Dear Family and Friends, Hello to all reading this blog. My husband and I are back in Wisconsin following two weeks out East to visit relatives and friends. We paid our respects to Barbara Smith’s gravesite. Barbara passed this past November, 2017 at the age of 99. She helped me with research on my book, Sky Woman Lives Me.  I left a replica of a turtle for her gravesite. The turtle represents my Oneida Turtle Clan. I wanted Barbara to know she helped me so much, she too, is always in my heart, as part of the Oneida Turtle Clan. After visiting her gravesite we went to lunch at a local Olive Garden restaurant  with Barbara’s sons, Geoff and Wayne and daughter in law, Helena. Ironically, the Olive Garden was a favorite place to eat for Barbara and my Grandma Millie! Ironically, Barbara wanted to meet my Grandma Millie. I suspect these two ladies are finally meeting in Heaven, maybe at an Olive Garden!  Below is Grandma Millie on the left, Barbara Smith on the right.

Grandma Millie

Barbara Smith

As I sit here typing this blog, I keep thinking of when I first met Barbara Smith.  In 2007 my husband, Chick and I met Barbara in Laurel Springs, New Jersey.  I share this in my book.  Her son, Geoff, was doing some gardening in the backyard of her home.  We told Geoff who we were and that we were searching for a Tomlinson Home my Great-Grandmother, Sophia Huff may have been a servant in.  Geoff told us he was a descendent and that his 88 year old mother, Cora Barbara Walker Smith was still alive and living in this old victorian home. Barbara was the daughter of Cora Tomlinson! Wow, I thought, we had finally found the home Sophia Huff lived in!  Chick and I were invited into the house to talk to Barbara and Geoff.  We learned that Sophia wasn’t a servant that lived in this home, another Indian girl named Grace Thumbo, resided here as a servant at the turn of the century.  I learned there were many Indian students from the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School who worked at servants (called Outings) for non-white families in the area. Barbara told us all about Grace.  She asked me if I knew what became of Grace Thumbo. I didn’t know anything about Grace, having just learned about her.  After talking with Barbara and Geoff for awhile, I promised Barbara and Geoff I would find out whatever happened to Grace Thumbo. Below is a photo of Grace that Barbara gave me. On the right is inscribed: Grace Thumbo-Mohave Tribe. A sweet girl who lived with us for several years.  Signed,  Cora T (Tomlinson) Walker (Barbara’s mother).

To all of you reading this blog, I need your help in finding Grace Thumbo’s descendants. Here is a bit more information about Grace.  Grace’s Carlisle Indian School Records stated she had attended other homes to be a servant after leaving the Tomlinson Family.  The records also state she was released from the Carlisle Indian School for time served as a student there. These are all false records. Grace left the Tomlinson’s with her brother in 1904.  He had traveled to Laurel Springs, NJ from Arizona,  to take his sister back to the Apache-Mohave reservation so she would not be assimilated into the white culture. I have learned that Grace married a man named Max Pelchu. She had a son, William Pelchu, while living at Camp McDowell, Arizona, a reservation for Apache-Mohave, Yuma-Apache, Tonto-Apache Indian Tribes. Camp McDowell is now called Fort McDowell. Grace later moved to Phoenix, Arizona and had two more children, Herbert and Paul Pelchu. If anyone reading this blog has information on Grace (Thumbo) Pelchu relatives, that they can share with me, this would so much appreciated. I truly want to contact Grace’s descendants to share how fond Barbara Smith and the Tomlinson’s were of her.

Above is a summary of what my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me, is about. This is a true historical story. It is available through lulu publishing.com at 25% discount. Here are a few indigenous people who write about the true, untold history of indigenous tribes here in our country:  Karen Warren-Teach Our Children True U.S. History, “No More Lies”; Theo Van Alst-Native American and American Indian Issues. Thank you for reading this blog. Share if you wish. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso  A Proud Member of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin

January 29th, 2018

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello! I am blogging on WordPress.  I am hoping to share this with all of you on my Sky Woman Lives in Me (Facebook page).  Below is a summary of what my book is about. I also show you what the cover of my book looks like. My book is discounted at 25% at Lulu.com.  If you want to pay more for this book, buy it at Amazon.  I share all this again as I am learning how to blog on Word Press. Bear With Me! I wanted to share this with all of you on January 27, which was Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day remembers the 6 million Jews who were killed during Hitler’s reign in Germany.  Today I share the hidden genocide of indigenous tribes in our country. Thank you for reading my book summary below.  Please share if you wish. Thank you. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, proud member of the Oneida Indigenous Tribe of Wisconsin (formally New York State). We were moved to Wisconsin in 1830 to make our NY Lands available for non-Indians to settle on. I also will share this blog on my Facebook page titled: Sky Woman Lives in Me.

My Great-Grandmother, Sophia Huff, is in this photo. Can you find her? Here’s another enhanced photo of her to show you, the reader, where she is standing?

Sophia was a student at the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School from July, 1891 until September, 1892. She was forced to attend this school because her mother refused to assimilate Euro-white and only speak English! Even though Carlisle was named industrial in it’s title, it really was an experiment by the United States government to assimilate Native American Indians into the white culture.  Sophia and her sister Lily were transported by train many miles away from their home of Oneida, Wisconsin. As Sophia is posing in this photo, her sister, Lily was sent out to work for a white family in the countryside, never attending Carlisle again. The year Sophia was at the school, there was a lot of students that had taken ill due to overcrowding, overworked kids and unsanitary conditions. Sophia was a survivor, as were the other children posing in this picture! I really do not know how many children were ill, just know there were many! The children were monitored constantly and were ruled by whistles and bells, schedules and marching! I would venture to say, many, if not all of these children were punished for displaying any of their Indian Culture. Sophia was punished a lot for speaking her Oneida language. If you were born Oneida, taught Oneida language and spoke Oneida language for 14 years, you too would’ve been caught speaking a language that is a part of you.  Sophia even was forced to chew on lye soap! Lye soap! That soap is a very caustic chemical that can cause serious damage, even death if ingested!  It burned her throat. But, my great grandmother was a courageous Oneida woman.  She survived, otherwise, I wouldn’t be here telling you her story!

I was inspired to write this book after researching why I was colonized white.  I grew up looking Oneida but knew absolutely nothing about my Oneida culture nor language.   I was prejudiced of my Oneida self.

 Here is what the cover of my book looks like.

I am sharing this again to make you aware of this true, historical book I wrote.  Assimilation tactics on my relatives did not work. Thus, my grandmothers’ were able to maintain their Oneida culture and language.  I share where I become aware of my own colonization into the white culture. Today, I am like an infant, taking baby steps towards reclaiming my Oneida heritage. I spent 15 years researching and writing this book. I hope you will consider reading it.

My book can be obtained at lulu.com, http://www.robertacapasso.com, amazon.com and Barnes&noble.com