Born Marcine Dalene Quenzer,  I was conceived just after the war of the gourd of ashes.  I was raised in rural Meridian, Idaho. I graduated from Meridian High and attended B.S.U. when it was yet just a community college.  I have roots in this area as a third generation and with my children and their children now five generations in this valley. When I lost my home in Oklahoma, this was the only place to land.

AS a child, I was the Indian. Mom has pictures of me in the old aluminum wash tub, that rival any archival photos. In grade school, I was the Indian Princess that Gordy DeWaard  rescued when we played Indians & cowboys or the Fort....  Imagine my chagrin when I discovered there was something called blood quantum and I didn't have any that could be traced. LOL The lack of degree of Indian blood could not squelch my love of the Indian Culture, nor my preference for copper colored  men. So when this tall, handsome hunk with black hair, black eyes, long legged levis and cowboy boots,  said he would teach me about Indian ways, I was a goner.

 It is through him, that I was introduced to Longhouse ways, and learned of Hiawatha. That he was a real culture hero of the Iroquois. and he had two friends who worked with him; the Peacemaker whose mission it was to establish peace to the four corners of the earth, and the Great Peace Woman and Mother of Nations who taught the people forgiveness and love so that they could live in peace, and the well known Haiwatha who joined the cause as statesman. This story based in Historical Fact took hold of me and became my passion or some have called it obsession. For 15 years, I gathered

everything that I could find on it. For 10 years, I did a Green Corn T-shirts, using some part of the story I had learned as the illustration, asking the Head Clan Mother for permission to use many of the  pieces I had painted. I filled my Museum with paintings inspired by this story.

Shortly after opening the Museum,  Jake Thomas and his wonderful wife Yvonne stopped to visit at our Museum. Jake, now passed, was the last condoled hereditary chief of the Cayuga at Six Nations. He knew all the ceremonies and the languages of the Haudenosaunee. He gave us 2 hours on the Condolence Cane, and Yvonne left me books they had compiled of  teachings. Yvonne helped with the very first presentation at the Olympics and I am indebted to her for her kindness and support. When I went to New York, others added more information, and so the story grew.

My husband was trained as a youth to be a ceremonial leader but when his opportunity came to serve the people, he selfishly refused, and his name was taken from the Tribal Rolls. Later he encountered serious problems in his life, like prison. None the less, he was a Great Teacher. As my senior by 13 years,  he is a walking History Book and taught me Indian ways, but he also was good at teaching what not to do. I watched him systematical destroy every good thing we had created together.  He was a total education.  I hope I was as good a student.

I honor him for all the lessons that he taught me. It was prophesied when he was young that he would do a great thing for the People. He is now in his 70's, his only claim is to infamy.  I hope that bringing me to the people is that great thing.  I would like to honor those who have taken me in to share their lives and their love, and taught  me their beautiful ways. My paintings were to be that Honor that I could bestow on these beautiful people. ...  Grandma Mandy, Mom Rosie, Aunt Hazel, .......  and others that now have passed along the strawberry lined path in the sky such as Aunt Mary, beloved friend Evelynn, Mom Maude, Uncle Richard, Uncle Buck, Auntie Christine..... 

There was no one else who could give to me this education to prepare me for this work. In the northern country, only blood Haudenosaunee are allowed at the ceremonies, in spite of the Peacemaker's directive for the Great Peace to go to the Four Corners of the Earth. Because of too many Whites treachery and deceit, the Ceremonies were closed for the Haudenosaunee protection and remain that way. Only in Oklahoma, are all people still welcome under the boughs of the  Tree of Peace. There I was taken in, attended ceremonies, I served at memorial dinners, even cooked.  At one time I could make all the Indian dishes. Corn Soup and Hominy and Beef being my favorites, and Grape Dumplings.  Fry bread seem to be temperamental, sometimes it was great and other times,  it made better frisbees.

And it is there in Oklahoma, where I had a native museum and a culture center where my husband taught ancient songs, and social dances, and we helped youth to make outfits and enter the dance circle at pow wows. I can make all forms of dance clothes, feather work, moccasins, beadwork,  and make my own clothes. The youth drum under Sonny Waters, Pawnee, has won at many pow wows, and the youth social dance group organized by shell shaker Yvonne Perryman, Mohawk,  went to the Winter Olympics 2002.  One of our kids,  Scott Mommaday,  won a stomp dance contest over a lot of old timers including my husband.  Oh that kid can sing. Kiowa he is but he can sing those stomp dance songs. 

It is there, that I learned to love a people so much that when I was forced to leave, it tore my heart from my chest and crushed it to the ground. Even after four years, it is still hard....  I love the Indian ways. I love the real  people. I love the pow wows and the stomp dances. I love the beautiful youth who would dance at our place til early morning. I love our grounds that knew so many wonderful celebrations. I loved our Center  we had rebuilt, and had so many gatherings. That was the life of yesteryear. Gone. Never to be again. I think I understand in a small way, the Native perspective of what it is to have your home, your way of life, the people you love,  ripped from you so another can have it.

But now I have the opportunity to create in my future anything that I desire. and perhaps the world will now be my pow wow grounds, where I can dance with joy, and love, and all peoples be my Nation. 

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