Thanksgiving Week 2019

Happy Thanksgiving turkeys

This weekend kicks off Thanksgiving break here in America!  My wife and kids get the entire week off, which is a huge blessing.  We are really looking forward to spending time together.  That is what Thanksgiving is all about!  Loving each other and being thankful to God for everything!

Aren’t those wild turkeys great?!  They live here in our neighborhood and they roam wherever they please.  They are usually down near the Cottonwood trees at the bottom of the little valley we live in, but sometimes they wander through everyone’s yards.  We even had them in our backyard once.  My Mom took that photo when she was out visiting one year.  The mama was leading the babies across the street we live on.  So cute!  God’s creation is amazing!

Thanksgiving goes all the way back to the pilgrims, as so many of us American kids depicted in our elementary school plays.  What they didn’t tell us was that those pilgrims most likely would have died if the Natives had not helped them.  I am sure they were very thankful indeed to sit down at that first feast with the Natives who saved their lives.

Natives and Pilgrims

As many of you know, I love history.  In keeping with Thanksgiving and American history, here is a fun fact: I have Native American blood in my family line from my Mom’s side.  My Mom’s ancestry is from Germany and my Dad’s side is from County Cork, Ireland (hence the name Callahan).  My Mom researched our genealogy and found out that my Great (times 6) Grandfather (Johann) Jacob Steinkoenig (later changed to Stoneking), immigrated from Mutterstad, Germany to America in 1747 (29 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence).  In 1748 he married a famous Native American Princess from the Seneca tribe named Summer Eve Aliquippa.  Summer Eve’s mother was the famous Queen Aliquippa, a Chieftess of the Seneca people.  Her father was the famous Oppaymolleh Straight Tail, a Seneca Spiritual Chief.  Jacob and Summer Eve had two children and from that blood line I was born about 230 years later.  Summer Eve was my Great (times 6) Grandmother, and that is just really cool to me!

Check this out!  I even found a photo of Summer Eve Aliquippa online!  The daughter of Queen Aliquippa!  Truly incredible!

Summer Eve Aliquippa
Summer Eve Aliquippa, 1726-December 23, 1774 (Photo from FamilySearch.org)

I encourage you to look up her mother Queen Aliquippa.  She is quite famous in American history.  George Washington even met with her and she was instrumental in the Colonial wars in America.  She also founded the Seneca community known as “Aliquippa’s Town.”

It is a great honor to be a descendant of Queen Aliquippa, Oppaymolleh, and Summer Eve!  If it were not for the Seneca people in America, I would not be here writing this today.  May the Lord pour out blessing and reveal Himself to the Seneca people and all the Native tribes in America!  I most likely have cousins among the Seneca that I have never met and I pray blessing and peace over you all in the Name of Jesus, our only God and Savior.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

 

Seneca

Here is a quote from the Seneca Nation of Indians website sni.org:

“Nya:weh sgeno

Welcome,

The Seneca Nation of Indians has a proud and rich history.  We are the largest of six Native American nations comprising the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy or Six Nations, a democratic government that pre-dates the United States Constitution.

We are known as the “Keeper of the Western Door,” for the Seneca are the westernmost of the Six Nations.  In the Seneca language we are also known as O-non-dowa-gah, (pronounced: Oh-n’own-dough-wahgah) or “Great Hill People.”

Today, the Seneca Nation of Indians has a population of over 8,000 enrolled members.  We are the fifth-largest employer in Western New York, creating thousands of new jobs and investing hundreds of millions of dollars to bolster the region’s and New York State’s economy.

We invite you to explore our website to learn about our rich culture and traditions, our diverse and strong sovereign economy and the quality of life that makes us proud to be Seneca.

Nya-weh,

Rickey L. Armstrong Sr., President, Seneca Nation of Indians”

Seneca Nation map

Seneca Longhouse Village
Seneca Longhouse Village

I love learning about my family’s history and I am very thankful to be a part of the rich history of the Seneca people.  What an amazing life my Great (x6) Grandpa Jacob had!  He ended up living through the American Revolutionary War time period and he died in 1785 in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  I don’t know if he fought in the War, but he and Summer Eve lived in the East, so they would have been right in the thick of it.  Summer Eve was born in Bedford, Pennsylvania in 1726 and she died on December 23rd, 1774 in the town of her birth.  I don’t have any further information about Summer Eve and Jacob, but their children sparked a big family tree that is still going today through my children, my sister’s children, and all my cousins.  Praise God!

I am so thankful for family and I love you all!  Loving God and loving each other is what life is all about!  May we always take care of each other and love like Jesus loves us!

Pic quote Matthew 22 v 37

What are you thankful for this year?  As we approach Thanksgiving day, may we think about all God has done in our lives and praise Him with hearts full of thankfulness!  God is so very good and faithful to us and He is worthy of our praise!

Grace and peace to you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

“Praise the Lord.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his love endures forever.”

Psalm 106:1

 

 

 

 

Author: Ryan Callahan

Hello, and welcome to my site! I am an independent Christian author (One Man's Very Strange Supernatural Life), blogger, and evangelist for Jesus. My main goal with this blog is to help people come to know Jesus, help people understand the Bible, and to minister to a lost and hurting world. This site is about hope, new beginnings, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love! I'm glad you are here, God bless you! Copyright © 2024 Ryan Callahan. All rights reserved.

43 thoughts on “Thanksgiving Week 2019”

  2. I have Indian blood as well (albeit watered down): Comanche (for sure) and also Choctaw (Indian Nation in Oklahoma – most probably Choctaw). I am a direct descendent of Quanah Parker (Kahawdi Comanche).

    I value and cherish my Indian blood. Before the turn of the 20th century (and some time afterward) people were afraid and ashamed of revealing their Indian blood. They would be despised and called “breed.” Today, thank God, it’s acceptable to be proud of one’s Indian heritage. As do you, I cherish my Native American heritage.

    They might have been to a large degree what the *white man* called savages. But the *white man* was just as guilty of savagery as the red man. Maybe even worse. The red man was primarily just trying to protect his turf. Government on the other hand basically committed genocide against the native North Americans. Today they are quite pitiful in terms of numbers. The times we abrogated treaties and otherwise viciously treated the American Indian are well documented and far too numerous to count.

    Yes, the tribes are largely gone… but I tell you what: their DNA lives on. More people have a smattering of Indian DNA in Texas and Oklahoma than is widely recognized. I can see it in the eyes of many people I meet. An Indian can often tell his own. In one sense, I therefore like to think that the American Indian is still alive! In you. In me. And in many others like us.

    God Bless you, man. Thanks for sharing brother (and blood brother). Later…

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  3. Thanksgiving Day is such a special holiday, one set aside to give thanks! I love that you wrote about Jacob marrying Summer Eve, Ryan. As you know, her father was a spiritual chief. I have always been proud to have that blood line from Summer Eve and know that it continues through my family! Thankful to God and all that He gives us everyday! “Happy Thanksgiving, Ryan!” Talk to you very soon. Love, Mom

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  4. Oh wow Ryan! You have Native American Blood too! I guess that’s something you and I share. And the Irish lineage as well! That was an amazing story! Thank you for sharing that! You will have to print that history out for your children! And Happy Thanksgiving! Love the pic of the wild turkeys! We have a few here too! My new grandson, Silas, has Native American on his father’s side, as well.

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  6. I’m a history buff, too, Ryan, and I live in the middle of the Seneca’s original territory which was near Rochester between the Genesee River and Canandaigua Lake. The Seneca’s largest village, 150 longhouses, was at Ganondagan, about 13 miles from our house.

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      1. I know about the Seneca’s longhouses. They are quite different than what you know Native Americans to have lived in back then. I can imagine how beautiful Tom’s area is there, New York state is very beautiful.

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  10. Those turkeys are beautiful! There’s about 30 or so that are always in the field beside my mom’s house and they always amaze me. I love your history lesson! I’m sharing this with my daughter because we’ve been doing Thanksgiving stuff in homeschool this week. I hope you and your family have a very blessed Thanksgiving!!

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  12. Happy Thanksgiving – and cool about your genealogy! Thanksgiving isn’t much of a thing here in Australia. Genealogy-wise, one thing I’m grateful for is my great-great-grandfather; in the 1800s, at the age of 19, he was the sole survivor of a shipwreck in New Zealand. This was several years before he married and had my great-grandfather. (He eventually became a Captain, like his father.)

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  13. I guess those turkeys are not afraid of being cooked this weekend🙂

    Great family history. It is good that you are able to trace your family back to so much generations. I guess it makes you feel humbled. Blessings to you.

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  14. Wow, that’s great to know our family history: ) I am thanking God for while 2019 , truly a year of full adventure and blessing beyond blessings, at this thanksgiving I am thankful God for the health of mine and my family. He is Faithful , He is a Good Good Father. I am full awe of His greatness in and around me.
    Happy Thanksgiving brother. Thank you for the post. Also , I am thanking for you and your blog which is such a blessing in my life. In Jesus Name.

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  15. God bless you and your family this Thanksgiving! Ryan, I appreciated reading about some of your family history. I also applaud your praise for Native Americans in your family tree as well as likely saving the Pilgrims from starvation.

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  17. I found this blog because I was looking up information on Queen Alliquippa, my 8xs great grandmother. I am also a descendant through her daughter, Summer Eve. Thank you for the information!

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      1. S Ali ‘Summers Eve’ Aliquippa married Johann Jacob STEINKONIG/Stoneking who is my 5th Great Grandfather. Which means Queen Aliquippa is my 6th Great Grandmother

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  18. That’s such a cool article.

    It also seems you and I are related. I’m a grandchild of grandpa Jacob and grandma Summer Eve.

    Thanks again,
    Ray

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