My sister had her DNA done ($99), and there wasn't near enough Norwegian. She started checking with cousins, and my Aunt Helen had figured out the Sami connection.
Which makes perfect sense to me: my "Aunt" Hannah, who was a missionary to China, always looked Mongolian to me. She wasn't really an Aunt, but a cousin. Name of Wang, lol!
The Lapplanders preexisted the Norwegians, Swedes, Finns and Russians by ten thousand years or so. But like pretty much everywhere else Christians met up with aboriginal peoples, they began to persecute them. Canada is dealing with the nightmare residue of their residential schools (removing children from their parents and sent to Christian schools to erase their heritage) -- the Sami's overlappers did the same. . . . Sometimes into the middle of the last century.
A few years ago when I was in Canada, my friend Clive, who is Six Nations, took me to the residential school in Brantford. Out behind the kitchen wing was a brick wall where the children had carved their names. The only other place I've ever been that *hurt* that much was Ground Zero. . . .
Add this to last year's discovery of my Iroquois roots, and have to say I'm glad I lived long enough to identify my connection with two different indigenous peoples.
Howard's da boi, this fine spring day!!
ReplyDeletePuddle, re your last comment on the last thread: How interesting! How was this discovered?
ReplyDeleteMy sister had her DNA done ($99), and there wasn't near enough Norwegian. She started checking with cousins, and my Aunt Helen had figured out the Sami connection.
ReplyDeleteWhich makes perfect sense to me: my "Aunt" Hannah, who was a missionary to China, always looked Mongolian to me. She wasn't really an Aunt, but a cousin. Name of Wang, lol!
The Lapplanders preexisted the Norwegians, Swedes, Finns and Russians by ten thousand years or so. But like pretty much everywhere else Christians met up with aboriginal peoples, they began to persecute them. Canada is dealing with the nightmare residue of their residential schools (removing children from their parents and sent to Christian schools to erase their heritage) -- the Sami's overlappers did the same. . . . Sometimes into the middle of the last century.
A few years ago when I was in Canada, my friend Clive, who is Six Nations, took me to the residential school in Brantford. Out behind the kitchen wing was a brick wall where the children had carved their names. The only other place I've ever been that *hurt* that much was Ground Zero. . . .
Add this to last year's discovery of my Iroquois roots, and have to say I'm glad I lived long enough to identify my connection with two different indigenous peoples.
That's very exciting, Puddle!
DeleteSomehow I'm not terribly surprised to hear you are indigenous, puddle. You have a lot of earthy wisdom.
ReplyDeleteI have a bit of Cherokee in me, along with the Irish and Scottish. I guess that's what makes me a houligan. ;-)