Seneca Faithkeepers School tries to keep alive the tribe's traditional ways, language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Seneca Faithkeepers School tries to keep alive the tribe's traditional
ways, language

By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
5/20/2004
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040520/1053043.asp

[photo insert - Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News.  "Bear beans" from the
Faithkeepers School garden will one day be part of lunch for students,
from left, Ryan Abrams, Landon Sequoyah, Jacob Dowdy and Franklin
Brown.]

[photo insert - Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News.  Rudi George listens to a
Seneca lesson from a tribal historian.]

[photo insert - Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News. Sandy Dowdy, co-founder of
the Faithkeepers School, teaches history from Seneca perspective.]

[photo insert - Derek Gee/Buffalo News.  Lena Pearl Dowdy, named for her
great-great grandmother Lena Snow, learns respect for tribal elders at
the traditional Seneca school.]

Last winter, at a meeting of the Seneca Tribal Council, an 8-year-old
boy stood up to give the invocation.

In front of a council filled with smoke shop owners and casino
enthusiasts, the boy spoke the language of his forefathers, the
language of the Longhouse.

"This little boy spoke for eight to 10 minutes, all in the Seneca
language," said Rickey L. Armstrong Sr., the tribe's president. "I was
in awe listening to this."

And it all happened because Lehman "Dar" Dowdy doesn't want Seneca
tradition to die.

"Ninety-nine percent of Senecas don't know how to speak the Seneca
language. Everywhere you look, our old ways of life are disappearing,"
said Dowdy, 65.

To counter that loss of heritage, Dowdy and his wife, Sandy, in 1998
started the Seneca Faithkeepers School, where the boy learned to speak
the Seneca language.

The school is located in the woods of the Allegany Reservation, in a
long cedar building modeled after the longhouses, where traditional
Senecas hold religious ceremonies.

In that building, Seneca children and teenagers spend five days a week
learning their nation's language, its history and traditions, from
farming techniques to an ancient game played with dice carved from
animal bones.

Attending the school is a major commitment for young people and their
parents. Because the Faithkeepers program is not geared to meet
government requirements, each student needs tutoring or home schooling
to learn subjects such as math, English and science.

Twelve students, ages 8 to 14, now attend the school which, the Dowdys
realize, is just a small step toward saving the Senecas' heritage.

"I would like to see each of these 12 kids grow up and teach 12 other
kids about our language and customs," Dowdy said. "And hopefully, that
second group will go on to teach others."

The school teaches students the ways of the Longhouse religion, as
specified in a spiritual guide called the Gaiwi:yo:h. Pronounced
Guy-wee-yo, the book provides the moral code for Longhouse Senecas.

The roles of males and females at the school follow Seneca traditions
that aren't always in step with modern America.

Only girls are taught to cook. Only boys can play - or even watch - a
popular winter sport called "snowsnakes," which involves pushing spears
of polished hardwood down a quarter-mile ramp lined with ice.

Students maintain the big, bountiful garden behind the school, growing
corn, tobacco and scarlet runner beans. One recent afternoon, an elder
named Marilyn Cooper taught the girls how to sew colorful "ribbon
shirts" that are worn for tribal ceremonies.

The children learn about traditional song and dance, self-esteem, the
earth's natural energy forces - wind, water, thunder, sun, moon and
stars - and the use of plants and bushes to make medicines.

"I like the school . . . especially the cultural stuff," said student
Robynn George, 13, who first introduced herself by her Seneca name,
Gayenesha'a:h. "I like learning about our traditions."

Dowdy is a Longhouse faithkeeper who leads many of the ceremonies at the
Cold Spring Longhouse on the Allegany Reservation. As a teacher, he
gives his lessons a different spin from what the students would hear in
public schools.

"When I teach them about George Washington, I tell them about the things
that George Washington did to our nation," Dowdy said, referring to the
army sent to burn and destroy Seneca villages during the Revolutionary
War.

Students pay nothing to attend the school. Most expenses are covered by
donations from Senecas who believe in preserving the nation's old ways.
Merle Watt, a wealthy Seneca smoke shop owner, raised much of the money
and provided laborers to build the school.

The Seneca Nation donated 10 acres for the school, does repairs on the
building, provides some tutors and pays Dowdy as a part-time employee.
Earlier this month, the nation government donated more than $70,000 to
the school after a fund-raiser at the new Seneca Allegany Casino.

Armstrong said it would "sicken" him if the nation completely lost touch
with its old ways. He said many Seneca elders still recall the days
when they learned to speak their own language before English.

"I'd like to see a second Faithkeepers School started on the Cattaraugus
Territory," Armstrong said. "Anything that Dar Dowdy asks for, I think
we should step up to the plate and help him."