Author: skywomanlivesinme

I, Roberta (Bobbie) am one of ten siblings born to an Oneida mother and European-American father. I grew up in Milwaukee and Lac du Flambeau, WI. I am the mother of two grown sons, wife of 40 years to an Italian, Charles, from New Jersey. I am a proud turtle descendant of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin.

OCTOBER 13, 2025

Happy Indigenous People’s Day to everyone reading this. This day used to recognize Christopher Columbus discovering America. It still does. But, today we also now recognize Indigenous People in our country. Hallelujah! Thank You Creator!

Above is a picture of a book I wrote in 2016 called, Sky Woman Lives in Me. I also include where to buy my book to read it and a short summary of my book. All my life I never knew about my Oneida Indigenous heritage. In school we were taught to celebrate Christopher Columbus Day, as he discovered America. Many of our Indigenous ancestors were assimilated into the non-Indian culture, forbidden to learn about Indian culture and language. And our ancestors did not pass the language and Oneida culture on to us descendants, out of fear of retribution from the US Government.

HAPPY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DAY!

Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, Author of Sky Woman Lives in Me, and a proud member of the Oneida of Wisconsin

February 16, 2025

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

December 26, 2024

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year 2025! My book is still available for purchase through lulu.com and other bookstores. Just google Sky Woman Lives in Me and you should be able to choose where to buy my book. It was written and self-published on February 8, 2016, through Lulu Publishing. It took me fifteen years of research and travel to write this book, based on a true story. Below is a summary of my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me.

Also, on December 20, 2024, the U.S. Senate passed S.1723, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act, with an amendment through unanimous consent. Now the bill has gone to the U.S. House of Representatives for approval and passage. Please contact members of the Native American Caucus and the Republican co-sponsors of this bill S. 1723 and urge them to pass this bill. When speaking to Congressional Representatives, emphasize that:

  1. This bill is fully paid for and will cost nothing.
  2. All of the conservatives in the Senate signed off with no objections and,
  3. The language is amended to ensure the support of faith-based groups.

For more information go to:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1723.

Learn more about the movement for healing at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

Learn more about the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) boarding school healing work at. https://narf.org/cases/boarding-school-healing/

Thank you for reading my blog. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, Author of : Sky Woman Lives in Me; Member of the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition; Supporter of Native American Rights Fund; Proud member of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin.

November 12, 2024

Dear Family, Friends and Others reading this,

Hello! Belated Honors to all Veterans on Veteran’s Day, yesterday and everyday. Without our Veterans we wouldn’t be here with our freedom today. Native American Indians were the largest group to serve in our armed forces. Here is a photo of my late Great Grandparents, Hyson and Sophia, standing with my late Uncle John, who served in the Marines. He fought in the Korean War for our country. Two of my other uncles: Uncle Richard and Uncle Ed, also served in the military to protect our country.

I am glad the Election, 2024 is finished. I am not happy with the outcome. Thank you to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for everything they did to help keep our Democracy. Also, thank you to President Joe Biden for all he is doing and has done to keep our freedom. I also thank President Biden for apologizing to what our government did to Indigenous children by forcing them to attend Boarding Schools here in our country. The U.S. Government wanted to assimilate Indigenous children into the white society. I didn’t know about this till much older in my life. Below is a photo of me around 9 years old, dressed as a TV stereotyped Injun. I wore this costume for Halloween, not knowing anything about my Oneida Indigenous nationality nor my Oneida culture and Oneida language. So, sending my Great Grandmother, Sophia Huff, to the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School and my Great Grandfather to Hampton Indian School; definitely worked in assimilating me, my brothers, sisters, relatives to not know who we really a were and are today. Biden’s apology made me cry. God, Our Creator, Bless Deb Haaland for being a wonderful Interior Secretary!

My book, Sky Woman Lives in Me, can be purchased through lulu.com or search on google for bookstores who may sell my book. Thank you for reading this blog. Please feel free to share this. Thank you! Sincerely, Roberta Capasso.

October 28, 2024

Hello to Everyone reading this. With the 2024 Election 8 days away, I hope everyone who is eligible to vote, VOTES! My Great-Grandmother, Sophia Huff-Powless wasn’t even considered a US Citizen in 1891, when she was forced to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School to be assimilated into the white cultlure and only speak English. Everytime she was caught speaking her native language of Oneida, she was punished. One time she was forced to eat lye soap! Sophia finally was accepted as a US Citizen in the year 1924, when she was 48 years old! To vote in an election, she would have had to leave the Oneida Reservation, with permission, from the non-Indian Agents in charge of overseeing the Oneida Reservation. Why did she have to leave the Oneida Reservation to vote? Well, there were not any voting places on the reservation. I talk about Sophia in my book: Sky Woman Lives in Me.

Fast Forward to November 5, 2024! Sophia would be proud of all of us Indigenous People and People of all Nationalities, who vote for our next President, Kamala Harris. Voting for Kamala and Tim Walz insures our Democracy prevails. A 100 years from now in the year 2124, when I and all of you reading this are long dead and buried, my descendants and yours will continue to vote for Democracy. Otherwise we all can kiss our freedom “Good Bye”! So, please go out and vote!

Thank you for reading this blog. Please feel free to share this.

Sincerely, Roberta Capasso (Bobbie), Author of : Sky Woman Lives in Me and a proud member of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin.

October 14, 2024

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day! It is so wonderful for Indigenous people to have a day of recognition as human beings instead of uncivilized savages. My great grandmother was sent to Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding to learn English and become a Christianized person. She would be proud of Indigenous People Day. By the way, she was already Christianized Episcopalian and was very civilized, before she was forced to attend Carlisle. My Great-Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Huff, refused to be assimilated white. Thus, her daughters, Sophia and Lily were taken away from her and sent to Carlisle to be assimilated.

The book pictured below named: Stiya, A Carlisle Indian Girl At Home, was written by an author named Embe in 1891. Embe’s real name isn’t given. The real author is believed to be a white, female employee of the Carlisle Indian School. This book was printed at Riverside Press in Cambridge, Massachusettes, funded by the U.S. Army. A copy of this book was given to all graduates of the Carlisle Indian School. The graduates were to read this book to remind them to ‘not go back to the blanket’ (ie their Indian Culture and language). The book is propaganda and full of lies by the author. I thank God, Our Creator, that my great grandmother never received a copy of this book! I am thankful my Great Grandmother, Sophia Huff, kept her Oneida culture and language despite spending years away from her real family in Oneida Wisconsin. My book is still for sale at lulu.com and other book stores, so you can read the whole story that took me fifteen years of research to write. Thank you for reading this blog. Happy Indigenous Peoples Day to all Indigenous people in the world. Please feel free to share this with others if you wish. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, Author of : Sky Woman Lives in Me. I am also a proud Indigenous Oneida from Wisconsin.

October 3, 2024

Hello Again! I don’t usually write a new blog two days in a row. However, at 71 years old, I forgot to add a few comments to yesterday’s blog. As the late Bette Davis once said, “Aging isn’t for sissies!”

In my yesterday blog, October 2, 2024, I talked about how my great grandmother wasn’t allowed to vote until 1924. According to Judith LeBlanc, from the Native Organiers Alliance Action Fund, One-third of eligible Native voters are not registered to vote–that’s 1.2 million people! Please register to vote! VOTE, because our Democracy depends it! Please google: info@nativeorganizing.org for further information.

A friend of mine, Charles Fox, asked me to share two linkes of two stories he wrote for Indian Country Today, about the Repatriation of three Pine River Indigenous Students from the Carlisle Indian School Cementery. Here are the links: https://ictnews.org/news/im-home-after-all-these-years https://ictnews.org/news/home-from-carlisle-a-fathers-wish-fullfilled-after-more-than-130-years

Thank you for reading this blog. Please feel free to pass it along. Thank you! Sincerely, Roberta Capasso (Bobbie), Author of: Sky Woman Lives in Me and a proud member of the Oneida Indigenous of Wisconsin

You can contact me directly at: bobbie@skywomanlivesinme.com

October 2, 2024

Hello! This year is really going by fast! Yesterday it was a warm 81 degrees. Today it is windy and 63! I hope everyone had a nice summer. The Presidental Election is only weeks away now. I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz because they care about this country. My Great Grandmother, Sophia Huff, whom I talk about in my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me, wasn’t allowed to vote until 1924. If she were alive today I know she would be voting for Kamala and Tim. I have shared Sophia’s story of being a boarding student at the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School in July, 1891. She was forced to attend Carlisle along with her sister, Lily. Why? Because Sophia and Lily were considered savages and needed assimilation into the white society and well as to be christianized. Well, both girls were already christianized, having been baptized Episcopalian on the Oneida Reservation when they babies. And these two ladies were not wild savages. They were kind, smart, hardworking, respectful human beings who just happened to be Indigenous Oneida. Because of them, Sky Woman lives on, in me and my Oneida relatives. I wear an orange shirt for this little girl pictured below and for my great grandmother and all who survived Indian Boarding Schools.

I am still selling my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me. You can buy it at: lulu.com and other booksellers. Just type my book title on the search engine on Google. You can also contact me directly at: https://bobbie@skywomanlivesinme.com

Lastly, please, PLEASE VOTE in the upcoming election. Our Democracy depends on it! My great grandmother wasn’t allowed to vote until 1924, as I mentioned earlier in this blog. She had to get permission to leave the Oneida Reservation, (from Oneida Reservation Government Agents just to vote in another town!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please feel free to pass this blog along! Sincerely, Roberta Capasso (Bobbie) Author of: Sky Woman Lives in Me and a proud member of the Oneida of Wisconsin.