FAMILY TIES

Writing

Again, not too much going on here at the moment. Hoping that will change soonish, but we'll see. I am taking a class through LitReactor: "Reclaiming Archetypes in Witch Lit," taught by Stephanie M. Wytovich. Starts today; should be fun. Witches! Writing! Whee!

Everything Else

So, I've been working more on my family history. Some cool/interesting things I have learned:

My great-great-great-great grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Lafontaine (you do NOT want to know how many Jean-Baptiste Lafontaine/LaFountains there were back then - almost as many as Marie Magdelene/Madeleines) fought in the Battle of Seven Oaks, a decisive battle in the Pemmican War.

His grandson, my great-great grandfather, Antoine Lafontaine (mentioned below), was a captain under Gabriel Dumont during the 1885 Northwest Resistance.

Either one of my great-great-great-grandfather's sons named Jean-Baptiste LaFountain (I TOLD you) or a cousin of theirs with that name migrated to Montana around 1879 with several of his other sons (Antoine, Octave, Bernard) and some of his daughters (Philomene, Virginie) and their husbands and basically founded Lewistown, MT with several other related Métis families. J-B was blind, and the place where he built his home was named "Blind Breed Gulch" after him, because Métis were contemptuously called "Breeds" back then. This feature (a ravine) & name still exist on maps of the area.

My third cousin, once removed (or possibly my first cousin, twice removed - still trying to sort that out - but it's one of the two), Louis F. LaFountain, was a tribal leader of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (TMBCI) from 1959-1961. Apparently he and his brother Albert were...difficult. Glad to see that family trait still going strong amongst all the various branches, heh.

My first cousin, once removed, Alex J. LaFountain, was a renowned artist who studied under Charles M Russell. He died a few months after I was born when he drowned trying to save a swimmer in trouble. This is one of his sculptures, "The Price of Freedom":

Another first cousin, once removed, Robert E. LaFountain, was the first Métis mayor of Lewistown. Him and some of that branch I've actually met. Turns out my mom didn't estrange everyone. (Well, at least not all at the same time.)

So, yeah. Trying to reconnect to your heritage in your almost fifties isn't the easiest thing in the world, but it's filling a hole I never really realized/acknowledged was there, so, there's that, anyway.

Stay safe, everyone! Let's outlast this hellyear together!