Words, artifacts reflect nature at eco event

PINE PLAINS —  On a perfect Saturday, May 6, after what seemed like a month of rain, a Schaghticoke Sachem, or chief, engaged children and adults alike in thinking about the environment as a whole by means of gentle but persistent questioning about specifics.

In a gathering on the lawn of the Graham-Brush House just behind Rosey’s, Sachem Hawk Storm led children to learn a few words of the Indigenous group’s language by means of words painted on stones by a local artist, hidden then found during a scavenger hunt. The event was sponsored by the Little Nine Partners Historical Society.

Storm focused on biodiversity and how to achieve it along with a healthy society by tending to the exact needs of the seven layers of the living forest ecosystem, from the canopy to the roots, while thinking of food at the same time. “In the last two years,” he said, “we’ve planted 3,000 trees in our 72-acre forest,” many of which bear nuts or fruit.

“We are relatives,” he reminded all, when the child with the “Atchwechteed” stone raised her hand; and in a moment of serendipity, “living water,” P’mawoso` Mbei, was the word painted on the stone held by a child whose middle name happened to be River.

Anne Simmons, standing, offers prompts and suggestions as her granddaughters and other children try to identify the meanings of words and symbols on painted rocks they had collected.  Sachem Hawk Storm kneels in front of a table laden with cultural and ecological artifacts. Photo by Deborah Maier

In one room of the 1776 (determined by dendrochronology assessment) Graham-Brush House, members of the Schaghticoke nation and Little Nine Partners Historical Society leaders enjoy a favorite word as coached by the chief. Left to right: Shukuvena Yawanawa, his mother Nawashahu Yawanawa-Bergin; LNPHS’ Valerie LaRobardier and Dyan Wapnick; and Sachem Hawk Storm. Photo by Deborah Maier

Anne Simmons, standing, offers prompts and suggestions as her granddaughters and other children try to identify the meanings of words and symbols on painted rocks they had collected.  Sachem Hawk Storm kneels in front of a table laden with cultural and ecological artifacts. Photo by Deborah Maier