What are my tribes? Where does my body belong?

  
     I have been reading Mac Macartney's book, The Children's Fire. He is English, but had the opportunity to work with Native American teachers. At one point he was asked who his tribes are. He responded that he's English. They said no, who are your tribes. He began to name the ancient Celtic tribes, although he had to use the names the Romans gave them. I started thinking about this question.
     I am somewhat of a mix of Northern European: Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, English, Scots, Irish, and German. That's a heck of a lot tribes. I suppose I could name all the old Celtic tribes along with Mac Macartney. Then I suppose Angles and Saxons. Not sure what the original Scandinavian tribes were. Should I include Picts as they were from the area now known as Scotland? I just don't know.
     I also saw a video somewhat recently by a Pima woman who talked about her body belonging where she was born but that most white people's bodies don't tolerate the climate because that's not where they evolved. I thought about this question as well. I suppose the closest I could come is somewhere in Great Britain where the climate is a tad more on the temperate side. Despite all the Scandinavian, I am cold sensitive, yet here I am in Vermont, born in Illinois (we can talk about wind chill factor some other time) and lived in Massachusetts for a time. In fact, my parents told me that I was allergic to cold when I was a small child. I don't really remember that, but my father was a doctor and would have known what he was talking about.
     So, here I am, living on other people's land (Wabanaki Confederacy/Abenaki/Abenaquis). I grew up on the land of the Klikaapoi (Kickapoo), Peoria, Miami, and Oceti Sakowin (Souix; can't do the diacritical marks with my keyboard). I lived on the land of the Pawtucket, close to the land of the Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett) when I lived in the Boston area. (I found all this on https://native-land.ca/). I won't list the tribes on whose land I went to college. I moved around a bit as an undergrad.
     Yet, I was born in the US. I grew up here. I didn't and don't feel called to move to another country. Maybe my body doesn't belong here. Maybe my ancestral tribes are from somewhere else. But, here I am. All I know is that my life journey has taken me from Illinois to Massachusetts to Vermont. I feel that Vermont is where I am supposed to be now. I think it will be long term, but that could change. Maybe I am just not supposed to live where any of my tribes are from or where my body "belongs".

****
Please click here if you would like to know more about me or my services. The picture is a view from a local park looking at the Connecticut River.

Comments