Dear Maria,
Earlier today I heard two extraordinary stories on NPR's "Snap Judgment."
You can access the entire program --- which includes five stories "told live," including the two mentioned above --- at http://paxonbothhouses.
Of these five, "Gunpowder" and "Turn on the Lights" were exceptionally well done.
"Gunpowder Money" is pitch perfect from start to finish, including a splendid crescendo and denouement.
It is an intense tale... although it ends on a hopeful, "take-the-bull-by-the-horns" note.
***
I am again reminded of the brilliant job you would do creating a one-woman show based on the life of Mary Jemison, a white girl, captured by Shawnees and then traded off to the Seneca, the tribe that occupied the part of upstate New York where I was born and raised. http://en.wikipedia.
Jemison's story, starting with the murder of her parents and brother (?) in the same attack that took her captive -- followed by such deep acculturation in "native culture" that Mary chose to return to the Seneca after being "liberated" years later -- is remarkable in every way. What did Maary "see" in "the Indian way" that made her prefer the culture of the people who scalped her parents and siblings to the culture of her birth family's culture.
Here is an excerpt from Mary Jemison's memoir which I found in an online history curriculum at Swarthmore College. http://www.
***
I do not think I ever told you the following vignette...
When Grampa was a boy, he was walking through a woods in (or near) his family farm in Rush, New York.
Rounding a bend in the path, he came upon an Indian sitting on a log.
Because the community considered Indians "wild" and probably represented them as "savages," Grampa --- a 10 year old boy (c. 1920) --- was initially frightened.
Almost immediately however, it became clear that the Seneca man only wanted Dad to get him some tobacco, a desire he communicated by "signing."
***
Where are you?
When do (did) you start your stint on the blueberry farm?
Love you
Daddy man
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