Princess Red Wing, aka Mary E. (Glasko) Congdon, (March 21, 1896–December 2, 1987) was a Narragansett and

Wampanoag The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 17 ...

elder, historian, folklorist, and museum curator. She was an expert on American Indian history and culture, and she once addressed the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Biography

"Princess Red Wing" was born Mary E. Glasko on March 21, 1896 in Sprague, Connecticut to Walter and Hannah Glasko (née Weeden). She said that her mother chose to call her Princess Red Wing after the

red-winged blackbird The red-winged blackbird (''Agelaius phoeniceus'') is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North America and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and ...

"to fling her mission far with grace". Her mother was a

Pokanoket The Pokanoket (also spelled PakanokickKathleen J. Bragdon, ''Native People of Southern New England, 1500–1650'', page 21) was the village governed by Massasoit (Wampanoag, c. 1581–1661). The term broadened to refer to all peoples and lands go ...

and her father was a Narragansett, and she was related to prominent Native Americans such as

Simeon Simons Simeon Simon (1759-1835) was George Washington's bodyguard and a chief of the Pokanoket people. Life Simon was born in Griswold, Connecticut (called Pachaug at the time) in 1759 during the French and Indian Wars, and died in 1835 at age 76. A car ...

, who fought with

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

, and

Metacomet Metacomet (1638 – August 12, 1676), also known as Pometacom, Metacom, and by his adopted English name King Philip,King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

against the colonies in New England in the 1670s. Red Wing was the co-founder and editor of ''

The Narragansett Dawn ''The Narragansett Dawn'' was a monthly newspaper that discussed the history, culture and language of the Narragansett tribe. It was produced in 1935 and 1936, with a total of seventeen issues. Princess Red Wing and Ernest Hazard were the paper's ...

'' tribal newspaper which was published from 1935 to 1936. She became "Squaw

Sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

" of the New England Council of Chiefs in 1945, a position which allowed her to preside over sacred ceremonies and festivals. She was also a prominent storyteller in the Narragansett community, keeping alive the oral traditions of her tribe. She preserved their history by founding the

Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum The Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum is an Indigenous museum in Exeter, Rhode Island. The museum was founded by anthropologist Eva Butler and a Narragansett and Wampanoag woman named Princess Red Wing in the 1950s. It is one of the oldest tribal ...

in Rhode Island. From 1947 to 1970, she served as a member of the Speaker's Research Committee of the under secretariat of the United Nations. In 1975, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of human affairs by the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

. In 1978, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. Red Wing was married to Horace Peek until his death in 1927, then to Daniel Congdon from 1936 to his death in 1959. She died on December 2, 1987 at age 91 and was buried in Pascoag, Rhode Island.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Wing, Princess 1896 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Native Americans 20th-century philanthropists American storytellers American women historians Burials in Rhode Island Historians of Native Americans Museum founders Narragansett people People from Sprague, Connecticut Wampanoag people Women storytellers 20th-century American women 20th-century Native American women Historians from Connecticut American women curators American curators