Bright Lightning
"Wa ku su to me"
Wakusutome
formerly Lenape aka Leni Lenape
Born about in Lenapi-Delaware Tribal Lands, Pennsylvania
Daughter of Big Thunder Lenape
and Wikusauwin Lenape
[sibling(s) unknown]
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died after
after about age 68
[location unknown]
Profile last modified
| Created 2 Oct 2013
This page has been accessed 1,198 times.
| Bright Lightning (Lenape) Wakusutome is currently protected by the Native Americans Project for reasons described below. Join: Native Americans Project Discuss: native_americans |
Research suggests that this person may never have existed. See the text for details.
Biography
- Due to claims about Native American existence and relations, WikiTree's Native American project is tracking this profile.
Disputed Existence
New Sweden settler Hendrick Andersson Coleman did not marry a Lenape woman named Bright Lightning. His wife was "Anna Coleman", probably a Finn like himself though her LNAB is unknown.[citation needed]
The myth that Hendrick's wife was Lenape came from a 1967 Friend genealogy by Evelyn Guard Olsen titled Indian Blood.[1] The author subsequently revised her story. According to a new introduction to her work published in 2014 by the Friend Family Association, when "Presented with the facts, Mrs. Olsen set out to correct this unintentional mistake with personal correspondence and publications."[2]
Unfortunately, we still see many Friend genealogies continue to perpetuate the myth of Bright Lightning.
Bright Lightning is said to the the daughter of Chief Big Thunder of the Lenape Tribe. Despite many man hours no document has been found that would prove/disprove the existence of her parents and her own life. There is no doubt that Henrick Coleman married a woman named Anna but beyond that nothing is known about her. She may or may not have been Native American.[3]
Sources
- ↑ Evelyn Guard Olsen, Indian Blood, Parsons, West Virginia : McClain Print. Co., c1967
- ↑ Smith, Pat, Introduction to Indian Blood by Evelyn Guard Olsen; (2014)
- ↑ Jeanie Roberts, [http://www.indianreservations.net/2019/01/chief-big-thunder-and-his-daughter.html Chief Big Thunder and his Daughter Princess Bright Lightning," Indian Reservations (blog), 22 January 2019
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Images: 1
- Bright Lightning is a myth. Dec 30, 2019.
View newspaper mentions & more for Bright Lightning Wakusutome.
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Categories: Shawnee Heritage Fraud | Native American Adjunct | Uncertain Existence
While I have learned more about the Friend and Coleman families the way the name is spelled is different compared to "Wa-Ka-Su-To-Me." If "Wa-Ka-Su-To-Me" or "Wakum-sute" are Anna Coleman. Sharing for those who might have access to Lenape vernacular.
Back in the 1960s, my mother--who was avid in her Family History and genealogy efforts--told me about Anna (or Anika) Coleman whom she identified with the name "Wa-Ka-Su-To-Me." I admit that my memory of the details of this may no longer be complete or fully accurate (since I'll be 79 in mid-April), but it has long been my understanding that she coined the "name" itself, intending it as a reduction of "Welcome Surprise to Me" and because she believed Anna to have been a Lenni Lenape addition to the Coleman family.
Some time later she allowed a cousin to photocopy her Book of Remembrance (with this included "Indian name") and it thereby evolved from an invented nickname to the FamilySearch system (and thereafter spread to its various "sister sites" like Ancestry.com, even though it had not been her intent for anyone to believe it was a true Lenni Lenape name. I have, incidentaly, checked several Lenni Lenape (online) dictionaries and can find no support for any connection between this "name" and either the words "bright" or "lightening," which at some later point became connected with Anna Coleman.
Given your questioning of whether the claims about "Bright Lightening" being a daughter of a supposed Lenni Lenape "Chief Big Thunder," I thought you might be interested in my recollection of "Wa-Ka-Su-To-Me," since it seems to me that it adds credence to your suspicion about the truth of the claim that Anna was a Lenni Lenape girl. It is my belief that "like Topsey" the claim (which lacks any posted "sources" in its support, "just growed up" rather than being born by valid research.
Richley Crapo Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Utah State University
And what is your source for Chief Big Thunder / Kaghswaghtaniunt a) existing and being Seneca / Mingo, b) being aka White Thunder, and c) having a daughter named Bright Lightning who married a white man?
Kathie and/or Jeanie, I see we've got the Shawnee Heritage Fraud category here but I don't see Don Greene's work referenced in the narrative. Do we know for certain that the person profiled here was included in Greene's "work"?