Peekskill's Riverfront Green Park was filled with cheers and claps as dozens of canoes and kayaks arrived Monday afternoon, carrying people who believe in remembering friendship and peace as they travel the "river of life."
About 500 paddlers are making their way down the Hudson River—they started in Rensselaer late last month and are slated to arrive in Manhattan Aug. 9—for the Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign. It recognizes the 400th anniversary of the first treaty signed between the European settlers and the Haudenosaunee, also known as The Iroquois.
"The Two Row Wampum is how the treaty was recorded," Lindsay Speer, a community organizer with the Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, said of the beaded belt. "The oral history of that agreement talks about us traveling down the river of life together, side-by-side, each in our ship and canoe. The ships and canoes represent each of our ways of life—our languages, our laws, our governments, our cultures. [It's] recognizing that we should not try to steer each other's ships."
Instead of steering one another, the idea is that everyone should "travel together," linked by peace, friendship and respect, Speer said. That's why the paddlers—who are both natives and non-natives—are making their way down the Hudson side-by-side, in two rows.
"When I learned about the campaign, I was really excited to hear about something that was such a celebration of the communities working in harmony," said Janet Zanutto, a resident of Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Zanutto and her 3-year-old daughter Violet were aboard Peekskill's Evening Star. They were trying to catch a glimpse from the vessel of Jade, Violet's 11-year-old sister who was out on the water.
The Zanuttos—who are part of the Nisga'a Nation—joined the journey in Poughkeepsie, and plan to continue down to Manhattan. As a "mixed family," the campaign is important to them.
"I think the really important key message is that we're all of one heart, that there are people out there who want to work in solidarity, and to honor each other's rights," Zanutto said. "Sometimes we might not know how to do that, so the best way to do that is to be talking."
The importance of protecting the environment is another message participants hope to deliver along the trip, which lasts more than 140 miles.
Organizers say the Dutch consul general, as well as native and non-native supporters, will greet the group at the final landing.
Clinton, NY residents Buffy Curtis and Liseli Haines identified themselves as "allies," or non-natives. They arrived in the park at about 2:30 p.m. and were loving the energy they've encountered so far along the trip.
"It's been exquisite," Curtis said of the cheering and the train toots.
The important part of the event, she noted, is "the unity piece." It reminds people to honor tradition and work together.
"These treaties still exist. They're still valid, and we need to honor them," Speer said, adding that the goal of the activities is, in part, to "fill in the gaps of our education."
Before the paddlers arrived in Peekskill, a group of youngsters from the city's youth bureau heard from anthropologists and a Mohawk storyteller. A few of them hit the water to welcome the paddlers. They did so on The Jan Peek, a boat built during a youth bureau program in 2011 and 2012.
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