Pittman || Eddy Native Family

Pittman || Eddy

Native Family Written By Kate Pittman

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Pittman || Eddy

Native Family

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Acknowledgements

This book is for those who want to look into the past, in order to see where they come from and to remember.

I want to thank my grandmother, Phyllis Eddy, for all the hard work she put into getting me the information, photos, and stories to create this book. Without her, none of this would have been possible.

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Contents

Introduction 10 Family Tree

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Yankton Sioux

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Minnesota Massacre

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Outcome

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Wahinkpe

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Shawnee 20 Family Lives

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My Experience

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Bibliography

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Introduction

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remember as a kid, sitting on my bedroom floor with a stack of picture books in hand.

They weren’t the types of books my friends read; these were special. Instead of talking animals, they had stories of Native American young women, with each book depicting an individual from a different tribe going on adventures and discovering more about themselves.

I remember looking at the illustration of the beautiful dresses they wore and reading about their culture, I was fascinated with how they lived. I remember sitting at the table where my mother was sewing my own regalia, to wear at my elementary school’s heritage event, watching her sew shells and beads to the tan fabric. It had stripes of purple and red with lines of gold throughout. Wearing it I had never felt prouder, I felt like the beautiful girls from my books.

I am a member of the Shawnee Nation and my father is member of the Yankton Sioux Nation, both through my grandmother whose mother was Shawnee and father was Yankton.

It was important to me to have a form of documentation of the information we have about these members of my family. I had known for a while that my grandmother was working on genealogy of that side of my family, but I didn’t have a way to organize it as there was too much information and no comprehensive way for me to capture and share it. So, this book felt like a way to tackle this – hopefully a good solution to help me better “know” my forebears.

I could use my knowledge about book layout and design, in order to create a book that my family could use to keep these stories and the identities of our Indian relatives around. These are accounts and biographies of my family through stories my grandmother has heard and research she has done about these individuals. Like traditional American Indian families, I learned from an elder in my family about her family and our traditions.

The artwork included in this book was done by me; I wanted to keep an aged quality to the portraits, mimicking the visual elements of old photography. Other illustrations I’ve included

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are based off of important symbols in the tribes discussed in this book. I wanted this book to feel real and genuine to the culture, but also reflect my own family and our values.

My experience with these cultures is limited, consisting mostly of stories that I read or that were told to me by my grandmother. It was always important to my parents that I knew where that part of my family was from, and who I was descended from and their experiences. This book documents both of those.

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Family Tree

Alice Arrow

Francis Arrow

Thomas Arrow

Cecelia Anna Lyman Elmo Eddy

Edna Arrow

Clifford Eddy

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Mary

Charles Tucker

Dudley Haynes Tucker

Ella Daugherty

David N Dickerson

Mary Francis Tucker

Percy Ray Jackson

Ollie Willie Dickerson

Phyllis Eddy

Lois Eddy

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Sioux

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he Sioux were Plains Natives, my family having ties to both Yankton Sioux and Santee Sioux. They speak the Lakota or Dakota language. Sioux was a name given to the tribe by the Ojibwa Tribe as an abbreviation to a French word meaning “rattlesnake,” to label the Sioux as their enemy. In the Plains the buffalo was the primary source of skins and food.

They used the skins to make clothing and tipis. Originally a nomadic tribe, following the path of the buffalo throughout the year; today, they are one of the most well-known tribes in the United States.

Part of the Sioux’s beliefs are rooted in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where the Sioux origin stories describe being created by Grandfather, the Great Spirit. Early on, in this culture, there were specific roles for tribal members: men primarily hunted, made tools and weapons, and raided. Men also participated in leisure activities, betting on horse races, and were involved in ceremonies. Women worked in the villages doing crafts, specifically beadwork, packing for travel, and tanning hides. Children would tend to the horses or would help with small tasks such as collecting firewood. The elderly would help with children and household activities.

The nomadic ways of the Sioux peoples changed around the mid 1800’s. The Plains were beginning to be settled by Americans. The Sioux were forced into unequal treaties by the United States government, giving the Sioux land in modern day South Dakota with economic aid, in exchange for their ancestral land. Wars broke out in the 1870’s including the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The land they had was broken up, creating smaller reservations. Leftover land was given to white settlers. Their previous way of life was ended after the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in the late 1800’s. The 1890’s saw many changes to their culture with the implement of Indian Schools, which would strip Native American children of their heritage.

Programs on the reservations began in the early 20th century, giving more opportunities for work on the reservations, and giving them opportunities to create their own forms

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of government. In the mid 1900’s with the Voluntary Relocation Program, the Sioux were encouraged to leave the reservations, but many returned due to the prejudice they experienced outside of their Native communities. The 1970’s showed change in the public perception of the Sioux Nation, with the publishing of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, which garnered sympathy for the Sioux for their mistreatment by the United States Government. It was also ruled by the Supreme Court in 1980 that the Black Hills were obtained by the United States Government illegally. The Sioux simply want their ancestral land back and thus refused the settlement of $600 million.

Today the Sioux reservations struggle with abject poverty. Sioux tribes are some of the poorest tribes in the US. The tribes have opened casinos, adding to the local economy and creating jobs, but tribes that are off the main roads often do not get much business. While a source of revenue, for many Sioux tribes, this is very limited. Many practice their cultural traditions, speaking the Lakota language, and performing the Sun Dance.

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Minnesota Massacre

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he Sioux Tribe, in a treaty with the US government, stayed on the reservation land and did not hunt. In exchange, the US government promised to pay them gold to buy food from the local traders. There are mixed accounts of how many yearly payments for the land the Sioux left were missed by the United States Government. Some sources say two, while others express three years of missed payments, which broke the treaty with the Sioux.

There are also accounts that the money paid to the Sioux tribe was not the amount agreed upon for the cost of the land. After the treaty had been created, the annuity payment amounts were put in the United States Treasury. It is said that what money the Sioux were paid was only the interest generated from those funds placed in the Treasury, meaning the United States never paid the Sioux for the land.

Because of the missed payments the Sioux were starving because they had no money to buy food. One statement from a Sioux man, Dean Blue, even suggested white farmers went onto Sioux reservation land to take resources and food. Because the tribe was starving, four men went out to find food. After an unsuccessful hunt on their land, these men attempted to steal some eggs. Five settlers were killed. The men went back to the village for protection, and Chief Little Crow was urged to start a war with the White men. The Sioux were tired of being taken advantage of and used with the US government not upholding the treaty to the point of starvation of their families while expecting the tribes to follow the treaty. With the Civil War also occurring at this time, the Sioux believed they had the advantage. This led to the “Minnesota Massacre” or the “Sioux Uprising of 1862”. The fighting lasted about a month; many were killed. Chief Little Crow’s camp escaped westward.

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Outcome

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he Native Reservations were dissolved after the uprising in Minnesota. As a result, from the uprising nearly 400 Sioux were arrested and held at Camp Lincoln. They were tried, many without any legal counsel, or told that they could dispute the charges.

Three hundred six (306) were sentenced to be executed by hanging. On December 1st, President Abraham Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but thirty-eight (38), who were executed on December 26, 1862 in the largest mass hanging in American history. Chief Little Crow was killed the following year.

Many from the Santee Sioux were imprisoned at Fort Snelling, which is near modern day Minneapolis, including my ancestors Wahinkpe and his family. They were later forcibly moved to Crow Creek in the Dakotas. Three hundred (300) Santee Sioux became sick or starved to death during the three years they were placed there. My grandmother describes this place as “cold as death.” After being in Crow Creek for three years, they were moved to the Santee reservation in Nebraska.

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Wahinkpe

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he name Wahinkpe means “Arrow”, he later went by the name Francis Arrow. He was born around 1826. A missionary to the Sioux tribe, John Williamson, who know both Wahinkpe and his brother described them both as very athletic, as they were very skilled champion lacrosse players. He was 36 years old during the Minnesota Massacre. His wife and he had four children together: Thomas, Hannah, Jacob, with the fourth child’s name unknown. Their children were educated at St. Paul’s Episcopal School, an Indian School.

Both Francis and his son became settlers in Flandreau in 1869. They were given land by the US government, and in exchange, they gave up their tribal ties.

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Shawnee

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he Shawnee originally lived in the Ohio River Valley and spoke Algonquian. They lived in wigwams, or domed shaped houses made out of wood poles and covered in bark or grass. They had several dances dedicated to growing crops during each season: the spring Bread Dance, the Green Corn Dance, and the autumn Bread Dance. They celebrated the planting, ripening, and cultivation of crops respectively.

Around 1630, the Iroquois pushed the Shawnee out if the Ohio territory, moving them south.

Around 100 years later the Shawnee moved back into the Ohio territory as the Iroquois’ power lessened. Trade with the settlers was being pushed during this time. However, in exchange for furs, the settlers gave the Shawnee brandy or rum which led to problems involving alcohol abuse.

During the French and Indian war, the Shawnee originally sided with the French until 1758 when they switched sides to support the British. After several agreements, the “Treaty of Easton” and the “Proclamation of 1763”, established the Shawnee’s ownership of land and promoted limits to English colonization. However, the colonists continued to approach and cross the border onto Shawnee land. As a result of encroachments by settlers in the Ohio Valley, the Native Americans attacked the settlers. In May, 1774, the Governor of Virginia declared war on the Natives. Virginia won the war; the land previously deemed as “hunting grounds” was given to the British.

During the Revolutionary War, hoping to stop the settlers from taking more land, the Shawnee fought on the side of the British. They continued resisting further settlements after the British lost the war, but were forced to give up most of their land in Ohio after the “Treaty of Greenville” in 1795. They hoped to gain back their land, however, by fighting in the War of 1812. After the “Treaty of Fort Meigs of 1817”, the Shawnee were forced to give up all their land and were placed on three reservations in Ohio. In the 1830’s, the United States

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Government forced the Shawnee to give up their Ohio reservations, forcing them to move to Oklahoma and then Kansas. By 1869, the Shawnee living in Kansas were forced to move once again back to Oklahoma where they were placed with the Cherokee tribe already relocated and living there.

The Loyal Shawnee, which we are descended from, were given that title due to serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. While these Shawnee were aiding with the war, White settlers took 130,000 acres of the Shawnee’s land. So, after the war, believing they would be compensated for their service, they returned to decimated land. The Cherokee Nation and the Loyal Shawnee established an agreement in 1869 giving Cherokee citizenship to the Loyal Shawnee. Because the Loyal Shawnee had no political organization, they became the Cherokee Shawnee, losing their own culture and identity. They became federally recognized as solely Shawnee in the 2000’s.

The Shawnee’s creationist story tells how the Shawnee were created by a being known as “Our Grandmother.” According to the story, every day Our Grandmother weaves a basket, and at night her son and his dog come and unravel the work she has done. The Shawnee believe that when Our Grandmother finishes the basket, the world will end. She is the beginning of their beliefs, and they say during ceremonial dances and songs, sometimes you can hear her voice singing along.

Shawnee Wigwam

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Sioux Family Lives

Winona, Elizabeth

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inona, was a Yankton Sioux woman. She was born around 1830 in the Dakota Territory. It is unknown who her parents are, but there are family members who reported she was the daughter of the Yankton chief, Struck by the Ree. Her baptismal records say that her parents were Mahpiyakmikma and Hotewin. Some Yankton men had multiple wives, until that practice was ended by Episcopal Missionaries, so her lineage remains unclear. She was baptized under the name “Elizabeth” right before she died of tuberculosis in May, 1879. Winona was married to William Penn Lyman, who was a non-Indian. He built the Todd-Frost trading post in the Dakota Territory in 1857. They had seven children, Max, Frank, Edward, John, Cecelia Anna, Mary and Henry. At least three of their children attended the Hampton Indian School and their son Henry even attended Yale Law School! He graduated in 1891 and worked at a law firm in New York, but two years later, he died from tuberculosis.

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Cecelia “Annie” Lyman

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y ancestor, Cecelia Anna (“Annie”) Lyman, was born June 24th, 1864 in Yankton City.

Her mother was Winona/Elizabeth, who died when Annie was 16. Her father had gone to Montana, so she was placed in the Indian Education Program at Hampton Institute in Virginia. She returned to the reservation in 1885, working as a seamstress. There she met Thomas Arrow, who became her husband. They had four surviving children together: Edna, Arthur, Luther, and Guy. Their first daughter, Bessie, died in infancy. She managed the Arrow Hotel and operated a restaurant and icehouse in Greenwood, South Dakota. She enjoyed beadwork and traditional crafts; her eldest granddaughter has the beaded buckskin dress she made for her eldest daughter Edna. Annie died on August 31, 1942 and is buried in the Holy Fellowship Episcopal Cemetery in Greenwood, South Dakota. She was described by her grandson, Clifford Eddy, to be a tiny woman who was an excellent housekeeper and cook.

When he visited the reservation as an adult, she liked to put on her hat and go with him to get ice cream in town.

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Thomas Arrow

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nnie’s husband, Thomas Arrow, was also known as Tiogabdaga to his family. His name means “Puts His Hand on the Door” and reflects his love of going out and exploring the world. He was Santee Sioux, the son of Francis Arrow and Alice Arrow. He was about two years of age when the Minnesota Massacre of 1862 started. He was educated at St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Wahehe on the Yankton Sioux reservation in the Dakota Territory.

He met his wife, Annie Lyman, on the reservation, and after they were married, he moved his family several times. They lived on the Flandreau Santee Reservation and the Yankton Reservation, both in South Dakota, and the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska. He was bilingual and worked away from home as an interpreter and in land sales.

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Alice Arrow

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homas’s mother, Alice Arrow, was the wife of Francis Arrow, and she was known as Ohiyewin or “Winning Woman”. She was born around 1835. She and Francis Arrow had four children. Their daughter, Hannah, attended the same school as Annie Lyman during the last year Annie was there. Alice passed away just a few weeks after her greatgrandson was born on May 22, 1917. She is buried at River Bend Presbyterian Cemetery in Flandreau.

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Edna Georgia Arrow

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y great-great grandmother, Edna Georgia Arrow was born on October 14, 1889 to parents Thomas and Annie Arrow. As a child, according to her cousin Ellen Westen, she was called Hapan meaning “Second Daughter”. Edna married Elmo Eddy, a non-Indian, on August 15, 1912 in Bon Homme, South Dakota. After the Dawes Act was passed, Edna has obtained land, which she and Elmo lived on. They had six children together: Melvin, Clifford, Ethel, Elmo, Peggy, and Ida. Edna Arrow died on February 23, 1965 from complications caused by diabetes at Wagner Indian Health Service Hospital in South Dakota.

She is buried at Holy Fellowship Cemetery in Greenwood, South Dakota.

Edna loved crafts. She was excellent at beadwork and quilting, making Sioux star quilts for her children and grandchildren. She beaded moccasins, cigarette cases, and coin purses. My grandmother says she made delicious silver dollar pancakes for her grandchildren. She was said to be found often next to her wood stove, cooking for a large family and visitors. In her later years, she needed two canes to walk, likely the result of having rickets as a child.

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Clifford Eddy

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y great-grandfather, Clifford Eddy was born on May 12, 1917 in Greenwood, on the Yankton Reservation in South Dakota. He went to the Greenwood Public School for two years. During his third year of school, he developed a bad case of pneumonia, and because there were no antibiotics developed yet, he had a slow recovery. His family thought he might die. He didn’t go back to school until the age of ten, when his brother Melvin, his sister Ethel, and he were all enrolled at the Genoa U.S. Indian Industrial School in Nebraska. He told my grandmother that during this time, he missed his mother so much that Clifford and another boy planned to run away from school together to go home. They would have had to travel 145 miles by foot and cross the Missouri River to get home. They prepared for the journey by taking ripe corn from the fields near the school and stealing eggs from farms to eat. They were caught when they got to the Missouri River and were returned to school.

Clifford completed third and fourth grades at the Genoa school and returned to Greenwood Public School for the fifth and sixth grades. He was sent to Flandreau Indian School, a boarding school in Flandreau, South Dakota for seventh grade. He enjoyed life there, as he had relatives nearby and his brother and sister were also enrolled there. At this boarding school, he loved music and learned to play the clarinet. He also had vocational training in animal husbandry. After he graduated high school, he got a scholarship to South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts to study Dairying for three months. After he finished, he was offered a temporary job as a Dairyman at Seneca Indian School in Wyandotte, Oklahoma.

He took a bus to get there taking the few clothes he had and a bag of fry bread his mother, Edna, made for him. Completely penniless, he made the fry bread last for the entire trip to Oklahoma and his first few days of work. Apparently, a co-worker eventually told him he could delay payment for meals until he was paid. This temporary job became a permanent one and he remained there for 20 years. While working, he took college courses, getting a degree in Agriculture and Agronomy at Oklahoma State University. This career change moved his

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family to Arizona and New Mexico to work in land operations and soil conservation. He ended his career at the United Tribes of Kansas, then raised cattle in Oklahoma after recovering from a serious stroke. He died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm on November 30, 1998 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Vinita, Oklahoma.

While in Oklahoma, he married my great-grandmother, Lois Jackson, who attended school with Clifford’s sister Ethel. They had three daughters: Phyllis, Clifreda, and Carol. Clifford was an outdoorsman, loving fishing, hunting, and gardening. He enjoyed music and listened to a little bit of everything. Like his great-grandfather Wahinkpe, Clifford was a great athlete, playing basketball with his friends after work. When visiting South Dakota, he would swim in the Missouri River, and in Oklahoma he would skate and gigged fish in the frozen Lost Creek.

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Phyllis Eddy

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y grandmother, Phyllis Eddy, was born September 1, 1942 in Joplin, Missouri. She is the eldest of Clifford and Lois Eddy’s daughters. She lived with her parents at Seneca Indian School but attended Wyandotte Public Schools because the employee’s children could not attend the Seneca school. She remembers walking with the other children to and from school daily, no matter the weather. After high school, Phyllis married George Pittman, who was a soldier stationed in Denton, Texas. In Texas, she attended North Texas State University for one year before having their twin sons, Russell and Robert, in November while George was in Korea.

Phyllis and George divorced. In 1980, Phyllis married Joe Deffenbaugh, a pharmacist at the Indian Health Service (IHS) with a long career in pharmacy and health policy.

When Russell and Robert were in school, Phyllis completed college, earning degrees from the University of Arizona, University of Tennessee, and USC. She had a long career with IHS, retiring as Deputy Director for Management Operations, IHS Headquarters, and as a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service.

In retirement, Phyllis and Joe remained in their home in Gaithersburg, Maryland. They enjoy being around Russell and Robert and their families who live nearby. Phyllis is a wonderful cook and baker; she is an incredibly talented quilter making her family lovely quilts and sewn goods. She and Joe enjoy travel together and have been to many places across the globe.

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Phyllis Eddy around age 6

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Shawnee Family Lives

Charles Tucker

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harles Tucker, also known as Wet-Ta-Kah or “The One Who Comes” was born around 1815 in Ohio. When he was around ten years old, land in Kansas was being set aside as reservations to make land open in Ohio for White settlers. Charles, Mary Tucker and their relatives who we are related to were some of those who moved to Kansas on the Trail of Tears. Tensions were rising in the 1860’s between the Shawnee and the settlers moving onto Shawnee territory. The United States Government decided the best course of action was to move the Shawnee to Indian territory, settling in the unoccupied Cherokee Nation lands. The Shawnee tribe and the Cherokee needed to come to an agreement, Charles Tucker and Graham Rogers were appointed to negotiate for the tribe. They met in Washington, D.C. where on June 9, 1869 they signed a treaty stating that the Shawnee would pay the Cherokee for the land and become citizens of the Cherokee Nation. They became known as the Cherokee Shawnee for the next 130 years.

In 1871, Reverend Charles and Mary Tucker moved their children: Dudley, Buler, Bonner, Seers, Maria, Samuel, Joshua, Alice, Charles Jr., Henry, and John M, and their daughter-in-law, Ella Daughtery Tucker, to Indian territory to start their new lives. Rev. Charles Tucker was a minister, tribal council member, Assistant Chief, and Head Chief. He died December 24, 1890 after getting a bad cold. He is buried in the Tucker Family Cemetery, located on the family’s land.

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Charles Tucker 33

Dudley Haynes Tucker

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udley Haynes Tucker, he was born around 1840 in Kansas to Charles and Mary. He married Ella Daughtery on June 11, 1860 in Johnson County, Kansas. Their children were: Julia, Dudley Haynes, Jr., (known by the family as “Bud”), Ida Mary, John Melton, Ada Marie, Mary Frances, James Logan and Annie.

Dudley was a United States Postmaster at Daniels Springs in Cherokee Nation, Arkansas. He was appointed on July 15, 1871. He was an Assistant Chief for his tribe and was a founder of the Vinita, Oklahoma Masonic Lodge No. 5. Dudley died February 10, 1899 in Okoee, Craig County, Oklahoma. He’s buried in the Tucker Cemetery.

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Ella Daughtery

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lla Daughtery (Chakakumseh) was born in Kansas in September 1844. She was the daughter of George Daughtery and Polly Bluejacket. Both George and Polly were Shawnee. Ella was a widow for almost 30 years, even outliving her eldest daughter who died in 1911. Ella was ill for a while, but she had family nearby who were able to help her. In her last years, “Grandma Tucker”, as she was known, was said to frequently sit outside her house in the evening, smoking a little clay pipe. Her death announcement reported she lived to be 86 years old. She died at 4:00 pm on January 29,1927. Her funeral was held two days later, and she was also buried in the Tucker Cemetery.

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Mary Frances Tucker

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ary Frances Tucker was the daughter of Dudley Haynes Tucker and Ella Daughtery.

She was born March 2, 1881 in the Tucker home on Mustang Creek in Indian Territory. She married David Nathanial (Nat) Dickerson who served as a Deputy U.S. Marshall. They had four children: a daughter, Ollie Willie (known as “Willie”), Lea Ray, David Nathanial Jr. (known as “Bus”), and Calvin Dudley (known as “Callie”). Mary Frances died November 23, 1911 in her home in Craig County, Oklahoma. She had been sick with catarrhal pneumonia. Her mother, husband, four children, sister, and two brothers were with her when she died. She is buried in the Tucker Family Cemetery.

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Willie Dickerson

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y great great-grandmother, Willie Dickerson was born September 15, 1898 in Ketchum, Oklahoma. She attended a very small one room school called Wayside School when she was a child. Willie and her sister were both sent to Haskell Indian Institute after their mother died, with their father keeping both of their younger brothers at home. Both girls were unhappy at Haskell. In a letter, she asked her father when they could return home.

Before Willie married Percy Ray Jackson, she was a teacher who had eleven students. When she was 33, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was hospitalized in the Shawnee Indian Sanatorium in Oklahoma. Her family was 160 miles away from the sanatorium and did not have not enough money to travel to visit her. She died at the sanatorium on November 6, 1933. Her body was returned to her family for burial in the Tucker Family Cemetery.

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Lois Maxine Jackson

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y great-grandmother, Lois Maxine Jackson was born June 28, 1921 to Willie Dickerson and Ray Jackson. She and her four siblings were enrolled as Cherokee Shawnee. While her parents seem to both have had some education, it is believed that neither of them finished high school. The family often dealt with financial difficulties, especially during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Lois attending Wayside school for seven years. She was in fifth grade when her mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis, making the family’s struggle even harder. She frequently took care of her siblings, finding and preserving food for later and foraging for small game or wild fruit. After their mother died, Lois and her sisters were sent to Seneca Indian Boarding School, where they were grateful for shelter and stable food sources. The superintendent and his wife, who was a teacher, became life-long friends of Lois and her family. Lois applied to Haskell Indian Institute which is where she finished high school. She was an excellent student, and each summer would return to Seneca Indian School to work and use the money she earned to buy fabric to make clothes for the following year. After she graduated, she worked full-time at Seneca Indian School as a seamstress and later became a dormitory matron. She met, and later married, Clifford Eddy who also worked at the school. They had three daughters, a small house on campus, and a garden. They were later able to purchase a small farm close to the school. When her daughters got older, Lois completed more than a year of community college.

She was an excellent cook and seamstress. She was active in several women’s organizations and church. She would always find a job at the various places her husband worked when they left Oklahoma in 1960. She worked in two banks, a United States Park Service Office, and in a Realty Office in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. After Clifford retired, they bought a nice home close to where Lois was born where they raised beef cattle. Lois had a heart attack in her home and died in a Tulsa hospital on June 30, 2009. She is buried in the Fairview Cemetery next to her husband.

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My Experience

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hen I was born in New Mexico, my parents describe me as having a full head of dark black hair and dark, black eyes. My grandma said I looked like a Navajo baby, showing my Native American roots. I was also named after Annie Lyman, a Sioux woman and my ancestor.

As a child, I loved reading. I remember sitting cross-legged on the floor with a small stack of books next to me, delicately flipping the pages. These books were well loved, with cracked spines and faded colors on the covers. These were books I held dearly; they were more special than the other books in my room. These books were a set of beautifully illustrated narratives about young girls from different tribes. They were going on adventures, talking to ancestral spirits, fulfilling their duties to their families and tribe. They even had arguments between the main character and their families. While at the time I didn’t know much about Native American culture, these books felt real to me. I wanted to go on the same adventures as these girls. They always learned and become better young women; they all had determination and cared a lot for their families and people. While my life was very different from these characters, I wanted to be like them. These books were a beginning to change my thoughts about the world and myself. These books were about strength, loyalty, and most importantly empathy. In elementary school, while we were learning about some Native American history, I brought these books to share. I wanted to bring these new perspectives to the classroom, where most of my peers were new to this topic. Although at the time, I was primarily concerned with my books not being destroyed.

In elementary school we had an annual event called “Heritage Day”. Students would dress up in clothing representing the culture of their ancestry or country (we had a lot of diversity at my school). At night, there would be an assembly where students would go across the auditorium stage modeling their clothing while a teacher announced the culture they were representing. Afterwards, in the cafeteria, people would bring food from their culture for

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people to try. Every year, my brother and I, not knowing yet that we were Shawnee and not Cherokee, represented the Yankton Sioux tribes. Our mom, a non-Native American, would make a soup from a recipe from my grandmother consisting of the “Three Sisters”, common ingredients and the main crops grown by many of the tribes, consisting of corn, beans, and squash; she also added buffalo meat. I remember watching my mom sewing the regalia we wore for it. My dress and shawl were very colorful, and had shells sewn on just below the collar. The main dress was a tan color, with stripes of different colored ribbon. I also had a shawl which was purple with gold fringe around the edges. My brother had a red ribbon shirt that he wore with blue jeans. We wore the same regalia to a Powwow. I remember all of the stalls throughout the halls of the building of Native craftspeople selling handmade beadwork, quilts, artwork, and pottery. We walked into a big room with wooden bleachers descending down towards a large circular center with a dirt floor. Our grandmother told my brother and I we could go down to join the ceremonial dance with our cousin. Unfortunately, we did not know the proper way of doing the dance, which greatly embarrassed my grandma, but then she showed us how to dance properly with steps and a little bend at the knee and small bounce.

In middle and high school, I made a choice to remove meat and its derivatives from my diet.

At the time, I was heavily focused on the ethical and environmental consequences for myself.

I had known and educated myself about the Native American principles regarding animal life, with all life - including that being used for food – viewed as sacred. In the nomadic Indians’ culture, the entire animal was used with the hides being used for clothing or shelter, the meat was used for cooking, bones were turned into tools or weapons, and the organs were used to create water pouches and other vessels. I didn’t like the suffering of animals because of how they were being raised in the modern day for food, and how much waste was being produced.

These concepts also opened me up towards different interests, including herbal medicine and the importance of eating the right plants to be healthy.

For a project in high school, I was required to research Native cuisine. For that project, I made a common reservation dish - fry bread. Fry bread became a Native American food because often what they had to eat was white flour and little else. It is an airy dough which is fried. It can be served with honey or powdered sugar, or it can also be used with taco ingredients to make it a savory meal. While my attempt to make fry bread did not go exactly…well, good, it was an learning experience. I now have a recipe written out by my grandmother to use in the future when I choose to make it again.

In June of 2019, my family traveled to South Dakota for a family reunion of my Grandma’s Sioux side of the family. It was held in a casino on the Yankton Reservation. While we were in South Dakota, we traveled across the state to see the buffalo herds and see the land. During this trip we also visited the graves of the Arrow’s to see where our family was buried in Flandreau. Everywhere you go in South Dakota has the energy of the Sioux culture. We saw a huge statue, called “Dignity”, depicting a traditional Sioux woman wrapped in a Star quilt. We visited the places where Annie Lyman lived and worked.

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We saw a Catholic church in Marty, SD that was decorated with biblical stories and figures depicted as Native American men and women. It was very interesting seeing the reservations up close, but unfortunately, the level of poverty on the reservations was clearly visible.

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Bibliography

_____, Elizabeth, “Baptism & Burial,” Transcribed by Phyllis Eddy from Baptismal/ Burial Registries, Holy Name Episcopal Mission, Niobrara District, Augustana College Archives, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

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Do you ever wonder where you came from? This book is part of my answer. I wanted to create a book talking about the Native American side of my family. Not only who my ancestors and relatives were but also what happened to the tribes they were part of, and my experiences with the culture and learning about all of this.

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