[Josiah]

Originally Posted by LizBrokenArrow

Hi Wardancer. Awe. That's very sad.

very few of us come back and check anymore

[Broken Arrow]

That is lugubrious.

[LizBrokenArrow]

Originally Posted by Josiah

very few of us come back and check anymore

Hi Josiah. That's even more sad. It's like if everyone abandoned the site then.

[Paul G]

Originally Posted by LizBrokenArrow

Hi Josiah. That's even more sad. It's like if everyone abandoned the site then.

The forums don't get the traffic it once did. But we still have hundreds of people visiting each day.

If everyone would post again, things could improve. Too many people just come and lurk.

Post more and they will come!

[LizBrokenArrow]

Originally Posted by Paul G

The forums don't get the traffic it once did. But we still have hundreds of people visiting each day.

If everyone would post again, things could improve. Too many people just come and lurk.

Post more and they will come!

It would be nice if people would come back and participate again. These forums are needed. I’ve never seen another site like this one that offer forums like this to interact, meet fellow Natives, share, and learn from.

[milehighsalute]

you can look for that phony chief white wolf in nj who claims he is a taino chief of the locals.......im sure he can tell you anything you want to hear...he's good at that.....looks like he increases the local tri-state "taino" population daily

[LizBrokenArrow]

Originally Posted by milehighsalute

you can look for that phony chief white wolf in nj who claims he is a taino chief of the locals.......im sure he can tell you anything you want to hear...he's good at that.....looks like he increases the local tri-state "taino" population daily

Hi Milehighsalute, Who? What Taino Chief? I have not come across him yet? Who is the phony Chief White Wolf in NJ claiming to be Taino? Apparently you have come across him and know him very well. Can I have his real name, not his Taino name, in case I run into him? And how do you know this Chief White Wolf is phony? I need to know. I mean, I am Taino and still doing my research. I found some of my family in P.R. and my family's Tribe their and have been in contact with them and finally communicating with them a little more frequently since phone service in P.R. has been restored in their area, but I have not stopped there. I am still doing more research. I am taking a trip to Puerto Rico in this coming 2018 to meet that part of my family and family's Tribe. I want to know everything about my ancestors and their culture and history. So yes, if you are calling someone phony that I may or may not cross paths with, I want to know why and how do you know. Thank you for your time and your warning. The last thing I need is to be deceived and go on a wild goose chase while doing my research here in NJ. Hope to hear from you again soon. Thanks again.

[LizBrokenArrow]

Just wondering if anyone was still on this thread. I have tried posting a few times before, but my posts were never posted, except for one guys post, and he never came back to answer my one question.

To anyone here who has been following this thread from the beginning: I have gotten to know my families tribe over the phone somewhat. P.R. is getting restored slowly. It is still a disaster in my families reservation there, but I am still going over there to meet my family's tribe, and also going with with some relief supplies that were donated to me from friends that found out I am going.

I am very excited about meeting this part of my family, but I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. I get to finally see who I am and where I come from. I will continue to keep everyone posted.

Blessings,
Liz

[OLChemist]

All threads in the Ask Powwows.com area are moderated. Postings must be approved by a moderator. We don't get a email or message -- or at least I don't -- to tell us there is a post. So, things sometimes get missed.

This area is intended for questions of a possibly inflammatory nature, mostly by newbies. If you want to post somewhere you can immediately see your post, pick another area of the forum.

[LizBrokenArrow]

Hello @OLChemist @wardancer and @brokenarrow I am here to ask for your prayers for my family in PR. Do any of you remember that I had mentioned that I would be going to my family'sreservation to meet my family's tribe to finally meet them and to bring them supplies that were donated due to last year's devastating hurricane Maria?

Well, I got to meet my family, but I am heart but I am heart broken. Their reservation is destroyed. The majority of their houses gone. There is little left. I begged, I pleaded to please come to NJ with me, that we would make it work somehow. But they don't want to come. They feel that if they up and leave, they would be deserting all that they have ever known, and that their ancestry, their reservation as destroyed as it is, they feel they would be abandoning everything, their way of living, the tribe, everything, and that they wouldn't be a tribe anymore, that all that they have ever known, what they were born into would be non-existent.

I know that I am new to all this, but I don't understand. Can someone explain to me in a way that I can understand? I mean, I kind of sort of understand, but everything is gone. I know that through all of our Native ancestries in America, tribes were forced to migrate. Wouldn't it be the same with my family now? They asked me to stay. I want to. I am staying for a couple of more weeks, but I can't stay longer. I have to come back to my husband, but I promised that I am willing to come again to help in any way that I can. The house in the pic is from one of my uncles in the reservation. You can click on it to enlarge it. He can't live in it anymore. Most everyone are staying in tents because they don't want to leave, others are cramped up in other family's house who chose not to live in the reservation. It's just sad all around.

Just please please keep my family in your prayer. I will be appreciative. Thanks so much. Abundant blessings to you all and I will continue to keep you all posted.

[Broken Arrow]

I pray for your family and you.

In their way, your family said to you, why they do not leave and that they have hope for the future. They are not forced to leave by war, forced resettlement of ethnic reasons and so on but can stay and rebuild because they want to do so.

I can only approximate by what little I have been told by those few who told and who had to leave their homes and homeland after WW II because of force. They would have stayed (mostly) and rebuild if it would have been possible. It was their home and homeland where all their family is buried. Despite all hardship, the emotional binding to the earth where they are born is very strong.

That seems not a question of tribe but of the people without regard to any special tribe.

You only leave, if you don't have any hope to stay and that the ways will be getting better.

Do what you think you have to do and give strength to their hopes.

[Featherless Worrier]

Hello LizBrokenArrow
The comfort of your family is in my thoughts.

I hope they have plenty of food and clean drinking water. I hope they are dry and warm.

I know a dry and warm tent is more comfortable than being in a wet and cold tent. It can be worth moving a tent site a bit further just to get the morning sun earlier.

A nylon tent fly isn't very waterproof so a tarpaulin / plastic sheet can be stretched out above a tent as another roof. That will keep the tent dry and using poles or rope to hold the plastic above the tent fly so there is a gap between them for air circulation.

Scrunching the plastic around a pebble stone makes somewhere to tie the rope to.

A bicycle or car tyre tube can be cut into strips and used on one end of each of the tie back ropes so it can stretch and the plastic can move with the wind and not tear apart.

A small trench dug around a tent will help keep the ground dry underneath the tent being away from rain water running along the ground and soaking.

If the plastic is larger than the tent it gives more room outside to be under during rain.

It's amazing the difference a sheet of plastic can make.
I wanted to share that with you.


Houses can be repaired or dismantled and rebuilt with the good parts
Learning the land and the places to find food and resources takes time, even generations.

Like finding a specific location on a river that has a good chance of catching a fish and then looking for more places with good chances so you don't end up overfishing the same spot.

Using a net might be better than a fishing line but knowing different ways to make fish traps out of natural resources that you can find in the area is another way.

You can carry a lot more supplies on your shoulders if you can fit them inside your head.

If you have more than 26 good fishing places and going to one per week means at least a six month cycle until you return again. It's the same thing with other resources like the animals, the plants, the trees, and the soil. Seasons and regeneration.

You can learn an area and form a sustainable cycle.

[OLChemist]

Liz, our people are survivors. When when we finish mourning, we rebuild. If we didn't there would be no Native people today.

Remember, our various native people's traditional teachings are tied to the land. These things don't transplant well. The land is still there. The community is damaged but still there. Home is more than a house for Native people. The house may be gone, but the home is still there. I think your best course of action is to provide what material and spiritual support you can, while they will rebuild.

I will remember your family in my prayers.

[LizBrokenArrow]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

I pray for your family and you.

In their way, your family said to you, why they do not leave and that they have hope for the future. They are not forced to leave by war, forced resettlement of ethnic reasons and so on but can stay and rebuild because they want to do so.

I can only approximate by what little I have been told by those few who told and who had to leave their homes and homeland after WW II because of force. They would have stayed (mostly) and rebuild if it would have been possible. It was their home and homeland where all their family is buried. Despite all hardship, the emotional binding to the earth where they are born is very strong.

That seems not a question of tribe but of the people without regard to any special tribe.

You only leave, if you don't have any hope to stay and that the ways will be getting better.

Do what you think you have to do and give strength to their hopes.

Thank you for the encouragement @brokenarrow and for your prayers. I appreciate it. It's just so heartbreaking to see them in those conditions. But I understand their resilience.

[LizBrokenArrow]

Originally Posted by Featherless Worrier

Hello LizBrokenArrow
The comfort of your family is in my thoughts.

I hope they have plenty of food and clean drinking water. I hope they are dry and warm.

I know a dry and warm tent is more comfortable than being in a wet and cold tent. It can be worth moving a tent site a bit further just to get the morning sun earlier.

A nylon tent fly isn't very waterproof so a tarpaulin / plastic sheet can be stretched out above a tent as another roof. That will keep the tent dry and using poles or rope to hold the plastic above the tent fly so there is a gap between them for air circulation.

Scrunching the plastic around a pebble stone makes somewhere to tie the rope to.

A bicycle or car tyre tube can be cut into strips and used on one end of each of the tie back ropes so it can stretch and the plastic can move with the wind and not tear apart.

A small trench dug around a tent will help keep the ground dry underneath the tent being away from rain water running along the ground and soaking.

If the plastic is larger than the tent it gives more room outside to be under during rain.

It's amazing the difference a sheet of plastic can make.
I wanted to share that with you.


Houses can be repaired or dismantled and rebuilt with the good parts
Learning the land and the places to find food and resources takes time, even generations.

Like finding a specific location on a river that has a good chance of catching a fish and then looking for more places with good chances so you don't end up overfishing the same spot.

Using a net might be better than a fishing line but knowing different ways to make fish traps out of natural resources that you can find in the area is another way.

You can carry a lot more supplies on your shoulders if you can fit them inside your head.

If you have more than 26 good fishing places and going to one per week means at least a six month cycle until you return again. It's the same thing with other resources like the animals, the plants, the trees, and the soil. Seasons and regeneration.

You can learn an area and form a sustainable cycle.

@FeatherlessWorrier Wow. Thank you so much for that. You have taught me something that I personally never knew. I copy/pasted this info on my phone for reference so I can talk to my uncle and share. Abundant. Blessings.

[LizBrokenArrow]

Originally Posted by OLChemist

Liz, our people are survivors. When when we finish mourning, we rebuild. If we didn't there would be no Native people today.

Remember, our various native people's traditional teachings are tied to the land. These things don't transplant well. The land is still there. The community is damaged but still there. Home is more than a house for Native people. The house may be gone, but the home is still there. I think your best course of action is to provide what material and spiritual support you can, while they will rebuild.

I will remember your family in my prayers.

@OLChemist Thank you so much for your words of wisdom. You don't know how much I appreciate you. I have learned a lot from you throughout my time here at PowWow. I understand what you say about their land being their home, their traditions. I won't push the issue anymore about coming with me. I am here for them in anyway that they need me. Even when I come back to NJ, I am here for them and I will go back to PR in a couple of months and help them again and bring them more supplies. Yes, I am heartbroken for them, but at the same time, I am so proud of them and how unified and resilient they are. My gosh, the way they pray together, their ceremonial gatherings in spite of... It just brings tears to my eyes. Oh, and their language. They still use their language. They have taught me some and I have taken notes so that I do not forget what I have learned. It's just so beautiful. I couldn't be more proud of what I am a part of. Thanks again OLChemist. Thank you for keeping my family in your prayers. Abundant Blessings. Will keep you updated.