Growing Up Indian is “Cool”
WASHINGTON, Sep 21 – Brianna Rocha, an 8-year-old Eastern Indian Pequot from Moosup, walked along the Mall guided by her tribe’s leader, Chief Hockeo, to express how “proud” she is to be an Indian.
Brianna-dressed in regalia costume and wearing her hair braided and a beaded headdress with the name Pequot inscribed in yellow-said she does not feel her tribe is endangered and she can’t recall having experienced discrimination.
On the contrary, she said her classmates think it is actually “very cool” to be an Indian.
At Washington’s Mall, Brianna and her friends, Chenoa Sebastian, 9, and her brother Marcus, 11, were amazed by the colorful procession of their people, thousands of Indians who gathered here to celebrate the inauguration of the eagerly awaited National Museum of the American Indian.
Brianna is part of the seventh generation of the Eastern Pequot, a tribe that has its reservation in North Stonington and was federally recognized in July 2002.
More than 40 Eastern Pequot members traveled to Washington to “represent the tribe,” Chenoa explained.
According to The Eastern Pequot chairwoman, Marcia Jones Flowers, the tribe has 1,135 members spread through New England.
A dozen of their representatives on the Mall ditched class Tuesday, but they did so with the blessing of all their teachers.
“Almost all of them must write papers later to explain to their classmates what they saw here in Washington,” Flowers said.
Teenager Shianne Sebastian, of North Stonington, attends Wheeler Middle School, but she said she came to Washington because she did not want to miss such a historical event. But she promised her classmates and her teacher “lots of pictures.”
“I am here because I want to show who I am and I want to be proud of it and keep the traditions alive,” Shianne said.
Shianne, Sherelle Sebastian and Natasha Gambrell constitute the tribe’s teenagers dance group. They have learned how to perform the Blanket Dance, and they show their art every chance they have.
All have won awards in the Native American Drum and Songs World Championship, a contest held annually by the Mashantucket Pequots.
Brianna’s mother, Dawnrae Rocha, has taught her daughter the Blanket Dance too. “It is like a butterfly coming out the cocoon,” Brianna said. Dawnrae Rocha interjects that the lesson of the dance is the blossoming of a teenager, the portrayal of her change from girl to woman.
The group’s dance rehearsals; the annual powwow, which the Pequots celebrate the last weekend of July; and their relations with other tribes make these teenagers different.
Ceremonies help them keep up with their heritage, one they say they are proud of.
“We are the people who were here before the colonists; we come from a long way,” Shianne said. Nevertheless the Pequots remain in the same land their ancestors occupied before the Europeans came.
Amid their tradition, the young people learn to respect their elders and listen to the elders’ stories of the past.
“They talk of the Pequot War of the 1600s, and that way we don’t forget our history,” Shianne said.
But Brianna, Shianne and the rest have a difficult duty: to carry on with the Indian culture and the Eastern Pequot tradition in modern times.
Far from their tribe’s land, Lillette Hill, a freshman studying political science at Temple University in Philadelphia, says she does all she can not to lose track of the Pequot.
“For us the tribe is a sense of family, a sense of togetherness,” said Hill, who came to Washington for the museum opening. “We learn about the traditions since we are babies, and I am sure my children will learn them too.”
