Christmas Shopping at SRAC!

Many of you have asked what you can do to help support SRAC, but have not yet seen the extensive list if items SRAC has on sale that would be great ideas for Christmas gifts!

Here is a way to support SRAC and get some great books at great prices (tax included in all sales amounts!) at the same time!

Like -

The Indian Chiefs of Pennsylvania (Huge Paperback)

by C. Hale Sipe -
A factual account of the Indian history of the America’s Eastern
Frontier and the contributions made by many outstanding chiefs in shaping our
history. Originally published in 1927, this 569 page book is one of the classics
on Eastern Frontier Indian history. From the formation of the Iroquois
confederation in 1570 through Cornplanter’s death in 1836, Sipe discusses the
tribes that inhabited Pennsylvania and how their forced migration westward
(particularly the Delaware and Shawnee) across the Allegheny mountains of
Pennsylvania into the Ohio country lit the fires that would keep the western
frontier ablaze for the next forty years.

-$30.00 buy it now!

Like the image? we also have the poster of this - buy it now!

We also have -

Spanish Hill and Carantouan:The History, the People and the Politics - by Deb Twigg

"The book is a newer account of the Carantouan research that tells the historical story with with more references and maps, documents and images and then tells all of the stories that people have asked me to tell when I do presentations, to include those efforts to preserve the hill, packed full of actual letters and documents that I think the reader will find VERY interesting...from Ellsworth Cowles, Barry Kent, Warren K. Moorehead, General John S Clark, Ted Keir, LD Shoemaker, the Murrays, there are so many interesting stories to tell just about these people and how they effected our local history...and the hill.... and then I continue with my research into the Mound Builder culture and what I have concluded from it as it relates to the hill and the story of Carantouan...and what I have come to believe Spanish Hill actually was used for."

100 pages - $20.00 - buy it now!

Diplomacy and Indian Gifts:

The French-English Rivalry for Indian Loyalties during the French & Indian War Years by Wilbur R. Jacobs -

It seems only once in a lifetime that a book comes along that really unlocks many of the mysteries of a subject you have been studying for as long as you can remember. Diplomacy and Indian Gifts is just such a book! From the beginning, I was always intrigued by the old Indian custom of giving and receiving gifts and how this practice was used both for and against them! During the course of the French and Indian War years, thousands of pounds sterling was expended by both the French and the British in their diplomatic competition to buy Indian friendship and loyalty through gift giving. Indian gifts and their givers indeed made diplomatic history. Exceptional Reference Book: 208pp

Limited Edition Hardback for just -$30.00 buy it now!

The Lenape and Their Legends by Daniel G. Brinton -

The Walum Olum, is considered a classical piece of study. This very scarce and hard to find book was published in 1885, and because of its historical significance, is now republished for the serious students of Eastern Frontier Indian history. It begins by discussing the history of the other Algonkin and Iroquois tribes of the East, then gets into the meat of the book with major chapters on Lenape history, their literature and language, myths and traditions, and the Walum Olum, the ancient migration story of the Delaware; Brinton’s most valuable contribution to our understanding of Lenape history. The Walum Olum portion of the book consists of over 70 pages of the pictographic story in bright red on one side of the page with the detailed translation on the right. He finishes with a 20 page vocabulary of Delaware to English word translations and copious notesComplete Text & Symbols of The Walum Olum Dark Brown Hardback w/Gold Embossing.1,000 copies…Limited Edition, Numbered Hardcover: 261pp

-$40.00 buy it now!

And who cannot find someone on their list that would not be happy to take the trip with John Heckewelder?

Thirty Thousand Miles with John Heckewelder,

by Ed. Paul A. Wallace-

This collection of Heckewelder materials, gathered by one of America’s great writer/historians, Paul Wallace, follows America’s most observant early traveler, John Heckewelder through the Eastern woods as he recorded the most significant knowledge we have today on the Indian life and pioneer history of our Eastern frontier. He writes: “The sure way to obtain ideas, and a true knowledge of the characters, customs, manners, etc., of the Indians, and to learn their history, is to dwell among them for some time, and having acquired their language, the information wished for will be obtained in the common way; that is, by paying attention to their discourses with each other on different subjects, and occasionally asking them questions; always watching for the proper opportunity, when they do not suspect your motives, and are disposed to

be free and open with you." Limited Edition, Numbered Hardcover: 512pp

INCLUDES TWO SIDED 15" X 23" MAP

- $50.00 buy it now!

Historical Map of Pennsylvania: with a History of Indian Treaties and Land Titles - Edited by P.W. Sheafer & R.R. Wenning 1000 Limited Edition, Gold Embossed Hardback and Full color Map, The “purchasing” of Indian land was done through a series of land treaties and eventually resulted in one of the bloodiest periods in Pennsylvania history. This “owning” of PA was a complicated, confusing and time-consuming process in PA history that usually took years to complete. You cannot understand Pennsylvania history completely without understanding this bloody progression from Indian land to settler’s land and its effect on Indian-white relations. As we put together this interesting and colorful history on the “taking or purchasing” of Pennsylvania land from the Indians, we have attempted to shed some light on this process through the pre-revolutionary war history of PA.

$45.00 - buy it now!

Want Just Poster Sized Map ? Just $20.00! - buy it now!

Another incredible deal we have for researchers interested in trade goods is -

Trade Ornament Usage Among the Native Peoples

of Canada , a Source Book - Karlis Karklins -
The borders of Canada did not exist when trade goods were being used. This book is a must read source book for anyone trying to understand the ornamental trade goods used.

An incredible deal at $20.00 - buy it now!

More interested in the events of the Revolutionary War? How about -

Forts on the Pennsylvania Frontier 1753-1758 by William A.
Hunter - Limited Edition Hardcover: Seldom does a book come along with the appeal and interest a Forts of the Pennsylvania Frontier 1753-1758. With Pennsylvania’s Provincial Quaker controlled pacifist government slow to react to the mounting tension from Indian attacks and the on going French and Indian War on its wilderness borders, pressure was growing from frontier settler’s for protection on Pennsylvania’s western borders. Unwillingly, Pennsylvania began an extensive program of military action culminating in the building of forts on its frontier. By 1756 more than a dozen forts garrisoned by paid PA troops marked for the first time a boundary between white frontier settlements and a hostile wilderness. 596 pages with 12 blank pages in the back of the book for notes. Navy blue hardcover with gold embossing on front and spine. Edition limited to 2,000 copies

-$50.00 - buy it now

Or -

The Sullivan Campaign by Ellsworth Cowles - Ellsworth Cowles wrote articles for the local newspapers to celebrate the Sullivan Campaign centennial. He did this by writing articles filled historical documentation in sync with the dates throughout 1779. There is one article exactly one year from the others in 1978, which gives you little known info about how Sullivan might not have ever marched at all. This is 72 pages including references

- $20.00 buy it now!

And -

Revolutionary Rangers - Daniel Morgan's Riflemen and their Role on the Northern Frontier 1778-83 by Richard Crosse w/ introduction by Harry Swan, 221pp paperback. Here is the complete account of the riflemen and their weapons, as well as the formation and battle record of this elite regiment in upstate New York during Sullivan's Campaign. Of special interest is an analysis of the life of the legendary Timothy Murphy. Strengthen your understanding of the colonial struggle for independence. Illustrated with photos, drawings, endnotes and a full-name index.

221pp paperback. $20.00 - buy it now!

Last but not least we also have -

Journals of the Military Expedition of Maj. General John Sullivan - Sullivan Expedition against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779 -Frederick Cook, 582pp paperback, In August 1779, Sullivan began a scorched earth policy against the troublesome Iroquois, who had sided with the British, burning every village in his path from Tioga(PA) into central New York. This collection of 26 officers' journals on the expedition, includes CD with 8 maps, official reports, rosters plus a new every-name index. Important work on the Indian wars of the American Revolution.

$45.00 -buy it now!

Thank you in advance for supporting SRAC!

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Workshop a Huge Success!

What a GREAT Saturday moving party!
Who would have thought we would have had such a great turnout for our first workshop Saturday in our new building?

On Saturday, December 8th, we had 15 people volunteer time to help us use two U-Haul trucks and move furniture that was being stored in three different locations to our new building. Special thanks to Joe Vaselli, Ken Myer, and Rick Fiacco for scheduling time on their Saturday to allow us to come and to finally pick up all of the items that we had in storage at their respective locations!

The Village of Waverly welcomed us by blocking off the parking areas around our building in order for our trucks to easily park and to allow us the easiest access to unload.


Our Inga Welles kept everyone organized and as each team came in, made sure that the floor was well managed to keep things moving.



Tom Valillee and Jack Rowe (above) lead the team of movers with the first truck which included myself, Dave Santas, Mike Bunyak, and Les Rolfe.

While Duane Welles led the truck for the second team which included Jessica and Joe Quinn, Luke Rae, and Mike Geiss.


Back at the building, Inga, Susan Fogel, Glora Reigal (who also drove truck for us for a while!) and Dick Cowles organized, cleaned and kept things going there...

At lunch we were pleasantly surprised by our new neighbors at the Rail House (Ruth Burgess and employee, Caroline) who made and donated two pizzas to feed our crews! THANK YOU!

We also had several people stop in to welcome us and to see how we were doing. Don and Carol Merrill stopped in and stayed a while and even made a donation while they were there.


SRAC is so blessed to have so many friends that have come to our side in times of need. I want to personally thank all that came out on Saturday and invite all that are interested to join us this coming Saturday (the 15th) to continue working on getting the building in order.

( ;

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A Boy Scout's Mom Tasked With Creating a Learning Activity...

"To the SRAC Team -

I want to thank you so very much for extending your ideas and resources to me as I helped with a Native Indian Studies Cub Scout activity and field trip back in November. I also learned quite a bit myself!

Our lesson began with your trifold of The Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash), showing the intelligence of how the Indians grew their crops together and how each plant depended on each other to thrive...which is a model to us all as we live out our lives. One of the pictures in the trifold showed how the Indians would dry out their corn in their long houses, which was reinforced as the kids discovered the previous Saturday as they crafted a paper long house as an activity at the Tioga Point Museum, which you suggested to me for our field trip around Native Indian Studies.

After that lesson, we read the Thanksgiving story about Squanto and the events around his lifetime, which then followed by each child having the opportunity to grind corn that you grew in your own garden (just as the Indians did) with your natural stone mortar and stone pestal that were once used by Indians in our area. What a rich experience that was to show, touch, and also use the tools that were used every day and so very long ago.

So I want to thank you again for your support and pursuing your passion of native indian history and making it more incredible each and every day with your website, your Drumbeats in Time events, your research, books, your teachings, your networking with other historians, and most importantly your sharing. Keep up the great work--this snowball you've started just keeps growing and growing-- and that is exhilarating!

May your torch continue to burn and that your torch is passed on for many other generations to come. "

With many thanks and pride,

Janice Bennett (SRAC member)

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Saturday Workshops In Waverly

For those who have not heard yet. -we have a new home now at 345 Broad Street, Waverly, NY!

After incorporating in Pa and getting our 501c3 in 2005, we finally got enough saved up to have enough to put down on a place we can call our own! ~~WHEW!!!~

Right now I am working on two grant requests, one for our public restrooms and one for basic seed money to start renovations in the rest of the main floor. We also have a couple of other requests in for monies to help us with some basic expenses of the startup, printing, and so on...But none of these grants will pay for the basic help we need to clean, paint, move things in and so on.

That kind of help can only come from those of you who choose to offer the help.

We have decided to make the next few Saturdays workshop days for SRAC and we hope you can muster up some help for us.

This Saturday (December 8th) from around 9am til 6pm, stop in for an hour or two....we will need help cleaning, painting, doing some light construction, and moving furniture that we had stored until we could get into the building...but hey Inga might have some other things to do as well! Trust me when I say we have something for everyone - and it will be a chance for you to see what we are up to and chat a while!

If you have questions, please call us at 607-565-2536.

Hope to see you Saturday!

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More on Red and Yellow Ocher (Ochre)

Recently I had posted a request for people to submit their thoughts on the existence of red and yellow ocher in burials in our area.

to read that article - - click here.

I just received this commentary and thought it was interesting and wanted to share it...I really had never considered the fact that ocher colors could have been manipulated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hematite is a mineral in the hematite group. They are trigonal, metallic oxides,and are composed of one or more metals and oxygen, and resemble each other structurally. Corundum (Aluminum oxide), Eskolaite (Chromium oxide) and Karelianite (Vanadium oxide) are also in the Hematite group. Hematite is the primary ore of iron.

Hematite occurs in many different habits, including numerous crystal forms, massive, and earthy, which is called ocher.

Ocher (ochre) occurs in 4 major forms. Yellow ocher is hydrated iron oxide. When yellow ocher is heated, driving off the water, it turns red. Both occur naturally, but the red ocher found with other artifacts, could have been "made" by the people who used it. Red ocher can also be purple, due to particle size. There is also brown ochre, which is partially hydrated iron oxide and is more commonly known as common rust. There are other colors, such as grey or orange, etc., all with their own names, and resulting from different amounts of water.

There would have been little native hematite in the valley area, except for glacial deposits, trade pieces, or very small amounts obtained from "rusted" pyrite (iron sulfide) that occurs sporadically in some sedimentary rocks, as in the pyritized fossils found in western NY."

- Don M.(SRAC member)

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Giving Back

When I first started researching Spanish Hill a few years ago, the first thing that really struck me was that we do not discuss our local prehistory in our region. Not only that - but the information was VERY hard to even find!

Since then SRAC has been formed by a group of us who really feel that there is a need in our area to educate our surrounding communities of all ages.

You may not know this , but SRAC has spoken to elementary schools as well as nursing homes. We in fact send a bunch of our newsletters every month to a local senior care community. We have also spoke in the local high school as well as any other community group that has invited us! Here is a letter from a person who attended our presentation at Lockheed Martin last week:

"Deb and Ted, Thank you so much for the interesting and educational presentation you gave at Lockheed Martin last week. I could have listened to Ted all afternoon. You inspired me to join SRAC. I have a life-long interest in Native American culture. I will plan to visit the new museum in Waverly as soon as it is open. I have a few points that I would love to have Ted look at some time. One is a spear point that was actually found in the Susquehanna in Afton, NY. " - Thanks again, Tom Moberg

We also have a huge display case set up in the local elementary school filled with artifacts that the teachers can actually take out and use for hands on learning. Additionally, we created an online learning module about those artifacts for teachers to use. This is because we have had certain parts of our collection donated with the expressed wish that the artifacts be used with kids, and we believe it is a great thing to do.

We also loan out a a smaller display of artifacts and learning materials to go with them for boy scout troops, teachers, and even teaching students that may want to use them for a shorter period of time upon request.

Here is a letter that we just received from Jason Munn, who is working on his Master's in education and whom we loaned out artifacts and learning materials for a presentation he was doing towards that goal.

"Kudos and Bravo to the SRAC and Deb Twigg! Thank you so much for the educational materials that you provided me with. The presentation my group and I gave on the Andastes was a big success. The audience consisted of about 30 education professionals all in a graduate class on multiculturalism in Education at Mansfield University. I think that we presented them with quite a few eye-openers including the Andaste's themselves, John Smith's account, and the history of Spanish Hill. The hands-on materials and artifacts you provided us with really brought the presentation home as well. There was much discussion and interest generated following the presentation on the indigenous tribes of the area and how advanced they were along with local history in general. It is wonderful to know that there are groups like the SRAC and the people involved with it that care so greatly about preserving our local history, and what a history it is! I think that the audience took away a sense of that history and hopefully will want to educate their classes about it as well. Thanks again and keep up the great work!" - Jason Munn

If you would like to sign out some educational materials and artifacts for a school project and or to have SRAC come to your school (in our region,) give us a call at 607-727-3111 or email us at info@SRACenter.org!

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A Week in the Life of SRAC!

I want to apologize for not getting more info out this week - but it has been a little busy. As I sat down to write this morning, I thought it might be neat to give all of you a look into the past week in the life of SRAC!

Early in the week, board member Jessica Quinn had notified us that 30 - some outdoor plastic chairs had been donated to us from the Church of the Redeemer in Sayre, PA and Mike Bunyak - SRAC member picked them up and delivered them to our storage area. Also, Dick Cowles has been finishing up plans on removing windows and casings out of a building and renting a lift to extract 8-10 huge display cases out if a third story window in the old Corning/Painted Post museum in Erwin, NY! (They were donated to us by the Corning Painted Post Museum and that is the way they were placed in the building years ago!)

Tuesday board members Ted Keir and Dick Cowles spoke at the Southern Tier Retired Lions Club luncheon meeting in Fisherville, NY. They gave out newsletters and SRAC magnets and Ted gave his "Woolly Mammoth" slide show program about a dig he was part of at Spring Lake, near Wyalusing, PA.

Wednesday, Ted Keir picked me up at work and we made a trip over to Lockheed Martin in Owego, NY, and did a luncheon presentation for 120 staff members. We also brought a carload of Ted's artifacts, and it was a big hit. The following is a photo from that event:


As they entered the auditorium, we allowed the staff to come in and walk around the artifacts and then they had a buffet lunch while we presented. I did a talk about SRAC and our mission. Ted followed by giving the audience a great chance to hear him talk about the artifacts that we brought, what they were believed to be used for, and many times where he had found them. This item shown in Ted's hand below is part of a baby woolly mammoth tooth that was found locally.

Many Lockheed employees stayed after the program to ask questions as well. Unfortunately, I take vacation time from my real job for this stuff and had to get back, or I am sure we could have stayed quite a bit longer!

Thursday was spent getting ready for the upcoming events on Friday and Sunday...which involves printing and binding more SRAC books, making more raffle tickets and raffle baskets and getting inventory and rocks ready to be transported. We also were notified by another local business owner who has around 30 large tempered glass shelves and some miscellaneous furniture that we need to get a truck and pick up next week, so we had to find the volunteers to get that planned out. Lastly I was called by our lawyer and we need to do some last minute paperwork and planning for our closing on our new building next week!

Friday was an event for the kids at the Lynch/Bustin School in Athens, PA which board member Inga Welles headed up for SRAC and the Chehanna Rock Club with Ted Keir. It was a kids night out and hundreds of kids attended. SRAC had three raffle baskets in a FREE raffle - the raffle tickets were just to fill out their names and contact info to drop in the basket, and then they kept the other half of the ticket with our website and blog address to learn more about us.

Inga and Ted also had the kids making fossils with shells and clay and digging in sand for a scoop filled with different minerals and other cool stuff. Here is Inga below with one of the friends she made at the event:

Friday evening for me was filled with more paperwork, (mostly more printing and binding ~ ugh!) and then I had to balance the SRAC checking acct for the past month as well as input and mail out the membership packets to the latest memberships we received this week. Oh - yeh - on my way home from work, I also met with a teacher who was returning some artifacts, a display board, etc that SRAC loaned to him for a presentation he was doing for Master's degree earlier this week. (stay tuned for more on this later!)

And so there you have a quick and dirty account of the past week in the life of SRAC -Whew!

I hope that you can see just how committed and active we are in our mission and our surrounding communities....Just this week we covered an area that stretched from as far west as Fisherville, NY, as far east as Owego, NY, and as far south as Athens, PA, and will be in Sayre tomorrow (Sunday) at the Craft Fair all day.

We are really blessed to have the board that we have with the different talents they bring to our organization, but it doesn't stop there - - we also have a great bunch of 100 members of which many volunteer to help us at events and setups, moving and so on...The neat thing is that we are a family in many ways already, just because we all have worked so hard together for the past years to get us to where we are today. I guess what I am trying to say is that while many members show their support for SRAC by being a part of one of our most important annual sources of revenues - memberships, I am surprised at how many our our members also want to physically be involved with our efforts in the community.

And this is why I am excited to get the keys to our new building. SRAC is "chomping at the bit" to do even more that a location of our own will allow us to do.

If all goes well - we will have the keys to our new home early next week, and SRAC will begin another new chapter in our existence...I hope you consider being a part of the excitement today!

I redid our whole SRACenter.org website last weekend and you can even join online now!

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