As a little girl, Roberta Chapman (Turtle Clan) recalls listening to her mother singing and speaking in Onyota’a:ká:, teaching her children a few words along the way. Roberta knew her mother was an Oneida Indian, and that she, in turn, was too.

But living outside the Village of Peterboro with its mixed community of races, her ethnicity never mattered to her friends. Later, when the family moved to Marble Hill, she noticed more pronounced differences.

“Then, according to my grandmother Elsie Eckard and other Oneidas, we were ‘in the world’ where we belonged,” said Roberta. “My grandmother would say we needed to live there and to stay living on Indian land. My mom and grandmother and Emily Johnson (Turtle Clan) wanted us to learn the language and to bead.”

After her move to Marble Hill, every now and then, snide snipes would be said within her hearing. “There’s that Indian” is one she particularly remembers. But, Roberta said, for the most part she got along well with everyone.

Her mother, Vera, experienced a different world growing up. Her mother was tormented by cruel words cast at her, including the extremely hurtful “dirty Indian.”

“The thing was, my mother only had one dress and one pair of shoes to go to school in,” said Roberta. “So every day when she got home from school she would have to change right away so her dress could be washed for the next day.”

Even Roberta’s father’s step-mother — both of whom were from the City of Oneida — cast aspersions at Vera for her race, stating that Roberta’s dad shouldn’t be with “one of those Indians.”

“Today, you know the prejudice is still out there, but it seems different,” said Roberta. “Before it was personal, aimed at individuals; now it’s aimed more at our government. It’s more about politics.”

A student in one of the local high schools relayed a story to Roberta which backs up her belief. The student asked her teacher if she could visit one of the Nation’s government departments as part of a school assignment that was to be done in the community. The teacher said they weren’t allowed to let any students go to Oneida Nation sites for projects during school time. When the child identified the problem as political, the teacher merely said she was doing her job.

As a counterpoint, Roberta heard from a student in Utica who was given the go-ahead to come to the Nation for her project.

“So I think it depends on people’s proximity to the Nation’s heartland,” said Roberta. “The closer to the Nation other people live, the more political they can become.

“For myself, I’m comfortable living and working here. I have my home on Nation-owned land and try to get along with everyone. I brought my daughters up to be open-minded and not judge people by their race or religion or anything. People are people; treat them like you want to be treated.”