Princess Red Wing, aka Mary E. (Glasko) Congdon, (March 21, 1896 – December 2, 1987) was a Narragansett and

Pokanoket The Pokanoket (also spelled PakanokickKathleen J. Bragdon, ''Native People of Southern New England, 1500–1650'', page 21) are a group of Wampanoag people and the village governed by Massasoit (c. 1581–1661), chief sachem of the Wampanoag pe ...

elder, historian, folklorist, and museum curator. She was an expert on American Indian history and culture, and she once addressed the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Biography

"Princess Red Wing" was born Mary E. Glasko on March 21, 1896, in

Sprague, Connecticut Sprague is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The town was named after William Sprague III, who laid out the industrial section. The population was 2,967 at ...

to Walter and Hannah Glasko (née Weeden). She said that her mother chose to call her Princess Red Wing after the

red-winged blackbird The red-winged blackbird (''Agelaius phoeniceus'') is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North America and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and ...

"to fling her mission far with grace". Her mother was a

and her father was a Narragansett, and she was related to prominent Native Americans such as Simeon Simons, who fought with

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

, and

Metacomet Metacomet (c. 1638 in Massachusetts – August 12, 1676), also known as Pometacom, Metacom, and by his adopted English name King Philip,King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodland ...

against the colonies in New England in the 1670s. Red Wing was the co-founder and editor of ''

The Narragansett Dawn The Narragansett Dawn' was a monthly newspaper that discussed the history, culture and language of the Narragansett tribe. It was produced in 1935 and 1936, with a total of seventeen issues. Princess Red Wing and Ernest Hazard were the paper's ...

'' tribal newspaper which was published from 1935 to 1936. She became "Squaw

Sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Alg ...

" of the New England Council of Chiefs in 1945, a position which allowed her to preside over sacred ceremonies and festivals. She was also a prominent storyteller in the Narragansett community, keeping alive the oral traditions of her tribe. She preserved their history by founding the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum in Rhode Island. From 1947 to 1970, she served as a member of the Speaker's Research Committee of the under-secretariat of the United Nations. In 1975, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of human affairs by the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...

. In 1978, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. Red Wing was married to Horace Peek until his death in 1927, then to Daniel Congdon from 1936 to his death in 1959. She died on December 2, 1987, at age 91 and was buried in

Pascoag, Rhode Island Pascoag ( or ) is a census-designated place (CDP) and village in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 4,577 at the 2010 census. Pascoag is one of eight villages that make up the town of Burrillville. Geography Pasco ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Wing, Princess 1896 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Native American people 20th-century American philanthropists American storytellers American women historians Historians of Native Americans Museum founders Narragansett people People from Sprague, Connecticut Wampanoag people Women storytellers 20th-century American women 20th-century Native American women Historians from Connecticut American women curators American curators