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Hi Dawn,
How are you? I hope all is well. Mother said that you recently took a trip to South Dakota to Wounded Knee to visit the Sioux/Lakota Reservation. I actually read your letter and found it quite interesting. Anyhow, I just finished an Anthropology class at Northeastern called Native North Americans, and we did a whole unit on the Lakota. In fact, I actually saved the book, as well as a few short stories on the Lakota, and figured you would be interested. The novel that I am sending you is called "Lakota Woman," which is an autobiography about Mary Crow Dog. It's sad, but it goes into detail about her experiences in the American Indian Movement, which is really interesting. Also included in the envelope is a short story called "On The Rez," about an Oglala girl named SueAnn Big Crow. It's actually a full novel, but we were only given a couple of chapters to read in class. Lastly, there is a chapter of a dissertation by Raymond J. DeMallie, distinguishing the difference between male and female Lakota Indians, and their role within their culture. Unfortunately, they are highlighted to no end, but are still very legible. ;-) Enjoy!
Mom also mentioned that you were interested in the family tree, especially in our Native American ancestry. Lee and I have an account on ancestry.com. I had to cancel it due to lack of finances, but if you have our login and password info, you can still play around on it and see all of the existing information, and you may even be able to search still. It's under Lee's name, and he's totally cool with you checking it out. It's fairly user friendly. Check it out:
URL: http://www.ancestry.com
Login: Simultaneouslee
Password: Mooncat1
Click on "View My Tree", and click my name when you get to it, which is connected to Lee.
In that, I found some really cool info! I was able to trace back the Abbott's all the way to the 1500's BEFORE they had even come over to the US. I did some googling as well, and it appears that the first Abbott came over from Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, and migrated to Northern MA (specifically Andover and Essex, MA in the 1500's). From there, our direct descendants settled in Landgrove, VT. I found out that there was even an Abbott that was a VT state rep! (not in our directly lineage) Then they made their way to Londonderry, and eventually to Windham, where our grandfather was born. I am unfortunately stuck on Grandma's side though. The farthest I can go back is Grandma's grandfather, Stanislas Fontaine, who was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and moved to MA. Aside from a MA census, I cannot find any info on Stanislas in Quebec. It's too bad, because it would open up generations and generations of the Fontaine lineage in Canada and maybe even France, where the Fontaine's originally came from, according to Grandma.
As for our Native American ancestry, Grandma Abbott (originally Lulu Carleton, our grandfather's mother) was said to be 1/2 Iroquois. I even contacted a distant cousin (Andy Carleton from UT), but he says that he thinks that it's a crock! I don't know if Grandma ever took you over to Bill Carleton's house in Londonderry, which is Andy's grandfather). The full-blood Iroquois's name was supposedly Grandma Abbott's grandmother, Mary Long (our Great-Great-Great Grandmother), who was apparently called "Mary Longgun of Peru, VT." However, Mary Long's father's name was Isaac Long, which is not a very Indian name, and "Longgun" coincidentally refers to a white man, because of the large guns that they had. Despite what Andy has said about Grandma Abbott, her pictures say otherwise, as she looks like a typical Indian if you ask me! Andy has done some extensive research on the Carleton's, which is about as English as you can get. Below is a link to Andy's website which has a picture of George Fuller Carleton taken in Windham, VT, our great-great grandfather. This is Grandma Abbott's (Lulu Carleton, our great-grandmother) father. If this is Lulu's father, then her mother should be the full-blood Indian, and she's apparently not. Anyway, here is the website which has the picture:
http://www.carletonvideo.com/gfcarleton
If we could find the missing puzzle (and the truth), perhaps we could truly find out if we are of Native American ancestry. I have a picture of Grandma and Grandpa Abbott (Lulu Carleton and Charles Abbott) at some sort of get together in Windham, given by Francis Rush, our grandfather's adopted sister. Mom is going to send you a copy along with some family history about the Abbott Family. Let me know if you any trouble viewing any of these websites/pictures, and I can try and help you.
Michael
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Posted by Michael Denton 
