Reservation @ MindSay

Yay Yay!  I owe you all a variety of pictures.  My desktop isn't set up completely to take my memory card out of my camara and I am to lazy to crawl under the desk to plug in the usb cable!  All my usb ports are farkered on the front, therefore you all will have to wait till I post from my laptop again!

Had an interesting convo with the parental units this past Thrusday night when the kids and I took them to the bar for Tex Mex to say thank you for the two free tires for my van.  Dad had them laying outback and both were in really good condition and fit my van!  Anyway!:P  My parental grandfather was a big fat lying ass as we have figured out!  We have no clue who is family was or where he came from.  And for the past 5 years my dad has been diligently trying to track Grandpa down off of genology websites!  My dad and his siblings never knew any of that family growing up, knew Grandpa lied about things, and that Grandma knew about the lies as did most likely her entire family!  Grandma still won't say shit when you ask her.  At 95 years of age and having the majority of her mind yet with only lapses she is one hell of a subject changer if you try to ask questions about Grandpa!

What Grandpa did tell us we had no real hard proof of.  His Navy stint in WWI.  Interestnly enough when my Uncle W requested Grandpa's Naval records from St. Louis (Grandpa could rattle off his Dog Tag ID till the day he died at the age of what we all thought was 92 and is on the books but was in truth more along the lines of 96!) that is when the Military Records down in St. Louis had that massive fire that destroyed most of the Navy WWI records and older!  Isn't that a quinky dink!?!  We also had no clue where Grandpa was born until he popped up two years before he died and let the nursing home list it on the board!  He in essence gave enough truth with his lies and the midwest states share a lot of the same town names and even county names that it is very hard to try and track down shit!  So my dad logically has started with what Granddad let loose in his dottering old age combined with what he let on while he was younger.  It has been interesting!

In the past few years, my sister and I just nod our head at my dad when he has been weekly spouting I think I found my dad!  My dad spouts that and then promptly finds information to the contrary or realizes that the family names might be right but the time period is off!  Well last month with the help of my Uncle (my dad's brother) they actually managed to find traces of what looks like my Grandpa's military record.  And at the end of Sept managed to do a family confirm with Grandma with their information!  Let's just say, my brother and I get our issues with authority from Granddad!  And my stints in country jail when I was in my early 20s and late teens would have been no skin off of Grandpa's ass!  He HATED to do what he was told and looks like he went AWOL at least twice to do what he wanted! 

Since that information has been somewhat confirmed by Grandma, my dad has choosen to work off the military records to try and track down Grandpa.  Right now he is working on a very strong possiblity based out of MN closer to the ND and SD boarders!  My dad has found all the family names, including Grandpa.  Matched up the Orphan train that Granddad swears he rode on to get to IA when he was in his tweenies or teenage years and is matching up counties and towns to what Granddad has told us or variants to them!

Now what is interesting is this:  My mom's family is predom Irish/German/French.  Irish/German off her mom's side with more Irish.  Her dad's side is predom French/Candaian French.  They insist it is NOT French Canadian but Canandian French which means there should be a tribal connection int here since the French folks from the Central Canada region down to the Central US region did intermarry into the various tribes.  But what we have found out that my mom's family was smoking some good shit!  We are in truth French Canadian and NOT Canadian French.  Meaning her family is just some dark skinned white folks!:D

Now the family my dad has found up in MN that may connect to my Grandfather and he is going to try and contact what ever family is living from the family he found on a few census to try and confirm is this:  In one mid 1800's censu Granddad's family was registered as a branch of the Lakota but the branch would be either Dakota or Nakota.  The mom was white and the dad was indian.  A few years later still in the 1900's the family switched their race to white and the mom was dead!  If it is true my dad goes that explains why you and your brother are so dark skinned and why both of you are more comfortable outdoors and with your indian friends then your white friends! 

Grandpa made it a strong point to move to the Rez even though Grandma's family settled on the rez and right off the rez in the area.  It would explain why Grandpa also had more Indian friends then white friends........back in those days if you could pass as white you did so especially if you looked white if you were half.  Folks were real hard core about Indian still in those days especiallyin the plains and western states.  And we have figued out that if Grandpa was half, that makes my dad a 1/4 which makes us kids an 1/8th.  According to most of the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota tribes you can't register but if it turns out to be true you can beat your ass that I will be taken advantage of the IHS Health Care System in the town my kids go to school and where my mom works!  Tribal Hospitals you can't do that you have to be registered UNLESS the Tribal Hospital is apart of the IHS Gov't Health Care System in which case as long as you can prove you have Tribal blood in you up to 5 generations back you can get your Medical Card and be seen at an IHS Clinic, Hospital, Vision, and Dental system!:D

So far dad has yet to find any holes to the story and if he can keep it that way, he is going to have that DNA test done to see if there is any Tribal blood then we will see if we can track down the actual family!:D

Okay I think this update will rock the foundations of many die hard fundie Christians and even some of the die hard fundie Pagans here on mindsay.

Newsflash folks:  All of the major Holy Days of Christanity comes from Pagan cultures and beliefs.  All the lil family tradations from the old countries that your grandparents passed on......forms of Pagan cultures and beliefs.

Newsflash folks:  Catholics are Christains.  Many of the protstants out there love to think they are the only Christians and that Catholics are just Catholics.  Wake up folks.  Lutherans, Methedist, and the other off shoots such as Baptist are all Christians just like Catholics.  You all believe in Jesus Christ as a Saviour thus you all are CHRISTians.  Even the Islamic folks believe in Jesus but you all get bent out of shape because they put a different prophet a different man in the forfront regardless that you all believe in the SAME God.

Okay now those two newflashes being said, let me give a lil bit of spiritual background on me.  I was born into what Christians call a mixed family.  My mother is Catholic (devout) and my father is prysbiterian (or however you spell it-non practicing).  It was a marriage that caused a lot of trouble for my folks......not my mom's family but my dad's family.  Then they all woke up and said fuck it.  Both of my family's are life long residents of the Omaha and Winnebago Indian reservations.  My mom's family being on the reservation since the town I grew up in was formed.  My dad's family if not living on the reservation has always been close to it thus why the last 2 generations lived on it.  We are white.  Yes folks white ppl can and do live on reservations there is only a total of 4 reservations in the US that do not allow non white folks who do NOT work for the gov't or the schools to live on the reservation.  The rest of the reservations are open to every race and culture out there.

Anyway since both my family's are well known to everyone I was thrown into not only the Omaha and Winnebago cultures but also the Santee Lakota culture, some Ponca (sorry folks the Ponca tribe are transplants in OK their orginal lands are up in Nebraska:D), some Navajo, and various other Indian cultures.  See the Winnebagos have an IHS hospital/clinic on their reservations and my mom worked there when I was a small child as a nurse and will now retire from there since she went back to the hospital when I was in highschool.  Since both my familys are very large you know that we have lost a lot of our culture aspects due to moderinzation and such, but we also have kept a lot and the most important one is FAMILY.  So no matter how much we argue with each other you don't mess with family.  This is largely due to the fact the white folks that settled on the reservations have strong Irish, Scots, Welsh, German, Dutch, and French ancestory.  The Norse and Celtic folks and culture have strong similitaries that of NA Indian cultures.  So even with small legal, family, and racial problems for the most part eveyrone gets along great.  Thus why when someone who loves to argue about how the whites did this or the whites did this I can see their side and I can also see the other side of the Indians are doing this and the Indians are doing that.  That is a different kettle all together.

Anyway the Winnebago Tribe has a Catholic Mission and they are sort of in charge of the Omaha Catholic churchs.......so you not only saw a lot of Masses when I was younger done in Irish, Latin, Swiss, and Dutch.  You also may have had prayers and blessings and such done in Omaha, Winnebago, Lakota and the such.  I made a deal with my mother when I was confirmed that afterwards I didn't have to go unless it was a Holdy day or nobody else would go with her.  Or to make her happy.  My brother jsut didn't like sitting in church but he is a Catholic still much to his wife's horror (the bitch different story) and I even at a young age asked way to many questions that the priests and nuns didn't like and I expected answers.  My mom for being very devout is very much open minded to other ppl's views and she answered my questions.  She is the one that said the Bible is nothing more than a book and it is hypicritical and contridicts itself and yes even though she would love that I would be Catholic as I got older that she would understand if another faith called to me.  It doens't matter what religion you are my mom always says as long as you have Faith.  Faith in yourself, faith in your family, faith in what is right and wrong.  Live a good life and don't just see white and black because there is always two sides of a story.  And that she feels that Jesus is probably looking down on everyone and just shaking his head over all the bigotry and killings done in his name when all he wanted to do was teach and pass on his faith.  My mother also says the same about Mohmand. 

Anyway both my siblings are still Catholics.  My sister is practicing when she isn't working and my brother is non practicing and only goes to make my mom happy when he is home on leave.  I am studying to become a Ban Draoi, a female druid.  My mom has embraced my spirituality and realizes that my opinons will always differ from hers on the lil things but understands that the large issues we are in agreement.  My dad on the other hand is probably the fundi in the family even though he doesn't go to church or reads the bible.  Up until last year he thought I was on the longest "phaze" of my life.  I started looking into other faiths as a teenager after confirmation, tried going to church along with my studying as a 'Pagan" and I end up leaving pist off and wanting to rip the priest's head off.  At 18, I fully embraced the various 'pagan' cultures and beliefs and now I am 29 and have my own kids.

These kdis of mine are in what the Christians call a very mixed family.  A Catholic Raised Practicing Ban Draoi married to a Baptised Lutheran Confirmed Lutheran Mo. Sect non believing Christian who with his Celt and Tetounic blood is finally opening up to things outside of his logical scope of mind.  GASP  I had them blessed in my ways at the Hospital and GASP I had them baptisted Catholic to please my mother.  Down in TX we started sending the kids to what I know as CCD classes to prepare for their first communion in the Catholic Church.  That is as far as negotiation with my mother as I would relent to.  Confirmation of a child is out of the question until they are in the eyes of our ancestors an adult which is at Puberty.  Even when I was confirmed in the Church the decision of confirmation is the full acknowledgement of a child as an adult.  Well in TX they wanted to do the confirmation of these kids at first communion.  That I wasn't about to allow.  These kids were 8 maybe 9 years of age and in my eyes not ready to make the decision to say "yes I want to be apart of any church at such a young age".  I do believe that all kids should be exposed to other religions and I do my best to do this.  I do believe that kids need to learn to pray and I do my best to do this.  But I will be dayumed if the Catholic Church demands my kids to make an adult decision about their spirituality at such a young age.

My mother brought this up to the Mission's head priest and he said to just have me tell them no, communion only.  My mom's new preist is a young man and very nice but the Catholic semenaries produce a wide range of priests from hellfire and dammnation to free loving missionaries like the head preist.  My mom's new priest and I finally had words the Sunday after my granny died.  He was put out that my daughter isn't first communioned.  And I said I wasn't going to let her get confirmed down in the South West of the US when they are to fundementalist like and confirmation is an adult decsion and 8 year olds are not old enough for that decision.  He started going well back in the days baptisim and such were all done at the same time.  I said well back in the old days that might have been the case becuase priests were far and few between the fueding war lords now wasn't it.  And thus why when one of the family's choose the life of God they went back to the family home to lord over everyone in their family's land as the priest.  He had no arguement for that.  And then he goes well it isn't really about becoming an adult in the church and babbled off other things.  So he was very amazed when I went back into the sanctum and grabbed the Book of Gospels and flipped to a passage that is usually spoken about confirmation during confirmation in the Catholic Church.  Where it states in a very clear language that confirmation is about becoming an offical adult in the yes of the Church and thus the Lord God.  I said now I understand that in semenary school that a lot of devout folks drop out after the first year becaues you all are taught the truths that I am speaking of and then you are told what you can and can not preach about thus why only 4 gospels are used in the majority of Christanity so if you would like to continue debating I am more then happy to meet you for coffee down at the store cafe.  But first let me go home and grab my mom's study bible which is the updated modern bible, my mom's marriage bible which was updated before that one and my grandmother's marriage bible which was updated before that one and I will also grab my dad's New King James Bible and you can spout out psalms and passages about why it is or not an adult decision and I can spout out the arguing psalms and passages as to why it is and thus proving why my kids will be predomintally raised in MY Faith and allowed to make their own choices when they are of age.

He shut up.  Mainly because he knew the converstation would get back to the Sisters and the Head preist who have a belief that I am still catholic and I am no different then the NA Indians going to their culture church and the catholic church and that I am more then welcome to continue taking sacrements in the church.  See the new priest loves a fundie catholic way and my personal opinion he isn't going to last to long on the reservatoin where not only the NA Indians but whites, blacks, and hispanics hold on to their family cultures just as dearly as the NA Indians do.  And hellfire and brimestone isn't teh way to win any of us over when keeping family tradations alive is just as important if not more so.

And for those Catholics on mindsay that read that to the Mission Chruch I am able to keep taking sacrements and also partake in my Faith, don't go rolling over and going BLASPHMY!:D  I see that as disrespectful to the Catholics that are devout such as my mother.  I am Ban Draoi.  I do NOT take sacrements but I do go to church with my mother and my kids will eventually receive their 1st communion and nothing more until it is their decision.