Columbus Day

This was sent a couple days after Columbus Day. Once again, it’s just a snippet of the entire email.

Christopher Columbus? Big deal. When he left, he didn’t know where he was going, and when he got there he didn’t know where he was, and when he got back he didn’t know where he had been. Annie says that it sounds like men in general.

The Chieftains

Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003

This is me. When I was 11 or 12 years old, I found on the neighbors property an Indian artifact. Yes, I said Indian. Political correctness notwithstanding, when young boys assemble and chose up sides, they play cowboys and Indians. Not cowboys and Native Americans. Anyway, it was like a spear point, except that it had no indents on the wide end for attaching it to a stick. I suppose that it must have been a knife or hide scraper or some such thing as that. I came across the thing while looking for something a few months ago, and it put my mind to wondering what the Indian presence in this area was so long ago.

With the help of the library, a very interesting history emerged. It seems that this area was inhabited by 2 tribes until early in the 1800’s or so. Both tribes were offshoots of larger and more substantial tribes in the several surrounding counties. One of the tribes was of distant relation to the Lackawanna Tribe, and was known as the Forwanna Tribe. The other was likewise descended from the Susquehannock Tribe, and was known as the Lornhannock Tribe. The tribes lead an uneasy co-existence for countless generations. The uneasiness from time to time broke out into hostilities, but no real or lasting warfare took place.

That changed late in the 1700’s, when the Forwanna tribe was lead by Chief Still Waters, and The Lornhannock tribe was lead by Chief Qryunndeapp. On the surface, that name seems a tongue twister, but it really isn’t. Those of you that paid a modicum of attention in high school English will remember that when the letter “Q” is used as the first letter of a word and followed by an “r”, the “Q” is silent. Those of you who were gazing out the window or staring at the chest of the girl 2 seats away have no doubt put a knot in your tongue by now. At any rate, while lead by these chieftains, open warfare broke out between the tribes. A pitch battle, with this very hill being the epicenter raged for 3 days. Over the course of the battle, 5 braves were wounded, and more than a dozen got headaches. Exhausted, the tribes withdrew with an uneasy truce in effect which lasted until the early 1800’s when the first settlers arrived in the area.

Chiefs Still Waters and Qryunndeapp soon realized that alone, neither tribe could hope to prevail against the white man and his magical fire stick. An alliance was formed, and Chief Still Waters married Chief Qyrunndeapps’ Mother-in-law to cement the agreement. The joined tribes then became known as the Forlorn Tribe. It soon became evident that the Forlorns were not equal to the challenge of the ever increasing white menace, and faded into hopeless and well deserved obscurity.

Well there you have it have. A rather forlorn tale, all in all, don’t you agree?