For members of the Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee, Confederacy, the commemoration in 2025 of the bicentennial of the Erie Canal is a bittersweet event.
In the decades before the canal was built, during the earliest years of the United States, Native Americans in New York lost land and were often displaced, whether by treaties that were not always upheld or by pressures to relocate as settlers moved into upstate New York following the Revolutionary War.
Construction of the canal and the westward expansion it spawned “would solidify the displacement of the Haudenosaunee people and permanently impact the ecosystems of New York state,” reads the Buffalo Maritime Center’s Bicentennial Voyage Guidebook, created for the eastward and southward journey this autumn of the Seneca Chief.
Seneca Chief’s Erie Canal voyage includes white pine plantings
The Maritime Center built a full-sized replica of the original Seneca Chief, a boat that traveled the length of the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River to New York Harbor when the canal opened in 1825. That replica this autumn has been following in the wake of that 200-year-old voyage, making its way from Buffalo toward New York City.
Along the way in this bicentennial voyage, plantings of a tree important to Haudenosaunee culture have been occurring. On Sept. 27, along the Genesee River in Rochester’s Corn Hill neighborhood, an Eastern white pine was planted with the participation of neighbors.
In Haudenosaunee culture, the white pine is a symbol of peace.
The Maritime Center describes the planting ceremonies as “a tribute to the Haudenosaunee, honoring their enduring connection to the land and reinforcing a shared commitment to sustainability.”
Water being collected from the canal at each stop is being used to water the final Eastern white pine to be planted in New York City, where the Seneca Chief’s journey is to end Oct. 25 and 26.
Where to find Rochester white pine
Want to see the Eastern white pine planted Sept. 27 in Rochester?
Here’s how:
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Erie Canal bicentennial boat journey includes white pine plantings. Here’s why
Reporting by Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
