Hall of Elders
Del Logan, Onondaga
Adelphena Logan, longtime friend, mentor, and patron of the Institute for American Indian Studies, was an extraordinarily accomplished elder of the Onondaga tribe. Born in June of 1912, she was a direct descendent of Tal-ga-yee-ta (Logan), a celebrated Mingo Chief of the Cayuga Iroquois and a member of the Eel Clan. Adelphena attended Alfred, Syracuse, and Columbia Universities. Post-graduation, she was the Director of Arts and Crafts at the Syracuse Parks and Recreation for thirty years. She also held the positions of Assistant Indian Planning Director at the Cayuga Iroquois Country Museum and Assistant Director of the Owasco Restored Indian Village and Museum in Auburn, New York. Throughout her professional career, she was a part-time instructor at the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences. She was also a consultant to the Smithsonian’s Board of Indian Arts and Crafts, Auburn Community College, and the Syracuse Folk Arts of the Cultural Resources Council, both of which focused on Iroquois arts, history, and lore. She was an adamant supporter and friend of Edmond (Ned) Swigart, the co-founder of the American Indian Archaeological Institute, now IAIS. Del created many items for museum programs in addition to donating many of her and her family’s personal cultural items. After her death, the Institute for American Indian Studies published a transcript of her stories, Memories of Sweet Grass. Logan passed away in July of 1978.
Trudie Lamb Richmond, Schaghticoke
Schaghticoke
Trudie Lamb Richmond, an elder of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, is a Native American activist, author, educator, cultural leader, master storyteller, and former Chairwoman of her tribe. She attended Long Island University as an undergraduate, earned a master’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut, and a second master’s degree from Bank Street College of Education. Trudie was co-founder of the American Indians for Development in 1974 and worked as the A.I.D.’s assistant director until she accepted the position of Director of Education and Public Programs at the Institute for American Indian Studies in 1988.. In 1996, she was made Director of Public Programming at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. She held that position until her retirement in 2012; she is still a volunteer at the museum. Throughout her career, she served on the Connecticut Indian Affairs Council and the Native American Heritage Advisory Council (of which she is still a member), and has given multiple traditional performances and educational seminars in Connecticut. She is deeply concerned with the elimination of Native stereotypes in popular culture and public misconceptions of Native lives. Trudie was also a member of IAIS Native American Advisory Committee, served on IAIS’ Board of Trustees and continues today to share her knowledge and spirit through programming and IAIS.
Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Mohegan Medicine Woman
Mohegan Medicine Woman
Mohegan scholar and medicine woman, Gladys Tantaquidgeon was born in 1899 on Mohegan Hill in Uncasville. She is a 9th generation ancestor of the famed Chief Uncas who was depicted in the book and movie, Last of the Mohicans. At age five, she began her medicinal training with her maternal aunt Emma Baker, a traditional herbal healer. With her and two other women elders, Gladys learned the intricacies of Mohegan culture and history, including tribal cosmology and sacred stories, such as those about the makiawisug, or “little people”, who guard healing plants. Even though she never received her high school diploma, her eagerness to learn earned her the privilege of studying anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania with the help of her friend and mentor, anthropologist Dr. Frank Speck. After leaving college, she conducted fieldwork on New England Indian reservations. Later, she was offered a job as a social worker in Rapid City, South Dakota, where she worked until 1938. From then until 1947 she worked to promote the newly formed Federal Indians Arts and Crafts Boar. Gladys then returned to Connecticut, where she worked with her family to help form the Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum. She was also member of the Institute for American Indian Studies’ Native American Advisory Committee. When she was 93 years old, she became an official medicine woman. Throughout her life, she authored countless scholarly articles and a book, Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians. Gladys passed away in November of 2005 at the age of 106 years old.
Nanepashemet (Anthony Pollard), Pawtucket Massachusetts-Wampanoag
Born in 1953, “Tony” graduated from Southern Massachusetts University and began working as an interpreter at the Plymouth Plantation, facilitating conversation in their Native American Studies Program. Since childhood, he had a desire to fully understand his people’s history and culture. As he learned about and experienced his past, he adopted the name Nanepashemet, the name of a great Sachem of the Indian Confederacy of Massachusetts. He eventually was offered the position of Curator at the Plymouth Plantation museum. Considered a scholarly colleague and friend by staff members at the Institute for American Indian Studies, Nanepashement instructed IAIS visitors on Algonkian material culture and created many of the deer skin clothing replications at our museum before his death in 1995. Tony Pollard’s enthusiasm was infectious and he left a strong legacy with is people and the Native community.
Chief Big Eagle (Aurelius Piper), Golden Hill Paugussett
Chief Big Eagle was the traditional hereditary chief of the Golden Hill Tribe of the Paugussett Indian Nation. Proud of his indigenous heritage, Big Eagle dedicated a large portion of his life to the preservation and teaching of Native American history and cultural traditions. He was a master beadworker, creating beautifully beaded belts and other objects. He was the founder of the White Buffalo Society, a federally registered non-profit Native American inter-tribal organization that strives to retain a heritage passed down from the elders. Throughout his life he served on the Minority Advisory Council of the Department of Aging, and volunteered at the Bridgeport Connecticut elementary schools where he not only founded an Indian Education program, but served as a consultant and instructor. He also founded, in 1983, the “Native American Prison Project” at Somers Prison which allowed Native American inmates to be allowed access to traditional services such as smudging and sweatlodges. Chief Big Eagle continued the Paugussett’s unrelenting struggle to preserve their quarter-acre reservation in Trumbull. His picture hangs in the Connecticut State Capitol building in honor of his work with the American Indians for Development. A World War II Veteran of both the US Navy and US Army, he traveled extensively as an activist for Native American and minority rights. Chief Big Eagle also acted as the foreign correspondent for the Eastern North America tribes to the De Kiva Journal, a group based in Belgium and the Netherlands, which takes Indian rights cases before the International Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland speaking at the United Nations. He passed away in August of 2008 at the age of 93.
Slow Turtle, Mashpee Wampanoag
The Supreme Medicine Man of the Wampanoag Nation, Slow Turtle had spent a large part of his life providing spiritual guidance for his people but also participated in governmental issues within the general Native American community. He was the first Executive Director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, responsible as the liaison between the Massachusetts legislature and the state’s four tribes. He also played an instrumental role in the passage of state legislation that became the model for the federal Native American Graves Repatriation Act. For the past several years, he was a spiritual teacher at North Central Correctional Institution’s Native American Spiritual Awareness Council in Massachusetts. Slow Turtle was a leader in creating the federal Native American Religious Freedom Act of 1978, and also the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, which requires that all orphaned Native American children and those taken from their homes be placed in American Indian homes that keep them in touch with their culture. Slow Turtle passed away in October of 1997 at the age of 67.
Chief War Hawk (Harry K. Williams), Shinnecock
After spending three years in the United States Army in World War II, the Shinnecock elders urged Williams to become involved in the tribal government. Representing the Shinnecock Tribe at the local, state, and federal level, Williams’ political career came to a climax when he brought a case regarding the protection of his reservation lands to the United States Supreme Court. He is the second-longest serving Trustee of the Shinnecock Tribe, elected 27 times between 1946 and 1979. Chief War Hawk served as the Ceremonial Chief for the Shinnecock Indian pow-wow for many years.
Chief Strong Horse (Kenneth Smith), Narragansett
Kenneth Smith, or Chief Strong Horse, grew up in an environment of hunting, fishing and swimming on the Narragansett reservation. As the Tribal Chairman of the Narragansett Tribal Council, he tried to facilitate a better relationship between the state and federal governments and his people. Always optimistic, Chief Strong Horse believes that the tribe must stay positive about their future government interactions. He has also served as master of ceremonies for many years at the Narragansett Tribe’s Great Swamp gathering and annual August Meeting. He has said that his primary mission is to continue the Narragansett relationship with the Great Spirit and the lands of the reservation.
Theresa (Plouffe) Hayward, Mashantucket Pequot
The daughter of Arthur and Elizabeth Plouffe, Theresa was one of the most widely known and respected of the Mashantucket Pequot elders. Born in Norwich, she spent her whole life on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation serving on various leadership committees. These included being the chairwoman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, being a member of the Pequot Historical & Cultural Committee, and participating in the tribe’s gaming commission. When she passed away in 1996 at age 67 from a long-term illness, she had 18 grandchildren and 8 great grand-children.
Red Thunder Cloud, Catawba
Catawba ethnobotanist Red Thunder Cloud was the last living speaker of the Catawba language and with his death in 1996 came the death of the language. He made several recordings to pass the language on to future generations. Though many question if Red Thunder Cloud was a native speaker of Catawba, he was widely accepted as a scholar of Native American linguistics. Personally, he was very close with leaders from a number of tribes, including those from Schaghticoke, Mohegan, Shinnecock, and Montauk, in addition to the Catawba. Known as ‘Tez’ to friends and family, he worked extensively at IAIS, preparing traditional programming and supporting the museum in all of its endeavors.
Chief Hockeo (Roy Sebastian), Eastern Pequot
Known as Chief Hockeo, Running Deer, and Roy Sebastian, Chief Hockeo’s name was passed down from his great-grandfather, to his grandfather, to his father, and finally, to him. The former Tribal Chairman of the Eastern Pequot tribe, he fought for Eastern Pequot recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a long period of time. He is remembered by all who knew him as a well respected elder who constantly fought for his people’s land and spirit.
“We have to […] be a loving people even though you have done me wrong, I have to love you because the Great Spirit says I should love my brothers and sisters. […] Let’s do it together. […] We’ve got to do it together. We’ve got to support each other, help each other, for better of all. We’re proud to be Native Americans.”
Ken Mynter, Mohican Historian
Stockbridge Mahican Ken Mynter’s goal was to establish and foster a constant trail of communication about Native lifeways in the Northeast. At the Institute for American Indian Studies, he had taught children’s workshops, lectured, demonstrated woodworking and the construction of a gustoweh.
Roy Blackbear (Roy Black), Mohawk
A well respected speaker in the powwow circuit even before Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, Roy Blackbear was always called upon to speak at cultural events. According to his friends, Roy Blackbear “lived tradition” even though he was not enrolled in any specific Native tribe. He was also a very well-known silversmith and made all of the items that Institute for American Indian Studies has presented to veterans since the late 1990s. Moreover, Roy himself was honored in 1997.
Tall Oak Weeden, Wampanoag-Narragansett
