Sacred Circle Gathering & Grand Opening 2009

Tree Of Peace Society

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Sacred Circle Gathering & Grand Opening 2009

Sacred Circle Gathering 2009
Date: July 31st & August 1st
Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm each day
Registration Fee: $25.00/per day
Includes Lunch

Grand Opening Activities
Date: August 2nd
Time: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Everyone Welcome - Free Event
Includes Light Lunch

Pre-register by calling 518-358-2641. Leave your name, phone number and number of people attending. We are unable to process online registrations at this time. Registration fees for Sacred Circle Gathering will be due upon arrival. You may also send a check payable to: Tree of Peace Society at 326 Cook Road, Hogansburg, NY 13655.

Accomodations are the responsibility of the registrant. See "Motel List" for motels and campgrounds in the area.

Date

Time

Presenter and Workshop Description

July 31 (Fri)

9 am - 11 am

Jake Swamp -Mohawk Wolf Clan, Akwesasne, NY
Welcoming remarks.Update on activities and tour of Learning Center and upcoming plans.

July 31 (Fri)

1 pm - 3 pm

Dale Bellisfield and Nancy Slowick, New Jersey
"Nature walk: Wild Edibles and Foods as Medicine"

Aug. 1 (Sat)

9 am - 11 am

Dr. Dan Longboat, Mohawk Turtle Clan, Ohsweken, Ontario
"The Nature and Necessity of Working Together"

Aug. 1 (Sat)

1 pm - 3 pm

Rick Hill, Tuscarora Beaver Clan, Ohsweken, Ontario
"Haudenosaunee Ecological Knowledge" & "Haudenosaunee Prophecy and Response"

August 2 (Sunday)
Grand Opening
Free to All

10 am - 3 pm

10:00 am -11:00 am: Tree Planting Ceremony by Jake Swamp
11:00 - Noon: Bear Fox, Mohawk Wolf Clan, Akwesasne, NY: Singer/Songwriter
12:30 - 1:00 pm: Smoke Dance Demonstration
1:00 - 3:00 pm: Steve McComber, Mohawk Bear Clan, Kahnawake, QC: Iroquois connections to agriculture and the preservation of "old seeds"
Native Artist Gallery and Demonstrations: All day
Activities for Children

Sacred Circle Presenters for 2009

Jake Swamp

Jake Tekaronianeken Swamp, Wolf Clan, Akwesasne Mohawk Nation

Jake resides in Akwesasne with his wife Judy, has seven children and twenty two grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. He is presently employed with the Men for Change Program in Akwesasne, which is a program through the Iethi'nisten:ha Family Violence Shelter. Jake works with men using the Haudenosaunee culture as a basis for positive change within themselves as well as within their families.

For over thirty years, Jake was a Mohawk Sub-Chief and representative on the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and has offered a wide range of experience in Indigenous, environmental and social issues both locally and nationally and internationally. Jake has held the position as a leader of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation with responsibilities such as presiding over thanksgiving ceremonies, birth and marriage ceremonies, counseling, funeral rites, and the politics of the nation and confederacy. Jake has inspired a new generation of Mohawk leaders and teachers who are now taking the place of Elders in the communities of the Iroquois and was directly involved in the creation of the Akwesasne Freedom School - a Mohawk language immersion school of critical acclaim that has been an inspiration to many First Nation peoples in the United States and Canada. Jake has inspired hundreds of people of many races and cultures through working with a number of influential organizations.

As result of his thirty years experience as a sub-chief of the Mohawk Nation and international ambassador, Jake has been traveling around the world, planting "Trees of Peace" in diverse places such as Israel, Australia, South America, United Nations, Morroco, Japan, Thailand, St. Johns' Cathedral in New York City and over twenty colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Through his tree planting efforts, Jake has inspired the planting of over 200 million trees. Jake continues to inspire many college students of all races and backgrounds through his extensive lecturing schedule which takes him to over 10 universities and other speaking engagements a year.

Jake has appeared on the television program Five Hundred Nations, which has become educational software; Ancient Prophecies which aired in 1994 on NBC, Finite Oceans which aired on the Discovery channel in 1994; and educational display videos for the Carnegie Museum in Chicago. Jake is the author of the children's book Giving Thanks, A Native American Good Morning Message (Lee & Low Books), which has been translated into five languages and was featured on the PBS television show Reading Rainbow. Jake also authored The Peacemaker's Journey audiocassette produced by Parabola Magazine (1996).
For over thirty years Jake Swamp has worked tirelessly for the communities of the Iroquois people and bridging cultural difference - in the spirit of respectful dialogue and collective action - in addressing environmental and social problems.

Dr. Longboat

Dan Longboat, Ph.D., Turtle Clan, Mohawk Nation, Ohswe:ken, ON

Dan Longboat “Roronhiake:wen...He Clears the Sky”, Turtle Clan of the Mohawk Nation, a Citizen of the Haudenosaunee; The Six Nations Confederacy from Ohswe:ken, at the Grand River Territory. Longboat earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Native Studies, with an interest in Psychology from Trent University. He received with distinction, a Masters Degree in Environmental Studies from York University, he recently completed his Ph.D. in Environmental Studies, through the Faculty of Graduate Studies at York University, in Toronto.

Longboat’s strong commitment to Indigenous communities is evident in his involvement as a Director for the Rotinonhson:ni Language Development Centre, Director of The Indigenous Nation’s Sanctioned Research Program for Graduate Studies, Consultant to The Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation on First Nations Solid Waste Management and as Project Evaluator for the Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment for the US Environmental Protection Agency and is on the Advisory Board for the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario and the Science Advisory for the International Joint Commission for the Great Lakes Watershed.

As a life long learner, Longboat strongly encourages study with Elders and Traditional People. He recognizes the critical importance of language learning and support for culturally based programs. He encourages youth to participate in the Longhouse and in their Nation and Confederacy governments, to support and assist the Hereditary Leaders and Traditional Peoples in the Communities. He believes direct involvement and active participation through working together and using a “Good Mind”, to be a major part of our responsibilities as Haudenosaunee.
Dr. Longboat is currently Director of the Indigenous Environmental Studies Department at Trent University and a faculty member with First Nations Technical Institute “Indigenous Community Health Approaches” program.

Rick Hill Sr.

Rick Hill Sr., Beaver Clan, Tuscarora Nation, Ohsweken, ON.

Richard W. Hill Sr. is an artist, writer, educator and museum consultant. He is a Tuscarora of the Beaver Clan and resides in Ohsweken, Ontario. Recently, he has taught at McMaster University, Mohawk College and Six Nations Polytechnic. He was also involved in developing culturally-based curriculum and training for Seneca Language teachers for the Seneca Nation of Indians.

Formerly, he was an Assistant Professor in Native American Studies at SUNY Buffalo and served as Assistant Director for Public Programs at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.

He is currently the chairperson of the Haudenosaunee Standing Committee on Burial Rules and Regulations and is involved in the repatriation of human remains, burial objects and sacred objects and objects of national cultural patrimony. Along with Ray Skye, he has deveopled the Six Nations Virtual Archive of information on Haudenosaunee history.

Dale Bellisfield

Dale Bellisfield, RN, CH, AHG Fairlawn, New Jersey

Dale is a holistic practitioner, approaching her patients as both a Clinical Herbalist and Registered Nurse. She is currently the herbalist at the Saint Barnabas Health Care System's Siegler Center for Integrative Medicine in Livingston, New Jersey. She has over 10 years education and experience using herbal medicines and is trained in European, Native American and Chinese traditions of healing. She is a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild, the only peer-reviewed credentializing organization in the U.S. for medical herbalists.

Additionally, she integrates her herbal skills with physicians at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and has mentored medical residents from New Jersey's Mountainside and Overlook Hospitals. She is a speaker for medical students at UMDNJ, where she also participates in their Institute for Complementary & Alternative Medicine as a lecturer, panelist and instructor for their Mini-Med School.

Dale teachers and lectures widely on the use of herbs and therapeutic foods to both health care health care practitioners and the general public in the New York/New Jersey area. She contributed to the award winning author Rozanne Gold's Healthy 1-2-3 cookbook. This book also won the coveted Julia Child Award and was nominated for the James Beard Award.

She has been working for the past eight years with Jake Swamp, Nancy Slowick and Jeff Lambe to create a herbarium of the traditional local plants in northern New York State, which will be translated into Mohawk. This will help preserve the language, culture and traditional medicinal herbal knowledge.

Nancy Slowick

Nancy Slowick, Director, Greenbrook Sanctuary Palisades, New Jersey

Nancy received her BA in Biology from Oswego State, SUNY and her MA in Environmental Science from Richmond College, CUNY. She is presently the Director/Naturalist of Greenbrook Sanctuary and has been since 1989. The Greenbrook Sanctuary is a 165 acre preserve on the New Jersey Palisades. She has been leading nature walks for over 25 years.

Nancy was also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center on Staten Island, created in 1986. The Greenbelt Native Plant Center grew native plants for New York City Parks.

She has two published works. The first, Ferns of Greenbrook Sanctuary, 1991 and A Naturalist Guide to the Southern Palisades, 2006.

Bear Fox

Bear Fox, Wolf Clan, Mohawk Nation, Akwesasne, NY

Bear Fox is a Mohawk woman of the wolf clan in Akwesasne. She married Sky Fox in the Longhouse and has 5 children. Bear is an accomplished singer and songwriter well known within Akwesasne and through-out the Confederacy. She is also a member of The Ahkwesahsne Women Singers (Kontiwennenha:wi), a traditional singing group. She has written many songs for Kontiwennenha:wi and has previously released a solo, acappella collection of her songs called "Bear Tracks"."Spirit Fire" is the first recording that she has done with contemporary instruments.

The songs on "Spirit Fire" reflect Bear’s life on the Ahkwesahsne Reserve, which spans the border between Northern New York State and Canada. One of fourteen children and the mother of five, family matters play a prime role in her writing. "Rich Girl", for instance, describes her experience growing up in a large family that struggled to make ends meet. "Ironworking Hubby" pays homage to the Ahkwesahsne tradition of high-steel work while also describing the frustrations felt by family members left home for extended periods.

Several songs are in the Mohawk Language. Bear has been attending a Mohawk Language class for the past two years. Learning her language is a priority for herself and her family. Which is evident in another song she has written called "Kanienkeha Blues".

In her own words Bear has describes her musical ambitions by saying "I am hoping that my songs inspire our people to try to achieve their goals and dreams. That they will walk the good path and not rely on mind changers (drugs and alcohol). That our people will want to learn our culture and traditions, and hang on to the language because there are only a handful who are trying to hang on to the language for the future generations to come."

326 Cook Road Hogansburg, N.Y. 13655
Phone/Fax (518)358-2641 Email us at: treeofpeace@earthlink.net