On July 16th, 1994, myself and others from Swanton, Vermont's "Abenaki" drove to Littleton, N.H. and into Remick Park above the Town's main street, where Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Cruger had organized a first time Pow-wow event for the Town.
A year before, Joseph Bruchac, author, published a book entitled "Fox Song" copyrighted in 1993. It was a book for children, about a character named Jamie and her Grama Bowman. The synopsis of the book goes like this. "Keep your eye's open," Jamie hears her Grama Bowman say. "The knowing of some things comes when your older." Whether Grama Bowman is showing Jamie how to peel birch bark in the spring sun to make baskets, or how to hunt for the winter tracks of Wokwses the Fox, or how to sing the Welcoming song of her Abenaki people, every moment they spend together opens Jamie to a new world. Then one morning Grama Bowman is gone. But Jamie's quiet walk in the woods tells her that her grama is still very near. Grama Bowman has left Jamie her world-- a place where Jamie will never be alone. Inspired by a story from his own family, Joseph Bruchac's first picture book is a tale of the intuitive understanding between the young and the old. The beauty of the natural world is captured in Paul Morin's warm, shimmering paintings, making Fox Song a book that is as familiar and loving as a visit with a friend.
As you will soon realize by carefully reading and examining further documentary evidence , Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Cruger, herself, began to invent herself into being Abenaki, transfering her own self-proclaimed and self-promoted childhood life experience's, as to match the content of this book entitled "Fox Song"!
Dee Brightstar, Thomas Obomsawin and his children were there, Daisy Goodman was there too. I think the Bruchac's were there as well, performing at either the Pow-wow or at the Opera House down on Main Street.
