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“How insignificant appear most of the facts which one in his walks encounters – insignificant until they are put through some mental or emotional process and their true nature appears. The gold of nature does not look like gold at first glance. It must be smelted and refined in the mind of the observer.”
John Burroughs; 1837-1921.
For many years, I was a single parent. Working full-time and raising two little boys was an adventure. Add to that my being the top assistant to Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman, who the Grand Council of Chiefs of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy had selected to take the lead in burial protection and repatriation issues, and I had to juggle a lot of duties. The boys used to travel across New York State with Paul and I, going to town, county, and state governmental meetings; hang out at various Chief's and Clan Mother's homes; sit and listen to the top archaeologists in the northeast; and see Paul and I speak at colleges and universities, and then being interviewed by countless journalists.
That's not to say that they didn't have a “childhood.” We fit in a lot of fun, and both boys did quite well at school. Every year, it seemed, one or more of their teachers would invite me in as a guest speaker, to talk to their classes about issues involving local Indian history, the archaeological record, as well as current events in Indian Country. I was always there for sporting events and the like. When they were in high school, I even had some bonus trips to the school, when they would get in relatively minor trouble for one thing or another.
Like a lot of parents – perhaps especially single parents – there were times when I wondered if I was doing an adequate job? While many of their friends and classmates came from “broken homes,” I knew that my boys were growing up in a different life-style than most, or all, of their pals. We had redefined “family” in a very real sense, in that they considered both Chief Waterman and their pediatrician (who also served on the NYS Museum's Iroquois Studies) as their grandfathers. In some of the then-common family court hearings (involving custody and $upport), my attorney had Paul, the pediatrician, nurses, my friends and co-social workers, and others testify about the strength of my relationship with the boys. The attorney told me that I was helping in the trend for fathers to get a fair shake in the context of family court. Still, I often wondered if I was doing a good job as a parent.
For the past five years, my now-adult sons have worked to produce a 360-page book, “Water Man: A Native People's History of the Northeast.” I have a copy of their book beside me as I write this essay. I must say that the book convinces me that things were okay. Those little guys were paying attention, and they smelted and refined those experiences we had along the path of their childhoods into an excellent product.
Their approach involves combining the traditional teachings of a Native American “Wisdom Keeper”; the scientific approach of their archaeologist-pediatrician; my interpretations, as a psychiatric social worker who is addicted to the teachings of Erich Fromm; and their own life experiences. Both “boys” have been active amateur archaeologists since they were pre-schoolers, and have had some of their finds displayed in a university's museum. They assisted in excavating a rock shelter/ cave that was going to be destroyed by the “progress” of concrete and blacktop – a project that I reported on at the largest archaeological conference in the northeastern United States.
After my book on the cultural contributions of the Irish immigrants in upstate New York in the second-half of the 19th century was published, a few of my friends tried to convince me to do a book on Indian issues. One wanted me to write a book on the archaeological record; another on my work with Chief Waterman; and still others on related or combined issues. I resisted the temptation, as I knew how much work that writing a decent book actually involves. {Note: at this point of writing this essay, I was called by my wonderful teenaged daughters. They were in a minor auto accident – not their fault – but are okay. I went to the scene, but am back now; if I seem distracted, and the ideas here don't “flow,” please excuse me.} At the feast following Paul's funeral, his oldest daughter said, “Pat, you know that someone needs to write a book about Dad.” Paul had always called me his son – something that those familiar with Iroquois culture will understand the implications of. My sons, of course, knew she meant me. But, as I am old and tired, I told them to write the book.
I made my numerous files of papers – newspaper articles from the corporate press; our Indian newspaper; film from television; court and other government documents; letters; etc. – available to them. My oldest son especially liked the series of interviews that I had done with Paul over the years, and decided to use a Q&A format for much of the book. They also used a number of the other documents, as well as the entire series of interviews with Chief Waterman, in their book.
After a foreword by me, and an introduction by them, the book starts with a paper I wrote about a presentation I did for the county Environmental Management Council, on the threats to our local environment; this was part of what resulted in the local republican county board of supervisors having me removed from my seat on the EMC. It then has three brief chapters on non-Indian topics of interest that kind of relate to life on Earth, including human evolution: my contribution to the three top paleo-botanists studying the first trees on our planet, from the Devonian era (I brought a five-mile stretch of fossils of the tree-ferns to their attention); their pediatrician's artifacts from Bed 1 at Olduvai Gorge, where he worked with Louis and Mary Leaky in the early 1960s; and my Neanderthal knife (I have always been fascinated in the brain structure of our human cousins).
Then on to the first inhabitants of North America. We review a number of theories on where they came from, and when. I have a small collection of artifacts from a paleo camp site that a representative of the NYS Museum recently came to photograph. Included is a fluted Clovis spear point that, in their 2012 museum publication (I have their “rough draft”) they call “the most spectacular” of the upstate-NY finds. Chief Waterman called these people “the ancient ones,” and I tell about how the oral traditions and scientific information overlap.
Then come the early, middle, and late phases of the archaic eras, who Paul called “the ancestors' ancestors.” Again, we combine oral traditions with the archaeological record and its interpretation by archaeologists. It was in the Late Archaic that the first prophet of the people of the northeast taught what are known as the “Original Instructions.” He was a young man, known as Sapling, and he lived around 2,000 bc. His instructions are similar in nature to those delivered around the globe, in different cultures, by the Awakened Ones.
Artifacts from the Early- and Middle Archaic periods are rather scarce, but the “boys” and I have found several sites, and their book includes nice photographs of the numerous projectile points and other related artifacts we have found over the years.
Next comes the transitional phase, leading to the three woodland phases, in which the cultural influences from distant regions begin to take root in upstate New York. These include the beginnings of the Ohio River Valley “mound” cultures, which while different from the later Meso-American empires, involve the impact of horticulture, larger population centers, and social stratification. Among the dynamics that I find fascinating, and discussed at length with Chief Waterman, is how this led people from the shaman's individual experience, to the more organized and larger-scaled “priesthood” as a distinct social class in the larger society. There are large sections of our conversations on this general topic in their book.
There are very different opinions in the archaeological/anthropology community regarding the formation of what early Europeans and Euro-Americans called “the League of the Iroquois.” For many decades, non-Iroquois assumed it was a response to European intervention in North American affairs, and dated back to about 1500 ad. Also, the ethnic Iroquois were considered “late-comers” to the upstate New York region. In recent years, a more dendrite model has become accepted, which is both closer to the Iroquois tradition, and reflects an in-sito interpretation of the archaeological record made possible by advances in modern technology.
There are still different views on figures such as the Peace Maker and Hiawatha – including as to whether they were historical figures, and if so, when they lived. The view expressed in this book is in general agreement with the current opinion that Hiawatha lived around 950 ad, but places the man who taught the Great Law at an earlier stage. I base my opinion on an interpretation that includes a different focus on extended family, clan, and tribe relationships than most of the professional archaeologists presently take. I believe that, in time, this dendrite model will become more widely accepted by the non-Indian community.
Then there is a chapter on the pre-contact Oneida, Onondaga, Susquehanna, Algonquin/ Lenni Lenape, and Huron cultures, followed by a good history of the colonial and Revolutionary War era. I have a sizable collection of artifacts from one of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant's camps, which he used during the “border wars” during the Revolutionary War. A chapter on the post-war era follows; then, several chapters having to do with “current events” in Indian Territory, including the work that Chief Waterman and I did.
There are hundreds of photographs, primarily of “local” artifacts; these include my collection, those of friends, and from one area college's museum. A local high school art teacher contributed some outstanding drawings, and author Joseph Bruchac let my boys use a couple of his wonderful poems.
Two years ago, my younger son wrote a paper on burial protection and repatriation issues, from his perspective. His teacher, who works at a local college and a university, told him it was the best paper that she has had any student ever hand in. In fact, she kept the original. I've had a couple of the faculty from the university my older son attended tell me that they think he should become a teacher. I think the quality of their book indicates that they are two intelligent, thoughtful young men. The “book tour” is being scheduled in our area. It'll be an opportunity for the three of us to travel about again, kind of like the old days.
If anyone here is interested in more information on their book, contact me here.
Peace,
H2O Man
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