Author Fawn Brokaw Doyle - Salt People of the Cloud Houses (Promo)

One of the reasons I find this story of the Island of Manhattan so fascinating is the propensity of varied twists and turns that it takes en route to becoming today’s epicenter of the universe. Author Fawn Brokaw Doyle beautifully illustrates several of those early twists in her new book Salt People of the Cloud Houses.

Now if you’ve never heard the name Sarah Rapalje, for one thing, we know you’re not up to date on our podcast. But then again, don’t feel too bad. After all, this is our lost American history. But you see, when this young lady was born to French-speaking refugees on that warm June night back in 1625 she would thereby attain the unprecedented distinction of becoming the very first European to be born in the place that would eventually come to be known as “New York”. But proceed with caution here, mensen - if you’re anything like me or author Fawn Brokaw Doyle, you just may find yourself getting lost in this lost history altogether. Because the more one peels back the layers, the more fascinating it tends to become.

The title speaks to a key component of this story – the relationship between the locals and the settlers. You see, these pale-faced beings had only just arrived in this land a year earlier, traveling across the great waters via their majestic floating houses, whose sails appeared as clouds. The title addresses directly the awe of the Native Munsee people for this fairly amiable band of newcomers: “salt people of the cloud houses”. And then there was “Mannatu”, the Algonquin word they used to articulate that particular awe - meaning too wondrous to understand. This sentiment was not just about the miraculous mode of travel, but also because of the unprecedented opportunity that they brought with them.

Fawn’s book is technically “a novel”, but her curiosity has hereby transformed her into an exhaustive researcher – yielding remarkable insight into this story and to this culture. Sarah Rapalje’s parents were mere teenagers on a wing and a prayer. Her father, 19 year-old Joris Rapalje, was a penniless Walloon (reformed Protestant) exiled from the place we call Belgium today. Her mother was 18-year old Frenchwoman Catalyna Trico. The flight of this dashing young couple from the oppressive forces of the Spanish (Catholic) Hapsburg Empire at the outset of this rather audacious endeavor proved serendipitous to both them and the Dutch West India Company. The specifics of that endeavor? To form a colony in the region that we essentially refer to as the greater tri-state Metropolitan region today. Why there? Well, in order to cultivate commercial control of all beaver and otter pelts in this fairly uncharted region that seemed to lay strategically far enough between the other European activities already underway in this New World: the French fur operations based in Quebec, and the sputtering English attempts at colonization off the coast of Cape Cod and in Jamestown, VA. And when a Company recruiter approached Joris about jumping into this ambitious undertaking, unlike his young, able-bodied Dutch counterparts belonging to the Netherlands, he felt he had very little to lose. Sailing across the Earth to make his way in the wilderness among savage beasts and savage men was not an issue for this wayward Calvinist. In fact, it rather energized him. So the intrepid descendant of the Gaelic-Belgic tribe agreed, on one condition: that the Company arrange for his marriage to Catalyna prior to boarding the ship. And desperate for able-bodied young families to populate this fledgling experiment on the unknown side of the planet, the Company officials complied with the request and arranged for the marriage of Joris & Catalyna in the Walloon Church in Amsterdam one early spring day in 1624, the day before they departed for the place that would become the greatest city on Earth.

The author drills down so deeply into New Netherland that you can smell the oliekoeken (the Dutch ancestor of our doughnuts), and feel the hard, smooth wampum shells that 15-year old Sarah transfers from her own soft palm into the hardened one of the gruff vendor as payment for the savory indulgence. Fawn Brokaw Doyle is not just a writer but an archival devotee of the first order. And, quite frankly, one of the most artful tellers of this crazy, incredible history that I have myself yet come upon.

Salt People of the Cloud Houses will be available Sarah Rapalje’s 400th Birthday: June 9, 2025 on Amazon and Bookshop.org. Links can be found on Fawn's website:

https://www.fawnbrokawdoyle.com/

Sign up for Sarah's 400th Birthday Party Book Launch- Monday, June 9th, 2025

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linktr.ee/fawnbrokawdoyle website:

https://www.fawnbrokawdoyle.com/

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