grounds, further down the road you will see a replica Bandstand, Hessian Guard House, Jim Thorpe Gymnasium, etc. Another building is the original Carlisle School Farm House. It is a goal of the Carlisle Farmhouse Coalition committee to gather donations in hope of renovating the School Farmhouse. This Farmhouse would be used for visitors, indigenous descendants and to meet and greet each other. Right now, the only place to gather is at the cemetery. To honor those children, who were mostly forced to attend Carlisle to be assimilated, restoring this Farm House to be a Heritage Center would be fitting and wonderful for everyone. There is a Go Fund Me started on Facebook for this Carlisle Farmhouse renovation. What a tribute to those boarding school students to have a Farmhouse Heritage Centre! The Farm House Coalition can be reached at Cisfarmhousecoalition@gmail.com Barb Landis and Lu White can also give you more information at this email address. Below is a photo of the Carlisle Indian School Farmhouse.
Lastly, my great grandmother wasn’t allowed to vote until the year 1924. In her honor and for me, I will be voting November 6. Sad that even today North Dakota is trying to suppress the Indian vote. Another state is trying to suppress the Puerto Rican vote! Please, everyone, VOTE as it your life depended on it. This country cannot continue to be run by the 1%! The other 99% of us have to go out and VOTE! This is our country, not the 1%!
Thank you for reading this blog! Please share if you wish. I am going to watch the PBS Documentary, DAWNLAND, that airs at 10pm eastern time, 9 pm central! PBS is going to re-air this documentary at different times in country. This documentary is an untold story of Native American Child Removal in the US through the nation’s first-ever government-endorsed truth and reconcilations commission. Please watch this documentary if you can. Thank you! Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, Author of Sky Woman Lives in Me, and a very proud member of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin
Sky Woman Lives in Me 