In the few short years I had my grandfather as my guidance in life. I can never remember a negative moment, with him! He was the most positive, loving man, that a role model could be! He lost his father at a young age, when his father was kicked to death, putting a mule onto a treadmill at a sawmill, his father owned in St. Fidele, Quebec! That event happened about 1890 ish, when my grandfather was only about 5 years old. Shortly there after he was sent to live with his oldest brother Hilare, who lived in Chambly, outside of Montreal. Of all of my grandfathers brothers and sisters, he was the only one that chose to move to the United States. I guess, because he wanted the best shot at success. And he was successful in life!
Even as his talks to me, took place, there was a sort of silent reserve that was insinuated! I guess it was that lingering fear of revealing his heritage. In 1960 we went to Canada for the last time. While in Canada, visiting relatives in Chambly, my grandfather became very sick. So sick that I offered to drive the family vehicle home. Mind you, I was only 14 at the time. But that's how sick he'd become. Little did I know that my grandfather was dying from bone cancer! It was the begining, of the ending, of a wonderful lifetime for me, of love, patience, reverance, and wonderment of all the momenteous events my Grandfather had brought about in my short lifetime! From Chambly, my grandfather mustered enough strength to drive from Canada to our summer home in Groton, Ma. While in Groton, my grandfather was in the yard, when a white dove/pigeon hovered over him, while he was in the yard.Upon seeing the dove, my grandmother broke out into a frenzy, trying to scare the white bird away! I'd never seen her act in such a crazed state. In the end, to her it was a sign that death was soon to be upon her husband! At my Grandfathers funeral, the last day of the wake, after everybody had left the room, there was just my Grandmother and me. She walked to the casket where her husband layed. She kissed him on the forehead and said, " Goodbye, My Brave Silent Warrior, I'm so proud to have been married to a Mohawk! I stood in amazement and awe that I overheard her finally acknowledged her loving husband, and father to her 8 children, nine including me, was a Native American! Her spoken words that she uttered, are as live to me as she spoke them yesterday!
After all these years, my daughter Renee isn't interested in her heritage, because she see's, how the American government still is active in tracking and creating problems for those of us that declare our heritage! I'm constantly being harrassed by government officials, that monitor my web site and my blog! I may go to my grave as being noted as an American Indian aggitator/trouble maker, but it's a part of who I am, and what I have to do! Make no mistake that Native Americans are still being hunted down like dogs and forced into submission, to accept assimilation! Well, as far as I'm concerned, they can hunt me down, but I'll never change my activism for what I believe is right for my ancestors and those Native Americans alive today! I'm extemely proud to be a Mohawk, Metis (pronounced Maytee) Elder. I'm always willing to receive e-mails or answers to my blog!
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