Category: Munsee

Forge Project 2024 fellowship winners (clockwise from top left): Delbert Anderson (Navajo/Diné), Schon Matthew Duncan (United Keetoowah Band of the Cherokee Indians), Donna Hogerhuis (Stockbridge-Munsee), Lindsay McIntyre (Inuit), Mikayla Patton (Oglala Sioux Lakota), and Sterling Anthony Schreiber II (Stockbridge-Munsee) (images courtesy Forge Project)

The Native-led arts and culture advocacy organization Forge Project announced its 2024 fellowship cohort today, May 15, comprising six artists, musicians, filmmakers, and advocates.

Reflecting a diversity of art disciplines, cultural backgrounds, and geographic upbringings, the fellows are Delbert Anderson (Navajo/Diné), Schon Matthew Duncan (United Keetoowah Band of the Cherokee Indians), Donna Hogerhuis (Stockbridge-Munsee), Lindsay McIntyre (Inuit), Mikayla Patton (Oglala Sioux Lakota), and Sterling Anthony Schreiber II (Stockbridge-Munsee). Each will receive a $25,000 grant to support their practices, as well as embark on a three-week stay this summer at Forge’s 60-acre property in the Mahicannituck (Hudson River) Valley, located approximately 115 miles north of New York City.

The announcementof this year’s fellowship cohort comes during a significant transitional period for the Forge Project. In late April, the four-year-old organization shifted to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and has been further developing its Native-led framework through the establishment of a seven-member Indigenous Steering Council, which will guide Forge’s major initiatives and future trajectory. The council members, who include artists Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) and Jeffrey Gibson (Choctaw and Cherokee), will oversee Forge’s board of directors and that the organization will continue to fulfill its commitment to Indigenous self-determination. It has also laid out three areas of focus for the years ahead: land, language, and sovereignty.

“A large amount of our funding was coming from our co-founder Becky Gochman through incredible generosity and we thought, ‘How can an organization like this also be really centered on the radical potential of the…

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Recent excavations on Roanoke Island, North Carolina have revealed new evidence that may help archaeologists and historians determine the ultimate fate of the now-famous “lost colony” of Roanoke. The island, site of the earliest efforts by the English to colonize North America, vanished without a trace more than four centuries ago.

It seems the Roanoke colonists had direct interactions with Algonquian peoples who lived on the island right beside them, either trading with them or possibly integrating with them once they realized they couldn’t survive on their own. And it is these Algonquian priests who may hold the key.

The evidence in question was unearthed during excavations carried out by the North Carolina-based First Colony Foundation. This coalition of historians and archaeologists is dedicated to finding ruins and artifacts connected with efforts by the famed Sir Walter Raleigh and other English explorers to settle the eastern coast of the Americas during the latter half of the 16th century.

The focus of this research has been Roanoke Island, which can be found just off the northeastern coastline of North Carolina. It is here that that what came to be known as the lost colony of Roanoke was established in 1587, by a group of about 100 English settlers led by Governor John White, who had been appointed to that position by Queen Elizabeth I.

Sir Walter Raleigh himself had attempted to start a colony on the island three years earlier, but his efforts were aborted in the face of resistance from local Native American peoples. But it was the later colony which went down in history for disappearing without trace.

It is believed that the Algonquian nation absorbed…

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Archaeologists from The First Colony Foundation have yielded a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina’s Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.

The story of an English settlement known as the “Lost Colony” of early explorers of Roanoke and Sir Walter Raleigh is one of the most fascinating mysteries in American history.

John White led a party of roughly 115 English settlers who arrived on Roanoke Island, which is located slightly off the east coast of modern-day North Carolina, in 1587. The first attempt to colonize the island had failed a few years prior, so the settlers were the second group to try.

Even from their first days, the settler community had a rocky relationship with some of the Indigenous tribes that lived in the area. Eventually, White returned to England to request more help for his burgeoning community. Along with the other settlers, he left his wife, daughter Eleanor Dare and her husband Ananias Dare, and his infant granddaughter Virginia—the first English child born in America—to continue building the colony.

White arrived in England at the same time as the Spanish Armada prepared to invade the nation, which unfortunately caused a delay in his return to the colony. By the time he returned to Roanoke in 1590, his family and the other settlers had vanished. The word “Croatoan” carved into a tree provided the only meaningful hint as to what had happened to them. The word probably referred to Croatoan Island, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south.

There are various explanations for what happened to today the “lost” Roanoke colony settlers. Some believe the colonists attempted to return to England on smaller ships, some argue that the Spanish attacked them, while others contend that the local…

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Browse the obituary of residing in the province of Ontario for funeral details

Obituary of Caroline Joyce Dolson
Peacefully, passed away April 3rd, 2024, at the age of 67 years. Predeceased by her long-time partner Rudy Bakelaar (March 1, 2024). Special mention to Rudy’s sisters Susan, Marlene, Linda, Anita, and Katie. Predeceased by her mother Mary Dolson, brother Aaron Dolson and special sister-in-law Heather Dolson, all of Munsee-Delaware Nation.
Survived by sibling Jim Dolson, and God-son Tim Burch. Sadly, missed by many nieces and special mention of her nephew Aaron Dolson, and to her cat “Giz” and many extended family and friends.
Caroline will be sadly missed by Beverlee R Burch and families. She met a lot of people in her life’s path, too many to mention! All of you held a special place in her heart, “You know who you are!”
Thank you to Allison Burch for all your care during this time. A special thank you to her primary care nurse Anthily Jose, and Palliative Care Physician Dr. Andrew Sripalan and Charlene Kent of Home and Community Care, all staff of the various support services – SW under CCAC, to LHSC, University Campus and specialists, as well as, LHSC Victoria Campus all staff and a special mention to the CCTC at Victoria Hospital, London.
“Leaving people I love so much!
Making my peace with some.
That won’t be easy or pleasant!”
To Bruce Elijah, Kingston Huff, and the Firekeepers …… Chi Miigwetch!
And we are sending her home in a good way, as per her request …. with the Horse Song!
As per Caroline’s request cremation has taken place.
Online condolences are available through www.elliottmadill.com.
Arrangements are entrusted to Elliott-Madill Funeral Home Ltd., Mount Brydges, Ontario, 519-264-1100

1957 2024

elliott-madill funeral homes

Death notice for the town of: Mount-Brydges,…

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AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)—A new study* describes a previously unidentified genetic lineage from which the modern-day Blood (Kainai) First Nation/Blackfoot Confederacy descended. Through comparisons of DNA from both Ancestral and modern-day Confederacy members, the work dates this Historic Blackfoot lineage to the late Pleistocene, corroborating established oral and archaeological records. The Blackfoot Confederacy is made of member tribes with ancestral ties to nomadic bison hunters that lived across the Northwestern Plains and Rocky Mountain Front. Oral and archaeological records place them in this region during the end of the last glaciation by at least 10,000 years ago.  Yet, the Blackfoot’s legacy has been contested frequently in land and water rights lawsuits. “The objectives of this study were not only to advance scientific knowledge about Indigenous genomic lineages that can provide insight into the peopling of the Americas but also to provide the Blackfoot with an independent line of evidence for evaluating purported ancestral relationships with other North American groups,” Dorothy First Rider and colleagues write. Here, First Rider et al. analyzed samples from 7 historical Ancestors and 6 living Blackfoot people. They found that ancient and modern DNA had a high proportion of shared alleles, demonstrating genetic continuity over millennia. Further modeling suggests that the Blood/Blackfoot ancient lineage split from other ancestral Indigenous American groups roughly 18,000 years ago. Athabascan and Karitiana then separated from this Historic Blackfoot group 13,000 years ago. Notably, the investigations help answer why Blackfoot language has minimal linguistic overlap with other Algic (or Indigenous North American) languages such as central Algonquian. “Certain elements of Blackfoot are older than proto-Algonquian language and likely were spoken by Indigenous peoples in the aboriginal homelands…

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Chief Marilyn Morrison teaching tribal members the importance of honoring those who have passed at a Circle of Life ceremony held on Roanoke Island in 2022. Photo: Joan Collins

From CoastalReview.org

The 13th Roanoke Island American Indian Festival and Powwow is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Manteo High School Athletic Complex.

The grand entry will take place at 12 p.m. both days. Organizers recommend attendees bring their own chairs and blankets for seating.

The Algonquian Indians of North Carolina Inc., a nonprofit made up of people genealogically descended from the original historic Roanoke-Hatteras, or Croatan, Indians of Dare County, and Mattamuskeet Indians of Hyde County, are presenting the festival and powwow.

The Pea Island Preservation Society Inc. will have a booth at the event to share information about the society and those who worked at the historic Pea Island lifesaving station with American Indian ties.

The society’s goal is to make the story of Keeper Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island lifesavers broadly known.

Etheridge, who was once enslaved on Roanoke Island, became the nation’s first African American keeper in the U.S. Life-Saving Service in January 1880 when he took command of the Pea Island lifesaving station, known as the only all-Black lifesaving station in Life-Saving Service history, according to information provided by board member Joan Collins, an occasional Coastal Review contributor.

Many of the non-European residents on the Outer Banks were a mixture of African, European, and American Indian residents.

This included many members of the historic Pea Island Lifesaving Station, a facility that included men like Etheridge who was enslaved, and others who were the descendants of enslaved people and people with known American Indian ties.

The festival and powwow connect the historic Pea Island…

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Discovering an Algonquian Village’s Connection to the Lost Colony

The story of an English settlement known as the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke and Sir Walter Raleigh’s early explorers remains one of the most fascinating mysteries of American history. 

The search for what happened to the English settlers has recently focused on the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, where researchers uncovered more evidence of a farmstead belonging to the “Algonquian village of Roanoke” (also spelled Roanoac), an Indigenous community that hosted the explorers in 1584. 

Excavations in March 2024 followed discoveries in the summer of 2023, when archaeologists from The First Colony Foundation uncovered what they believe are tantalizing clues. They dug up shards of Algonquian pottery dating back to the 1500s, along with a ring of copper wire they believe could have been an earring once worn by a warrior from an Indigenous tribe. 

“Finding domestic pottery—the type used for cooking—in close proximity to an apparent piece of Native American jewelry strongly confirms we are digging in the midst of a settlement,” said Dr. Eric Klingelhofer, the First Colony Foundation’s Vice President of Research. “And Roanoac is the only known village at that site.” 

“The copper ring indicates contact with the English,” Klingelhofer continued. 

The ring was made of drawn copper, and Klingelhofer believes it was brought to America by English explorers as part of their trade goods. Indigenous peoples did not have the technology to produce such rounded strands, and neither the French nor Spanish explorers ventured as far north as Roanoke Island to trade. 

The copper ring would have made for a valuable trade item. Historians say copper had spiritual significance for Indigenous tribes. 

What does the soil say? 

While artifacts were discovered last summer, the objective of the more recent dig was to find evidence of a farmstead…

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