30. november 2023 An Invasive Species

    My then-six year old Ojibwe grandson, Ozaawaa, asked me, as I knew one day he would, "Grandpa, are you Native?" to which I answered, "No Ozaawaa, I'm not. I'm about as faraway from being Native as I can get." 

    And he replied, "Maybe you're Native, but your mother never told you  Grandpa. I really need you to be Native."

    How would I explain to him that my Scot-Irish ancestors, on my father's side, were initially brought here from Northern Ireland as a historic military force for the protection of Puritan settlements against the Indians, and in fact, were viewed as savages in their own right owing to their behavior on and off the battlefields?

  The history book, "Born Fighting: How The Scots-Irish Shaped America," by author James Webb (Broadway Books, NYC, 2004, I think, infers the Scots-Irish were comparable to an out of control invasive species introduced to control Indians and everyone else who got in their way. Some were even lured by Pennsylvania's proprietors into settling along the Maryland border [where my father's family originated) where they might be happy in creating a frontier line against Maryland's Catholics; (not a tough sell in those days.)

    One Pennsylvania government official who had initially promoted the emigration of the Scots-Irish, to settlements that he had created along the mountains west of Philadelphia, lamented ten years later, " ... that five families from the North of Ireland gave him more trouble than fifty of any other people, being troublesome to the government and hard neighbors to the Indians. It was as if their natural makeup demanded turmoil. They show no hesitation in pushing into Indian territory and settling on lands claimed [by them] ... the Scots-Irish aggressiveness helped light the torch of Indian resentment than discourage it. 

      Although Joe McDonnell, a.k.a. Chairman Joe gave me this book about 10-years ago, I think I will re-gift this book to Ozaawaa, now 13, as there is great mention of Scottish warriors, tribes, clans, and chiefs. It's a good read.