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On Saturday, June 25, there will be a number of rallies and similar public meetings around New York State, which will focus on issues including the anti-fracking movement; “home rule” grass-roots activism; and celebrating clean water. There are four in central NY that I thought looked interesting enough that I'd have had difficulty deciding which one to attend. However, I ended up asked to headline a “clean water” ceremony in a little village, east of Binghamton. That kind invitation is among the reasons that I'll be heading to Afton, NY, next weekend.
In NYS Archaeologist William Ritchies' revised edition of “A Typology and Nomenclature for New York Projectile Points” (NYS Museum & Science Service; Bulletin # 384; 1971), it was noted that in his study of Vestal points, about 3 out of 4 had been found within a three-mile radius of Afton. These points, which are related to both the older Brewerton and Lamoka cultures, were made a little more than 4,000 years ago.
Years ago, I assisted Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman in an effort to secure the remains of a man, approximately 30 years old, who had died some 2,000 years ago, a few miles from the park where I'll speak on Saturday. His original burial had been disturbed by a construction project. We eventually reburied him at the Kearney Site.
The effort to secure both the remains, and a place to conduct the proper reburial, involved a few strange events. But the day of the ceremony was outstanding. A large crowd of non-Indian people attended, to both lend moral support and to learn. A group of local government officials pitched in, and provided a proper feast for after the ceremony. Several media representatives covered the event; one newspaper editor, who had long been antagonistic to Paul and I, even expressed a favorable opinion of both Paul and the ceremony.
Some of the historians from this area enjoyed talking to Chief Waterman about the region's past. In the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, there was a farming community near the Kearney Site, known as “Anaha-ga-kwage,” at the intersection of a creek and the Susquehanna. In the other direction, there are a four islands; the two largest are 10 and 40 acres. These were known as “Conna Hunta,” or “large islands.” The larger one had six longhouses on it. Both had gardens and apple orchards.
When Paul was a boy, some Clan Mothers and Chiefs accompanied a couple scientists from Cornell University on a trip, in which they visited Conna Hunta, and then followed the Susquehanna River down into what is now Pennsylvania, to Three Mile Island. They were telling these scientists about the life of the prophet Hianawatha, who was born on Three Mile Island.
Chief Waterman told me that the area around Afton was known to his people as “Susquehanna,” a place-name describing the large, flat fields there, which were a source of strawberries. In Woodland times, the forests blanketed most of the northeast. Knowing where there were large sources of strawberries was important. Each spring, the Onondaga still have a strawberry festival. Parts of the plant are medicinal.
For far, far too many people today – even in small villages such as Afton – there is a disconnect between their lives and rivers such as the Susquehanna. Years ago, I was taking a walk in an area where I had spent much of my childhood. It is along a tributary to the Susquehanna, a place where the youngsters in our “neighborhood” used to fish, swim, and camp out. From a distance, I saw two boys with what I assumed were fishing poles. As I approached them, I saw that they actually had BB guns; they explained that they were shooting at sewage floating down the river.
I'm not suggesting that we should go back to the days of the longhouse. But, while we cannot go back in time, we can still benefit from a knowledge of our history, an understanding of the land and water, and an appreciation of the values that these two provide. This is, in fact, essential for “home rule.”
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