When I go places, I like to seek out the Native Americans. As I was growing up and as my children grew up, many people who do not know what Native Americans look like told us that we had no Native American Ancestry in us. But my ancestors told me that we do.
To me, this just goes to show that most people do not know what a Native American looks like. They look at things like DNA to justify their prejudices. They see old westerns on TV and think that these Italians dressed up in Indian clothing with war paint is the real thing.
They go to several UFO Conferences all over the country. They are members of the Mohawk tribe now living in settlements spread throughout New York State and southeastern Canada. The father of Marsha and her sister is from Canada. These people were the trustees of Niagara Falls for thousands of years, before the Europeans came to North America in large numbers. The Mohawk Nation still exist in Canada and New York State.
The idea of having a Federal Government with individual states came from the Long House. The Mohawk Nation was one of the six nations making up the federation or Long House.
Most people believe that the Mohawks, like some indigenous tribes in the Great Lakes region, sometimes wore their hair cut off except for a narrow strip down the middle of the scalp from the forehead to the nape, that was approximately three finger widths across. However, the idea that Mohawks had "Mohawk hairstyles" is incorrect, and came from Hollywood movies, particularly Drums Along the Mohawk. The true hairstyle of the Mohawk, including the entire Six Nations (see the Long House), was to remove the hair from the head by plucking (not shaving) tuft by tuft of hair until all that was left was a square of hair on the back crown of the head. The remaining hair was shortened so that three short braids of hair were created and those braids were highly decorated. This is the true "Mohawk" hairstyle and not the Hollywood version taken from the Pawnee.
The women wore their hair long, often with traditional bear grease, or tied back into a single braid. They often wore no covering or hat on their heads, even in winter. Marsha wears her hair in the traditional Mohawk fashion.
You can see the resemblance with my friend from a Native American Nation in Northern New Mexico. This picture was taken in late fall of 2012.
If you notice, we all seem to have brown skin. But not all Native Americans are as dark as I am. Marsha's sister is light skin while my New Mexico friend is a shade darker than I am.
If you listen to Marsha talk, you can tell she is a Native American. Her sister and my New Mexico friend sounds very much like me.
Native Americans had several different ways of decorating their hair and women would use feathers, shells and other objects they could find. Bear grease was used to make their hair shine. Men also used feathers and other items to decorate their hair.
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