HERITAGE
Salute to the Pioneers on Sunday
American Indian storyteller to be the featured speaker for this year's festivities at Indian Creek Church.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
REILY TWP. — Fred Shaw's career as an American Indian storyteller started with a scare when he was just a little boy.
"My second-grade teacher took me out into the hall one day," he said. "Of course, you think you're going to die."
Fred Shaw, also known as the American Indian storyteller Neeake, will be the featured speaker at the annual Salute to the Pioneers to be held at historic Indian Creek Church and Burial Ground at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 18.Instead, she said, "Fred, there's something about you that's different and it's special. I know your parents don't talk about it, but there are other people out there who don't think it's so special, and I'm afraid one of them will tell you."
And she went on to tell him about his American Indian ancestry, for as it turns out, her ancestors had perjured themselves on legal documents many decades earlier to allow his ancestors to purchase the land he grew up in near Zanesville. Since then, their families kept the secret while his family lived as though they were white.
"I went home that night and told my parents what I learned," he said. "They just said, 'Yeah,' and that was it. My dad did teach me things about the culture, but it was done very subtly, very quietly."
So he began to learn the stories of his people, the Shawnee nation, eventually taking the name Neeake — which means "he talks as he flies" and is the Shawnee name for the Canadian goose.
"I learned from the elders," he said. "There were still pockets of people around, and I also used a lot of my college and graduate work to do research from collections that had been done by anthropologists and then use what I learn from the storytellers to breathe life back into them."
And he eventually married the girl next door, which renewed his relationship with his second grade teacher, who became his mother-in-law, and became a Methodist minister, currently serving at the Oxford United Methodist Church.
Shaw will deliver "Life Gives to Life: Stories of the Shawnee," at the annual Salute to the Pioneers on Sunday at the Indian Creek Church and Burial Ground in Reily.
The event will also feature singing by the Old Time Music Group and will be followed by a social hour with punch and cookies.
Salute to the Pioneers
Where: Indian Creek Church and Burial Ground,
Indian Creek Road, Reily Twp.
When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 18
Cost: Free
More info: (513) 867-5835
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
