forgottenamericans</> <HR><H3>Transfer interrupted!</H3> E="NativeQuil">Database: Magazine ASAP Subject: native Americans The forgotten Americans. (profile of a Winnebago Indian)(Brief Article) Good Hous ekeeping, June 1998 v226 n6 p25(2). Author: Jeanne Marie Laskas Subjects: Native Americans - Conduct of life Winnebagos - Conduct of life Features: photograph; illustration Mag. Collection: 94A2218 AN: 20630035 Minnie Littlebear was born 102 years ago in a wigwam in the woods of Nebraska. She doesn't mark the passage of time according to a monthly calendar. Instead, each spring, she waits for a weed along the side of the road to begin changing color. "And on the day it turns to the color of wheat, that's my birthday," she says, flashing a grin. She is a tall woman with wide-set eyes, long gray hair, and skin that shows the passage of time. The daughter of George Grey Wolf and Mary Bear, Minnie knows little English. She speaks through an Indian translator, here at a nursing home just outside the Winnebago reservation in the northeast comer of the state. (Like a number of her peers, Minnie prefers to be called Winnebago or American Indian rather than Native American; anyone born in America, after all, is a native American. But to be an Indian is something special.) Some of the concepts of the Winnebago, a nation of some 3,900 people in Nebraska and another 5,100 in Wisconsin, are hard to translate. For instance, there is the manner in which Minnie's father died. To Minnie, the legend is not a particularly strange piece of family lore: "There was another woman who loved him," she says. "But he already had a wife and family. Still, this woman was very angry that she could not have him. So somehow she got a piece of his hair." The scorned lover was able to cast a spell on Minnie's father with that hair. "And eventually, he got sick," she says. "And then he died." He died just before Minnie was born. According to Winnebago tradition, a child who never knew her father must be treated with great respect. The youngest of six girls, Minnie had gifts lavished upon her by the tribe: She received special buckskin clothes, beads, and fancy jewelry that she wore to powwows and harvest celebrations. Minnie's mother eventually remarried. Minnie's stepfather,> <HR><H3>Transfer interrupted!</H3> Anglo name by white settlers) built a new log cabin for the family by the river. Minnie was happy. "We had a swing that we hung off a tree. And I would swing and swing and swing." Like her sisters, she did not go to school. The custom was for the mother to teach her daughters to cook, clean, sew, and do beadwork, and for the father to teach his sons how to hunt and be warriors. When Minnie became a teenager, in 1910, something startling happened. "The white man came," she says. "And took me to a boarding school far away." Boarding school for Indians was a national policy adopted in 1879. The idea was to assimilate Indians into mainstream American culture--by force. Kids of school age were taken from their families and sent to government-run schools that were sometimes hundreds of miles away. Once there, a child's native clothes would be taken away and she would be given a uniform to wear. She would have to wear strange things on her feet called shoes. Her hair would be cut. She would be forbidden to speak her native language. She would be punished for dancing and practicing Indian traditions. She would not be allowed to speak to her relatives. Many Indians recall their days in boarding schools as horrific times of forced labor, abuse, and molestation. They blame the schools for the breakdown of the Indian family, because it forced so many Indians to grow up outside a family structure. Others see the schools as having been their only chance to learn how to read and write, or, at the very least, as places that provided meals and shelter, which were sometimes scarce back on the reservation. Not long after returning from her two years at boarding school, Minnie was once again sent away. But this time it was to the home of Dave Littlebear. She would be his wife. "One morning, Mother came to me, and she was with her friend," recalls Minnie. "And she told me, This lady has come after you because you're going to be for her son."' Minnie had no say in the matter. "Three horses, a buggy, a harness, and some shawls," says Minnie of the exchange. "That's what my mother got" There was no wedding. Minnie simply moved into Dave's home that afternoon and waited for him to return from his day of working as a woodsman. Did she like him? "He liked me," she says. Minnie was not allowed to bring her beautiful clothes and jewelry with her into the marriage. She was part of Littlebear's family now. Unlike the Navajo and other tribes that are matrilineal (run by women), the Winnebagos are patrilineal. The man of the family is the boss, and a woman's job is to obey him. The struggle to make a living would be a constant in Minnie's and Dave's lives, as it was for most Indians. The cooperative structure of Indian society had broken down, thanks to the white man's interference. Between 1887 and 1934, in a further attempt to assimilate Indians into white Culture, the U.S. government divided up reservations, allotting property to each person, and leaving the rest for homesteading. White settlers flooded onto surplus lands. Indians were forced to move onto widely scattered allotments--leaving them to fend for themselves in a white man's world. Minnie and her husband made and sold corn liquor, killed and plucked chickens, and, in the summers, headed north to a theme park in Wisconsin that featured Indian beadwork and blankets. "And the white people would come and buy your stuff," she recalls. Minnie had a son who died at just 9 months old. She raised two children--Esther, her husband's grandniece, and Barry, who, when his father died, was given to Dave and Minnie. "Because of the wishes of the father, the mother had to let the child go," says Minnie. Minnie's husband died in the 1970's. Tradition calls for the widow to mourn for four years. Minnie had to wear black, she had to wear shoes instead of going barefoot, and she could not go to powwows or other celebrations. However, in a ritual of dressing and grooming, a Winnebago woman could be "released" from her mourning period early by the women in her deceased husband's family. "One day my sister-in-law came down and said, I'm going to dress you and set You free."' But Minnie did not want to be free. She liked no longer having to answer to a man. So she stayed in mourning the full four years. Esther and other relatives would take care of Minnie for many years at the reservation, until she needed specialized care. Barry, 60, lives in Black River Falls, WI, and is a caseworker for senior citizens of the tribe. Esther, 52, lives near her mother and works at the Winna Vegas casino, which is owned and operated by the Winnebago. Many tribes have opened gambling establishments in a desperate attempt to raise revenue. Indians are the poorest racial group in America. Though the national poverty rate stands at 13 percent, for Indians, it's 31 percent. One out of every five Indian homes lacks both a telephone and an indoor toilet. More than a third of all Indian students drop out of high school. Indians lead the nation in suicide and death rates due to alcoholism, diabetes, and heart disease. And yet Indians today arc asserting their centuries-old right of self-government, becoming increasingly powerful at the dawn of the new millennium. For her part, Minnie is not one to complain about the difficult times she has seen her nation experience in the twentieth century. The word nation to her means Winnebago, not the United States of America. Does Minnie consider herself an American? Her translator, Betty GreenCrow, looks perplexed. She is not sure how to phrase this question in the Winnebago language. "You mean in the sense of the American dream? We don't have anything like that." GreenGrow shirks for awhile longer, but eventually comes up blank. "The conflict is not between Indians and Americans," Minnie explains. "It's between Indians and white people. Being an American doesn't mean anything." Does Minnie feel angry at white people? "There is some resentment," Minnie says, ashamed. Anger is not the Winnebago way. She does not, however, believe that the white man is evil. "He is greedy," she says. EDITOR'S NOTE: The "100 Years of Living" series pauses heir. Next year, Good House-keeping will publish a book collection of the stories of these women plus many others. We'll let you know when to check your bookstore. COPYRIGHT 1998 Hearst Corporation. All rights reserved. Further reproduction prohibited. </BODY> </HTML>

Database: Magazine ASAP
Subject: native Americans

The forgotten Americans. (profile of a Winnebago Indian)(Brief Article)

Good Hous ekeeping, June 1998 v226 n6 p25(2).

Author: Jeanne Marie Laskas

Subjects: Native Americans - Conduct of life Winnebagos - Conduct of life

Features: photograph; illustration

Mag. Collection: 94A2218

AN: 20630035

Minnie Littlebear was born 102 years ago in a wigwam in the woods of Nebraska. She doesn't mark the passage of time according to a monthly calendar. Instead, each spring, she waits for a weed along the side of the road to begin changing color.

"And on the day it turns to the color of wheat, that's my birthday," she says, flashing a grin. She is a tall woman with wide-set eyes, long gray hair, and skin that shows the passage of time.

The daughter of George Grey Wolf and Mary Bear, Minnie knows little English. She speaks through an Indian translator, here at a nursing home just outside the Winnebago reservation in the northeast comer of the state. (Like a number of her peers, Minnie prefers to be called Winnebago or American Indian rather than Native American; anyone born in America, after all, is a native American. But to be an Indian is something special.)

Some of the concepts of the Winnebago, a nation of some 3,900 people in Nebraska and another 5,100 in Wisconsin, are hard to translate. For instance, there is the manner in which Minnie's father died. To Minnie, the legend is not a particularly strange piece of family lore:

"There was another woman who loved him," she says. "But he already had a wife and family. Still, this woman was very angry that she could not have him. So somehow she got a piece of his hair." The scorned lover was able to cast a spell on Minnie's father with that hair. "And eventually, he got sick," she says. "And then he died."

He died just before Minnie was born. According to Winnebago tradition, a child who never knew her father must be treated with great respect. The youngest of six girls, Minnie had gifts lavished upon her by the tribe: She received special buckskin clothes, beads, and fancy jewelry that she wore to powwows and harvest celebrations.

Minnie's mother eventually remarried. Minnie's stepfather, Charles French (a Winnebago given an Anglo name by white settlers) built a new log cabin for the family by the river. Minnie was happy. "We had a swing that we hung off a tree. And I would swing and swing and swing." Like her sisters, she did not go to school. The custom was for the mother to teach her daughters to cook, clean, sew, and do beadwork, and for the father to teach his sons how to hunt and be warriors.
When Minnie became a teenager, in 1910, something startling happened. “The white man came,” she says. “And took me to a boarding school far away.”

Boarding school for Indians was a national policy adopted in 1879. The idea was to assimilate Indians into mainstream American culture—by force. Kids of school age were taken from their families and sent to government-run schools that were sometimes hundreds of miles away. Once there, a child’s native clothes would be taken away and she would be given a uniform to wear. She would have to wear strange things on her feet called shoes. Her hair would be cut. She would be forbidden to speak her native language. She would be punished for dancing and practicing Indian traditions. She would not be allowed to speak to her relatives.

Many Indians recall their days in boarding schools as horrific times of forced labor, abuse, and molestation. They blame the schools for the breakdown of the Indian family, because it forced so many Indians to grow up outside a family structure. Others see the schools as having been their only chance to learn how to read and write, or, at the very least, as places that provided meals and shelter, which were sometimes scarce back on the reservation.

Not long after returning from her two years at boarding school, Minnie was once again sent away. But this time it was to the home of Dave Littlebear. She would be his wife. “One morning, Mother came to me, and she was with her friend,” recalls Minnie. “And she told me, ‘This lady has come after you because you’re going to be for her son.’” Minnie had no say in the matter.

“Three horses, a buggy, a harness, and some shawls,” says Minnie of the exchange. “That’s what my mother got”

There was no wedding. Minnie simply moved into Dave’s home that afternoon and waited for him to return from his day of working as a woodsman. Did she like him? “He liked me,” she says.

Minnie was not allowed to bring her beautiful clothes and jewelry with her into the marriage. She was part of Littlebear’s family now. Unlike the Navajo and other tribes that are matrilineal (run by women), the Winnebagos are patrilineal. The man of the family is the boss, and a womean’s job is to obey him.

The struggle to make a living would be a constant in Minnie’s and Dave’s lives, as it was for most Indians. The cooperative structure of Indian society had broken down, thanks to the white man’s interference. Between 1887 and 1934, in a further attempt to assimilate Indians into white Culture, the U.S. government divided up reservations, allotting property to each person, and leaving the rest for homesteading. White settlers flooded onto surplus lands. Indians were forced to move onto widely scattered allotments—leaving them to fend for themselves in a white man’s world.

Minnie and her husband made and sold corn liquor, killed and plucked chickens, and, in the summers, headed north to a theme park in Wisconsin that featured Indian beadwork and blankets. “And the white people would come and buy the stuff,” she recalls.

Minnie had a son who died at just 9 months old. She raised two children—Ester, her husband’s grandneice, and Barry, who, when his father died, was given to Dave and Minnie. “Because of the wishes of the father, the mother had to let the child go,” says Minnie.

Minnie’s husband died in the 1970’s. Tradition calls for the widow to mourn for four years. Minnie had to wear black, she had to wear shoes instead of going barefoot, and she could not go to powwows or other celebrations. However, in the ritual of dressing and grooming, a Winnebago woman could be “released” from her mourning period earl by the women in her deceased husband’s family.

“One day my sister-in-law came down and said, ‘I’m going to dress you and set You free.’” But Minnie did not want to be free. She liked no longer having to answer to a man. So she stayed in mourning the full four years.

Ester and other relatives would take care of Minnie for many years at the reservation, until she needed specialized care. Barry, 60, lives in Black River Falls, Wi, and is a caseworker for senior citizens of the tribe. Ester, 52, lives near her mother and works at the Winna Vegas casino, which is owned and operated by the Winnebago. Many tribes have opened gambling establishments in a desperate attempt to raise revenue. Indians are the poorest racial group in America. Though the national poverty rate stands at 13 percent, for Indians, it’s 31 percent. One out of every five Indian homes lacks both a telephone and an indoor toilet. More than a third of all Indian students drop out of high school. Indians lead the nation in suicide and death rates due to alcoholism, diabetes, and heart disease.

And yet Indians today are asserting their centuries-old fight of self-government, becoming increasingly powerful at the dawn of the new millennium. For her part, Minnie is not one to complain about the difficult times she has seen her nation experience in the twentieth century. The word nation to her means Winnebago, not the United States of America.

Does Minnie cosider herself an American? Her translator, Betty GreenCrow, looks perplexed. She is not sure how to phrase this question in the Winnebago language. “You mean in the sense of the American dream? We don’t have anything like that.”

GreenGrow thinks for a while longer, but eventually comes up blank. “The conflict is not between Indians and Americans,” Minnie explains. “It’s between Indians and white people. Being an American doesn’t mean anything.”

Does Minnie feel angry at white people? “There is some resentment,” Minnie says, ashamed. Anger is not the Winnebago way. She does not, however, believe that the white man is evil.

“He is greedy,” she says.

Editor’s Note: The “100 Years of Living” series pauses here. Next year, Good House-keeping will publish a book collection of the stories of these women plus many others. We’ll let you know when to check your bookstore.