In the February 19th, 1997 Coos County Democrat Lancaster, NH Newspapaper, Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Cruger made quite a few interesting statments. Sponsors for her event were Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Foxwoods Resort Casino, the Mohegan Tribal Nation and the Sun Casino (interesting that all of these mentioned "sponsors" are gambling casino oriented). What is REALLY INTERESTING is that Nancy Cruger says, "I am Abenaki and Irish. That must be why she's a stereotypical Indian I guess. The "Irish explains away her red hair and the alledged Indian explains why she can't hold her temper in check perhaps?! I have heard many people say, 'you don't want to mess with me, I'm Indian and Irish, and you don't want to get me mad'." This event is important to me, as it is in keeping with a promise to my great-grandmother. I promised her on her deathbed that I would find her people and do something to help them so that they would not be afraid to say they are Indian, a fear she had all her life. Her parents were born in Jefferson, and she was born on the riverback in Littleton. Her family traveled and lived in the areas between Jefferson and Monroe." Now that promise is coming true.
First of all, let me say that there has been absolutely no forthcoming docmentary confirmation or evidence "other than Nancy's own mouth" stating that her Great-Grandmother was Native, let alone Abenaki, "having been born on some riverbank in Littleton, New Hampshire". Secondly, this supposed "death-bed promise" to her Great-Grandmother Flora Una Ana (her middle name was really Eunice) Ingerson-Hunt is obviously highly suspect. Flora Eunice (nee: Ingerson) Hunt was born Mar 25, 1874 alledgely in Monroe, N.H. according to her Death Record of Mar 11, 1963. Genealogical research indicates that the mother of Flora, was born in Littleton, New Hampshire.....NOT Jefferson, New Hampshire in some "cooked up" ca. 1850 - 1874 "Abenaki Village" as Nancy (nee: Millette) Cruger - Lyons has repeatedly stated. Documentation on this subject will be posted in forthcoming postings and this all will make sense as it is provided. Put the pieces together. It doesn't add up. The math doesn't add up. Flora Eunice Ingerson-Hunt had siblings, aunts, uncles and so forth....and they had descendants themselves, so IF in fact Flora Eunice Ingerson-Hunt or her mother Almira nee:Rines - Ingerson was a full-blooded Abenaki Indian woman, well I would think there would be evidence of some definitive kind that can be SHOWN. Family Oral histories MUST support the genealogical records of one's ancestry; and genealogical records must support the oral histories of one's ancestors. Or else it is simply hearsay! Native People's did not likely live in "isolation". They might not have been jumping up and down to their neighbors and the Children's Aid Society folks that they were Abenaki/ Indian, but they were working, farming, millworking, haying, and doing other kinds of visible employment wherein they would be out-in-the-public's observations on a daily basis. They had to put a roof over their families heads and meat & potato's on the table every night just like everybody else whether they were French, Irish, English, or German; etc.
Nowhere in this February 19th, 1997 newspaper article does Nancy make any mention of Flora E. Ingerson-Hunt or Flora's mother, Almira (nee: Rines) Ingerson, having been born in a Jefferson, N.H. "Abenaki Village". ONLY later do the Nancy Millette-Cruger-Lyons Great-Grandma was "stories" begin to change and evolve.
