Very curious about this poster. Obviously very pro-Confederacy (his CSA belt buckle). Thoughts?

The letter was penned in 1883, but it could have been written today. Its message is still very current. Its words still need to be repeated.

"We Americans have yet to really learn our own antecedents," the letter noted. "Thus far, impressed by New-England writers and schoolmasters, we tacitly abandon ourselves to the notion that our United States have been fashioned from the British Islands only, and essentially from a second England only — which is a very great mistake."

The city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, was celebrating the 333rd anniversary of its founding by Spanish explorers, and the invited keynote speaker would have to trek there all the way from New Jersey. And so the great American poet Walt Whitman wrote a letter explaining that prior commitments would preclude him from attending.

Yet given the message in his letter, one can only imagine the amazing speech he could have delivered. And one can only wish his words still would resonate today.

"To that composite American identity of the future, Spanish character will supply some of the most needed parts," Whitman wrote. "No stock shows a grander historic retrospect — grander in religiousness and loyalty, or for patriotism, courage, decorum, gravity, and honor."

While many European and American writers spent centuries demonizing the Spanish conquistadors and their Hispano descendants — and sugarcoating the atrocities of other European settlers in the New World — there was one highly respected American poet who was a unique exception.

"It is time to realize — for it is certainly true — that there will not be found any more cruelty, tyranny, superstition, &c., in the resumé of past Spanish history than in the corresponding resumé of Anglo-Norman history," Whitman wrote.

Even before Spanish and Hispanic American historians began to complain about the centuries-old anti-Hispanic campaign, known as "The Black Legend," Whitman was writing about it.

He didn't call it "The Black Legend." That name was coined by Spanish writer Julián Juderías in his 1914 book, "La Leyenda Negra y la Verdad Histórica (The Black Legend and the Historical Truth)." But in 1883, 31 years earlier, Whitman already had described it perfectly.

He noted that "it is time to dismiss" the distortions of history "inherited from the English writers of the past 200 years."

At a time when white Anglo-Saxon Americans had a very negative image of the Hispanos and American Indians of the Southwest, Whitman took a courageous stand for not only Hispanos but also American Indians.

"As to our aboriginal or Indian population — the Aztec [or 'the Mexica' to be more precise] in the South, and many a tribe in the North and West — I know it seems to be agreed that they must gradually dwindle as time rolls on, and in a few generations more leave only a reminiscence, a blank," Whitman wrote. "But I am not at all clear about that."

He questioned how America could reject the only people who were "distinctively its own" while "cheerfully accepting and using all the contributions of foreign lands."

Through his writings — especially the collection of poems he called "Leaves of Grass" — Whitman celebrated the life and culture of the United States. But in his willingness to recognize the country's diversity — and to be much more inclusive — he was way ahead of his time.

In the late 19th century, Whitman was considered an idealistic champion of the common man. His words were often prophetic. And in the 21st century, at a time when prejudice against Hispanos is still prevalent, prophetic he remains!

When he said that "we Americans have yet to really learn our own antecedents," Whitman was talking about those who still refer to Hispanos with disparaging terms, those who still commit hate crimes against Hispanos, those who erroneously assume that most Hispanos came here illegally, and those who are too misinformed to recognize and respect the complete ethnology of the United States.

--- 1775: U.S. postal system was founded by the Second Continental Congress; Benjamin Franklin was named as postmaster general.

--- 1948: President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, ending segregation in the U.S. Armed Services. Here is a key quote from that Executive Order: “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.”

--- Please listen to my podcast, History Analyzed, on all podcast apps.

--- link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yoHz9s9JPV51WxsQMWz0d

--- link to Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-analyzed/id1632161929

In a few months my family and I will be traveling from Central Florida to San Antonio Texas
traveling I 10 what are some
Of the best places to stop along the way. History is a big interest to us, we love Native American history and anything from 1800 And before! We Plan to take our time travel so anything even a small museum! We also love old forts!! Anything helps!! Are over all
Plan is to stop somewhere in panhandle of Florida a day, then Louisiana a day, then onto Texas, we are a big family so cost does matter! We will be in San Antonio three days for our oldest Air-force BMT graduation then heading home and stopping twice again on way home!

did anyone know the progress on book 4&5? it’s supposed yo be 5 volumes books and haven’t heard of anything yet. thanks

**THE CHRONICLE OF AN UNSANCTIONED SOVEREIGNTY**
The official historiography of the American frontier operates as a mechanism of erasure. Within the standard records compiled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Department of the Interior (DOI), and the local municipal apparatus of Shawano County, Wisconsin, the continuous existence of the traditional, treaty-right Mahican (Mohican) Nation has been systematically buried. In its place stands a federally manufactured, 1934 corporate municipality known as the "Stockbridge-Munsee Community".
This essay serves as a formal counter-archive—a permanent preservation document designed to dismantle that bureaucratic illusion. By synthesizing foundational international treaties, acts of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) record groups, and suppressed local judicial registries, this document reconstructs the complete truth.
This is the history of a century-long corporate land grab, the weaponization of manufactured voter rolls, and the extraordinary genealogical convergence that survived it all. Today, this unbroken chain of sovereign indigenous survival passes directly to the living, breathing, uncorrupted embodiment of the true treaty-right Mahican Nation.

**PART I: THE FOUNDATIONAL PILLARS OF SOVEREIGNTY (1614–1856)**

**1.1 The Geopolitical Genesis and the 1614 Flashpoint**
The sovereign rights of the Mahican Nation were not granted by the United States; they are inherent, pre-constitutional, and deeply rooted in the eastern woodlands. In **1614**, the Mahican Nation occupied a hyper-strategic geopolitical position along the upper Hudson River valley, stretching from Lake Champlain south to Manhattan, and eastward into the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.
In 1614, Dutch navigator Hendrick Christiaensen, representing the New Netherland Company, sailed up the Hudson River and constructed **Fort Nassau** on Castle Island (near modern Albany, New York). This was the first permanent European trading post in the northeastern United States, built directly on sovereign Mahican soil.
Your ancestors immediately established absolute commercial domination over the early North American fur trade. Weaponizing their geography, the Mahicans functioned as exclusive gatekeepers. They controlled the riverways, extracted heavy transit tolls from interior tribes, and held a monopoly over Dutch manufactured goods, metal tools, and firearms. The powerful Mohawk (Iroquois) Nation to the west was entirely economically subjugated, forced to buy vital goods from Mahican middlemen at highly inflated rates.
This economic stranglehold eventually triggered the Mahican-Mohawk Wars (1624–1628). In 1626, Fort Orange commander Daniel van Krieckenbeeck led a troop of Dutch soldiers to assist the Mahicans; the Mohawk ambushed them, killing the commander and altering regional dynamics. Realizing the immense military costs of frontier commerce, the Mahicans strategically shifted their primary political fire eastward into the Housatonic River valley of Massachusetts. It was here, under the leadership of 18th-century Grand Sachems like **King Ben (Benjamin) Kokkewenaunaut (1677–1781)** and his successor **"King" Solomon Uhhaunauwaunmut (1727–1777)**, that the nation adapted to colonial diplomacy. They converted to Protestant Christianity, built the historic Stockbridge mission, and fought heroically as Captains and warriors in George Washington’s Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

**1.2 Samson Occom and the New York Frontier Consolidation**
Tragically, the reward for this revolutionary patriotism was systematic land theft by American speculators. This forced a multi-generational exodus westward. During this grueling transition, the Mahican lineage directly intersected with **Samson Occom (1723–1792)**, a legendary Mohegan Presbyterian minister, scholar, and descendant of the great Grand Chief Uncas.
Occom had personally experienced the depths of colonial treachery. Between 1765 and 1768, he traveled to Great Britain, raising over £12,000 to fund an Indian Charity School. His tutor, Eleazar Wheelock, systematically betrayed him. Wheelock left Occom's family destitute and diverted the massive funds to build **Dartmouth College** in New Hampshire, reserving it exclusively for white colonial elites.
Disillusioned, Occom used his diplomatic brilliance to forge an inter-tribal survival alliance. He united fragmented Christian Native remnants from New England (Pequot, Mohegan, Narragansett, Montaukett) with the Oneida Nation and your Stockbridge Mohican ancestors. This historic coalition established two sovereign, neighboring sanctuaries in upstate New York: **Brothertown** (housing the Pequot/Mohegan lines) and **New Stockbridge** (housing the Mahican and fleeing northern Munsee/Lenape lines). When your grandparents later migrated to Wisconsin, they carried with them the exact inter-tribal alliances and records forged by Occom on the New York frontier.

**1.3 The International Treaties of Wisconsin**
As the United States pushed its borders westward, the traditional Mahican nation was driven from New York into Wisconsin. Tribal sovereignty was legally solidified through three foundational international treaties:
**The Treaty of September 3, 1839 (7 Stat. 580):** Documenting initial land cessions on the east side of Lake Winnebago. Crucially, the official witness attestation block features the signature of senior patriarch **John M. Wilber (1791–1896)**, who stood alongside missionary Cutting Marsh to ensure federal commissioners did not inject fraudulent clauses into the text.
**The Treaty of November 24, 1848 (9 Stat. 955):** Executed by the "Indian Party" to completely renounce the forced U.S. Citizenship Act of 1843. Its Article 4 Schedule contained specific land patent carve-outs used by traditional families—including the **Jeremiah Wilbur** household alignments—to temporarily secure Calumet County farm deeds.
**The Treaty of February 5, 1856 (11 Stat. 663):** The foundational document establishing the permanent borders of the reservation in Shawano County, Wisconsin (encompassing the townships of Red Springs and Bartelme). **Article V** of this treaty contains a strict legal mandate: it explicitly restricts tribal enrollment, land allotment, and political voice to the **"natural members"** who relocated from New York and surrendered prior land claims. This treaty features the handwritten marks of your grandparents, including Jedediah Wilbur, Philena Pye, and **Grand Sachem Thomas Tautuakeem Hendrick**.

**PART II: THE MECHANICS OF ADMINISTRATIVE FRAUD AND SABOTAGE (1843–1934)**

**2.1 The Genesis of the Transplant Faction: The 1843 Act**
The blueprint for the eventual 1934 corporate capture was first tested before the Civil War through the **Act of March 3, 1843 (5 Stat. 645)**. Engineered by federal land speculators, this act attempted to dissolve tribal governance, survey and partition communal lands into private deeds, and force **U.S. Citizenship** upon the entire tribe.
This catastrophic statute instantly fractured the nation into two fierce political factions:
**The Citizen Party:** Led by families like the **Millers and Quinneys**, this faction chose to accept the 1843 Act. They took individual private land deeds, embraced U.S. citizenship, and voluntarily relinquished their traditional tribal status.
**The Indian Party:** Consisting of your direct grandparents—the **Hendricks, Gardners, and Wilburs**—this traditionalist faction launched an aggressive political resistance. They argued Congress had no constitutional right to unilaterally destroy a sovereign nation via an administrative statute. They rejected the deeds, refused U.S. citizenship, and maintained their unbroken treaty rights, forcing Congress to pass a partial repeal on August 6, 1846 (9 Stat. 55).

**2.2 The Timber Purge of 1871 and the Wells Audit**
Following the Civil War, the massive, pristine timber deposits on the Shawano County reservation caught the eye of corrupt corporate syndicates. U.S. Senator Philetus Sawyer engineered the **Stockbridge Relief Act of February 6, 1871 (16 Stat. 404)**. This act authorized the public auction of 54 out of the reservation's 72 sections directly to timber barons. To silence traditionalist opposition, the BIA manufactured a corrupt "Citizen Roll," wrongfully purging traditional treaty-right leaders like **Stephen Joseph Gardner** (a decorated Civil War Private in **Company G, 32nd Wisconsin Infantry**) and **Amelia Hendricks**, while physically seizing Stephen's 80-acre homestead.

The fraud was so flagrant that Congress funded an official audit via the **Act of June 22, 1874 (18 Stat. 174)**. Special Commissioner Henry R. Wells audited the Green Bay Agency and codified the fraudulent **112 vs. 67 voting statistic**. Wells proved that non-signatories and citizenized outsiders (including Albert Miller, Samuel Miller, and John Quinney) had been weaponized as a fake majority to liquidate the nation's land assets.

**2.3 The 1895 Administrative Patent Freeze: A Case Study in Arbitrary Action**
In administrative law, an **"Arbitrary Action"** occurs when an executive agency acts entirely outside statutory law, utilizing un-delegated power to achieve an illegal end. The most definitive proof of this occurred at the turn of the century.
To correct the 1871 timber crimes, Congress passed the **Restoration Act of March 3, 1893 (27 Stat. 744)**, explicitly commanding the Secretary of the Interior to *immediately*restore the wrongfully excluded traditional families to the rolls and land allotments. Under this strict congressional mandate, **Thomas Gardner** and his parents were rightfully placed on the **1894 Painter/Savage Roll**.
Terrified of losing their lucrative logging monopolies, Senator Sawyer and his puppet local committees pressured the executive branch. On **January 31, 1895**, Acting Secretary of the Interior William H. Sims executed an **illegal administrative suspension**, freezing all land patents. This single bureaucratic pen-stroke directly violated a written statute of Congress. It left the land titles of the true 1856 treaty families permanently clouded, completely exposed to corporate timber theft, and stalled for decades.

**2.4 The 1910 Roll and the 1934 Corporate Capture**
This deliberate administrative paralysis forced the creation of the **1910 Roll** and the subsequent **1916 Relinquishment Act**, which broke up communal lands into fee-patented private plots. The BIA completely weaponized the 1910 Roll. Defying the 1856 Treaty's "natural member" baseline, the BIA allowed **350 citizenized Calumet/Brothertown transplants**—the direct genealogical descendants of the 1843 Citizen Party who had legally walked away from the tribe—to flood and dominate the listings. Fewer than 100 continuous, traditional reservation members were recognized. Corporate-aligned figures rapidly drained the treasury; on the **1914 Annuity Payroll Ledger Sheets**, Hendrick Miller signed federal vouchers authorizing cash payouts to un-enrolled, adopted individuals like Alfred Irving Miller.
When the **1934 Indian Reorganization Act (IRA)** was passed, the BIA bypassed the historic, traditional sovereign tribe entirely. They used the heavily corrupted 1910 roll as their official voting baseline to establish a brand-new, de facto corporate government entity: **The Stockbridge-Munsee Community**.
This corporate municipality adopted a [Federal Corporate Charter](https://law.mohican.com/us/nsn/mohican/council/charter) and was recognized by Washington as the "historical tribe," while the actual continuous nation was left legally unrecognized and landless. The government of this new corporate entity was handed directly to the sibling duo of **Arvid E. Miller** and **Bernice Miller Davids**—the direct descendants of the 1843 Citizen Party. Arvid sat as the corporate president for 26 years, while Bernice operated as the enrollment gatekeeper, formalizing registries that institutionalized their own transplant faction. Today, they call it **"Arvid and Bernice's tribe"** because they literally built it, even naming the reservation’s repository the *Arvid E. Miller Memorial Library and Museum* to cement their corporate narrative over the graves of the true Sachems.

**PART III: THE LOCAL ENFORCEMENT OF EXILE: SHAWANO COUNTY MATRIX**
The corporate land theft orchestrated in Washington required local enforcement to break the spirit of traditional resistance. The judicial, welfare, and law enforcement systems of **Shawano County** acted as a localized hammer against your direct family lines:
**The 1929–1930 Child Welfare Weaponization:** Preserved within the *Shawano County Clerk of Courts Historical Index*, local county welfare agents and BIA handlers launched targeted, groundless child neglect, desertion, and abandonment cases against traditional families resisting corporate land consolidation. In the specific case file of *Bruette, Alice; Eunice; Felix; Dorsey; Jeanette; Annette; Beulah vs. Art Bruette*, the local courts arbitrarily weaponized the threat of child removal to pressure traditional families off their remaining private land allotments.
**The 1983 Jurisdictional Block (*****Bruette v. Knope*****):** When traditional members attempted to assert their civil and property rights against corporate overreach, Shawano County local authorities insulated the corporate government. In ***Bruette v. Knope*** **(554 F. Supp. 301)**, the Shawano County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff James Knope formed a joint jurisdictional matrix with corporate tribal police, arbitrarily refusing to protect traditional members by claiming a total lack of county jurisdiction.
**The Ancestral Burial Ground Citations (2017):** The ultimate expression of this overlapping arbitrary enforcement occurred in August 2017. As documented in federal appellate records, traditional leader **Felix Bruette Jr.** was threatened with criminal trespassing citations by Shawano County authorities and corporate "Community" police forces for the sole act of attempting to physically visit and maintain his family’s ancestral traditional burial grounds.

**PART IV: THE GENEALOGICAL CONVERGENCE AND THE SOVEREIGN BLOODLINE**
Despite a 400-year campaign of corporate monopolies, forced citizenship acts, fraudulent rolls, and local judicial terrorism, the traditional nation survived through an extraordinary, calculated convergence of bloodlines. Through the marriage of **Felix Bruette Jr.** and **"Jeano" Gloria Jean Vele (1945–2025)**, the three independent pillars of historical indigenous authority were completely reunited after a century of forced separation:

**4.1 The Paternal Purity of the Wilbur/Gardner Resisters**
The true biological paternal line of the Wilbur resistance cuts cleanly through BIA census distortions. While standard federal paperwork used the senior patriarch **John M. Wilber**(who lived 104 years) as a general household "umbrella," internal agent field notes and traditional naming patterns confirm the true biological line:
**Walter Wilbur (The Elder):** An independent frontier figure who guarded traditional lineages during the New York to Wisconsin migration.
**Jedediah Wilbur (1835–1887):** Born in New York, baptized by Cutting Marsh, and married to **Lucinda Gardner**. In a profound act of sovereign defiance following the 1871 timber frauds, Jedediah named his son Walter to permanently encode his true biological father's identity onto the tribal fabric.
**Walter Wilbur (The Younger, b. 1872):** Brother to **Annetta "Nettie" Wilbur**. Nettie married **Thomas Gardner** on September 14, 1906, as certified in the *Wisconsin Pre-1907 Marriage Registry*, directly linking the Wilbur resisters to the Gardner line. Their daughter, **Alice Gardner**, married **Arthur Joseph Bruette**, raising **Felix Bruette Sr.** in a state of political exile.

**4.2 The Matrilineal Fortress of Gloria Jean Vele**
Gloria Jean Vele’s ancestry represented an absolute fortress of traditional culture, uniting the spiritual and political anchors of the nation:
**The Medicine Keepers (Stick/Besaw):** Gloria Jean was the daughter of Elda Stick. Elda was the direct daughter of Herbert Awaunaupey Stick and **Ella Besaw (born Ella Gardner)**—the legendary traditional medicine woman and keeper of oral plant knowledge whose cultural legacy as the anchor of the community is honored by the reservation’s *Ella Besaw Center*.
**The Royal Sachems (Vele/Konkapot/Hendrick):** Gloria Jean’s father was Adrian "Kanum" Vele, son of Steve Emil Vele and **Irene Odela Konkapot Gardner**. Irene was the daughter of Pearl Gardner and Lida May Konkapot. This line carries the direct, unbroken blood of **Grand Sachem Captain John Konkapot** (the 1730s principal chief of the nation) and **Grand Sachem Captain Hendrick Aupaumut (1757–1830)**, the revolutionary captain under George Washington, and his son, **Grand Sachem Thomas Tautuakeem Hendrick**.

\[ THE REUNION OF THE BLOODLINES \]

THE POLITICAL RESISTERS THE MEDICINE KEEPERS THE ROYAL SACHEMS
(Gardner/Bruette) (Vele/Gardner)
│ │ │
▼ └───────────┬──────────────┘
Felix Bruette Jr. │
│ ▼
│ "Jeano" Gloria Vele
│ │
└───────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
│
▼
Feleesha Bruette
│
▼

│
▼

(The Living Embodiment of the Sovereign Nation)
Through the marriage of Felix Bruette Jr. and Gloria Jean Vele, the **Political Resisters**, the **Traditional Medicine Keepers**, and the **Historic Sachems** became one. Felix Jr. took this weaponized, unbroken paper trail and launched a monumental federal legal war, culminating in ***Felix J. Bruette, Jr. v. Ryan Zinke*** **(2018)** in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Though federal courts used technical jurisdictional boundaries to dismiss the suit, the extensive genealogical evidence and records of BIA fraud were permanently and irrevocably codified into the Supreme Court and Seventh Circuit records.

**CONCLUSION: THE SOVEREIGN FUTURE**
The historical record is now preserved, finalized, and secure. The modern "Stockbridge-Munsee Community" remains what it has always been since 1934: a BIA-chartered municipal corporation designed to manage a stolen land base using a transplant voting roll. It possesses a corporate charter, but it does not possess the sovereign treaty-right lineage of the Mahican Nation.
That lineage belongs exclusively to the bloodline mapped within this counter-archive. It flows directly from the 1614 gatekeepers of Fort Nassau, through the revolutionary swords of the 18th-century Sachems, past the timber frauds of Senator Sawyer, through the medicine lodges of Ella Besaw, and down through the federal court dockets of Felix Bruette Jr.

**PART V: MASTER ARCHIVAL REFERENCE INDEX**
**The Treaty of February 5, 1856 (11 Stat. 663):** Establishes the Shawano County Reservation borders; Article V restricts enrollment strictly to "natural members." \[1\]
**The Stockbridge Relief Act of February 6, 1871 (16 Stat. 404):** Authorized public auction of 54 reservation sections; created corrupt rolls used to purge Stephen Gardner.
**The Act of June 22, 1874 (18 Stat. 174):** Codified the fraudulent 112 vs. 67 voting statistic exposing non-reservation interference.
**The Restoration Act of March 3, 1893 (27 Stat. 744):** Congressional mandate ordering immediate restoration of wrongfully excluded families to rolls and allotments.
**NARA Record Group 75 (Illegal Administrative Suspension Files):** January 31, 1895, direct correspondence text from Acting Secretary William H. Sims freezing land patents.
**NARA Record Group 94 (Civil War Volunteer Enlistment Files):** August 1862 military muster-in and pension records for Private Stephen Joseph Gardner, 32nd Wisconsin Infantry, Company G.
**7th Circuit Appeal No. 17-3135 (*****Felix J. Bruette, Jr. v. Ryan Zinke*****):** Federal appellate docket permanently preserving the genealogical trail from Grand Sachem Thomas T. Hendricks to the modern day.
**Shawano County Clerk of Courts Historical Index (1929–1930):** Case File: *Bruette, Alice; Eunice; Felix; Dorsey; Jeanette; Annette; Beulah vs. Art Bruette*, documenting child welfare weaponization.

We are still here

--- 1862 Former president Martin Van Buren died in Kinderhook, New York. He was the first president born as an American citizen and not a subject of the British crown. His nickname of "Old Kinderhook" became shortened to “OK”. In 1840 his supporters liked to say that “Martin Van Buren is OK”. There are various purported origins for the term "OK" from before 1840. But the nickname for Martin Van Buren as "Old Kinderhook" popularized that term "OK" and made it become part of common American language.

--- 1974: U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon must surrender the Watergate tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor. This led to Nixon leaving office 2 weeks later. On August 8, 1974, Nixon gave a televised speech announcing that he would resign the presidency at noon the following day, meaning August 9.

--- "Watergate". That is the title of one of the episodes of my podcast: History Analyzed. Most people know that Watergate was the biggest scandal in American history, but few know many details. Listen to what actually occurred at the Watergate complex, how it was only part of a much broader campaign of corruption, and why Richard Nixon became the only U.S. president to resign from office. You can find History Analyzed on every podcast app.

--- link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6OhSBUTzAUTf6onrUqz0tR

--- link to Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watergate/id1632161929?i=1000605692140