I was at a Powwow on the CT river a few years ago and heard Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman sing his song, "Custer Died for Your Sins". Can't remember the lyrics, but you can find the cassette at rainbowwalker.com, a fantastic site of Native American music. If you go there, be sure to read their words in the Timeline and check out the online radio stations. They are really great! My great,great grandma was Native. Over the years, I've realised a lot of my own spirituality has basically been Native American; it is said my heart is "red", but really I am a mix just like almost everyone else in America.

Our family has a cap and ball Union pistol which a Confederate ancestor got off of a dead Union captain. We also have a pass filled out for Mrs. Capt. Forsythe to pass unharmed through enemy lines. It had a line for deignation of what type moustache or beard the bearer had! We've also got a few pieces of Confederate paper money. some of our ancestors were on the Union side, too and I, too, am glad they won. The southern background did show up in our family, though. I had never heard it called the "war of the rebellion" until moving to New England!

katlaughin/katlaf