Post by blackcrowheart on Aug 22, 2006 23:20:43 GMT -5
Proud Pequot honored at last
Sunday, August 20, 2006
By STEPHANIE BARRY
sbarry@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Until a few months ago, the unmarked stone on Chelsea L. Barnes's grave had become overgrown, since her death 80 years earlier.
Her immediate descendants from this city had spoken fondly of her. But they, too, had died, so her exact burial place had become a mystery to younger generations.
"We used to drive by here when I was a kid, and my dad would say, 'I think your great-grandmother's buried somewhere in there'," said city native Lester "Skip" L. Williams, 70, yesterday as he stood in St. Michael's Cemetery. "He would say she was full-blooded Pequot. I didn't know what a Pequot was."
Williams, a Los Angeles resident since 1968, joined dozens of his relatives - many of whom he had never met - at the grave site he had sought for years. Yesterday, the group marked what would have been Barnes's 153rd birthday with a new headstone and a ceremony celebrating her American Indian heritage.
"It might be 80 years late, but we're going to bury her with honors ... like a true American Pequot," Williams told a crowd gathered under a tent in the sprawling cemetery near the corner of Edward Street.
Family members pulled away Indian-inspired cloths to reveal Barnes's new stone, engraved with her name, birth and death dates, and a feather denoting her heritage: Pequot Nation.
When Williams first called St. Michael's secretary Katherine "Casey" Desrochers, she told him that Barnes was not buried there. Williams told her he was searching for Louisa Chelsea Barnes - the first and middle names getting juxtaposed in his head over the years.
But, Desrochers said she would try another combination, since names often got confused, and turned up Barnes when she typed in the reverse.
"A lot of people are happy," Desrochers said yesterday of callers who contact her searching for graves of long-lost relatives. "But his excitement took me by surprise."
Williams, his brothers, and his sister, Arlene Myers, also of Los Angeles, were joined yesterday by many relatives with the surname, Elkey - Barnes's maiden name. They came from Connecticut, New York state, and beyond.
"They feel more American than ever," said William Myers of Holyoke, Skip Williams's nephew, referring to his two children. "I've hung an American flag outside my house for the first time."
City resident Gloria Peeler, also known as Gentle Running Deer, secretary of the Native American Intertribal Council of Western Massachusetts and a friend of the Williams family, offered a prayer in native tongue. She said that more and more people are embracing their indigenous ancestry.
"I share my heritage with everybody and anybody who wants to hear it," she said of her Apache and Mohawk blood. "We're coming out and letting people know - it's proud."
The Williams, Myers, and Elkey families continued yesterday on to a relative's home for a family reunion after the ceremony. It was attended by School Committeewoman Antonette Pepe and State Rep. Benjamin Swan, D-Springfield, both childhood friends of Williams.
"I'm here to pay homage to the individuals whose shoulders we stand on," said Swan. "Everyone has stood on someone's shoulders."
Sunday, August 20, 2006
By STEPHANIE BARRY
sbarry@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Until a few months ago, the unmarked stone on Chelsea L. Barnes's grave had become overgrown, since her death 80 years earlier.
Her immediate descendants from this city had spoken fondly of her. But they, too, had died, so her exact burial place had become a mystery to younger generations.
"We used to drive by here when I was a kid, and my dad would say, 'I think your great-grandmother's buried somewhere in there'," said city native Lester "Skip" L. Williams, 70, yesterday as he stood in St. Michael's Cemetery. "He would say she was full-blooded Pequot. I didn't know what a Pequot was."
Williams, a Los Angeles resident since 1968, joined dozens of his relatives - many of whom he had never met - at the grave site he had sought for years. Yesterday, the group marked what would have been Barnes's 153rd birthday with a new headstone and a ceremony celebrating her American Indian heritage.
"It might be 80 years late, but we're going to bury her with honors ... like a true American Pequot," Williams told a crowd gathered under a tent in the sprawling cemetery near the corner of Edward Street.
Family members pulled away Indian-inspired cloths to reveal Barnes's new stone, engraved with her name, birth and death dates, and a feather denoting her heritage: Pequot Nation.
When Williams first called St. Michael's secretary Katherine "Casey" Desrochers, she told him that Barnes was not buried there. Williams told her he was searching for Louisa Chelsea Barnes - the first and middle names getting juxtaposed in his head over the years.
But, Desrochers said she would try another combination, since names often got confused, and turned up Barnes when she typed in the reverse.
"A lot of people are happy," Desrochers said yesterday of callers who contact her searching for graves of long-lost relatives. "But his excitement took me by surprise."
Williams, his brothers, and his sister, Arlene Myers, also of Los Angeles, were joined yesterday by many relatives with the surname, Elkey - Barnes's maiden name. They came from Connecticut, New York state, and beyond.
"They feel more American than ever," said William Myers of Holyoke, Skip Williams's nephew, referring to his two children. "I've hung an American flag outside my house for the first time."
City resident Gloria Peeler, also known as Gentle Running Deer, secretary of the Native American Intertribal Council of Western Massachusetts and a friend of the Williams family, offered a prayer in native tongue. She said that more and more people are embracing their indigenous ancestry.
"I share my heritage with everybody and anybody who wants to hear it," she said of her Apache and Mohawk blood. "We're coming out and letting people know - it's proud."
The Williams, Myers, and Elkey families continued yesterday on to a relative's home for a family reunion after the ceremony. It was attended by School Committeewoman Antonette Pepe and State Rep. Benjamin Swan, D-Springfield, both childhood friends of Williams.
"I'm here to pay homage to the individuals whose shoulders we stand on," said Swan. "Everyone has stood on someone's shoulders."