On Sunday, April 22, 2007 we will join together at the Seneca Indian Park to plant a white pine tree. People of all faith traditions are welcome to join us as we celebrate the earth. We will also have seedlings for people to purchase and take with them to plant around the community.
Planting trees is one of the best things we can do to reduce the impact of carbon on the creation. We each must plant a least ten trees during our lifetime just to make up for the air we breathe. If we drive or do almost anything else, we need to plant more trees. Join the movement.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
About Seneca Indian Park
The Buffam Street Park
By Jay Burney
We have chosen the site at Buffam Street known as the Seneca Indian Park for a couple of reasons.
It is one of the most historic spots in South Buffalo, Buffalo the City, and the region, and it is one of Buffalo’s least recognized public parks.
Long ago, this was the location of a village, thought by some early historians to be the last stronghold of the Neuter Nation. The French called them Neutrals because they appeared to not take sides in the long war between the Huron’s and Iroquois, and occupied territory separating the two. Some have suggested that this nation favored neutral status because they considered themselves the protectors of the river and lake and its surroundings, long considered to be a rich resource of food and game for many tribes for thousands of years.
The original “village” site consisted of about 4 acres. According to a map drawn and published in 1851 by Ephriam George Squier, the site was surrounded by a "D" shaped earthworks. Squier was a major figure in the documentation of ancient aboriginal sites in the Americas. (Western New York Heritage Magazine Fall 2004)
The Neutrals were a confederated tribe of aboriginal peoples that once occupied a large portion of territory stretching from Southern Ontario around Lake Erie and the Niagara River, and stretching from Western New York to Michigan. By about 1650 the Neuters had been defeated by the Seneca and there is evidence that a significant battle took place at the site that we now call the Seneca Indian Park.
After the defeat of the Neutrals this site became part of the vast Iroquois Confederacy and was controlled by the Seneca’s who were the “Keepers of the Western Door”.
The site was deemed a sacred site, and was used as a burial ground by the Seneca and other’s that came to live on the Buffalo Creek Reservation.
The Buffalo Creek Reservation was created in the waning years of the 18th Century as aboriginal people in New York were moved off their historic lands and relocated on several reservations. The original reservation stretched from the Niagara River and Lake Erie West along the Buffalo Creek, and consisted of nearly 50,000 acres.
In 1819, the first Seneca Mission house was built by early Christian Missionaries representing the New York Missionary Society. It was a two story hewn log building which contained both classrooms and living quarters.
This house was built adjacent to the Seneca Burial ground probably at the site of the current School 70. This mission house was a well known attraction for white settlers and many visited traveling out from Buffalo into the relative wilderness of the reservation. Soon the Mission House became a boarding school. A Church was located nearby on what is now called Indian Church Road.
In 1831 the Reverend Asher Wright, a young graduate from Andover Theological Seminary arrived and with his wife, oversaw at the Mission House for 44 years. He had a broad knowledge of many languages and had training as a medical doctor.
Red Jacket the well known Seneca orator and Mary Jemison, known as the white woman of the Genesee lived nearby. Red Jacket died in 1830. Both were originally buried at the site.
The burial ground included grove of Black Walnut trees, many of which remain today.
The Buffalo Creek reservation was dissolved in 1842 and the native residents were forced to abandon their homes and farms located in the reservation. The burial ground remained.
For many years after the departure of the Seneca’s, an African American man named Henry Toliver acted as a custodian of the cemetery. From time to time it is said that he allowed the interment of white settlers at the site, but these graves were kept separate from the native graves.
Red Jackets remains were surreptitiously removed from the burial ground in about 1850 in a famously scandalous event, and were eventually reinterred in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Mary Jemison’s remains were removed to the Glen Iris in what is now called Letchworth State Park in 1874.
Many white settlers moved in and built homesteads and farms, including Horace Buffam who built the home on the corner of Buffam Street and Parkview Avenue in approximately 1850. This is the oldest home in South Buffalo and one of the oldest in the city of Buffalo.
In 1893 The State of New York ordered that all of the remains from the burial ground be removed. At that time approximately 700 bodies were removed. It is also said that relic hunters and archeologists for years afterward were removing relics by the barrel.
In 1909, John D. Larkin purchased the remaining burial ground and donated it to the city as a park.
AT the time a large granite boulder was brought to the site from Larkin’s Queenston Ontario farm. A bronze plague was mounted on the boulder which read:
Seneca Indian Park
In this vicinity from 1780 to 1842 dwelt the larger portion of the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois League. In this enclosure were buried Red Jacket, May Jemison the white woman of the Genesse and many of the noted chiefs and leaders of the nation whose remains have been removed and reburied elsewhere. To the Generosity of Mr. and Mrs. John D larking who presented it to the City of Buffalo is doe the preservation of this historic site.
By 1980 this park was forgotten and highly vandalized. The plague and been stolen. In 1992 a new replica plague, created through the efforts of Allan Jamieson, a Cayuga Faithkeeper and a descendent of Mary Jemison, and his organization Netohatinakwe Onkwehowe the plague was restored and the memorial rededicated.
Today the site is still considered sacred by aboriginal people.
By Jay Burney
We have chosen the site at Buffam Street known as the Seneca Indian Park for a couple of reasons.
It is one of the most historic spots in South Buffalo, Buffalo the City, and the region, and it is one of Buffalo’s least recognized public parks.
Long ago, this was the location of a village, thought by some early historians to be the last stronghold of the Neuter Nation. The French called them Neutrals because they appeared to not take sides in the long war between the Huron’s and Iroquois, and occupied territory separating the two. Some have suggested that this nation favored neutral status because they considered themselves the protectors of the river and lake and its surroundings, long considered to be a rich resource of food and game for many tribes for thousands of years.
The original “village” site consisted of about 4 acres. According to a map drawn and published in 1851 by Ephriam George Squier, the site was surrounded by a "D" shaped earthworks. Squier was a major figure in the documentation of ancient aboriginal sites in the Americas. (Western New York Heritage Magazine Fall 2004)
The Neutrals were a confederated tribe of aboriginal peoples that once occupied a large portion of territory stretching from Southern Ontario around Lake Erie and the Niagara River, and stretching from Western New York to Michigan. By about 1650 the Neuters had been defeated by the Seneca and there is evidence that a significant battle took place at the site that we now call the Seneca Indian Park.
After the defeat of the Neutrals this site became part of the vast Iroquois Confederacy and was controlled by the Seneca’s who were the “Keepers of the Western Door”.
The site was deemed a sacred site, and was used as a burial ground by the Seneca and other’s that came to live on the Buffalo Creek Reservation.
The Buffalo Creek Reservation was created in the waning years of the 18th Century as aboriginal people in New York were moved off their historic lands and relocated on several reservations. The original reservation stretched from the Niagara River and Lake Erie West along the Buffalo Creek, and consisted of nearly 50,000 acres.
In 1819, the first Seneca Mission house was built by early Christian Missionaries representing the New York Missionary Society. It was a two story hewn log building which contained both classrooms and living quarters.
This house was built adjacent to the Seneca Burial ground probably at the site of the current School 70. This mission house was a well known attraction for white settlers and many visited traveling out from Buffalo into the relative wilderness of the reservation. Soon the Mission House became a boarding school. A Church was located nearby on what is now called Indian Church Road.
In 1831 the Reverend Asher Wright, a young graduate from Andover Theological Seminary arrived and with his wife, oversaw at the Mission House for 44 years. He had a broad knowledge of many languages and had training as a medical doctor.
Red Jacket the well known Seneca orator and Mary Jemison, known as the white woman of the Genesee lived nearby. Red Jacket died in 1830. Both were originally buried at the site.
The burial ground included grove of Black Walnut trees, many of which remain today.
The Buffalo Creek reservation was dissolved in 1842 and the native residents were forced to abandon their homes and farms located in the reservation. The burial ground remained.
For many years after the departure of the Seneca’s, an African American man named Henry Toliver acted as a custodian of the cemetery. From time to time it is said that he allowed the interment of white settlers at the site, but these graves were kept separate from the native graves.
Red Jackets remains were surreptitiously removed from the burial ground in about 1850 in a famously scandalous event, and were eventually reinterred in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Mary Jemison’s remains were removed to the Glen Iris in what is now called Letchworth State Park in 1874.
Many white settlers moved in and built homesteads and farms, including Horace Buffam who built the home on the corner of Buffam Street and Parkview Avenue in approximately 1850. This is the oldest home in South Buffalo and one of the oldest in the city of Buffalo.
In 1893 The State of New York ordered that all of the remains from the burial ground be removed. At that time approximately 700 bodies were removed. It is also said that relic hunters and archeologists for years afterward were removing relics by the barrel.
In 1909, John D. Larkin purchased the remaining burial ground and donated it to the city as a park.
AT the time a large granite boulder was brought to the site from Larkin’s Queenston Ontario farm. A bronze plague was mounted on the boulder which read:
Seneca Indian Park
In this vicinity from 1780 to 1842 dwelt the larger portion of the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois League. In this enclosure were buried Red Jacket, May Jemison the white woman of the Genesse and many of the noted chiefs and leaders of the nation whose remains have been removed and reburied elsewhere. To the Generosity of Mr. and Mrs. John D larking who presented it to the City of Buffalo is doe the preservation of this historic site.
By 1980 this park was forgotten and highly vandalized. The plague and been stolen. In 1992 a new replica plague, created through the efforts of Allan Jamieson, a Cayuga Faithkeeper and a descendent of Mary Jemison, and his organization Netohatinakwe Onkwehowe the plague was restored and the memorial rededicated.
Today the site is still considered sacred by aboriginal people.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Tree Planting at Seneca Indian park
We are planting a tree to celebrate the earth at the Seneca Indian Park on April 22, 2007. We plan to gather around 2:00 and plant an Eastern White Pine at this beautiful park in south Buffalo.
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