IN our tribute last week to the late Edward (Eddie) de Jean we mentioned the great inspiration he had been to his former pupils at the long-ago defunct Howard Academy.

We cited a number who graduated to become leaders in the highest levels of Government, finance, banking, education, business and other spheres. They proudly called themselves "Eddie's Boys", among them former Premier Sir John Swan.

We made no mention of "Eddie's Girls", who excelled likewise, perhaps in greater numbers in their chosen fields. We could have named, for example, former banker Sondra Choudhory, Willa Denbrook Tucker and Mrs. Lynn Cann, who is now semi-retired after a career as an account manager in the exempt company business.

Lynn is president of the Skinner/Howard Academy Alumni Association. She was chosen to pay tribute on behalf of the former students at the funeral of their 82-year-old headmaster.

Another of "Eddie's Girls" is Jean (Foggo-Fox) Simon, who is a City Administrator and clerk of the Council for the City of Oberlin in Ohio. After leaving Howard Academy, Jean went to Wilberforce University in Ohio, The Institute of Supervisory Management and The International Institute of Municipal Clerks at Kent State University. She is an internationally certified Municipal Clerk.

Jean frequently visits her homeland, and keeps in touch on a daily basis with family and friends. It was during such a visit we had opportunity to talk with her about her most absorbing passion, which is documenting the history of her St. David's Island Pequot ancestors.

JEAN Foggo Simon is a prolific writer, a meticulous researcher and she was the moving spirit behind the highly successful Reconnecting Festival held from June 5-6 this year at St. David's Island between local descendants of Pequot Indians sent to Bermuda as slaves centuries ago and their mainland North American Pequot kinfolk.

Jean is proud of her Indian ancestry. She grew up on St. David's Island, the daughter of Oliver (Corker) Foggo and Ursula (Fox-Foggo) Hinson. She has one sister, Millicent Ball. It was research she began four years ago into her background that culminated in this year's St. David's Island Indian Reconnection Celebration.

More than 50 members of New England tribes of Mashantucket, Mashpee and Wampanoag, in their traditional dress, warmly embraced their Bermudian cousins, reconnecting with them through proclamations, prayers, libations, songs and dances.

Jean said that after the dust cleared, the drums silenced and the last of the American Indians, family, friends and distinguished visitors departed Bermuda, she spearheaded a post-mortem.

"Everything that had been planned could not have gone better. The festival was successful beyond our expectations. Reconnections that were made that will not soon be forgotten," she said.

More importantly, Jean, who was the researcher/writer of the programmes on which the festival was based, is now committed to ensuring that the rich legacy of the Indian influence on Bermuda's history becomes more fully acknowledged.

As a first step she produced a colourful, gilt-edged memory booklet, highlighting the personalities and specific events, along with photographs that contributed towards the success of the festival. The booklet, as it now stands, could be an instant and valuable addition to the school curriculum. But she has embarked on a more extensive book. Jean gives full credit to two men for their fundamental roles in the total effort. They are her cousin, St. David's Islander St.Clair (Brinky) Tucker and Tall Oak (Everett G. Weeden, Jr.), a renowned Native American researcher and educator of the Mashantucket Pequot/Wampanoag Tribe of Charleston, Rhode Island.

As a major follow-up to the Reconnect Festival, the American Indian brothers and sisters invited Jean and Brinky to their pow-wow (called a schmitzum) held in Connecticut from August 22-25.

"The experience was mind-boggling, with about 3,000 dancers participating," she said. "Our Bermuda gombeys have been invited to participate in to take part in the Pequot 2003 pow-wow, and the St. David's Island Indian committee intends to be there taking part in the event called the Grand Entry. This is all part of something big, which could involved cultural exchanges and sponsorship of visits by Bermudian schoolchildren to Indian museums in the States."

ORIGINALS of two individual proclamations written to mark the Bermuda Festival are now in Carter House Museum on St. David's. The proclamations were read by the Mayor of St. George's, Henry Hayward, and copies presented to Tall Oak and Michael Thomas, a member of the Mashantucket Tribal Council.

Here are some of the sentences highlighted in the proclamations that flowed from the pen of Jean Foggo-Fox Simon:

WHEREAS, an ever-growing number in these islands of Bermuda and in other countries are collecting, preserving and sharing genealogies, personal documents and memorabilia that detail the life and times of families around the world; and

WHEREAS, as individuals learn about their ancestors who worked so hard and sacrificed so much, their commitment to honour their ancestors' memory by doing good is increased,

WHEREAS, we have long acknowledged traditions such as Bermuda lobster, cassava pie, sweet potato pudding, codfish/potato and banana breakfasts, Bermuda gold and silver wedding cake, gombey dancers, Good Friday as kite day, Easter lilies, shark oil barometers, suck rock stew, fish cakes, pilot boats, going barefooted, nicknames, cricket, rowboats, shark hash, pound cake, Johnny bread, Cup Match, being called Mohawk and frying fish on the rocks; and

WHEREAS, the words fisherman, rope and net makers, sea pilots, farmers, labourers, lighthouse keepers, policemen and boat builders have long been the traditions of our families and have been the backbone of our community in St. David's Island; and we have survived in spite of the trials and tribulation of establishing and pioneering growth from the late 1600s to the present day; and

WHEREAS, these traditions have sufficed us to "stand out in the crowd" as being "peculiar", but just being "St. David's Islanders", in the eyes of our beholders; and

WHEREAS, we are here today to pay tribute and honour our elders and all those who worked hard and long and sacrifices the shackles of slavery for the furtherance of these islands of Bermuda;

WHEREAS, through the sacrifice of our elders, our families can now boast of raising doctors, lawyers, politicians, authors, musicians, Government officials, administrators, business owners, graphic artists, poets, airplane pilots, school teachers and international sportsmen (all citizens of Bermuda are encouraged to observe the richness and uniqueness of the culture of their own particular heritage and be proud to be called Bermudians).