Saturday, October 11, 2008

Native American Heritage

I knew my great grandmother when she was in her mid '90's and I was a teenager. Our families had been separated for years as she lived in Pennsylvania, and after all the years apart wanted to spend time with us down in the south. She'd grown up in the Dothan AL area near Webb and Pansey. Of course, Gram had LOTS of stories that astounded me and my younger brothers. She said she was 1/4 Choctaw which was amazing to me as I'd always had a special love for southeastern Native American people and culture. I haven't really found much in the family tree that substantiates that though I did meet a women from the tribe in Philadelphia, MS at Lake Junaluska a number of years ago that shared the family name.

I'm also fortunate that the United Methodist Church has a lengthy heritage of ministry with Native Americans. See the following link for a slide show:

http://master.media.umcom.org/umns/20080820%5Fmoccasins/

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