Sunday, July 04, 2004

Howe Family

ORATIO HOWE FAMILY
submitted by Dwight Howe, Grandson of Oliver Howe

Name and birth date
Oratio (father) Howe Vermont * 2-13-1800
Polly (mother) Varga Pennsylvania 10-27-1806
*was told by my father Copenhagen Denmark was Oratio Howe’s birthplace, came to America as a stowaway when he was real young maybe 12 yrs old..

seven children of Oratio and Polly
Hiram F. Howe Pennsylvania 6-8-1831
Edward P. Howe Pennsylvania 7-30-1833
George W. Howe Pennsylvania 10-15-1835
Uriah Howe Pennsylvania 7-8-18836
Hannah Howe Pennsylvania 6-20-1841
Charles Howe Pennsylvania 10-1-1843
Francis Howe Pennsylvania 10-30-1845

George W. Howe Pennsylvania 10-15-1835
Lucille LeClair Nebraska 5-18-1845
twelve children of George and Lucille

Elizabeth Frazier Nebraska 11-9-1866
Alice Frazier Nebraska 3-26-1868
Hannah H. Frazier Nebraska 3-22-1869
Edward Howe Nebraska 1-27-1872
Alice Howe Nebraska 1-26-1874
Arnold Howe Nebraska 10-23-1875
Ida May Howe Nebraska 12-15-1877
Benjamin Howe Nebraska 4-21-1879
Oliver Howe Nebraska 7-19-1881
George W. Howe, Jr. Nebraska 4-16-1883
John Joseph Howe Nebraska 11-1-1885
Rebecca Ducker Nebraska 4-8-1887

MaryAnn Papin Frazier---Albert Frazier’s first wife 4-16-1864

Mary Ann was the daughter of Lucille LeClair Pappan whose mother was Ponca Indian Shots through the Breast, whose mother was White Woman, who was a captive as a young girl who ran away to back to the Ponca’s. At the time she was wearing a beautiful buckskin thus being named white woman. She returned back to the tribe at the same time as her father a chief was dying. The Poncas looked at that as being significant, I was told she was to become a Warrior Woman and held a leadership position among the Ponca.

Note: George Washington Howe born in 1835 in Vermont or Penn.. The 1880 Dakota Census (age 45) notes the Howes living at Running Water, Dakota Territory, that George was 43 and his occupation was farmer, and that he was born in Pennsylvania. George operated a trading post at Running Water on what is now the South Dakota side of the Missouri River. Later the Howes moved to the Nebraska side where George helped found the town of Niobrara. George was a young man who came to Nebr. Territory in 1852 on a surveying crew, married & lived among and fought along side of the Ponca, given an Indian name of Thum Bay Ska, Scar Hand. I was told he brought the first repeating rifles to the Ponca chiefs after killing two Sioux.

eight children of Oliver and Mattie Howe
Amelia Howe
Wiley John Howe
Male baby died at birth
Earl Sanford Howe
Blanche Marie Howe
Oliver Howe Jr.
Eugene Howe

Note: My Grandfather was Oliver Howe he died before I was born. He was a enrolled Northern Ponca from Niobrara Nebraska who later moved down to Oklahoma. I was told by my father Eugene Howe that he served in WW I and married my Grandmother Mattie Headman Howe. He courted her in the Ponca traditional way with gifts and a chaperone, he gave Matties father a horse and buggy as well. Since Headman was a Clan Chief, he gavehis daughter away in marriage with all the ceremonial rites and they were married for life. Oliver made his living as a farmer was known as an early riser who loved to hunt and fish and had a pleasant nature, he liked to tease and joke. Every year he would plant a huge garden and made and sold homebrew as well.

La Flesche Family


Margarite La Flesche’s father was Frank La Flesche, his father was Cary LaFlesche, his father was Joseph La Fleshe, Jr., or Iron Eyes his father was Joseph La Fleshe (1822-1889) who was a french fur trader from Canada. Joseph La Flesche Jr or (IstaMaza - Iron Eyes), who was the last hereditary Chief of the UMONHON (Omaha) under the age-old rites and rituals, was the adopted son of Big Elk who gave him that right as Chief of the Omaha's. Cary’s sister was Dr. Susan La Fleshe who was the first Indian woman to become a physican, another sister Suzette LaFleshe (Bright Eyes) served as an interpreter and teacher for the Omaha, she wrote several books that were published as well.. Cary's older brother was Dr. Francis LaFleshe was educated in the East who later wrote several books, one book was the 27th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1905, another was called the "Middle Five" life at a mission boarding school. The Omaha never waged war against the U.S., Iron Eyes was considered a progressive by many in the tribe. As Chief of the Omahas Iron Eyes wanted them to adopt the ways of the white man and encouraged them to educate their children in the dominant society's ways sending his own kids to schools in the east. He was quoted as saying "I have been to where the white man lives and at night the lights where they live, they are as many as the stars in the sky. They are coming this way like a flood and there is no stopping it. We must learn and adapt if we are to survive as a people." One of the most notable things he accomplished while he was the Omaha chief was that he banned the use and trading of any and all alcohol, for several decades this law was obeyed and anyone who violated it was whipped.
Note: My mother is Margarite La Flesche she is the Great Grand Daughter of Iron Eyes a Chief of the Omaha's. She had two other children that I know of, I am the youngest My sister is Christine Springer who married Frank Sansoci over twenty years ago they have one daughter Teresa Sonsoci she has two daughters. My older brothers name is Leland La Flesche, he was a Springer as well but took his mothers last name Both of them were raised by their grandmothers as well.

Headman Family

Eugene Howe, youngest son of Mattie Headman Howe, daughter of HeadMan, a heriditary Chief of the Poncas, son of We'ga sapi. His father was Tai ke waho. Mattie was one of five children of Headman, he had a son Kenneth, four daughters Lula, Mattie, Agnes & Nellie. Although Mattie was a daughter of a chief she was very conservative in her social standing, even thou she had certain rights within the tribe. She did not take an active part in the tribal social dances and was considered shy. When her son Earl Howe came home from the navy after WWII, the tribe honored him at a pow-wow, her younger sister danced by his side for her. She was very quite yet was the leader of the family for many years, holding a monthly gathering at her house for all her relatives. She married Oliver Howe a Northen Ponca observing the Ponca traditions of courting and gifting the brides parents. When they were married it was for life, even after his death for over twenty years, she never remarried. She gave birth to seven children, two died as infants while raising four boys and one girl in a small two room house on the Ponca Indian Reservation in Oklahoma. She helped raise several of her grandchildren as well, Dwight being the last one, in fact she was his legal guardian. Mattie Headman Howe died in 1968.

Lewis & Clark

Dwight will be at Kaw Point in Kansas City from Monday, June 28-30 delivering a presentation along with his brother, Pierre Merrick, on the Ponca and Omaha Culture, a sometimes forgotten aspect of the Lewis & Clark legacy. The focus of their presentations relates the history of the Ponca and Omaha and their place in today's society.

Kansas City Star - American Indian voices will be heard

By BRIAN BURNES The Kansas City Star

There's more than one side to the Lewis and Clark story.

With that in mind, the Kansas City bicentennial expedition commemoration, which begins Saturday morning with an opening ceremony at Berkley Riverfront Park, will include members of at least eight regional American Indian tribes who will participate in a Native American flag processional.

Leaders of the Kaw and Osage tribes, both of which once included the Kansas City area within their historic homelands, will speak.

Among those invited to attend are the governors of Missouri and Kansas.

Forums like this do not come along often for American Indian tribes, said Amy Mossett, a Mandan-Hidatsa tribal historian from North Dakota who is a member of the Circle of Tribal Advisors, an advisory board to the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.

“For the tribes, this is a brief window of opportunity,” said Mossett, who has traveled the country advising tribes on the bicentennial. “I have asked the tribe members that if they have perhaps five days during this three-year commemoration, what would be their most important message?”

The “Journey Fourth” commemoration this weekend is the sixth “signature,” or sanctioned, Lewis and Clark bicentennial event, and many tribes so far have participated, Mossett said.

“The basic message presented so far is, ‘We are still here; we have survived everything; and our cultures are still intact,' ” she said.

Inclusivity amid assimilation

On Saturday in Berkley Riverfront Park, American Indian artisans will be present in the Native American Arts and Crafts Tent. Cultural presentations will be delivered by American Indian tribal representatives in the Tent of Many Voices, the portable auditorium operated by the National Park Service that will be stationed at Kaw Point, in Kansas City, Kan., through Sunday.

Behind this pageantry and cultural instruction lies a shared desire on two parties. First, there is the wish of organizers of “Heart of America: A Journey Fourth” to be inclusive. For years they have been careful to describe the events in Kansas City, Leavenworth and Atchison not as a celebration of the expedition but a commemoration.

But there was also the wish of American Indian tribes who perceived the bicentennial as a historic chance to tell their stories — not only to the rest of America but to their own younger members, as well.

“This is offering an opportunity to educate our young people in tribal history,” said Betty Durkee, historic preservation director for the Kaw tribe, today based in northern Oklahoma. “Because tribes were moved and members assimilated over 150 years, much of the culture has been lost.”

“We need to make way for our children,” added Dwight Howe, an Omaha and Ponca from South Dakota who was delivering cultural presentations this week in the Tent of Many Voices. “They need to know what happened from a Native American perspective.”

American Indian involvement is wired into the commemoration financing. Each “signature” event receives money from the National Park Service, and one of the criteria for the grants is significant American Indian involvement.

Still, executing such involvement has proved complicated on occasion.

Last autumn, leaders of Shawnee groups in Oklahoma announced they were not attending a “signature” event in Louisville, Ky., in part because of a misunderstanding over why a separate Shawnee group in Ohio had been invited long before.

Ultimately Shawnee representatives from both states attended.

In St. Charles, Mo., in May, another protocol issue surfaced. Among the various historical re-enactors on site in the city's Frontier Park were several who were not American Indians but were nevertheless portraying them.

These re-enactors were careful to explain they were portraying white men who had been abducted long before and had been reared according to Indian tribal culture.

Still, their presence concerned Leonard Maker, an Osage elder who was presenting programs nearby in the Tent of Many Voices.

“That's an issue with us,” Maker said. “Why can't we tell our own story?”

One of the same re-enactors also interacted with members of the Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, the official Lewis and Clark bicentennial re-enactors, during a mock court-martial proceeding. Larry McClain, the expedition's executive director, said that the interaction had not been planned and that the expedition works hard to respect the wishes of the Circle of Tribal Advisors, which has developed a list of protocol guidelines.

“That wasn't a scripted or scheduled thing,” McClain said. “We are very careful about that. There are a lot of people out there who are into Native American history, culture and spirituality. While that is wonderful, you will find people who will take it to extremes and who want to portray themselves as Native Americans.

“And you either are or you are not.”

Helping handbook

Such issues are not restricted to re-enactors. Chris Howell, a Pawnee who is chairman of the Native American subcommittee of the Kansas Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission, often receives requests for guidance from teachers considering theatrical plays or pageants featuring American Indian characters.

Howell always advises against non-American Indians portraying American Indians.

“If they have a native child who would like to do that, that is one thing, as long as the dialogue isn't demeaning,” Howell said. “But the particular issue of having one ethnic group portray another is really something we need to rethink. That just does not go over very well with many tribal folks.”

It is such issues that helped convince Howell and others to produce a “Native American Resource Handbook.” Part of state grant funds received by the Kansas bicentennial commission was dedicated to its production. State officials took about 1,500 copies to the first Lewis and Clark “signature” event, in Virginia, in 2003.

“We made a real splash with that,” Howell said.

The success of the handbook convinced Howell and others to expand it, sell advertising and order a press run of 38,000. Today the free handbook includes histories of those tribes either in residence in Kansas or those who had significant histories in the state.



Thursday, July 01, 2004

Berkley Park Kansas

July 3rd & 4th Dwight & Pierre will have cultural demonstrations all day as part of the Lewis & Clark Event in Kansas City.

Leavenworth Kansas

July 2, 2004

Dwight Howe & Pierre Merrick will be part of a Flag Presentation Cermony at Landing Park in Leavenworth Kansas. They will be singing the Omaha Flag Song and a Veterans Honor Song.

A Personal Perspective on the Lewis & Clark Journey 2004

For the past four years I have been involved with the legacy of Lewis & Clark. I have been participating with two Lewis & Clark State Parks, one in Onawa, Iowa and the other in Ponca, Nebraska. I have been advising them because of either the visible lack of Native American Indian involvement or obvious lack of cultural sensativity.

In Onawa, Iowa they have a Lewis & Clark Festival, I believe it is their 11th annual. Although the crews at Onawa mean well, they continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes in regards to the Native American Indian. The Omaha Tribe is the closest of four tribes in the Nebraska, unfortunately they have little or no involvement with the Park as a whole. We have tried to share our thoughts & concerns with very little impact. The park says it is because of lack of financial resources, thats why they have such a poor portrayal of the American Indian. During their fesitval year after year they make every effort to be historically correct when it comes to Lewis & Clark right down to the hat and shoes.  On the other hand when portraying the Native American Indian, little effort is made to have them involved.  The involvement that is Indian is generic and stereotipical, some women wear buckskins and broadcloth dresses wearing war paint and feathers.  Vendors exploit the crafts, even food vendors get into the act, all at the expense of the Native American Indian.  It is no wonder why most local indians do not get involved with them. The real irony is that this park could be highlighting and promoting the fact that two of the Corps of Discovery members on Lewis & Clarks crew were half Omaha Indian, Pierre Cruzatte and Fancois Labiche.

There is very little involvement in Ponca, Nebraska even thou there are two tribes close by, the Santee Sioux and the Northern Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.  When they did get monies they purchased artifacts with no counsel, one of the things they purchased was a Peace Pipe.... This is probably one of the last things they should of had on their inventory if they at all.  The Pipe to tribes of the plains is sacred and is full of tradition, ceremony and is a religion unto itself.  It can be a way of life for those who believe in it.  It is something very intimate, personal, spiritual and profound.  It is something that is hard to explain and should be displayed with the deepest respect if displayed at all.   

The next thing was a leather War Shirt another tourist favorite; unfortunately it perpetuates negative stereotypes that all Indians waged war and that they are all violent, barbaric and cruel in nature.  These sort of statements have a duel effect both for the general public and the young Indian as well.  It sends a negative image for the youth with Native American Indian heritage.  It can confuse our youth to think that we are violent and cruel when in fact true native cultures are based on prayer, compassion, humilty, sincerity and generosity. 

Part of the problem I believe it is the park's inability to effectively communicate with these tribes either on a one on one basis and/or government to government, conversely the tribes themselves have failed to see the importance of postive public relationships. The parks lack knowledge of our culture; lack the fundamental understanding of our values, beliefs and/or traditions. The parks have been reluctant to create close relationships primarily because of pre-conceived ideals they have about Indians in general. Funding for projects have been limited but when obtained not used as effectively as they could be. Festivals that allow negative steroetypes create year after year a wall of resentment and suspicion from the local tribes.  Tribes look at the Park Service as one group representing Lewis & Clark legacy, failing to realize that the States and Federal Park projects are funded differently and all have their own plan of operation and  separate agendas/goals. To make matters worse most of the small town parks are in great need of economic development  "Tourism" and unfortunately care little about the message they send in regards to the native peoples of the area both historically and/or contemporarily.

I point these things out, urging different organizations to take the time to gain an understanding of the spirituality and diversity of Native American Indian people. The Native American Indian is complex yet compassionate, humble, generous and resilient in nature. I always try to convey a sense of who we are as a people both in a historical perspective and in the contempory settings today. The more we understand about each other from both sides, the Indian and non-Indian, hopefully the more tolerance we will have for each other while making a better life for the future generations.

The Lewis & Clark Tent of Many Voices a project of the National Park Service has it hands full. As they go upstream and retrace the trek, they want to hear the Indians story from the Indian perspective, they want Indian involvement and they are trying their best to be culturally sensative and respectful to the Tribes and/or Tribal members.  It is just that there has been years of exclusion, explotation, insensativity and obvious contempt in some cases.  For the native people to really get involved it will take prayer, perserverance, honesty and tolerance.  As Indians and non-Indians we need to co-exist, history cannot be changed, but we do have a say in regards to the future. Together we can make a difference and in time that too will become a part of history.