When Oneida celebrate the New Year in January, they say to each other, “Hoyan.” Oneida children on the Oneida Reservation, used to travel from house to house, yelling, “Hoyan, Hoyan!” to each home. People would come out of their homes and give these children donuts, fruit or candy as a treat. The horse drawn wagon then moved on to the next neighbor’s home for the children to spread “Hoyan”! (Happy New Year!) at the next home. My Grandma Millie loved celebrating Hoyan. She said she and the other children were kept warm by heated up bricks that were placed in the wagon by the elders. Well, “Belated Happy Hoyan to all reading this!”
Today is February 16, 2025. Time is passing for all of us! I thank Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for all they did for our country. I thank Deb Haaland for all she accomplished in the Interior Department. I wish her luck running for Governor of New Mexico. If I were a resident of New Mexico, I would absolutely vote for her.
I am still selling my book: Sky Woman Lives in Me, cover shown below, where to buy and what my book is about.
Congratulations to NABS (Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition) on all the work they are doing, to bring to light those Indigenous Children, forced to attend Boarding Schools here in America. Why were these Indigenous Children sent away to Boarding Schools? Our government wanted Indigenous Children to be Christianized and learn English and become white. Sadly, many Indigenous children never made it back to their homes. Many of these children died. My Great Grandma, Sophia made it back home after being at Carlisle for one year and being a servant for ten.
Thank you for reading my blog. Feel free to share this post. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, Author of the book, Sky Woman Lives in Me, and a proud member of the Oneida of Wisconsin
Sky Woman Lives in Me 