Nicole Charky. Photo from Twitter
Inspired by the struggles told in the award-winning film The Revenant, journalist Nicole Charky shares the story of her Tonawanda Seneca great-great grandmother, who was adopted out of her tribal community in New York at a young age:
We all live with mysteries — some of us more than others. For me, and my mother's side of my family, we have always wondered what life was like for our Native American ancestors, the ones left dead by an entire generation of people. When I watched Alejandro González Iñárritu's "The Revenant" I finally had some idea of what it must have been like for my great-great grandmother, a Tonawanda-Seneca Indian, who according to my grandparents, was raped by a German man in New York state near the border of Canada. It's miles from where Hugh Glass, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, fought so hard to survive. And although there are varying tales about Glass on the frontier — and just how much of folklore kept his story alive — I can tell you this: The story of "The Revenant" is very much alive in many people today. I'm one of them. The epic Academy Award-nominated film is a revenge saga set in the 1820s, and it is projected to win big on Sunday night according to Vox. But beyond the award shows, in real families, it's changing how Native American descendants like me view our history. It's forcing me to talk about a past I never really thought my family had, one we've been quiet about, or haven't always had a chance to imagine in mainstream films. It's creating opportunities for me to challenge what I was force-fed in my elementary school books, and giving me a chance to reach out to my family across the country. For me, the film inspired me to revisit my great-grandmother's adoption papers and letters from the U.S. Department of Social Welfare that she received one day in the mail. A surprise none of our family expected.Get the Story:
Nicole Charky: 'The Revenant' Is Actually Helping Me Solve a Family Mystery (ATTN 2/27)
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