ABSTRACT
A joyful throng of paddlers, organizers and ground crew filled the UN assembly hall. We were in a celebratory mood. We had overcome wind, torrential rains, tricky tidal currents, sun, sore muscles and our fears to commemorate the 400th anniversary of a 1613 agreement between the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) and the first Europeans, from the Netherlands. The flotilla of canoes and kayaks had completed its journey to bring the Two Row Wampum Treaty, its meaning and its promise, literally and figuratively, to thousands of people in Upstate New York, USA and beyond. On the first leg of the journey a smaller group of Haudenosaunee paddlers left from the Onondaga Nation and traveled
north on Onondaga Creek to Onondaga Lake following rivers and lakes to the Mohawk River finishing where the Mohawk empties into the Hudson. After a two-week rest, the Haudenosaunee paddlers, now joined by many more paddlers from other Native Nations and Non-Native allies, rowed side by side all the way to New York City and United Nations headquarters for the International Day of World Indigenous Peoples. More than 500 people took part as paddlers for all or segments of the journey, ground crew, organizers and supporters. There were 12 campsites near towns and cities in the Hudson Valley and many people came out in support; bringing food, signing declarations of support, opening their homes for paddlers to shower, and joining us to listen to Native elders speak.
