Thought about my Grandpa today.

[moodnacreek]

Raider, your from O&W country, Me too.

[Raider Bill]

Bill, that's very interesting. I knew those towns were still out there. My ancestors were under pressure to move, they all resettled in Wisconsin where there are still Stockbridge-Munsee and Oneida reservations. The Brothertown were kind of a model tribe for the government assimilation program. They were given a reservation in Wisconsin as well, but they were soon under pressure to give up that land as well. They thought if they became Citizens, perhaps they would have more right so they got U.S. citizenship in 1837 I think? Each head of household got a homestead and title to it. Basically the Allotment Act but about 70 years early. Over time the farms got sold, and Brothertown intermarried with white folk. I don't remember what presidential administration it was, but sometime in the first half of the 1900's there was a big push to no longer deal with tribes as seperate entities. During that time the Brothertown were stripped of their tribal status, among many other tribes. Nearly all of the other ones had their tribal status restored over the years. But the Brothertown ran into a roadblock- because they were given U.S. citizenship through an act of Congress, the long and short of it is that it will take an act of Congress to restore their tribal status. All this to say, all of these things have led to the current generation of Brothertown looking, well, like myself, you wouldn't realize they were Native unless they told you. The Brothertown reunion held every summer looks pretty much like a Forestry Forum Pigroast but a few folks are wearing feathers😁

Interesting enough I believe we're talking about two different Oneidas and two different stockbridges.
 I'm talking about the original Oneida in NY  where the Oneidas and the Iroquois  nation originated.
Maple flats, can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that after the Oneidas and the Iroquois Nation sided with the British during the Revolutionary War when it came to the War of 1812 the Americans or Washington or whoever was in charge at the time did not want to fight the Iroquois Nation again because they were such a fierce fighting unit that they gave them tens of thousands of acres in central New York state area.  The geographic center of New York state it's a really  big area.
They wrote a treaty giving the land if they remained neutral. Which the Oneidas did. 
I believe was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court where it was upheld that the Oneida Indian land was a sovereign nation.
I remember when I was in school learning about some kind of split in New York and how some went to Michigan and Wisconsin and started new clans of Oneidas. 

[farmfromkansas]

I was 7 or 8 when Grandpa died, he had cancer.  Remember him coming over to help my dad with work, one time we went to look at the cows, and Grandpa stood there holding the hot wire.  I did not try it. One thing that really blew my mind was when he walked into the house, and picked up a harmonica that I would blow, but not really make music, but Grandpa shook it out, and played a tune I did not know, but seemed like an orchestra playing.  He could really make a harmonica sing.

[barbender]

Bill, it's the same Oneidas, there may be more than one town of Stockbridge as they were originally in Stockbridge, MA. They moved to the Oneida New York lands at the urging of Samson Occum, who had worked with them and the Oneidas both. 
  The Oneida either stayed neutral or even fought on the American side in the Revolutionary War, to my understanding. They paid a heavy price since all the other Iroquois sided with the British and their land was in the middle of the fighting. 
  All these tribes I've mentioned were what were known back then as "Praying Indians", they were people that had converted to Christianity and basically lived as the surrounding European culture. They built comparable towns with a church, blacksmith shop, etc. Due to that, my Grandpa's family was I guess you could call it "culturally assimilated". Best way I can describe what that means is my Dad got picked on in school by other natives, they called him "apple"- red on the outside white on the inside. We never completely fit in with the Natives here (Ojibwe) even though my Dad is 1/4 Ojibwe and a Leech Lake Band member. Me, I have ancestry from so many tribes but not much of any- no one really wants to claim me and I just look like a big white guy anyways😁 I just miss when I used to be able to get Reservation deer licenses before they cut me off on that too🤷🏽‍♂️

[WV Sawmiller]

Texas Ranger,

   I posted some tales about my paternal grandfather whose grandmother was a Seminole Indian but he always hated Indians because during the second Seminole Indian wars his grandpa was off fighting the Indians and a  bunch raided and raped and scalped his grandmother. She survived the attack but Grandpa never wanted to admit he was 1/4 Seminole.

[Ed_K]

 I pressed the like button on a lot of y'all's remembering stories. My home life is better not remembered, but there was two mentors in my life that mean a lot to me. One lived across the brook from the town farm I lived at, he had a chicken farm were he raised capons. Him and his wife let me help out some that a small young kid could do and even took me an another girl boating some times. I learned how to make maple syrup from them. My other mentor rented the land at the town farm and that's how I met Rita, he was a mentor, father and father in law. In reality Rita and I have been together since I was 8 yrs old. I lived a lot of my younger yrs at her farm, mother sent me to them every summer. I'm so glad to have Rita with me still.