A Talk of Elders - Pt 2
Our Elders in the Sacred - Part 2 Some years ago, I was intent upon finding my Native roots. As my native family migrated back East in search of work, they eventually settled in New England. I was born in Laconia, New Hampshire. As a child, I never had an opportunity to know my native roots. In fact, my family, like so many people of native or mixed blood in those days took extra measures to cover-up their native blood. I was raised in my younger years, with little knowledge of my ancestors except when I visited my Great Grandmother who was a full blood Seneca, in western New York State on the Oil Springs Reservation. My Great Grandmother was an elder in every sense of the word. She had a spiritual glow that shined through a very tough and untouchable exterior, that I know now was a fabrication in order to fend off the hurts of life. Even as young as I was I can remember two distinct characteristics about her. She smoked a corncob pipe continuously, and her presence dominate