the vast lane
Kateri, could you be my cousin?

by flynn j. ell
prairie bear ink editor

Been awhile since I've written one of these.

I have told people I spent a lot of time exploring my genealogy. Among my treasure finds has been my Anishinabe grandmother Marie Miteouamigoukoue, born 1631/32.

I have had her name translated twice and picked up another and they come out like this, Medicine Fish Woman, Swamp Medicine, Shakes the Tent Woman--all indicating she was a medicine woman.

Her first husband was killed in a Mohwak raid and two children were killed or captured in about 1652. Then Swamp Medicine, a Catholic convert, went on to marry Pierre Couc.

They were married over 30 years, I think, and had several children among whom was my next direct-line ancestor Marguerite Couc.

They pretty much defied all the malarky written about when a French man married an Indian woman. Take your pick of the low-road stories and I will simply reply it is obvious to me Couc and the medicine woman were in love.

The plot thickens when we learned in our research that the mother of the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is believed to be from the same band as my ancestor and she was captured by the Mohawks. Her name was Kahenta, Flower of the Prairie. I guess I would have called her Prairie Rose.

Kahenta was taken as the wife of a Mohawk chief and they had two children, one of whom was Kateri. All of the family except this one little Indian girl was lost in a smallpox epidemic. (You should keep in mind that Indians believe that white men introduced smallpox to get rid of them.)

How this all comes together is that I had never heard of Kateri until I went to church at Twin Buttes and Mandaree and heard Fr. Stephen Kranz lead his congregation in prayer for her canonization. I thought they were talking about Sakakawea.

Now the story goes by a researcher, Norm Leveillee back East, that because our common ancestor Swamp Medicine was one of the members of the same small tribe who converted as did Kateri's mother Kahenta, we are probably cousins.

Whether Kateri and I are cousins or not, I share the blood line of the Anishinabe people with her and I've always prayed for somebody in my family to become a saint.

I'm hoping that this will serve to explain to you why you will be seeing so much Kateri Tekakwitha stuff developing on my site.

Let me leave you with this thought. Kateri was only 24. If she isn't a saint, why would I be writing about an Indian girl who died 324 years ago?

Ed. note: This collection of material on Blessed Karteri has been compiled by me from internet sources. I have been urged to do this because my genealogy matches that of the gentleman, Norm Leveillee, who wrote the below piece. We are both grandsons of Marie Miteouamigoukoue, who was of the same Weskarini, Algonkin (Anishinabe) tribe as Kateri's mother Kahenta. More to come. And for those in our area who have prayed to Kateri and received a healing and would like to report it but need some help, contact me:

Flynn J. Ell
10830 Spring Creek Rd.
Killdeer, ND 58640
Ph: 701 764 5859
E-mail: fell@ctctel.com

Yes, we want to help Kateri become a saint of the Catholic Church.

Marie Miteouamigoukoue to Flynn J. Ell

Marie M. Miteouamigoukoue Generation 1
#349 b. abt. 1632 ? Jan. 8, 1699
m. April 16, 1657
Pierre Couc
#348 (ABT 1627 - dec.)

Marguerite Couc Lafleur Generation 2
#1363 b. June 1, 1664 -
m. before Dec. 31, 1686
Jean dit Maconce Fafard
#1362 b. Sept. 17 1657 - ABT 1700

Marie Anne Fafard Generation 3
#1331 b. 1697 - Sept. 29, 1752
m. before April 15, 1723
Louis Javillon Lafeuillade
#1330 ( - dec.)

Angelique Lafeuillade Generation 4
#1960 Aug. 15, 1717
m. April 9, 1736
Antoine Quesnel
#342 Oct. 22, 1737 - Aug. 17, 1827

Marie Angelique Quesnel Generation 5
#1958 b. Aug. 15, 1715
m. Jan. 1, 1743
Francois de Sales Seguin
#1957 b. Sept. 14, 1740

Marie Angelique Seguin Generation 6
#1953 ( - dec.)
m. Aug. 4, 1777
Joseph Marie Lalonde
#1952 b. March 5, 1751/52

Hyacinthe 2 Lalonde Generation 7
#1954 b. Feb. 10, 1785
m. Feb. 26, 1816
Josephete Montpetit
#1951 ( - dec.)

Julian Lalonde Sr. Generation 8
#47 b. March 6, 1829 - July 9, 1905
m. June 8, 1857
Philomene Rodrigue Ladrigue
#48 b. Dec. 24, 1839 - Jan. 6, 1894

Philomene Marie Lalonde Generation 9
#44 b. May 31, 1859 - dec.
m. May 7, 1880
Cyrille Marcotte
#43 b. Aug. 3, 1842 - Aug. 19, 1904

Mathilda Marcotte Generation 10
#36 b. March 31, 1888 - July 8, 1969
m. 1908
Frank Flynn
#35 b. Aug. 20,1880 - Nov. 17, 1964

Isabelle Flynn Generation 11
#3 b. Jan. 16, 1910 - Dec. 5, 1987
m. Nov. 22, 1930
Philip A. Ell
#2 B. Oct. 10, 1912 - Aug. 11, 1992

Flynn J. Ell Generation 12
#1 b. May 22 1936 -
m. Jan. 2, 1959
Karin Hahn
b. Feb. 15. 1939
9-greats Grandchild
2 Siblings
6 Descendants

Kateri Tekakwitha

Lily of the Mohawks
1656-1680

Tekakwitha was born of a Mohawk chief and a Christian Algonkin.

During the raids by the Mohawk around Trois-Rivieres, Quebec around 1650-1653, the Mohawks abducted Algonquins and French colonists.

One of the Algonquin maidens was Kahontake or Kahenta, who found favor with the Chief Tsaniton-gowa . He took Kahontake as his wife. Born of this union were Tekakwitha and a baby boy.

The Algonquins in Trois-Rivieres belong to the Weskarini clan of Sachem Pachirini at that time.

One of my ancestors, through the Léveillee lineage, was Marie Mite8ameg8k8e was first married to Assababich and had two children with him. These two children were abducted at the same time as Kahontake and their father Assababich was killed by the Mohawks in 1652. In 1657,Mite8ameg8k8e married Pierre Couc, a French colonist and farmer in Trois-Rivières. Marie was a member of Sachem Pachirini's clan.

I have as yet not found documented proof that Mite8ameg8k8e and Kahontake were related. However, the fact that both women were of the same clan seems to indicate some sort of kinship. It is probable that Kahontake was related to my eight great-grandmother, Marie Mite8amig8k8e.

With this probability in mind, I feel a kinship to, and that I am related to, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.

The above is based on the following:

1.Chief Tsaniton-gowa of the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk tribe, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois was the father of Tekakwitha.
2.Kahontake or Kahenta was the Christian Algonkin mother of Tekakwitha.
3.As the Algonkin tribe was being pushed away from the Michimillimac region by the Iroquois and Hurons, it split into the christian and non-Christian bands in the vicinity of Ottawa. The Christian Weskarini clan under Sachem Pachirini was driven east by the Iroquois attacks in that region. The Weskarini tribe settled in Trois-Rivieres.
4.The Mohawk-Iroquois conducted many raids in the St-Lawrence valley, especially around Trois-Rivieres from 1650-1688.

There was a raid in the spring of 1652 during which the Iroquois abducted French and Algonkin children and women while killing many Weskarini warriors and French soldiers.

Therefore, based on the facts above, I can fairly assume that Kahontake and Mite8ameg8k8e's two children were part of the 1652 abduction, and that her husband Assababich was one of the warriors killed in the attack on Trois-Rivières. Until I can find documented proof, it will remain an acceptable assumption.--Norm Leveillee