Gladys Iola Tantaquidgeon (June 15, 1899 – November 1, 2005) was a
Mohegan
The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the east ...
medicine woman
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and ceremo ...
,
anthropologist, author, tribal council member, and
elder based in Connecticut.
["Gladys Tantaquidgeon"](_blank)
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
As a young girl, she was selected by women elders for training in traditional pharmacology and culture. She studied anthropology at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
with
Frank Speck
Frank Gouldsmith Speck (November 8, 1881 – February 6, 1950) was an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples among the Eastern Woodland Native Americans of ...
. Beginning in 1934, Tantaquidgeon worked with the
Bureau of Indian Affairs for more than a decade, including several years among western Native American tribes. Together with her father and brother, in 1931 she founded the
Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum, the oldest to be owned and operated by Native Americans.
She published several books about Native American traditional medicine and healing with plants. For years she preserved vital records and correspondence of tribal members, which proved integral to their making the case for
federal recognition
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
, which the Mohegan received in 1994. That year, Tantaquidgeon was inducted into the
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
The Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (CWHF) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Connecticut for their significant achievements or statewide contributions.
The CWHF had its beginnings in 1993 when a group of volunteers partn ...
.
Biography
Gladys Tantaquidgeon was the third of seven children born to
Mohegan
The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the east ...
parents, John and Harriet Fielding Tantaquidgeon. They lived on Mohegan Hill in Quinnetucket (
Uncasville
Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River where it flows into the Thames River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the ...
, in New London County,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
). She was a 10th-generation descendant of the Mohegan chief
Uncas
Uncas () was a ''sachem'' of the Mohegans who made the Mohegans the leading regional Indian tribe in lower Connecticut, through his alliance with the New England colonists against other Indian tribes.
Early life and family
Uncas was born n ...
, who was prominent in the colonial era. Culturally, the Mohegan tribe is Algonkian; linguistically, they speak one of the many
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically simi ...
. In childhood, Gladys learned traditional practices, beliefs, and lore from ''nanus,'' respected women elders. By age five, the tribal ''nanus'' had chosen her to be schooled in the traditions of Mohegan culture. One of her mentors was the Mohegan traditionalist
Fidelia Fielding
Fidelia Ann Hoscott Fielding ( Smith; September 15, 1827 – July 18, 1908), also known as ''Dji'ts Bud dnaca'' ("Flying Bird"), daughter of Bartholomew Valentine Smith (c. 1811–1843) and Sarah A. Wyyougs (1804–1868), and granddaughter of Mar ...
(1827–1908). From Fielding, she learned the ways of the ''makiawisug'' who guard the healing plants. Another mentor was her maternal aunt, ''Nanu''
Emma Fielding Baker
Emma Tyler Fielding Baker Dec. 5, 1828 - Jan. 20, 1916) was a member of the Mohegan Pequot Indian tribe and was posthumously awarded the title of Mohegan medicine woman in 1992. Medicine women were culture-bearers and required to have an in-depth ...
(1828-1916). In 1992 Baker was posthumously elected by the tribe as the Mohegan Tribal Medicine Woman and was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame for her work in education and preservation. Gladys started studying with her aunt in 1904, specializing in traditional herbal medicine, and attending classes in local schools.
["Running Against Time - Medicine Woman Preserves Mohegan Culture." Alumni Newsletter, Summer 2001, University of Pennsylvania."]
In 1919, at the age of 20, Tantaquidgeon attended the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
to study
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
. Penn anthropologist
Frank Speck
Frank Gouldsmith Speck (November 8, 1881 – February 6, 1950) was an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples among the Eastern Woodland Native Americans of ...
met Gladys as a child while he was working with her ''nanu'' Fidelia Fielding. When Gladys was old enough, Speck invited her to study with him at Penn; he arranged housing with foreign students at his home in Swarthmore, enrolled her in classes, and enlisted her as a fieldwork assistant to broaden her understanding of Native American cultures. Tantaquidgeon later did field work related to the
Lenape and other eastern Algonquian tribes. She expanded her knowledge of traditional
pharmacopeia
A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (from the obsolete typography ''pharmacopœia'', meaning "drug-making"), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by ...
by researching herbal medicine practices among many related East Coast tribes.
From 1934 to 1947, at the time of the
Indian Reorganization Act and the
Indian New Deal under the administration of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, Tantaquidgeon started work with the US
Bureau of Indian Affairs. She was hired in 1934 under the
Wheeler-Howard Act
The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...
to administer social service benefits for Indians. At first she was assigned to the
Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...
.
[Melissa Jayne Fawcett (2000) Medicine Trail: The Life and Lessons of Gladys Tantaquidgeon. Tucson: University
of Arizona Press.]
In 1938 Tantaquidgeon transferred to the
Indian Arts and Crafts Board
The Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior whose mission is to "promote the economic development of American Indians and Alaska Natives through the expansion of the Indian arts and craft ...
to serve as a "Native Arts Specialist". Working in the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming, she helped indigenous artisans preserve traditional skills and arts. In addition, she helped them form cooperatives and other institutions for the sale and management of their arts. She developed ways for tribes to revive their cultural practices. According to the Mohegan Tribal Historian
Melissa Fawcett, while working for the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Tantaquidgeon also helped preserve customs that had been prohibited in the 19th century, such as the
Ghost Dance and the
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains cultures. It usually involves the community gathering together to pray for healing. Individua ...
. Part of Tantaquidgeon's job was to encourage the restoration of these and other previously prohibited traditional practices.
![20131118-OC-RBN-0987](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/20131118-OC-RBN-0987.jpg)
In 1931, Tantaquidgeon worked with her brother Harry, a former chief, and father John to found the
Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum. It is the oldest such museum to be owned and operated by Native Americans. After concluding her government service in 1947, Tantaquidgeon returned to Mohegan Hill, Uncasville. She worked full-time at the museum for the next 50 years, until 1998.
As a librarian in the
Niantic Niantic may refer to:
* Niantic people, tribe of American Indians
* Niantic, Inc., mobile app developer known for the mobile games ''Ingress'' and ''Pokémon Go''
Ships
* ''Niantic'' (whaling vessel), relic of San Francisco Gold Rush
*USS ''Ni ...
Women's Prison in the late 1940s, Tantaquidgeon had helped minority women. During the 1970s and 1980s, she also served on the Mohegan Tribal Council, encouraging the preservation and revival of tribal customs and language. During the 20th century, Tantaguidgeon served as the special guardian of Mohegan Hill
Tantaquidgeon published several books in her lifetime about traditional herbal medicine. Her best-known work,
A Study of Delaware Indian Medicine Practices and Folk Beliefs' (1942) was reprinted in 1972, 1995 and 2000 as
Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians'' In 1992 she was elected as the Tribal Medicine Woman of the Mohegan. She preserved numerous records and tribal correspondence in boxes under her bed. These proved critical as documentation to aid the
tribe's case for federal recognition. The tribe proved community continuity and was acknowledged as federally recognized in 1994, as part of a settlement linked to their claim for the lands that make up the present-day Mohegan reservation.
Dr. Gladys Tantaquidgeon was the great-aunt of
Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel
Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel (born Melissa Jayne Fawcett; March 24, 1960) is a Mohegan author, historian, and storyteller who serves as both the Medicine Woman and Tribal Historian for the Mohegan Tribe. In addition, she is executive director of th ...
, an author and the current Mohegan Medicine Woman.
Legacy, awards and honors
* As an "outstanding role model", Tantaquidgeon was awarded the 'Tiffany Jewel' by the University of Connecticut.
* Connecticut Education Association's Friend of Education Award
* For "consistent endeavor in the area of social justice", she received the
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...
’s Harriet Tubman Award in 1996.
* She received honorary doctorates from the University of Connecticut (Doctor of Humane Letters degree, 1987) and Yale University (1994).
* In 1994, she was inducted into the
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
The Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (CWHF) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Connecticut for their significant achievements or statewide contributions.
The CWHF had its beginnings in 1993 when a group of volunteers partn ...
.
* Her 100th birthday, June 15, 1999, was declared as 'Gladys Tantaquidgeon Day' by Gov.
John G. Rowland of Connecticut;
and it was marked in the U.S. Congress by Hon.
Sam Gejdenson
Samuel Gejdenson (born May 20, 1948) is a former United States Representative for the 2nd Congressional District of Connecticut.
Biography
Born in a displaced persons camp in Eschwege, Allied-occupied Germany, Gejdenson was the child of a Bel ...
.
[Gejdenson, Hon. Sam.]
Marking the 100th Birthday of Gladys Tantaquidgeon
''Congressional Record'' Volume 145, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 23, 1999); Congressional Record Online, Government Printing Office; P. E1365
* Her likeness was carved out of sacred basswood and resides on the Mohegan Reservation.
Notes
;Footnotes
;References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Gladys Tantaquidgeon biography, The Mohegan Tribe, official website
Gladys Tantaquidgeon Collection ''
Hartford Courant'' newspaper articles
Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum Connecticut Office of Tourism
* — Inductee biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tantaquidgeon, Gladys
1899 births
2005 deaths
American centenarians
American women historians
20th-century American anthropologists
20th-century Native Americans
Historians of Native Americans
Indigenous American traditional healers
Native American anthropologists
Native American women in politics
Native American women writers
Native American writers
People from Montville, Connecticut
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Women centenarians
American Folklorists of Color
Mohegan people
Native American people from Connecticut
20th-century American women
20th-century American people
20th-century Native American women
Historians from Connecticut
21st-century Native Americans
21st-century Native American women