Blog of my Book: Sky Woman Lives in Me

July 9, 2019

Dear Family, Friends and Everyone else reading this blog,

Hello! I hope all are enjoying this summer!

When I first toured the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School grounds in 2003, the first thing I saw was the school cemetery, right at the entrance gate. The original cemetery was back by the athletic fields. To make room for a new road, in 1927 the cemetery was moved to an isolated patch by the rear gate. I show a photo of the cemetery at Carlisle below.  It is rumored that not all the graves were moved to the new area. After 9/11 terrorist attacks, security changes turned this back gate into the main entrance, giving the public full view of this cemetery, and the children buried in it. None of the schools I attended had cemeteries at their entrances! As I mention in my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me, I was really shocked that Indigenous children who attended Carlisle, died at Carlisle and were buried at Carlisle.

Well, I do believe things come and go around full circle. On June 22, 2019, three Oneida students remains were returned to the Oneida Nation, here in Wisconsin. The three students were Jemima Metoxan, Ophelia Powless and Sophia Conlon.

These students had died between 1893 and 1904 at the school. I have shared in my book how mistreated my Great -Grandmother, Sophia Huff-Powless was, when she attended the school from 1891 until 1892. How lucky, how fortunate she was to survive her boarding school experience at Carlisle.

On June 28th, the Oneida’s 47th Pow Wow had an honor song and dance in tribute for these three Oneida students. The dancing was phenomenal, the singing was wonderful. The descendants walked around the pow wow grounds during the honor song. It was very moving. Below is a photo of the descendants walking during the honor song.

I feel grateful to have attended the burial ceremony June 30th at the Holy Apostles Episcopal Church. Yes, my great grandmother survived but my heart goes out to these three deceased girls and their descendants. I wanted to pay my respects. The Oneida singers did an awesome job singing at the ceremony. It was a beautiful, respectful church service. I am grateful to God, Our Creator, these three deceased girls are now home in Oneida.  The Holy Apostles Episcopal Church mentions the 10:30 am service for the Carlisle Students outside on it’s announcement board.

I just want to express my sincerest sympathies to the descendants of these three girls, Henry(Hank)Huff, Helen Huff, Julie Thomas, Lisa Huff and Violet Blake.

I, as a member of the Oneida Nation, sincerely thank all who helped make this repatriation possible: Kirby Metoxan, Rosa Laster, US Army Corps of Engineers, Forensic Doctors Michael Trimble and Elizabeth DiGangi, Sonny Hill and Father Rodger Patience, and everyone else who I may have missed thanking here.

Please say a prayer for all those immigrants at the border. My heart is so heavy with sadness, seeing these children taken away from their parents and put into cages! Hum… this is the year 2019, but nothing has changed in this country. See my photo below.

For the 4th of July, I honor all those men and women who fought for our freedom. I truly cannot honor Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Yes, he said,”Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But, further down this Declaration he says, “…the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” A partial section of the Declaration of Independence is shown below.   I, being of the Indigenous Oneida Tribe, am not a savage.  None of us Indigenous People are savages! I think back to when my great grandmother was forced to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School to become a better citizen, become assimilated into the euro-white culture and to rid her of her Oneida self, her savageness! Here are her favorite flowers, the Gladiolas, she loved to grow each year. How much ‘savage’ does this make her?!

Well, I hope that someone in Washington D.C. has morals and a good conscience to free Leonard Peltier!  He has been imprisoned for over 40 years! Why can’t he be freed now?

Thank you for reading this blog. Please share if you wish. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso (Bobbie) Author of Sky Woman Lives in Me