Mood:  bright

This is primarily a site for Southerners who have been pushed aside in the media and in the eyes of the public.  Virginia Indians, as the white woman told me, are not subject to the ailments that Indians "out West" have.  I marched straight over to the table where two Pamunkey women were standing and told them what the woman had said to me. "Our Indians", she had said--  don't have the problems with diabetes and alcoholism as the other Native American Indian people have problems with. I knew better, I just wanted to hear what the "official" Indians had to say about it and to let them know what their white woman had said.  My brother drank  and couldn't handle it, I had a son who was learning to like alcohol too much.  I knew I coudn't drink, so didn't.  I could smell the bottle being opened in the next room and get high, I would tell my friends.  The two Pamunkey women looked at each other  and one said, " my brother is a diabetic", and the other one said ," mine, too".

The above incident occured at the first Jamestown Indian ? I guess , Anniversary .  They didn't call it a Pow Wow, because their white keepers didn't think they were Indian enough, and they didn't think so, either.  The "real" Indians were wondering when they were going to grow some balls and stand up for themselves.  They are still working on it.  I  met many people, Cree, others who were there.  It was a start.  I haven't gone back.  My son wore a T shirt, red, black and green with a map of Africa on it. . He was handsome in it.