Our friend Anika is helping to coordinate housing in NYC for paddlers with the Two Row Wampum Campaign (more info below). In brief, the Two Row Wampum Campaign is a statewide initiative with global implications to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first treaty between the Haudenosaunee and European settlers, recorded on the Two Row Wampum Belt. Honoring the land and respecting native people was (and remains) at the heart of this treaty. To remind/ educate the public about the Two Row Wampum, and all native treaties, the campaign is reenacting a trip down the Hudson River, from Albany to New York City.
The organizers are seeking home-stays for paddlers the evenings of Thursday August 8th and Friday August 9. If you can open your home to participants in this culturally, environmentally, and historically significant event, please complete this survey! The campaign also welcomes donations, here. You can contact tworowhousing@gmail.com (cc’ed) with any questions.
About the Two Row Symbolic Enactment:
From July 27th to August 9th, the Two Row Wampum Campaign will be traveling down the Hudson river in two rows–with Haudenosaunee representatives on one side and allies on the other–from Albany to New York City, holding educational and cultural events along the way. On August 8th, they will arrive in Inwood and hold a community event. On August 9th, they will continue to Pier 96, hold a media event, and march to the United Nations to participate in their activities for the United Nations International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples.
Campaign Overview:
The Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign is a state-wide educational initiative about the first treaty ever made between the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and settler nations (in this case the Dutch). It was also cited as the foundation of every subsequent treaty made with the French, British, and United States, making it the fundamental basis of the relationship between the United States and the Haudenosaunee.
The Two Row Wampum was created in 1613 and depicts the two sovereign nations–the Haudenosaunee in their canoes and the settlers in their boats–traveling down the River of Life side by side in peace, friendship, and perpetuity, as they care for their shared resources. This relationship has many social as well as environmental ramifications, and illustrates that we have responsibilities not only to one another but also to the environment that we share. This environment is our common ground that we all rely on for life and will continue to be so for all of our future generations.
2013 marks the Wampum’s 400th anniversary. Current environmental devastation gives testament to a failure on the part of settler nations to uphold the Two Row Wampum over the past 400 years. To commemorate the Wampum’s anniversary and encourage citizens of the United States to live up to the Wampum’s tenants the campaign will culminate in a symbolic enactment of the treaty.
Thanks much!
