Emma Jane Camp Mead (1866 – December 4, 1934) was a hotelkeeper and herbalist in the Adirondacks; she was a member of the Oneida people, like her mother; her father's family was Abenaki.
Emma Camp Mead
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Emma Camp Mead, from a 1916 publication
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Born | Emma Jane Camp 1866
Indian Lake, New York
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Died | December 4, 1934
Indian Lake, New York
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Occupation(s) | Hotelkeeper, herbalist |
Relatives | Polly Cooper (great-grandmother) Beulah Dark Cloud (cousin) |
Emma Camp was born near Indian Lake, New York, the daughter of Elijah Camp and Elizabeth Kennedy Camp. Her father was Abenaki and her mother was Oneida. Her parents ran a hunting lodge, and her father worked as a wilderness guide.[1] She was a great-granddaughter of Polly Cooper. Actress Beulah Dark Cloud was her cousin.[2][3]
With a large settlement from her former husband's family, Mead opened a dry goods store in Indian Lake, and later opened Adirondack House near Indian Lake, renting rooms and cabins to hunting and fishing vacationers in the area.[4] She also maintained a farm, and sold her own herbal remedies.[5][6] She also interpreted news reports for locals who were not literate in English, especially in the events leading up to the Indian Citizenship Law of 1924.[3]
In 1882, Camp married Gabriel Mead, a white man. His family, opposing the marriage, paid her ten thousand dollars to agree to an annulment of the marriage.[7] This arrangement was reported in newspapers across the United States in August 1883.[1][8] The couple remarried in 1885, and had a daughter, Bessie, born in 1886. Gabriel soon left the marriage again,[8] and Bessie died in a fall when she was three years old. Emma Mead died in 1934, at the age of 68.[2][9] There is a collection of her papers held by the Indian Lake Historical Society.[3]