March 2024 – Page 2 – Every Girl's Dream

Dr. Gladys Iola Tantaquidgeon, 1899 – 2005

An extremely accomplished woman, Gladys Tantaquidgeon was selected by the female elders of her Mohegan Native American tribe at the age of 5 to become a Medicine Woman. Steeped in tradition, the training for this important position involved extensive education in horticulture, pharmacology and culture. Her impact on her culture and our culture is tremendous.

Her early life of study inculcated Gladys with a deep love of and respect for her Tribal history and mores, subjects which became the focus of her life. In 1919 she began studying Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania under Frank Speck, famous anthropologist whose concentration was the Algonquin and Delaware Tribes of the northeastern United States and the First Nations of Eastern Boreal Canada.

Gladys felt right at home! In the course of pursuing her PhD, she wrote several books including, “A Study of Delaware Indian Medicine Practices and Folk Beliefs.” Published in 1942, this volume has been reprinted three times, starting in 1972, and retitled as “Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonquin Indians.” In the book she lists 84 plants with specific curative powers. Here is a smattering:

The Mohegan Tribe’s site, mohegan.nsn.us, provides a list of Dr. Tantaquidgeon’s incredible accomplishments:

Pursuing an Ivy League education as a non-white woman in the 1920s
Co-founding Tantaquidgeon Museum in 1931
Fighting for civil rights in the mid 1930s
Social work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the mid-to-late 1930s
Economic development work for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, late 1930s and 1940s
Applying her view of social justice to prison in the late 1940s and 1950s
Providing free community education about Indian lifeways 1960s-1990s
Ensuring friendly relations with the town of Montville and all of Connecticut
Preserving traditional Mohegan spirituality
Working to preserve the environment
Writing on traditional Native herbal remedies
Working to save traditional Native ceremonies and artforms
Preserving the meaning of traditional Mohegan symbols
Passing on and recording old Native American stories

Here is a link to a video about Gladys Tantaquidgeon

Sources cited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Tantaquidgeon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Speck

https://archive.org/details/studyofdelawarei00tant/page/n43/mode/2up

https://www.mohegan.nsn.us/about/our-tribal-history/in-memoriam/gladys-tantaquidgeon

Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Medicine Woman, Youtube