November 3, 2024

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

In rural Rockland County, N.Y., my 1940s-’50s time, absent video games, smart phones, even TV early-on, when summer came, or the first frost-free days of spring, the brisk ones of autumn and Saturdays when Mom told you to go outside and play so she could get her work done, there was enough country – old orchards, thick wood and open pastures – to build imagination that would last in memory into old age.

The land beyond the house door also included many rock walls that, legend had it, were built as Native-American burial places though they were actually boundaries to separate one farmer’s acreage from others, or even to divide pastures and fields.

The walls grew by season because in ROCKland there was – is – ample stone supply. The old fruit and vegetable farmer, of which there were many, told stories of having cleared land in early spring so as not to damage plow only to see stones magically emerge the next season.

Rock walls and the old Indian legend come to mind because this is Native American Heritage Month. The childhood of my time and place saw much Indian reference since Rockland, long before it was a county, before the Dutch, the British, the immigrants who built America came, it was Native-American land.

The Lenape, the Munsees, others hunted and fished and dwelt for a time, then moved and returned with the seasons.

As kids, we played “cowboys and Indians,” of course pushing stereotype and ignorance though most of us, I hope anyway, did not convert play to lifelong prejudice.

Beyond ignorance, we all should know that Native Americans spoke in some 300 languages, that 60 percent of the world’s crops were developed by tribes, and, get this in this election month, also November:

The Iroquois Confederacy influenced the U.S. Constitution. Six nations – Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora – agreed that sovereignty resides in the people, that there must be separation of powers – distinct branches of government – and that, yes, women should play a role in democratic society.

History – that which we in America think about, if we do – has forgotten the lessons Native Americans offered. It is of great note that Nov. 5, 2024, comes during Native American Heritage Month.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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