July 2000 Jefferson, N.H. Archaeological Article.

This four page article (Pages 13-14-15-16) is quite informative as to WHO found/located the Site / Paleo-Indian materials. It most certainly was NOT Nancy L. Millette - Cruger - Lyons. On page 16 (left column) clearly the "professionally trained" Deputy State (of New Hampshire) Archaeologist, Richard "Dick" Boisvert states, "it's almost beyond my imagination," he says, "that there were later occupations that haven't shown up. "It could be we haven't found them yet, but after four years I'm confident it's exclusively Paleo-Indian". Meaning that they , in the four years of archaeological investigations, have not found ANY "Contact Period/ Woodland Indian material evidence" which would suggest, imply or show that there was some ca. 1850 - 1875 "Abenaki Village" in Jefferson, New Hampshire as Nancy stated, of which Almira (nee: Rines) and her husband George W. Ingerson nor their daugher Flora "Una Anna" (nee: Ingerson) Hunt, were of. Certainly if Almira had a house/ roof over her head and a warm bed to give birth in, she'd hardly want to take a stroll to the riverbank to give birth to her daughter Flora. Secondly, IF there were an Abenaki Village of which these people were involved in, certainly "outside observers" would have made mention of it documentarily-speaking in the historical records. Yet, there was no such Abenaki Village in Jefferson, New Hamsphire in ca. 1850-1875. It only exists within Nancy Millette - Cruger - Lyon's imagination!

July 08-09, 2000 "Sagawa" 8th Annual Twin Mountain, N.H. Pow-wow Event: More articles.

Rhonda Besaw (then of Barnet, Vermont) claimed in July 2000, to be "Eastern Abenaki" descent, yet years after this article was published in the Littleton Courier newspaper when she hired me to research her genealogical ancestral background, in April 2007, I could not find ANY indication of "Eastern Abenaki" ancestral connections in her ancestral past. Retrospectively-speaking, Rhonda did provide me a Microsoft WORD typed document manufactured "write-up" from her father's mother, Gretchen "Teat" Henriette (nee: Hill) Bisson - Story,that Gretchen had allegedly wrote. Quote, "Nash married an Indian girl" and "I have always understood that Nash-I don't know his first name-came down the Connecticut River to the Plainfield banks-another man was with him-Grandfather Nash had pneumonia, they cared for the men and eventually Nash married one of them. They had one son, Fields Nash-Grandfather Nash died of TB-The Indians buried him with them somewhere in the Black Hills. Fields Nash married Prudence LeDoux. They had 6 or 7 children-which one, Minnie, was my Grandmother. It is the little Indian blood from the Nash that I am proudest. Truly American".
Gretchen's mother was Virginia (nee: Bythrow) Hill. Virginia's mother was Minnie Jane (nee: Nash) Bythrow born in ca. 1863 in Plainfield, Sullivan County, New Hampshire. Minnie Jane (nee: Nash) Bythrow's sister was
Chloe Sophi "Elizabeth" (nee: Nash) Dyke, also born in Plainfield, N.H. Chloe's son Fredric Volney Dyke who was born in Lyme, N.H. married to Emma Tattersall Dec 1904 Lyme, N.H. and this couple had Mabel Dyke in Apr 1902 Queechee, Vermont. Mabel Dyke married to Reginald Hunt (son of Flora "Una Ana" actually it was Eunice nee: Ingerson - Hunt) in Oct 1922 in North Haverhill, N.H. Reginald and Mabel's son Melvin "Slim" Ray Hunt born in Nov. 1926 in Monroe, N.H. married to Dolores M. Bilodeau. It is their son that is Richard "Rick" Ray Hunt. It is Rick Hunt's aunt Beverlyn Irwin (nee: Hunt) who married to Malcolm Millette. Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Wiggins - Demming - Cruger - Lyons is a first-cousin to Richard "Rick" Ray Hunt!

So, my reason for bringing this genealogy up is this. If they all are related to one another, are they all supporting each other in their self-proclamation's of being "Abenaki" Indians, when perhaps in factual reality, they may not be anything of the sort?! The dynamic being that they are slapping each other on the backside's is whats been going on between all three of them to my thinking.

Here is how I've done "the math":

1. Nancy Millette/ Cruger/ Lyons (as I knew her throughout these years) introduces herself (retrosepctively-speaking) to Jesse James Larocque & "the alleged Abenaki gang" from up in Swanton, Vermont in the Summer or Fall of 1993 led by the late "Chief" Homer St. Francis Sr. and they all came into Littleton, New Hampshire, and she introduced brown-ash-basketmaking elderly Newton E. Washburn of Bethlehem, N.H. as well to this bunch. He gets a "membership card" and she does too.

2. Then Rhonda Besaw meets up with her relative Nancy Cruger who informed Rhoda Besaw "that she (Nancy) is now a Diplomatic Ambassador of the Abenaki Nation" sounding pretty impressive to Rhonda.

3. This 1993 "interaction" with the "Chief" Homer Walter St. Francis and Homer's "bodyguard" Darrell Larocque bunch-of-folks from Swanton, Vermont was the catalyst/spark, or the "foundation" for these three (Nancy Millette-Cruger, Richard "Rick" Ray Hunt, and Rhonda L. Besaw) reinventing themselves into becoming alleged Abenakis.

Yet, their genealogical and ancestors historical documentations do not support or even convincingly imply this reinvention/ self-identity of either three of them being of "Eastern or Western Abenaki descent." Don't think I haven't asked and demanded them to provide me the clear and convincing evidence as to their repeated claims of being Abenaki descendants. As yet (June 2009) I have yet to be shown any documentation or ancestral testimonies either on paper, audio, or otherwise to convince me my conclusions about these three person's has been in error.

I was commissioned/paid by Rhonda L. Besaw-True in late April 2007 to research her genealogical historical records. I did find that indeed, she does descend from "Roch Manintoubeouich / Manitouabeouichit" and his wife
"Outchibabhanoukoneau/Outchibahabanoukouehou/squa" from the Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada area ca. 1600 - 1610. This couple was clearly HURON who, upon being removed from their land in "the west" by the diseases ravaging the Huron and conflicts/warfare with the Iroquois/Mohawk People's with the Huron, they fled to Sillery, Quebec, Canada "under the protection of the Jesuit Priests promises". Even the names are NOT Western Abenaki. Their names are not written in Western Abenaki by the Jesuits of that time! Yet, ONLY until I secured this genealogical ancestral information by September 2007, based on what Sherry Gould of Bradford, N.H. kindly shared with me of her own ancestry, did Rhonda L. Besaw have ANY definitive documentary evidence or awareness as to her Native (Huron) ancestry. Yet, she is in this July 2000 Sagakwa pamphlet/ flier, claiming to being of "Eastern Abenaki" decent. Her "foundation" (then and now) for this self-proclamation of being "Eastern and Western Abenaki" is based on allegedly what her father Virgil Alan Besaw "told her" when she was a teenager. "Oral history" is great stuff but what is there to 'back up' this oral history. The answer she gave was pretty much Ziltch, Nadda, Zero, -O-, NOTHING to support this statement of her's. There is NOTHING to support or even imply that what Nancy L. Millette-Cruger-Lyons has said about her Great Grandmother Flora Eunice Ingerson-Hunt nor Flora's mother Almira Rines-Ingerson for that matter, was factually truthful either!

So you tell me, what does this say about whats been going on?! What does this all mean? Is it that three of these person's, right along with a whole lot of other folks were/ are "Playing Indian/Abenaki" (like what is discussed in Philip Deloria's book?), being for better words...."reinvented Abenaki" without a stred of credible documented evidence to support their oral self-proclamations?! Being a Huron descendant, being a Micmac descendant or being a Native descendant does NOT make one an "Abenaki" to my thinking. I guess it just didn't and still doesn't matter to them. One does not see a Mik'Maq person who knows they are Mik'Maq claiming to being Abenaki, nor do you see a Penobscot claiming to being Abenaki. But over here in Vermont and New Hampshire, if a person has a 1600's Mik'Maq or Algonquin or Huron ancestor, then they self-identify as being "Abenaki". When one questions them as to their self-identification, they claim "that there really was no such a people as "Abenaki", that it was an invention or error of the "white-man's historical pen". They say that the term "Abenaki" is generic for the word "Wabanaki". As I have said repeatedly, "the genealogical documentation supports the oral history and visa versa oral history supports the genealogical documentation as well of one's family ancestry". Perhaps someone out there in the world will have and provide more solidification (genealogically speaking) to support these self-proclamations of these three people. Until the evidence, clearly and convincingly, is provided, I will continue to doubt these people are true and legitimate Abenaki descendants. So ought everyone else doubt the merits of anyone claiming to be Abenaki in Vermont/ New Hampshire, at least to my thinking nowadays, UNLESS these people can prove by verifiable evidence that what they say is truthful, that they are indeed Abenaki . Jokingly said, most folks who are "west" of the Mississippi with a hint of having any Native ancestry, claim of being "Cherokee" or "Sioux" .....folks here "east" of the Mississippi with a hint of having any Native ancestry, automatically assume and proclaim that they are "Abenaki".

May 16, 2000 - July 05, 2000 - July 06, 1999 - July 13, 2000 "Sagakwa" 8th Annual Twin Mountain, N.H. Pow-wow Event

I decided to remove two previously placed postings on this blog, and rearrange the documents on here to "flow" more nicely time-wise, in order to their happening.

September 9, 1999 to February 02, 2000 etc.

September 09, 1999
Christopher James Cruger and Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Cruger separate and no longer reside in the same household. (Nancy Lee Cruger was also divorced from her previous husband).
January 21, 2000
Christopher James Cruger and Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Cruger petition the Judicial Branch of the Family Division in Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire for divorce. Cause: Irreconcilable differences.
February 02, 2000
Nancy Lee nee: Millette – Cruger and her 3rd husband Christopher James Cruger divorce.

I am providing the above documentation, since obviously these docuements are a matter of PUBLIC RECORD. On August 20, 2008 while in Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire attempting to find out when Nancy (nee: Millette) Cruger - Lyons had gone to the Mohawk Community led by Tom Porter in Fonda, New York I got photocopies from the Judicial Court Clerk. Even though the documents do show personal data such as Social Security numbers of the parties involved, their birth dates, and their full given names, I have digitally retracted this information. The address 306 Mt. Cleveland Road in Bethlehem, New Hampshire is where Nancy Cruger held her "White Bison Council" meetings.

The newspaper article is of Michael Eastman's artwork of illustrations, having run across this in searching the microfilm I thought I would include it here in this posting.

August 18th, 1999 Newspaper Article Regarding Newton Washburn and Lower Elwha Long House Assoc. Pow-wow and Early 2000

I traveled back to Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington in August 1999 for a visit to relatives (both biological and adoptive relations) and my Native friends out that way. I stayed with my friend Linda Weichman.

The newspaper article "Volunteers are needed for Native-American fest" in the Coos County Democrat Newspaper was for the July 8th-9th, 2000 "Sagakwa" Pow-wow event held in Twin Mountain, New Hampshire. If memory serves me correctly, I don't think Nancy (Millette) Cruger was involved with that particular year's Twin Mountain Pow-wow event. I could be wrong though.

July 27, 1999 Nancy Millette Email to Rhonda Besaw

Some while ago, Rhonda (nee: Besaw) True, wife of Charles Francis True Jr., of Whitefield, New Hampshire, shared quite a bit of emails with me regarding Nancy (nee: Millette) Cruger - Lyons, which revealed quite a bit of informative "details" regarding the evolution/ development through time of Nancy Cruger's "stories" about Flora "Una Anna" (nee: Ingerson) Hunt and/ or Almira (nee: Rines) Ingerson.

To my thinking, Nancy Millette (a.k.a. Nancy Cruger and Nancy Lyons) first began to say that Flora Ingerson - Hunt was born in Littleton, New Hampshire "on the riverbank" to provide attachment to the Town of Littleton, New Hampshire of which she was charged with promoting to industrial and commericial interested business enterprises. Then when she became acquainted with my "cousin" Newton E. Washburn, when she sought and got the Basketmaking grant of which she did nothing with, she began to "evolve her story" to saying that Flora "Una Anna" was born along the Ammonoosuc River
"near Newton Washburn's basketmaking shop". Later, once the archaelogical investigations and test pitting began to emerge in the local newspapers regarding the Nevers Farm/ Property in Jefferson, N.H., she began to state that "Almira (Rines) Ingerson and/ or Flora Una Anna (Ingerson) Hunt was born in an "Abenaki Village" situated in Jefferson, New Hampshire along the Israel riverbank".

Indeed, as I stated in a previous posting on this blog, as it states in this email to Rhonda Besaw from Nancy herself, Nancy stated that, "I have a photo of Chief Homer St. Francis and one of my Grandfather Reginald Hunt and side by side they could easily be brothers. Homer thought it was funny when I showed him this many years ago! he said Someone jumped the fence girl!". Indeed this photograph showing session that Nancy speaks of in this email happened on the sidewalk of Littleton, N.H. in July 1994 after she witnessed "Chief" Homer St. Francis had had his photograph taken with Newton Washburn in the Thayers Inn Hotel the previous late-September 1993 Fall Foliage Weekend Celebration on Littleton's Main Street, and that Newton Washburn got a "Certificate of Indian Status & Citizenship Sovereign Abenaki Nation, Republic of Missisquoi Membership Card". She wanted one of these "Membership Cards" too, and she used her Grandfather's photograph to get one. "Chief
Homer St. Francis Sr. told his "Tribal Judge" Mike Delaney to give her one, which Mike did. Mary Warren also got a "Membership Card". These "Cards" were given to people, with little or NO genealogical evidence having been researched and solidified by either John Moody, Homer St. Francis, Mike Delaney, or recieved from the applicant of being legitimately Abenaki Indian. These membership cards issued by Homer's "group" were given out like "token toys" in a Cracker Jake box of carmel popcorn to anyone that "Chief" Homer St. Francis liked, or thought he could use to his or his "group's" benefit! John Moody would simply say, "Oh yes, I know that surname was Abenaki and give his "voice or nod of approval" as well to the applicant for membership. Little verification was done in those days apparently. That's my thinking and conclusions on the situation anyway.

Certainly this "anthro" (whoever they were) wasn't very good at genealogical research!

THE ABOVE ARE MY CONCLUSIONS BASED ON EXAMINATION OF THE FACTUAL DOCUMENTED GENEALOGICAL HISTORY. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR WANT TO REVIEW THE BACKBONE DOCUMENTATION, JUST COMMUNICATE WITH ME. I WILL SHARE/ SHOW ANYONE THE DOCUMENTATION THAT BACKS UP MY CONCLUSIONS 100% PERCENT.

1.Nancy Millette – Cruger (nhconnec@ncia.net) stated to Rhoda Besaw through Yahoo’s message board “Webenaki”, “that Flora Ingerson – Hunt was born on the Amonoosuc river bank=(HEARSAY).
2. According to Nancy Millette, Flora Ingerson – Hunt’s full name was Flora Una Anna/ Anna Una Ingerson. (FALSE). Her full given-name was Flora Eunice Ingerson (TRUE =DOCUMENTED IN PRESBREY HISTORY).
3.Rines Family name (according to Nancy Millette) is a short version of Rinville of Odanak, Quebec, Canada. (FALSE). Almira/ Elmira Rines – Ingerson’s ancestral Rines lineage descends from Berwick, York County, Maine ca. 1739 and very likely before that, from the Oyster River, New Hampshire area.
4. Almira Rines – Ingerson (according to Nancy Millette) was alledgedly from the “Indian/Abenaki Village” in Jefferson, New Hampshire= (FALSE).

Almira Rines – Ingerson was born in Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire and later relocated with her parents and siblings to Jefferson, Coos County, New Hampshire ca. 1855-1856. This “Indian Village” in Jefferson is nothing of the kind. In fact, it is simply an identified Paleo-Indian Edward Bouras and Paul Bock, in June of 1995 during a series of walkovers, located a Archaeological site with NO Contact Era materials found within or around this site, to date. Their discovery of lithic debitage, led to a series of SCRAP excavations in Jefferson, N.H. on the Nevers property. This site has produced a significant lithic assemblage, evidence of exotic lithics, and NO mixing with artifacts from later time periods.
5. Almira Rines – Ingerson was (according to Nancy Millette) a medicine woman who taught her daughter the medicines=(FALSE). Almira Rines – Ingerson became deceased BEFORE the 1880 Census. Almira’s daughter Flora Eunice Ingerson – Hunt was born September 09, 1874 and died March 11, 1963 in Monroe, Grafton County, New Hampshire. Almira Rines – Ingerson would NOT have been able to teach much of anything about [plant] medicines to her 5 and a half year old daughter Flora Eunice Ingerson – Hunt.
6. According to Nancy Lee Millette, Flora Ingerson – Hunt’s husband Henry Otis Hunt was “a mixed blood”. She states that he was directly related to the Ramo family (his mother’s side) who is directly related to Homer St. Francis’ family= (FALSE). This I got from an antho [?].

Homer St. Francis of Swanton, Franklin County, Vermont does not have any Ramo direct ancestors who have married to Homer St. Francis’ siblings or ancestors.

March 16, 1918 - July 21, 1999 Page 01 Article Regarding Jefferson, N.H. Paleo-Indian Site.

This documentation speaks for itself. I've highlighted in yellow pen the important of-interest sections regarding this alledgedly Nancy Millette-Curger-Lyons "story" of some ca. 1850-1880 "Abenaki Village" in Jefferson, New Hampshire.

Summer 1999 Singrawac Interchange Newsletter Regarding Jefferson, N.H. Paleo Indian Site

Obviously, the reason(s) I am putting this "archaeolgoical documentation" onto this blog, to be read, is that at NO point in time, from the beginning to the end of the matter, no one....not (1) person found ANY Contact Period materials or Woodland material evidence of ANY kind, to even suggest or even imply that there was an "Abenaki Village" in or about 1850 to 1880. Nancy (nee: Millette) Cruger - Lyons has repeatedly self-proclaimed and self-promoted her "stories" in newspaper article's and other media formats "that her Great-Grandmother Flora Una Anna (nee: Ingerson) Hunt and/ or Flora's mother Almira (nee: Rines) Ingerson "was born in Jefferson, N.H. a Abenaki Village, along some river'bank. Almira (nee: Rines) Ingerson was born in Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire in 1850 to Ebenezer Rines and Susannah (nee: Smith). Almira's parents married September 25, 1845 and had William born on June 23, 1846 in Littleton, N.H.; Susan born in 1848 in Littleton, N.H., Amira born in 1850 in Littleton, N.H., and Emma Rines in 1858 in Jefferson, N.H. The parents moved to Jefferson, N.H. ca. 1856 with all but the latter child, from Littleton, New Hampshire. I will let the factual genealogical records "speak" for themselves as I post the documentary information.

Well, I will let the genealogical records' etc. speak for themselves as I post them.

Again, the genealogical evidence ought to support the oral histories of the descendants at least on some level, and visa versa likewise oral histories support the genealogical documentation.

July 10-11, 1999 "Sagakwa" Twin Mountain, N.H. Pow-wow Event

This (retrospectively-speaking) 7th Annual Native American Cultural Weekend (according to the newspaper article) for the first time in its history, the event was officially recognized by Governor Jeanne Shaheen. According to event founder and Cultural Director Nancy Cruger, the proclamation officially recognizes Sagakwa '99, Native American Cultural Weekend and the Abenaki Native Peoples of New Hampshire whose diverse cultural history dates back some 10,000 years. In the proclamation, Gov. Shaheen also recognizes Abenaki Native Americans' many contributions to this state. The proclamation was presented and read by State Representative Mike Gilman of Littleton prior to the opening ceremonies last Saturday morning. Yet another Governor's Proclamation's for Nancy's living-room wall, that she can point at to any visitor stupid enough not to sharp to have realized that the piece of paper belongs not on the living room wall, but rather hanging above the bathroom toilet!

I figured I might as well put the late "past Odanak Chief" Walter Watso's photograph here too, since in the newspaper in this post, it appears he was wearing the same headress, necklace, and buckskin fringed shirt.

"Constitution of The Sovereign Republic of the Abenaki Nation of Missisqoui" February 25, 1996

According to the book entitled "The Voice Of The Dawn, An Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation", written by Frederick Matthew Wiseman and Copyrighted in 2001, on page 170 under "The Investiture of Grand Chief St. Francis" it states that this Constitution was as a result of confidential advice for the Abenaki Tribal Council by Carol Neptun of the Abenaki Research Project (ARP), and Mark Nestor (Tribal Lawyer). This "confidential advice"/suggestions resulted in a rewrite of the Constitution, which we discussed in a November 05th, 1995 General Meeting and was "ratified" the following year on February 25th, 1996.

According to this author's own words he makes out like "Chief-For-Life" April (nee: St. Francis) Rushlow-Merrill graciously gave Fred Wiseman permission to quote from this Constitution a clause for it.

I got this Constitution right off the internet via a www.google.com PDF file!

What astounds me, is that April St. Francis - Merrill implies that, because two children of the late Leonard "Blackie" Miles Lampman (they being Lance Matthew Lampman and his sister Lisa nee: Lampman - Rollo) and April's two siblings Harold "Charlie" St. Francis and Homer Walter St. Francis Jr., that the "core" families were represented at the time and signed the ratification of this Constitution! To make such an outlandish statement is outrageously absurd to my thinking! Another "signer" of this document was Dorcus (nee: Maskell) Churchill - Pellesier. I wonder if these were legitimate signatures from each and every person indicated to have signed their names to this document?

Think about this: on Page 171 of this book afore mentioned and recommended simply for comparative research, Homer St. Francis Sr. was directly quoted by the media as saying that, " Native American practice made it appropriate to keep the chieftainship in the St. Francis Family" and yet, Frederick Wiseman himself, "believes that this form of constitutional succession of power was unprecedented in the modern Wabanaki world". Then Mr. Wiseman states, " the Abenaki NEVER, by themselves had a Grand Chief. This "title" was reserved to the Chief of the Odawa's at the Great Council Fire at Kahnawake. The title of Grand Chief in intertribal confederacies was given to a highly respected leader who could hold several politically distinct communities together and speak on behalf of them. Certainly the documented histories of the various invented groups who to me were/are merely "incorporations" and self-created/ self-promoting alledgedly Abenaki "groups" in both Vermont and New Hampshire, it has been shown that even though so-called "Grand-Chief" Homer St. Francis Sr.tried to imply that he "spoke for" all of these other "groups", it has been (retrospectively-speaking) obviously documented that this was either or both an illusion and/or a delusion! So-called "Chief-For-Life"/ "Grand-Chief" Homer St. Francis Sr.'s daughter April Ann St. Francis - Merrill does not "speak for" nor does she "represent" all Abenaki descendant families who live either within the State of Vermont or New Hampshire, etc. though she will try to imply that she does! This is another illusion, distortion, and/ or a delusion on her part!

This "Constitution" is merely a setting up of a dictatorship of "power" and "control" out of a foundation of inflated ego's and self-importance on the part of the St. Francis family member's, who support(ed) and ally/allied with the late Homer St. Francis Sr. and/or his daughter April St. Francis - Merrill.