Southwark Cathedral looked like a scene from the movie Dances With Wolves when Queen Elizabeth met leaders of a native American tribe there on Wednesday. Her Majesty was welcoming elders from the Mohegan community - not to be confused with the better-known Mohicans - who had crossed the Atlantic to finish what one of their ancestors began 270 years ago.
Chief Mahomet Weyonomon left his homeland in Connecticut in 1736 and travelled to Britain in the hope of saving his people from extinction. The tribal leader, whose people were being driven from their lands by English settlers, hoped to appeal to King George II for assistance. He fell victim to smallpox before he could ever meet the monarch, however, and was buried in a pauper's grave in the grounds of the cathedral.
Nearly three centuries later the current sovereign met with tribe representatives to help bring their forebear's efforts to a conclusion. After the visitors, who were dressed in deer skins and eagle-feather headdresses, conducted a traditional funeral ceremony in the grounds of the cathedral, the Queen unveiled a new memorial - carved from a granite boulder - to Chief Mahomet.
And the tribe's current leader, Bruce 'Two Dogs' Bozsum, presented his royal host with a copy of the petition his predecessor had brought all those years ago. The Queen also seemed charmed, albeit a little unsure how to react, when her American guest handed her a lit peace pipe.
Afterwards the visiting tribesman said the token was meant as a gift and she should use it however she saw fit. "It's her pipe - she could smoke it in a ceremony," he explained. "When you smoke it, as the smoke goes through your lungs, you look to the sky and say your prayers to your creators."
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
