Iroquois Museum’s 27th Annual Festival

The Iroquois Museum in Howe’s Cavern, NY held their 27th Annual Festival over the Labor Day weekend. Mother Nature contributed to the program by providing lots of sunshine and cool breezes for the festival goers, the arts and craft vendors, the volunteers and the workers.

Each day began with the reciting of the Ohenten Kariwahtekwen. The Jim Skye Dancers of Six Nations were there to demonstrate various social songs and dances for the enthusiastic crowds. The Friendship Dance was a favorite of the day as the visitors got to participate in the dancing; some perhaps for the first time. Storytellers recited legends to the delight of the listeners, many arts and crafts vendors brought their beautiful handiwork to sell, and delicious food and drink was sold to the crowd.

Admission to the Festival also included entrance to the Iroquois Museum where currently there is an exhibition of Native baseball players in community leagues or in the National Baseball League. Pictures, stories, baseball trading cards, a Wheaties box, uniforms and various baseball bats and balls are displayed that belonged to Louis Socalexis, Jim Thorpe, Joba Chamberlain (a pitcher with the NY Yankees) and Jacoby Ellsbury currently with the Boston Red Sox. On loan from the Akwesasne Museum is a photograph of the Akwesasne Ladies Baseball Team from the mid 1950’s that feature Annabelle Oakes, Mabel Thomas, Louise Jock and Erma White; just to name a few. The museum is home to various baskets made by Akwesasronon Mary Adams, Mae Bigtree and Elizabeth Terrance, beadwork, artwork, paintings and sculptures.

A children’s exhibit containing live fish and two turtles captivates kids (and adults alike) as does the dress-up section and the arts and crafts table. Hiking trails behind the museum are very inviting for the casual walker or the serious hiker.

I certainly look forward to next year’s Festival with its educational and entertaining teachings about Iroquois Culture, past and present.