Woven Through the Sweetgrass

This book contains essays written by Claudia (Mason) Chicklas (1926-2008), a mixed-race daughter of an Abenaki Indian woman and an “Old Yankee” white man. Claudia grew up in the Marlboro/Keene, NH area and lived her middle and later years in Massachusetts. The book has been compiled and edited by her 2 daughters, Joyce (Chicklas) Heywood and Margaret (Chicklas) Perillo to include family history and experiences of the Native American side of the family, dating from the 1870s to the late 1990s. It takes the reader through the beginnings of Claudia’s grandfather, Israel Sadoques’ married life with Mary (Watso) Sadoques; their beginnings on the Indian reserve (Odanak) in Canada; their journey to CT and their subsequent arrival in Keene, NH; to stories of their 12 children (8 of whom survived to adulthood); to Israel and Mary’s children’s old age; and right on to Claudia’s own older years. It depicts not only how their race affected their lives and how they worked to overcome discrimination