Rosalyn Howard has bravely gone where few cultural anthropologists have gone before — St. David's.

Dr. Howard is an American cultural anthropology professor at the University of Central Florida. She is the author of 'Black Seminoles in the Bahamas'.

"I aim to shed light on topics that have not really been explored," she recently told The Royal Gazette. "There is not really much scholarly work about St. David's Islanders. And it is a fascinating part of the the Native American and African American diaspora."

Many Bermudians have ancestral connections with Native American nations and tribes in New England.

After various wars between New England Puritans and Native Americans, the surviving Native Americans, mainly women and children, were enslaved and sent away from the colony, to places like Bermuda, to avoid further uprisings.

Significant wars included the Pequot Wars (1636 - 1637) and King Philip's War (1675 - 1676). King Philip's War involved Native Americans from all over New England, including the Wampanoag.

Other indians in the area include Mashantucket Pequot, Narragansett, Mashpee, north eastern Cherokee, and others.

On Tuesday, Dr. Howard gave a lecture for the Bermuda Archives about her research.

The lecture was the first in the Bermuda Archives 'History Speaks' lecture series on various topics in Bermudian history.

She spoke alongside local authority, St. Clair Brinkie Tucker.

"I actually lived in St. David's from July to November," said Dr. Howard. "I had the opportunity to interview about 50 people.

"This was greatly facilitated by my key consultant, Mr. Tucker," she said. "If it had not been for him and his great reputation in the community, it would have taken much longer for me."

She said she really enjoyed living in St. David's.

"I was living in a small apartment under a house," she said. "Every day I could walk out to an incredible view. It was a wonderful experience."

While in Bermuda, Dr. Howard was looking for oral history that pointed to a connection with Native American culture.

"I found there weren't many references to Indian culture," she said. "The people of St. David's would talk about the traditions they had, which coincide with the traditions of Native Americans: cooking, fishing and all of that.

"Just like in other communities I have studied, people don't look at their culture in an objective way and put labels on it. They just live their lives. But the way they live their lives reflects their culture, past and heritage."

What she did hear were a lot of stories about how St. David's used to be a utopia.

"So many people were related," she said. "There was no fear of children being taken off somewhere. Their fun was making a little boat and floating out in the water, or learning to fish.

"What I heard over and over again was that it was a very close community."

Back in the 1960s a dental study of St. David's Islanders was conducted by American anthropologists. The study looked at possible dental evidence of a connection with Native Americans in the United States.

Unfortunately, the results were never released. Dr. Howard said there is no reason that such a study could not be repeated.

"It may have been an issue of privacy," she said.

While in Bermuda, Dr. Howard spent a good deal of time at the Bermuda Archives.

"The only reference to a specific tribal nation is the Pequot. That is documented. The other documentation I found were lists of the people who were enslaved."

She said that Bermudians may never definitively prove a specific link with tribal nations other than the Pequot.

That is why the newly formed St. David's Islanders and Native Community group has chosen the slogan 'It's not about your tribe, it is about your heritage'.

"They are more interested in the cultural connection," said Dr. Howard. "But we will continue to look for documentation."

Dr. Howard is hoping to get a grant to continue her research.

"This is just the beginning of a long-term research project," she said. "We might want to explore documents in Spanish. One of the interesting things that I found out was that there might also be a tie with Florida and the Seminoles.

"That would tie in with my other research. That was definitely exciting. At the time Florida and Bermuda were both British colonies."

The Spanish traded Florida for control of Havana, Cuba with the British in 1763.

"The next step for me is to transcribe some of the interviews I have done, and use parts of them in publications," said Dr. Howard. "I would write for the academic world, and also for the general populous. There is a definite interest. People are finding out about their heritage. That is certainly true of St. David's."

Dr. Howard has Native American roots of her own.

My great grandmother was [a member of the] Eufaula Clan," she said. "They are one of the many nations that came under the umbrella that most people called 'Creek' in Alabama.

"Their real name is Muskogee. The Muskogee were a linguistically and culturally mixed group under which came different peoples. My family really never dealt with it. It was only through my doctoral research that I became interested in it."

Information is missing on Dr. Howard's family because her great grandmother died in childbirth.

"Her daughter, my paternal grandmother, was raised in an adopted home," she said. "She never talked about it. I was four years old when she died. So that never got passed on. I know where she was born and that the Eufaula were in that area."

Anyone wishing to contact Dr. Howard about her research can e-mail her at rhoward@mail.ucf.edu or write to

Dr. Rosalyn Howard, Department of Anthropology, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Howard Phillips Hall 309, Orlando, FL 32816-1361.

The next 'History Speaks' lecture will be given by Dr. Heather Koppelson. On July 23, she will speak on the Quaker experience in Bermuda in the mid-17th century. She will be joined by Laura Andrews, a Bermudian whose research studies include this subject, and who will speak on the Witchcarft Trials which occurred at the same time. More details will follow later.