9th Annual SRAC "DrumBeats Through Time" Announced!

Mark Your Calendars- 

and get ready for an event that is sure to be the BEST DrumBeats Through Time yet! 

SRAC's 9th Annual Drumbeats Through Time will be held Saturday, October 20th:

11:30 – Membership Meeting (Members Only)
1pm - Doors Open to the Public!
1:30pm: David Oestreicher, PhD :The Lenape: Lower New York's First Inhabitants 
2:30 pm Martha Sempowski, PhD - Changing Styles of Smoking Pipes Used By Seneca Iroquois A.D. 1550-1800
3:30pm Seneca Buffalo Creek Dancers

11:30 - 1pm: SRAC 9th Annual Membership Meeting. (Exclusive for Current Members and Special Invitees) Not sure you are a current member? Call us at (607) 565-7960 during normal business hours or renew your membership here! Filled with a special presentation about SRAC and what it's plans are for the coming year as well as great door prizes and a special luncheon. A really special event for all of our special friends!

1pm: Doors open to the public and is free to attend! 

1:30pm: David Oestreicher, PhD :The Lenape: Lower New York's First Inhabitants  - (Sponsored by the NYS Humanities)
 In this lively and engaging talk, David M. Oestreicher combines archaeological and historical evidence with decades of firsthand ethnographic and linguistic research among present-day Lenape traditionalists, to arrive at a full picture of the Lenape from prehistory to the present.

The presentation includes a slide program featuring native artifacts, maps, illustrations, and photographs, as well as images of contemporary Lenape who are among the last repositories of their culture. This lecture offers a unique opportunity to learn about lower New York's original inhabitants, the Lenape - not the romanticized figures of popular mythology or new-age literature, but a living people as they really are.

Dr. David M. Oestreicher is recognized as a leading authority on the Lenape (Delaware), our region's first inhabitants, having conducted linguistic and ethnographic research among the last tribal traditionalists for over 30 years.In 1995 Oestreicher attracted international attention when he provided the first conclusive evidence that the Walam Olum, long believed by many to be an authentic Lenape epic, is in fact a 19th-century hoax perpetrated by the well-known scholar and charlatan, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. Consequently, the Archaeological Society of New Jersey received the outstanding Award for Excellence (an annual award granted for the best piece of historical writing in New Jersey) from the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey for publishing Oestreicher's "Unmasking the Walam Olum: a 19th Century Hoax." Following the publication of Oestreicher's research, the Delaware tribe of northeastern Oklahoma officially withdrew its former endorsement of the alleged ancient epic.

2:30 pm: Changing Styles of Smoking Pipes Used By Seneca Iroquois A.D. 1550-1800
by Martha L. Sempowski Ph.D., Resident Research Fellow, Rochester Museum & Science Center
This talk will consist of a slide-illustrated overview of smoking pipes from Seneca Iroquois village sites spanning a 250 year period from the mid-sixteenth to the late eighteenth centuries. It will focus on some of the most obvious changes in the motifs and styles represented in smoking pipes, as reflected in well-dated archaeological collections curated at the Rochester Museum & Science Center.

The approximate timing of the initial appearance of particular "styles" or "types" of pipes on Seneca sites, and the longevity of their occurrence in the Seneca region, will be ventured. It is hoped that this visual survey will elicit commentary from SRAC members, and stimulate discussion concerning similarities and differences between Susquehannock and Seneca pipes throughout this broad period.



**Members and the general public are invited to bring their collections of beads and pipes for display and review at this event!

3:30pm Seneca Buffalo Creek Dancers
The Seneca Buffalo Creek Dance Group began in 1988 and is well known for being very proficient in their traditional Iroquois Social Dances. Many of the dancers in this group have won dance competitions for their particular categories at Pow Wow's across the country. Respected by Natives and non-Natives, the Buffalo Creek Dancers perform at many schools, colleges, festivals, and Pow Wows throughout the United States and Canada. We like to close the DrumBeats Through Time event each year with Native American dancers, and we are lucky to have gotten the very best group, the Buffalo Creek Dancers from the Seneca Nation, because they are so popular that their schedules are filled for most of the year. I hope the community comes out to experience the unique and free celebration that we put on at SRAC every year in celebration of our Native Indian history and culture.