Trudy Lamb Richmond, of the Schaghticoke Nation, remembers growing up in Newtown
from an interview with Jan Lee Brookes
Trudy Lamb Richmond is a native woman from the Schaghticoke Nation and a Newtown High School graduate. Trudy began by explaining that her family moved to Newtown from a more culturally diverse area on the coast of Fairfield County when she was in third grade. At the time she was the only Native in the school and one of only a handful of children of color.
I felt isolated,
Very different.
And it was the children who first-off
treated me differently.
And I remember being sent off to recess,
and no one would play with me,
because... ah...
I assumed it was because I was physically different.
And it was a lonely time anyway because we’d just moved from...
from what had been home for three years...
and coming to a strange school
where there were
no
friends.
But then the next thing that stands out very clearly was in high school....
in my senior year.
And the teacher at the time
decided to do something different for graduation.
uh... Certainly...
the term multi-cultural was never used,
or cultural diversity.
The term was never used at all.
But...uh...
she decided that the....
graduating class would be represented by several speakers
besides just the valedictorian and salutatorian,
and that the top eight students would deliver a presentation,
and that would be on the
contributions
of...ah....various....ethnic groups.
When she read my name on the list of speakers
I got very excited
because I thought
“Now I have a chance to talk about Indians,
talk about my own culture,
which I certainly hadn’t had much opportunity,
not just to talk about,
or learn about....”
So, I went up to select...
We were allowed to select from a list she had there of other cultures.
And, I went up to select...
American Indians...
I was told,
“Oh, American Indians didn’t make that many contributions
and I needed to
select
someone
else.
And I was really heart-fallen...
dumbfounded...uh...
and very disappointed.
I didn’t understand..
You know...
But when I looked on the list we had to select from...
I decided to select Black Americans to talk about.
And that was agreed upon.
That was fine.
But the double irony of it was,
that when I went to the library...
I couldn’t find any books.
Sources Used:
Phone interview with Trudy Richmond on December 11, 2020.
Phone interview with Trudy Richmond on December 11, 2020.