Catherine Weissenberg


Book Description

When I started to trace my ancestors I found what I expected at first; miners, woodsmen, soldiers, musicians and even a cordwainer. Going back further I was surprised to find Colonels, Generals, a bank manager, a Highland Chief, Scottish royalty and a Palatine refugee who sold herself into seven years servitude to get to the colony of America. There she was bought by an Irishman who took her to the frontier to keep his house and warm his bed. She had 3 children by him before she achieved her freedom. This woman, my 5 times great-grandmother is lied about in biographies of her owner, my 5 times great grandfather, William Johnson, and traduced on genealogy sites. Here I set out the truth about her with incontrovertible evidence obtained from a man known as Garter via the House of Lords in London, England.




The Interpreter


Book Description

A vivid narrative of the clash of cultures on the colonial New York frontier, The Interpreter tells the story of a master shaman and his twin apprentices—the Mohawk dreamer called Island Woman and the young immigrant Conrad Weiser—who become critical players in their two peoples' struggle for survival. Island Woman will grow to become mother of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk nation and a revered atetshents (dream healer). Conrad, transported to North America with the Palatine German refugees from the wars in Europe, helps lead his people's rebellion against the abuses of colonial governors and magnates. Sent to live among the Mohawk, he learns their language and their dreamways, is able to build bridges between communities, and later rises to fame in Pennsylvania as an indispensable Indian interpreter. In the Mohawk language, the word for interpreter, sakowennakarahtats, speaks of a person who can transplant something from one soil to grow in another. The Interpreter is such a book. Through its pages, we are able to find ourselves in another time, and in other worlds. We accompany the Four Indian Kings on their 1710 visit to London to see the Queen; they were not kings in their own matriarchal society, but they included Hendrick, the redoubtable warrior who later instructed Ben Franklin that he must urge the colonists to unite in a confederacy on the Iroquois model. We travel with Vanishing Smoke, the Bear dreamer, on his journey into the afterlife. And we learn, with Island Woman and Conrad, how we can travel across time as well as space in shamanic lucid dreaming, and guide souls to where they belong. In his new preface, Robert Moss describes how his Cycle of the Iroquois—Fire Along the Sky, The Firekeeper, and The Interpreter—began with dreams and visions in which an ancient Iroquois arendiwanen (woman of power) insisted on teaching him in her own language, until he was obliged to learn it.




A to Z of American Indian Women


Book Description

Presents a biographical dictionary profiling important Native American women, including birth and death dates, major accomplishments, and historical influence.




George Johnson's War


Book Description

George's cloistered life in New York changes as the War for American Independence looms and he must struggle with what it means to be half Mohawk. Young George Johnson lives in an extraordinary family in extraordinary times. His father is Sir William Johnson, one of the richest and most powerful men in colonial New York. His mother is Molly Brant, stepdaughter of a Mohawk chief and sister of Iroquois leader Joseph Brant. George spends his early years in a grand mansion called Johnson Hall, but his cloistered life changes as the War for American Independence looms. As the rebel forces gradually take over the valley, George and his family are forced to flee their home and seek refuge with Molly's friends and relatives. George longs to follow his brother's footsteps into battle. Instead, Molly sends him to boarding school in Montreal, where he spends three miserable years waiting for Peter's return. Finally, at the age of thirteen, he persuades his mother to allow him to join in a last raid on the valley where he grew up. In a riveting climax, he experiences first-hand the inglorious brutality and futility of the war, and struggles with what it means to be half Mohawk. And at last he learns the hard truth about the fate of his beloved brother. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6 Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.




The Firekeeper


Book Description

An epic adventure based on the extraordinary historical story of Sir William Johnson and the author's dreams of a Mohawk "woman of power" who lived three centuries ago. An epic adventure based on the extraordinary historical story of Sir William Johnson and the author's dreams of a Mohawk "woman of power" who lived three centuries ago. “Robert Moss is a writer of considerable skill. In The Firekeeper, he shows a talent for accurate historical detail and an ability to recreate the past, both as it was and as it might have been. To read The Firekeeper is to be transported to another time and place, and leave it measurably enlightened.” — James A. Michener “The Firekeeper depicts with accurate and exciting detail the time of the French and Indian Wars. Through the fictionalized lives of historical individuals, Sir William Johnson and Catherine Weissenberg, and memorable, almost mythical characters such as the Iroquois shaman, Island Woman, and Ade, a former slave, the narrative springs to life. The characters, even the minor ones, are clearly-drawn in this fast-paced tale, and the pages keep turning as we learn about the lives of the original inhabitants of this land, and of the early European settlers. This fascinating historical novel offers just the right mix: an involving story which imparts a deeper undersanding.” — Jean M. Auel, author of The Clan of the Cave Bear “Some rare novels defy labels. The Firekeeper is such a book. An intricately detailed historical novel....a mystical journey, a breathtaking adventure tale, and a passionate exploration of the human heart. This is a book to savor when you truly want to lose yourself in another world.” —Morgan Llywelyn, author of Lion of Ireland “In Moss’s vibrant docu-novel, the American colonial frontier is aflame during the 1700s as imperial rivalry pits colonists against British and French armies and their Indian allies. ... Moss backs his vigorous adventure story with detailed research, summarized in extensive source notes.” — Publishers Weekly “I admire Robert Moss’s skill in weaving an elaborate web around his larger-than-life characters. In The Firekeeper, readers are swept back into the eighteenth century to the veritable fusion of our country’s diversity. An epic adventure of William Johnson and the Mohawks. I found the story so good it was hard to do much until I had read all of it.” — Anna Lee Waldo, author of Sacajawea Robert Moss is a novelist, journalist, historian, and lifelong dream explorer. His fascination with the dreamworlds springs from his early childhood in Australia, where he survived a series of near-death experiences and first encountered the ways of a Dreaming people through his friendship with Aborigines. For many years he has taught and practiced Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanic techniques. His many books include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamgates, Dreamways of the Iroquois, and The Secret History of Dreaming. His novels include the three-volume cycle of the Iroquois, The Firekeeper, The Interpreter, and Fire Along the Sky.




Sifters


Book Description

In this edited volume, Theda Perdue, a nationally known expert on Indian history and southern women's history, offers a rich collection of biographical essays on Native American women. From Pocahontas, a Powhatan woman of the seventeenth century, to Ada Deer, the Menominee woman who headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 1990s, the essays span four centuries. Each one recounts the experiences of women from vastly different cultural traditions--the hunting and gathering of Kumeyaay culture of Delfina Cuero, the pueblo society of San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez, and the powerful matrilineal kinship system of Molly Brant's Mohawks. Contributors focus on the ways in which different women have fashioned lives that remain firmly rooted in their identity as Native women. Perdue's introductory essay ties together the themes running through the biographical sketches, including the cultural factors that have shaped the lives of Native women, particularly economic contributions, kinship, and belief, and the ways in which historical events, especially in United States Indian policy, have engendered change.




The Frontier War for American Independence


Book Description

The vicious war on the frontier significantly altered the course of the Revolution. Regular troops, volunteers, and Indians clashed in large-scale campaigns. Bloody fights for land, home, and family. Although the American Revolution is commonly associated with specific locations such as the heights above Boston or the frozen Delaware River, important events took place in the wooded, mountainous lands of the frontier.




Hostages to Fortune


Book Description

Explains the role the United Empire Loyalists had in the founding of Canada.




America's Military Adversaries


Book Description

This work chronicles the lives and accomplishments of over 200 enemies who have fought, plotted, spied on, and in some instances defeated U.S. forces over the past three centuries. Books on American military heroes abound. But this book is the first to focus on America's talented enemies—the generals, admirals, Indian chiefs and warriors, submarine captains, fighter pilots, and spies who opposed the United States with military force or other means. Often these military leaders were among the best minds of their times. For more than two centuries, the new nation's most constant military opponents were the Native Americans, led by such capable chiefs as American Horse and Little Wolf. Under D'Iberville, Canada's French colonialists became formidable foes, but they were soon surpassed by the rigorously disciplined redcoats of Great Britain under Howe and Cornwallis. Ironically, the most effective enemies in the history of the United States were not the leaders of foreign military forces—like Mexico's Santa Anna, Japan's Yamamoto, or Vietnam's Vo Nguyen Giap. They arose from among its own citizens during the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in American history.




Patriot vs Loyalist


Book Description

Following the American Declaration of Independence, communities from Boston to Savannah were forced to make a choice: to strike out for an independent republic, or remain true to the British Crown. This study explores the origins, methods and combat record of the combatants on both sides. The American Revolutionary War was America's first civil war. As the conflict raged from Canada to the Caribbean and from India to Gibraltar, it was in American communities that the war was the most intimate, the most personal, and – accordingly – the most vicious. In 1775, the inhabitants of British America included those born in North America and newly arrived immigrants; the established landed aristocracy and the indigent; the diverse nations of the Native Americans; and people of African descent, both enslaved and free. The coming of war forced every person to make the choice of whether to side with the Patriots or remain loyal to the British Crown. With so many cross-cutting imperatives, the individual decisions made splintered communities, sometimes even households, turning neighbour against neighbour in an escalating spiral of ostracism, embargo, exile, raid, reprisal and counter-reprisal. Accordingly, the war on the frontiers and on the margins of conflict was as underhanded and ugly as any of the 21st century's insurgencies. In this study, the origins, fighting methods and combat effectiveness of the combatants fighting on both sides are assessed, notably in three significant clashes of the American Revolutionary War.