Learn more about the missionary Pond brothers, Gideon and Samuel, who made the first attempts to record Dakota language in writing.
My Bits and Pieces
By Lisa Ferguson
(A descendent of Cloudman and Sam & Gideon Pond)
We don’t just exist. We are the result of existence. And, all I’ve ever known are bits and pieces of who and where my existence comes from. I’ve been told I’m Scottish, Italian, German and 1/64 Native American. At least, that’s what I remember my mom telling me when I was a young child. I just ordered a dna test yet to confirm those bits and pieces, but, in the meantime, I carry with me 40 years of paperwork that connects me to my Dakota lineage, to two missionaries from Connecticut, Samuel and Gideon Pond (also known as the “Pond Brothers”) and to Lake Bde Maka Ska.
Cloudman is my 5th Great Grandfather. His daughter, Hushes the Night, is my 4th Great Grandmother and, her daughter, Jane Lamont, is my 3rd Great Grandmother. So, I am the 8th generation down from Cloudman. I was told by a historian I met many years ago about a concept called the “7th generation”. As he told it, it’s to re-tell a story again. That stuck in my head so I did some research and found out that there is something called the Seventh (or 7th) Generation Principle in which the idea is that those who make decisions today must consider how it will affect our descendants seven generations into the future.* So, my relation to Bde Maka Ska, is a direct result of the choices made by my 4th Great Grandmother, Hushes the Night. According to Grandma Jane’s obituary, Hushes the Night, asked Samuel Pond and his wife, Cordelia, to care for Jane at the age of 10 or 11 for reasons that have not been confirmed. They graciously took her in and she followed their missionary lifestyle. Eventually, she became a teacher at missionary schools around the area. So, my family’s existence continues to live in the local area of the Lake, is due to Jane’s existence living with the Pond family.
Grandma Jane is the person I know the most about as there are many written texts about her and her life on the Lake and other places as well as with the Pond brothers, Sam and Gideon. I have one photo of her with her family.
I feel lucky to say I can visit my Grandma Jane’s in-the-ground headstone to this day at an old Shakopee cemetery alongside with my other Great Grandpa, Jane’s husband, Starr Titus (who is a Pond descendent). Recently, I was able to “unearth” her headstone and bring her back to life after many years hidden beneath two inches of grass and dirt. She was born in 1827 and died in 1899. Today, that’s 119 years since her death! When I visit, I continue to clean her headstone and say “hello”. Then I don’t really say much else. I say hello to my Grandpa Titus too. His tombstone is above ground and is big and withering away from the exterior elements. The cemetery is ridiculously old and so quiet even among the busy Shakopee roads that surround it.
Links recommended by Lisa Ferguson
“Who Was Jane Lamont?: Anglo-Dakota Daughters in Early Minnesota”
“The Life and Times of Cloudman: A Dakota Leader Faces Changing Times”
