![\"zilzth2\"](\"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/zilzth2.jpg\")
Mary Zilz<\/p>\nMary Zilz<\/p>\n
Mary Zilz or “Monnie” (Indian for Mary) was born Mary Lenora Smith on June 18, 1915, and holds the honor of being the oldest living member of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan.<\/p>\n
Mary is a very independent lady and still lives on her own to this day in a duplex attached to her daughter’s duplex in St. Johns. Her family has grown to 11 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren, and 17 great-great grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Mary’s daughter, Mary Ann, asked to include her mailing address if anyone would like to send her a letter or birthday card. She said her mom is the type of person who will respond to letters.<\/p>\n
![\"zilz\"](\"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/zilz.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Mary Zilz,
\n207 W. Sturgis,
\nSt. Johns, MI 48879<\/p>\n
Mary was born the second of five children of Jennie May Pelcher and Obadiah Burt Smith. She considers herself to be an American Indian and very proud of her Indian heritage. Her grandparents were Moses and Mariah Pelcher and her maternal grandparents were Obediah and Mary (Burke) Smith who lived in Gladwin, Mich.<\/p>\n
Her father was a blacksmith by trade. During the summer months, he would take care of the farmers’ horses in the area. In the winter, he would go to the Upper Peninsula to Trout Creek lumber camp to take care of the lumberman’s horses.<\/p>\n
It was during this time that her family would go live with her grandparents. President Ulysses S. Grant granted her grandparents 80 acres to homestead as part of the treaty made with the Chippewa Tribe of Michigan. There were a lot of stones on the property so they used them to build an eight room stone house. Mary said for that era it was very modern with a kitchen, pantry, dining room, parlor and four bedrooms on the second floor.<\/p>\n
Mary’s Grandpa Pelcher was a minister at the North Branch Indian Church until he retired in his ’70s. He would preach in the Ojibwa language and English.<\/p>\n
At 10 years old, Mary’s life changed. Her parents asked her and her brothers if they wanted to go to the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Her mother and her mother’s siblings attended and graduated 8th grade there. Mary thought it sounded like an adventure so she was enrolled with her brothers. Abraham didn’t like it so he returned home.<\/p>\n
Mary remembers the boarding school with a military atmosphere, with revile-to taps, uniforms, drill and marching to school. Everything was very scheduled; school, work and recreation. A whistle blast would wake them up at 6:30 a.m. and they would wash, comb their hair, dress, and make their beds before heading to the basement for roll call. After breakfast they had inspection of their rooms and beds. Mary learned to sew while there because they had to make their own uniform dresses and boys’ shirts. If they disobeyed the rules, they were not allowed to attend the fun activities.<\/p>\n
At the boarding school, Mary was involved with basketball, softball, music and joined the band, playing the baritone. In 1930 she graduated from 9th grade as valedictorian. Mary graduated high school in 1933 and had a few odd jobs, including playing in an all-Indian band that traveled around the state. She said she believes those to be the good years for her as they shaped her attitude, habits, and outlook on life. Over the years she has sold real estate, stocks and bonds.<\/p>\n
Her great uncle Scott Peters, agent executive with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, helped her get a job in Battle Creek with the Postem Factory. While working there, she met her future husband Robert Mullen and began a long-distance relationship. After Robert was hired at Oldsmobile in Lansing, Mich., he felt more financially secure and they married in 1936. They were blessed with three children; Robert Jr. (Bobby), Mary Ann and Nannette Jean. Crib death took Bobby just two months after his birth, but the birth of Mary Ann and Nannette removed the sadness of a lost son. On April 7, 1952, Robert died of a sudden heart attack.<\/p>\n
In 1955 she met and married Carl Zilz. She lost her daughter Nannette in 1989 to breast cancer, and then lost her husband Carl in 1991 due to melanoma.<\/p>\n
[Information courtesy of Tribal Observer<\/em>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mary Zilz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}