Ruth Mahweeyeuh Thunderhorse / Little Owl
ACQTC Thunder Clan Sunksquaw, Duda
Prayer of GratitudePainting by Little Owl
Little Owl (as she is called by our people) operates the ACQTC Thunder Clan National Office of Legal, Political, and Financial Affairs, located in southern Indiana. As wife of the Grand Sachem, she is now the hereditary Sunksquaw, and much like a Vice President, she would take full responsibility for ACQTC should her husband become incapacitated. As Duda, she is the Headwoman of our Nation, as the Quinnipiac Thunder Clan has authority over legal, political, and financial matters.
At the heart of ACQTC, Little Owl handles all office business affairs (having many years experience with accounting, office administration, and non profit organizations).
On a social level, the Quinnipiac Duda, Headwoman, and Sunksquaw often hosts workshops involving Algonquian and Quinnipiac history, lore, and issues, such as the Patoka Lake Festival and Community Unity (see photo captions). She attends the annual ACQTC gathering, encampment, and powwow, and carries the Thunder Clan Talking Stick, which is an artifact giving her the symbolic authority to speak on behalf of Pinessiwekit (Lodge of the Thunderer). She is also active in the women’s societies, and networks with many other tribal groups and people throughout the United States.
Little Owl is always giving and sharing. Brother Moondancer (Francis Joseph O’Brien, Jr.) of the Aquidneck Indian Council in Rhode Island writes in Understanding Algonquian Indians Words (New England) --- revised edition (2000, page ix) that “if you have something to share, you are obligated to share because moral and social standing is derived from how much you give…” So, ACQTC is very much honored and rich as a result of her constant and valuable contributions to ACQTC. The photos selected here demonstrate how much time, effort, and love she devotes to the principles of ACQTC. We are honoring her in July 2003 at our annual festival for all her achievements, and she will be conducting a traditional Give-Away to honor others who are a part of our confederacy.
Photo courtesy of Community Unity and the ACQTC Archives Collection
Little Owl was invited to participate in the third annual World on the Square Family Festival in Corydon, Indiana, by the Community Unity Organization. She is shown here (on 8/10/02) at the ACQTC Information Table, where she passed out leaflets about the ACQTC. The stated purpose of this annual function is to 1. expose children to multiple cultures through art, music, and food, and 2. to give adolescents an alternative to prejudice and violence, and an interest and appreciation of cultural differences. Little Owl participated in order to help represent the Native American cultures of Indiana.
Photo courtesy of ACQTC Archives CollectionHere Little Owl is relaxing as she enjoys the special tour conducted for ACQTC members and allies of the Thimble Islands (known as Kuttomquosh to our ancestors) during the 2000 Return of Hobbomock Millenium Celebration festival and powwow in Bay View Park, Branford, CT. During this tour, guides shared the lore and stories of these islands, the “Stepping Stones of Hobbomock”.
Photo by Kristin E. Somody, as it appeared in the
New Haven Register, Sunday, July 23rd, 2000 (page A4)
Also during the 2000 Return of Hobbomock Millenium Celebration, the ACQTC Thunder Clan Duda rests at the edge of the encampment and enjoys a moment of peaceful tranquility as she listens to the drum group’s music wafting on the gentle breezes along the shore of Long Island Sound.
OLD STONE CHURCH CELEBRATION JUNE 25, 2011:
Little Owl served as powwow coordinator and moderator of the ACQTC Celebration held June 25, 2011, at Old Stone Church (which provided refuge for our ancestors in 1711). She gave the opening speech and introduced the various participants in the two ancient ceremonies re-enacted from 11 a.m. to noon. In her welcoming speech, she brought up the contributions made by the indigenous people of the Americas as discussed in Jack Weatherford's book, "Indian Givers," as well as depicted in "100 Amazing Indian Discoveries" from the Fall 2004 Special Commemorative Issue of the "National Museum of the American Indian" magazine. She made that magazine available for all to see.
Little Owl's speech also outlined the reasons why the Quinnipiac people needed the "Washing Away the Tears" Ceremony today, to be followed by the "Signing of the Sacred Bond of the Covenant" Ceremony. Those tears were caused, she sighed, by Native Americans being captured and sold as slaves by the Spanish, Dutch, Portugese, English, and French, and by the fact that Native American slavery was NOT ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. In addition tears are due to the massacres, bounties placed on our ancestors' scalps and skins, displacement, loss of land and sacred places, having our language and religion outlawed by the U.S. Government for several generations, and even having our children stolen from loving homes to be taken to boarding schools determined to "Kill the Indian and Save the Man," which resulted in tragic deaths of many beloved children. She mentioned the movie with Wes Studi, "Older Than America," which depicts what actually happened to our native children.
Since many changes have occured during the past 300 years, however, racial and religious prejudice are no longer tolerated, so the Quinnipiac people today rejoiced to celebrate 300 years of survival for Old Stone Church and 12,000 years of survival for the Quinnipiac. Now both sides of the cultural clash of 300 years ago can work together to heal the land and bring peace back to our once-pristine homeland.
