I had a small stone bear carving I found as a child, maybe 45 years  
ago, and have cherished all my life. I've probably only let 10 or 12  
people see it. I just didn't want silly people acting silly over it;  
to me, it was a very special thing. Since I have cancer, and one  
never knows what tomorrow might bring, I decided to return it to what  
was hopefully its proper place, so I did quite a bit of research and  
determined that it was from Monacan territory, and so should go back  
to them. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found out their tribal  
center is on Bear Mountain! I took that as a sign, and drove over a  
few years ago and met with a women there, to return it. We chatted, I  
felt very comfortable with her, in fact, we seemed to share a lot of  
perspectives, we discussed how profoundly an interaction with a wild  
creature can be, and how annoying it is when a bunch of white Yahoos  
[sorry] come barreling along and totally trash the moment, they just  
don't get it  [and at the time I did not know of my own native  
ancestry, it is just the way I have always been]. We both had stories  
to tell in that regard. It's the first time I have felt that kind of  
shared understanding with anyone. She gave me  tremendous hug [a bear  
hug?] before I left, and was going to show the bear to the woman who  
was head of their Bear Clan [they have 4 main clans]. When I first  
handed her the box and she opened it, her face just lit up, I'll  
never forget it. It was beautiful to see. So I know it has a good  
home now. But she was talking about that, how the government will  
want a cataloguing of everything they have there. Insulting, IMO.

If I hadn't found a good home for the little bear, I was going to  
take it to some remote location and bury it, rather than let silly  
people do silly things with it. Now the Monacans can do whatever they  
want with it, it's theirs, I know they will respect it.

Nancy

-------
Believe those who seek the truth;
Doubt those who find it.

-Andre Gide



On Mar 3, 2007, at 10:49 AM, Coats Family History wrote:

> Most tribes don't object to your learning about them....:)  Federal
> Recognition is hard to acquire but once gotten then they have to have
> the BIA's permission to do anything....:)  and the BIA rules with an
> iron thumb so to speak as to somethings and as to others just ignores
> them...
>
> Then there are the Individual Indian Trust Accounts the BIA was
> suppose to be keeping track of, without an accounting for about the
> last 200 years...well, records are lost etc...so as a trustee the BIA
> has failed the Tribes miserably...
>
>
>

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