Solar eclipse festival to shed light on Native American heritage

It also falls during DBA’s Eclipse Restaurant Week, April 1-8, created to showcase culinary excellence throughout the city. A festival tent with a stage and sound system will be set up at the foot of Franklin Street near Public Square, which will be open for traffic.

“We work very closely with the city,” said Jill Van Hoesen, president of the DBA. “We thought this was a great way to pull people in and give them some sort of a different type of history, other than to just come down and watch something. We’re gearing it for education and for children. It’s not only about the eclipse and democracy, but the Native American aspect as a whole, which really has a lot more to do with around here than sometimes people may think.’’

The idea for the festival all goes back to another total eclipse seen in the north country — in August 1142, and the work of a legendary “peacemaker.”

The Native North American Traveling College, based in Akwesasne, which straddles the U.S.-Canada border, will be a key part of the festival. The college conserves cultural heritage through education, facilitation and commerce.

The roots of the NNATC can be traced to a van filled with resources educating people on what it means to be Indigenous. In 1974, it established a building of its own.

“We’re celebrating our 50th year in existence,” said executive director and museum manager Joyce Tekahnawiiaks King. The NNATC itself,at 1 Ronathahonni Lane, Akwesasne, on Cornwall Island, hosts events, cultural presentations, exhibits and tours.

King has lived her entire life in Akwesasne and has worked with all three Mohawk governments there: the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council and the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.

When she worked for the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs, she also was responsible for managing the Akwesasne Notes Bookstore, the Akwesasne Tourist Information Center and the overall operations of the Mohawk Nation office.

She worked diligently as the director of the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force and holds a federal appointment as a justice of the peace under a section of the Canadian Indian Act. She has adjudicated in the Mohawk territories of Kahnawake and Akwesasne and is a popular keynote speaker on cultural issues and the environment.

In mid-March, she authored the essay, “The Solar Eclipse and the Formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy,” and sent a copy to the Times shortly after finishing it. It concludes:

“The solar eclipse is an occasion to be embraced by democracies around the world. The almost once-in-a-lifetime event needs to be celebrated and should serve to remind ourselves of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy which helped shaped the United States government we know today. Just ask Benjamin Franklin, or read his writings.”

On Sept. 16, 1987 (a day before Constitution Day and Citizenship Day), the U.S. Senate passed a resolution recognizing the influence of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy on the construction of the Constitution.

It noted, “The original framers of the Constitution, including most notably, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired the concepts, principles and governmental practices of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Whereas the confederation of the original Thirteen Colonies into one republic was explicitly modeled upon the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself.”

According to the Library of Congress, Franklin wrote to his printing partner, James Parker, “It would be a very strange thing, if (the) Six Nations … should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union, and be able to execute it in such a manner, as that it has subsisted ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies, to whom it is more necessary, and must be more advantageous.”

King said that at the festival, the NNATC will have exhibits highlighting how the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was created. Its tribes were united through the work of the Peacemaker.

“We don’t say his name,” King said. “You only do it when in ceremony.”

King’s essay compiled oral Haudenosaunee history, which cites a solar eclipse in 1142 when the last of the five warring nations, the Seneca Nation, joined the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

“Our oral history speaks of the solar eclipse, seen and acknowledged by the Onkwehonweh (original people) who were present during this auspicious occasion,” King wrote. “This occasion is supported by an article, ‘Dating the Iroquois Confederacy’ by Bruce E. Johansen, bearing in mind that the power and consequence of oral history is not to be underestimated.”

The Haudenosaunee, King explained, formed a confederacy long before the arrival of European colonizers. But before the confederacy, chaos reigned.

“The violence at that time was legendary: Retribution, revenge and retaliation were the three Rs of the era,” she wrote in her essay. “There was no way to escape this ruthlessness unless you lived on an island, which one family did and this is where the Peacemaker was born.”

King explained that beginning in the east, in the territory where the Peacemaker was to be born, lived the fiercest of the warring nations: the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) and that traversing west along the Great Lakes, existed the Oneida Nation, the Onondaga Nation, the Cayuga Nation and the Seneca Nation.

“As the Peacemaker grew, he envisioned putting an end to the warring nations,” King wrote. “Through his transcendence and visionary teachings, the Peacemaker established a system of governance. This system of governance became the confederacy of five nations which allowed each single nation to be autonomous and any decision affecting all five nations had to be approved by consensus. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is known to this day as the longest existing democracy in the world.”

King noted that “oral history tells us that the Seneca Nation was the last nation to accept the Peacemaker’s message of peace, strength and righteousness. The Seneca Nation was established, in present day maps, in western New York and eastern Pennsylvania. Haudenosaunee oratory recounts that the ratification of the uniting five nations was marked by a long solar eclipse. Through an examination of historic solar eclipses alongside the oral tradition pertaining to the longevity of the eclipse, this historical phenomenon took place at a site called Gonandaga in the year 1142.”

These days, the Ganondagan State Historic Site, also known as Boughton Hill, is a Native American historic site in Victor, Ontario County, 135 miles from Watertown. Spanning about 600 acres, Ganondagan is the original site of a 17th-century Seneca town that existed there for more than 350 years. The site includes the Seneca Art & Culture Center.

Victor is in the path of totality. Between noon and 5 p.m. on April 8, the historic site will host short presentations leading up to totality, including information on past eclipses in the context of Haudenosaunee history and the science behind total solar eclipses.

Traditional games may also be enjoyed before and after totality. The eclipse may be observed from either the main event field or from the top of Fort Hill. Programs after totality include Native American storytelling and a discussion of the shared experience of witnessing totality.

Festival events

Franklin Street, Van Hoesen said, will be closed from Goodale Street to the Square. In the Franklin Building, about a dozen displays will represent various Native American-related themes and vendors.

There will also be educational, family booths hosted by organizations such as the Sci-Tech Center of Northern New York, Thompson Park Zoo and Flower Memorial Library.

Meanwhile, several extra Native American Solar Eclipse Festival vendors will set up at the Paddock Arcade and join the regular Paddock Arcade Farm to Home Market, held each Saturday.

“We’ve had such a great response that our overflow vendors will be in the Paddock Arcade along with the normal Saturday vendors that are down there,” Van Hoesen said. “We’d love to see people over there also.”

Back at the Franklin Street area, a Pixelit mobile billboard will also be in the area showing an episode of the award-winning Marvel Studios-produced animated series, “What If…?” The sixth episode in season 2, “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” premiered on Disney+ on Dec. 27. It introduces audiences to an original Super Hero, Kahhori, a young Mohawk woman on a quest to discover her power.

The episode, created in close collaboration with members of the Mohawk Nation, explores what would happen if the Tesseract (a cube designed to hold the powerful “Space Stone”) fell to Earth and landed in the sovereign Haudenosaunee Confederacy before the colonization of America.

There will be performances put on by Along the Water 6 Nations Singers & Dancers throughout the day.

King said that as part of cultural education, the NNATC will have two exhibits. “One will talk about the Peacemaker’s journey and the significance of the solar eclipse.”

There will also be an activity at the NNATC for children, King said. “And while I’m there at the exhibit, people can ask me anything and I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge.”

The Jefferson County Historical Society, 228 Washington St., will be open for regular admissions and water will be available at its gift shop. Its current “Presidential Signature” exhibit is installed in the main gallery.

The Whimsical Pig, a graphic design/framing business located in the Franklin Building, will create T-shirts related to the April 6 festival and they will be on sale that day at the Franklin Building and at the Paddock Arcade.

restaurant week

The DBA created Eclipse Restaurant Week to showcase culinary excellence throughout the city. Restaurants, the DBA says, will offer special affordable menus — from a two-course lunch option to a multi-course tasting experience.

“As a special bonus, all the restaurants around Public Square are going to be open that Saturday to bring people downtown who are staying in all these hotels getting ready for Monday and who are looking for something to do,” Van Hoesen said. “The restaurants are all busy preparing something unique and creative for Eclipse Restaurant Week, which means there will be different entrees, lunches and things like that, offering not only special meals, but special prices.”

The 16 establishments taking part: Paddock Club, Vito’s Gourmet, O-Ho Boba Cafe, CaffeineHolic, Europe Cakes, Downtown Bistro 108, Cam’s Pizzeria, Empire Square, City Wings, Bad Apple Downtown, The Crystal, Boots Brewing Company, Whistler’s Tavern, Mr. Sub, Holy Smokes Bourbon and BBQ and Starch Cafe.

Empire of the sun

Vonnette T. Monteith, owner of Empire Square, 65 Public Square, has strategically put a plan in place for Solar Eclipse Restaurant Week, with specials during the first few days of the week.

“By Friday, we’re going into a solar eclipse special,” she said.

The restaurant will have two entrances designed for different appetites and schedules of festival attendees.

“The plan is that the main door is where all seated customers come into. All Restaurant Week customers will come into that door,” Monteith said.

Two hostesses will be there to greet guests. “I’m not letting anybody in the restaurant unless they are sitting and there are tables. We have limited occupancy and old bathrooms. You’ll come into that one door, escorted to your table and be given a menu.”

For other customers, Empire Square’s window doors will be open. “I’ll have tables there with grab-and-go special menus,” Monteith said. That menu will be a sandwich, chips, water and cookies.

The restaurant will serve alcohol to seated customers only. “I have a mixologist for a bartender (Sarah Daus) and she’s coming up with the solar eclipse cocktail special,” Monteith said. “We will not be pushing alcoholic drinks out the window doors.”

Empire Square has a plan, but there’s uncertainty about how many people will be downtown during eclipse week, especially on April 7 and 8.

“I think the best bet for us is to see what Thursday and Friday looks like,” Monteith said. “I have this plan, but I’m not going to make 10,000 sandwiches just yet. I would rather run out of food than be stuck with 10,000 sandwiches. I wouldn’t even be able to give away 10,000 sandwiches, and I don’t want to throw it away.”

On the evening of the festival, April 6, Empire Square will host the Jesse Collins Trio for musical entertainment. The trio performs classic jazz and Collins’s original music.

But one thing remained up in the air for Monteith as she planned for eclipse week. She was seeking a large order of a popular cookie that’s a mix of marshmallow, graham and chocolate. The snack is especially popular in the south. They are made by Chattanooga Bakery Inc. in Tennessee.

“We’re from Kentucky,” she said. “I’m trying to get Moon Pies. That would be great for this event. I just don’t know if I can get that many Moon Pies.”