Tag: books

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.

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 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.

May 20, 2024

Hello to everyone reading my blog, Sky Woman Lives in Me. Today in Wisconsin it is very cloudy and rainy outside. I hope this photo on the left of the colorful Gladiolas brighten your day. My Great-Grandmother, Sophia Huff Powless would grow these flowers every year. The Gladiola was her favorite! The photo on the right is Sophia working in her garden on the Oneida Reservation in the 1950’s. I admire Sophia’s positive attitude, despite being forced to leave her parents at 14 to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School to become Christian, learn English, act like a white person and forget her Oneida self!

Well, Happy Spring to everyone! Yes, it is raining outside, but, water is life. We all need water! Whether, Black, White, Brown, Red…we all are human and bleed red! When Sophia returned to Wisconsin in 1902, she never returned to her job as a servant for ten years, for a Quaker Family in New Jersey. She had only spent one year at Carlisle before she was forced to be an indentured servant in the New Jersey countryside. She was expected to remain a servant the rest of her life. But, no, she did not comply with Carlisle’s plan to keep her from her Oneida self! Hence, here I am today, sharing her story!

Please remember to vote this Fall. Sophia wasn’t allowed to vote until 1924. Being Oneida Indian, she wasn’t considered human. I am proudly voting for Joe Biden for President. Yes, I am Oneida and Yes I am human. Sophia would be so proud! Thank you for reading my blog. Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, Author: Sky Woman Lives in Me