Blue Goose ~ Day 68

August 7, 2014 ~ Chardon, OH to Olean, NY

Chardon turned out to be a charming small town with a central square surrounded with local businesses including Beans, a coffee shop where I also had a cheese and veggie omelet with bacon and toast. The coffee was exceptionally delicious, and it was nearly noon when I finally left Ohio. 

The land became constantly hilly with curving roads and remained that way the whole day. Does Pennsylvania have any straight roads? I stopped at Erie NWR and walked a short trail through dense hemlocks. It was silent in there, like a old church sanctuary on a week-day afternoon. August has even fewer singing birds than July.

Erie NWR - PA

I seldom heard a sound and, surprisingly, there were few mosquitoes or flies. I need to research why and how and where these populations wax and wane. A sign at the exit gently warned there might be black bears about and not to run but rather talk quietly to the bear, slowly back up, avoid looking a bear in the eyes and raise your arms to "look bigger." Yeah....right. The trails are wide and well marked and a respite from "the world out there." Sometimes, I can hear distant traffic but that is the only sound. I remember Bill once saying he ran a trail early enough to break the cobwebs spun during the night, and sometimes, even late in the day, I too break through them. 

This refuge has two units, Sugar Lake and Seneca, separated by 10 miles. I detoured for gas and then returned to drive through the Seneca unit where I stopped along Swamp Road in two places for 15 minutes each. I need to continue to impose the goal of an hour of down-time somewhere, someplace as I travel. There being very few birds to see or hear, I concentrated on a Black Walnut tree with handing fruit/nuts of lemon-lime size and color. The nuts are inside the yellowish husk which drops in the fall along with the leaves which are pinnate and at least a foot long. I am in awe of the complex and varied flora that is everywhere in this verdant landscape. I would love to be able to name every single plant, tree, weed, shrub and flower. Can a trained botanist do that? The roadsides were lined with blue chicory, white Queen Anne's lace, yellow brown-eyed Susan....

There was often a sweet perfume in the air from the flora I was passing by.

Leaving Erie NWR, I drove north into New York. The first town was named Busti. At Jamestown, I got turned around but eventually found I86 with much relief. Enough of the constant slow-downs for small towns and villages and the curving, narrow roads with no shoulders. Even I have my limits. I drove over the Roger Tory Peterson bridge just east of Jamestown heading towards Salamanca which is on a Seneca Indian reservation:

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Since the later 20th century, the Seneca have been increasingly active in exercising sovereignty on their reservation and enforcing their property rights. The relationship between the Seneca Nation and the non-native surrounding population has been contentious, both in regard to excise tax advantages and in regard to property rights.

In the 1990s, the Senecas won a prolonged court battle to assume ownership of all land on their reservation, including that owned by private non-Seneca. (This was particularly contentious in Salamanca, where non-native landownership had been tolerated for decades. State and local officials said that this is the only United States city located on Indian reservation land).^[11] The city had been developed under a 99-year lease arrangement with the Seneca Nation, as railroad land was developed for workers and their families, and related businesses. This arrangement was confirmed by acts of Congress in 1875, 1890 and 1990.^[11]

When that lease expired in 1991, Seneca demanded that the previous owners sign leases with the nation or be evicted; as a result, fifteen property owners who refused to sign leases were evicted.^[11][12]

In a similar case in 2012, the Seneca ordered an eviction of 80 residents of summer cottages at Snyder Beach on the Cattaraugus Reservation. They had previously notified the owner of the land that leases to non-Seneca were not permissible, but he had done nothing to clear his property. Some of the residents were from families who had rented there for decades. The Seneca described the non-natives as constituting a long-standing "illegal occupation".^[12]

The Seneca are teaching their language again in schools. The Faithkeepers School was founded in 2000 in Salamanca to emphasize the teaching of Seneca language and culture. Also in the city is the Seneca-Iroquois Museum, which offers interpretive displays and exhibits.

The Seneca continue with a matrilineal kinship system, as was traditional for Iroquois peoples.

I am always interested in this sort of history. There is, of course, much much more information available for anyone with an interest. The exploitation and assumption of land to the detriment of Native Americans and to native flora and fauna has resulted in the acquisition and protection of land (one-third of US land mass which includes the NWRs) and the continuing battle for some sovereignty by Natives. As we fight globally for other peoples' rights to ancestral lands, we must not forget our own country and its Native people and their claims.

By dusk, I was in Olean, NY, driving by St. Bonaventure University with its spacious green lawns and pristine buildings and suddenly found myself with an Applebee's on one side of the road and an "upscale" Walmart on the other. No fuss about reservations or carrying in stuff or rooms with windows that don't open. There are always dozens of places to pick to sleep. But first I had a delicious dinner: a wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon and a small-portion shrimp scampi pasta deal..tasty, I am sure, because of the added salt. A physician once told me that in order to cut down on salt, "You can't eat out any more of course...."

It was lively in the restaurant with sports on the TVs, satisfying my small need for human interaction.